2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 10
Paul’s Apostolic Authority. 2 Cor. 10, 1–18
Paul appeals to the work actually done by him as apostle: V.14. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached unto you; for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the Gospel of Christ, v.15. not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labors, but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, v.16. to preach the Gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand.
This thought is carried out in further detail in the next verses: For not as though we reached not unto you do we stretch ourselves beyond our measure.
When Paul came to Corinth and did his missionary work in that city, he was not presuming upon rights and arrogating to himself a field which did not belong to him. That fact would have rendered his boasting vain and blamable, namely, if the Lord had not given him this field to work in.
But as things stood in reality, Paul came as far as unto the Corinthians in the Gospel of Christ, and he came as the first missionary that labored in their midst, the Gospel of Christ being the element in which he moved and the message he delighted to proclaim. So Paul was right in maintaining that he was not boasting beyond measure, that is, in other men’s labors, a possibility which he always avoided with the greatest care, Rom. 15, 20.
And so he also had the hope, that, when their faith had grown, or in the measure in which their faith was growing, he would be magnified in them, that is, he would be given proper credit for the labor which he had done for the Lord in their midst.
And not only that, but he would also be assisted by their growing congregations, with their growing faith and love, to accomplish further and more important results. With their growing faith and the corresponding increase of his power to perform his duties he would be able to press on and enlarge the sphere of his labors, to preach the gospel in regions even beyond them, where it was as yet unknown, in Western Greece, in Italy, in Spain.
At all times, then, he would not boast of things prepared for his hands in another’s line, he had no intention, as his opponents had done, of appropriating to himself the fruits of other men’s labors and thus of arrogating to himself an unearned reputation for greatness. This statement also took away all the glory from his enemies, as though they were indispensable in Corinth, for the congregation was in Paul’s apostolic care and was being prepared without the lack of any gift of mercy.