2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 10
Paul’s Apostolic Authority. 2 Cor. 10, 1–18
Paul does not care to use his authority with severity: V.1. Now I, Paul, myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but, being absent, am bold toward you; v.2. but I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
While Titus had brought encouraging news from Corinth with regard to the case of church discipline and the continued willingness of the Corinthian Christians to take part in the collection for the poor at Jerusalem, his report was less favorable in so far as it represented the Judaizing teachers, the opponents of Paul, still dangerously active. We find, therefore, that the tone of the apostle’s discourse is decidedly altered in this last section of his letter. While his devotion to the Corinthian congregation is still apparent, he finds himself compelled to resort to stern commands, not unmixed with irony and sarcasm. While he still shows the tendency to deal tenderly with the members of the congregation, he is determined to use all severity against those that attacked his authority.
It is an urgent appeal which Paul addresses to the Corinthians: I myself, Paul, entreat you, by the humility and gentleness of Christ. He places his person in the foreground, and deliberately so; he makes the authority which he has received the issue for which he is contending. Therefore he drops the plural number, in which he commonly included also his fellow-workers, and places himself, singly, in opposition to these false teachers. He still entreats or beseeches, though he might well have commanded. And he does so by the meekness, or humility, and by the gentleness, or lenity, of Christ. The spirit of Christ, which was always benign and gentle, slow to anger and eager to forgive, lived in the apostle and actuated him in this trying situation.
With some tinge of sarcasm he includes the saying which the opponents had spread concerning him: Who, indeed, before your face am humble among you, but, being absent, am daring toward you. That was the sneering speech to which the Corinthians had given ear, since his personal enemies had construed the weakness with which he came to Corinth as cowardice, as a lack of confidence and courage, v.10.
So Paul repeats his appeal: But I beg you, lest I, being present, show daring courage with the confidence with which I am minded to he bold against some that think of us as though we walked according to the flesh.
By using the word “beg” or “pray” the apostle here indicates his growing earnestness; he pleads with them to consider well their course of thinking and acting. For if they continue to listen to the detractors of his good name, nothing will be left for him to do but to show courage and severity in dealing with the situation, on the basis of that confidence which seems required under the circumstances. He will find himself compelled to be resolute, to step forth boldly against certain men in their midst.
These men he characterizes as calumniators, since they intimated, in giving their opinion of Paul and the other true teachers, that Paul’s behavior and course of conduct was not governed solely by spiritual considerations, but that weakness, fear of men, the desire to remain in the good graces of all men, and other carnal motives were the ruling factors.