Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Cor. 10:1-17; Jer. 9:24; 2 Cor. 11:1-15, 22-28; 2 Cor. 12:20, 21; 2 Cor. 13:5.

Memory Text: “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4, ESV).

The Opening Question: How would you respond to the discovery of a person who is teaching falsehood?

This week we come to some sections of 2 Corinthians that many think are the most difficult to understand. Why?? Because we only get to hear Paul’s side of the discussion so are kept in the dark, forced to try to figure out what kind of accusations Paul was responding to.

There is an interesting side note here. We know that Paul wrote at least 3 letters to the Corinthians of which we presume to have only two. We are left to wonder about the third. And because of the different tone in chapters 10-12, and because they seem to intrude on what Paul was saying earlier, there are those who think these chapters may well be the third letter, somehow misplaced. Earlier when Paul was writing about the collections, it seemed he was wrapping things up. Then comes this section with harsh words.

One way to make sense of these chapters is to try to figure out the charges the Corinthians laid at Paul’s feet. Some of them seem easy to discern:

• It seems they charged Paul with being quite bold when he was away and writing letters compared to his gentleness when he was with them in person. They seem to have accused him of writing things in his letters that he did not have the courage to say when he was with them in person. His response was that he was quite capable of laying them out in lavender, so to speak, but chose not to do that when he was with them in person because of the powerful effect of personal presence that might have actually caused harm that would have been hard to mend.
• It seems they also charged him with acting purely on human and personal motives. Perhaps they were even thinking he was trying to act in ways that gave him status and power. His response essentially was to say that he was a human in a human body like everyone else but that he did not allow himself to be motivated or dominated by purely human and selfish motives. He spoke of being guided by the Spirit, of bringing all of his intentions into captivity to Christ.
• A good case can be made that the Corinthians had gone further, to the point of making fun of Paul’s appearance. They said he was weak and was not a trained speaker, therefore not very good. It is a pretty sad day when protagonists resort to that kind of thing for our bodies and our appearances are pretty well fixed. Further, we did not have anything to do with our physical make-up. It is fair to say that there are many examples in history of people who did not strike a very good pose who were, in fact, history-changers because of their ideas and their tenacity toward achieving a particular end.
• There is some indication that the Corinthians also accused Paul of making boastful claims about authority. Interestingly, he pointed out to them that he had every right to assert some authority over them because he was the one who first brought them the gospel! Paul disavowed any boastfulness saying that, if he were to boast, it would only be in what Christ had done and in what Christ had enabled him to do.

In these chapters, Paul also has a few things to say about those who claim to be superior teachers, who argue they have superior truth. Paul will have none of that, warning the church to take decided but not unkind action against them. We can make a connection between what Paul said here and what he had to say to the Galatians, warning them against any who might come along preaching a different gospel.

One of the more moving and amazing sections are the verses in Chapter 11 where Paul details the sufferings he has endured because of the gospel.