2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 11
Paul’s Boast of His Apostolic Calling. 2 Cor 11, 16–33.
Paul deprecates the necessity of boasting: V.19. For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. V.20. For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.
The Corinthians would be all the more willing to overlook his foolishness, since they were showing this disposition at the present time: For gladly you bear with the foolish since you yourselves are wise.
The words are written in sincere love and kindness, and yet with gentle mockery and censure. They were bearing without a word of dissatisfaction that false teachers were boasting before them and condemning the person and the work of Paul. In the richness of their experience and wisdom they would surely not mind it, therefore, if he would also do a little boasting and join the ranks of the fools for once; there could be no doubt that they would extend the same indulgent toleration to him.
The apostle now reminds the Corinthians of the insolence and ill-treatment which they had cheerfully endured at the hands of these self-appointed spiritual guides: For you bear it if one makes you servants (slaves), if one devours you, if one takes you captive, if one exalts himself, if one strikes you in the face.
While Paul humbly stated that he wanted to be only the servant of the Lord’s congregation, chap. 4, 5, the false teachers deliberately assumed the lordship in the congregation; they enslaved the people spiritually, they made them bow under the yoke of their false doctrine and commandments of men. 33)
While Paul worked with his own hands, earning his maintenance for himself, these men were the embodiments of avarice; they robbed the members of their substance by greedily demanding support; they had no thought for the salvation of their people, but only for their own advantage and benefit.
While Paul worked in every way to preserve the individual liberty of the Christians, as under obedience to the love of Christ only, these men captured them in the nets of their false doctrine; wrapping themselves in the innocent garments of sheeps’ clothing, they gained the confidence of the people, until they had made them their willing captives.
While Paul at all times was a model of humility, these men exalted themselves at the expense of their hearers, being full of pride and scorn. While Paul always treated all men with all kindness, the false teachers finally reached such heights of insolence that they did not hesitate to lay violent hands on the poor dupes that had given them their confidence; they offered the people the highest form of insult in the form of a blow in the face.
And all this the Corinthians suffered, just as men today will bear at the hands of false teachers what they would not dream of enduring from a true teacher of the Gospel. The very fact of the selfish impertinence of the false teachers seems to keep their people cowed in helpless suffering.