Chapter Ten

The Apostle’s final reckoning with his opponents. Introduction and main theme of the following section (1–7). Paul’s letters and his personal appearance (8–11). The Apostle’s self-commendation and the groundlessness of his opponents’ self-exaltation (12–18).

2 Cor 10:1-7. From chapter 10 through chapter 13, the Apostle defends his apostolic dignity before the Corinthians and urges them to reform their lives. In the introduction the Apostle refutes the claim being made in Corinth that Paul is bold in his letters but very meek when he arrives in person. No, he has sufficient energy to punish every act of disobedience; it is only out of mercy that he refrains from exercising his apostolic authority. The Apostle is just as close to Christ as those who call themselves Christ’s, and therefore he possesses all the power and authority of a true Apostle of Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:1. Now I, Paul, who am humble among you in person but bold toward you when absent, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. “I, Paul, ... appeal to you” — that is, I personally appeal to you. Quite possibly the Apostle wanted to say by this that from this point he would be speaking no longer on behalf of all his coworkers (cf. 2 Cor 1:1), but only for himself. — “Humble among you.” Paul was moved to this by the compassion he could not help but feel when sinners stood before him face to face. At a distance he would thunder against them with his righteous anger, but in personal dealings with them he could not fail to show them the pity that his opponents interpreted as weakness of character, as an acknowledgment of his inferior standing among the Apostles.

2 Corinthians 10:2. I appeal that when present I need not show boldness with the confidence by which I intend to be bold against some who regard us as walking according to the flesh. The Apostle deflects this reproach with an ironic warning: let them not compel him to show his boldness — it will go badly for them if they do. At the same time, the Apostle points out the motive that guided those who condemned his manner of dealing with the Corinthians. The Apostle’s opponents looked upon him as one who acted “according to the flesh,” that is, as an ordinary man acting on his own personal understanding, not enlightened by the Spirit of God.

2 Corinthians 10:3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. Of course, the Apostle, like every human being, lives under the conditions of fleshly existence. In terms of outward advantages he is even inferior to others, as must be said, for example, concerning his body, which often refused to serve him. Nevertheless, his opponents should be convinced that an extraordinary spiritual power dwells within him — convinced by observing how he wages war against the forces that are hostile to God.

2 Corinthians 10:4. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for pulling down strongholds: with them we demolish schemes The “weapons” by which the Apostle wages war are “not carnal,” that is, not weak (everything carnal is weak and powerless; cf. Isa 40:6), but “mighty” (the Apostle does not add “spiritual,” because this is self-evident). God Himself has given power to Paul’s weapons, so that he might demolish all enemy strongholds — that is, “the pride of the Greeks and the force of their sophisms and syllogisms” (Chrysostom).

2 Corinthians 10:5. and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive in obedience to Christ, The Apostle Paul’s opponents — the Judaizers — also rose up “against the knowledge of God,” that is, they hindered the Apostle from spreading the true knowledge of God as one who loved the whole world and calls all people, including pagans, to salvation without obliging them to observe the law of Moses. The Apostle refutes Jewish self-exaltation, which led the Judaizers to insist that no one could be saved without fulfilling the law of Moses. “Every thought” — that is, every thinking person — the Apostle brings as a captive, but a willing captive, to Christ, or in other words, to faith in Christ (Rom 1:5).

2 Corinthians 10:6. and being ready to punish every act of disobedience, when your obedience is complete. If Paul compels the whole world to obedience, on the other hand he is ready to punish disobedience. Of course, the Apostle has the Corinthian church in mind here. But this will happen when nearly all the Corinthians have shown obedience to the Apostle and have separated from their midst those who are stubbornly disobedient. Only such people does the Apostle wish to punish.

2 Corinthians 10:7. Do you judge by appearances? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him reckon this for himself: that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we Christ’s. Paul here directly opposes the Judaizers’ claim to a special, exclusive relationship with Christ. These “Christ’s people” were certainly not those Corinthians who set up a “Christ’s” party in opposition to the parties of Peter, Paul, and Apollos (1 Cor 1:12). The Apostle speaks about these new “Christ’s people” not as a party opposed to other parties, but only as personal opponents of him, Paul, who denied him the closeness to Christ that they claimed for themselves alone. Evidently these were Judaizing preachers who had come to Corinth from Jerusalem to hinder the success of the Apostle Paul’s preaching in Corinth. They boasted of having been sent from the “mother of churches” — the Jerusalem church — and of their acquaintance with the closest disciples of Christ. — “Do you judge by appearances?” The interrogative form at this point does not yield a clear and definite meaning that can be placed in close connection with the following admonition. For this reason, more recent commentators prefer to take this phrase as an expression of command and translate it: “Look, however, at what lies before your eyes!” The Apostle will go on from verse 8 to speak in detail about what exactly the Corinthians need to pay attention to. 2 Cor 10:8-11. Someone in Corinth was saying about the Apostle Paul that he was stern and forceful only in his letters, but when he had to appear personally before the Christians he became timid and faltered in speech. The Apostle says that such a report about him is entirely without foundation.

2 Corinthians 10:8. For even if I boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for your destruction, I shall not be put to shame. Someone might have found unpleasant the praise the Apostle expressed about himself in verse 7. But the Apostle has, in truth, said very little about himself: if he had said even more, God would not have put his boasting to shame but would have confirmed — evidently through miraculous signs (for example, those in Acts 5:9-10) — the Apostle’s authority. The Apostle uses his authority not for the destruction of the Church, with which he was apparently being charged by someone, but for its edification. Cf. 2 Cor 13:10.

2 Corinthians 10:9. I say this so as not to seem to be frightening you only with my letters. In Corinth the rumor was spreading that the Apostle would never carry out the threats he expressed in his letters (evidently referring to the first and the present second epistle to the Corinthians).

2 Corinthians 10:10. For someone says: “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is weak, and his speech is contemptible. The Apostle Paul is portrayed here not only as a man of unimpressive outward appearance (this is also reported by the tradition preserved by the 14th-century writer Nicephorus Callistus and by the apocryphal “Acts of Paul and Thecla”), but even as a man of little energy and a poor orator — which, for the Greek population of Corinth, seemed a very significant deficiency.

2 Corinthians 10:11. Let such a person understand that what we are in word through letters when absent, we will also be in deed when present. The Apostle sets aside the reproach simply, without citing any historical evidence. Evidently he hopes to give proof of his energy after his arrival in Corinth. 2 Cor 10:12-18. If the Apostle does boast, his boasting rests on facts: he has truly done much for the spread of the Gospel of Christ and will do still more. Moreover, he is aware that the Lord Himself gives him His approval for his tireless activity.

2 Corinthians 10:12. For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding. The first half of the verse is clear. The Apostle says that he would not dare (here, of course, there is irony) to compare his achievements with those of others who are too fond of speaking about themselves. “Who are we to compare?” the Apostle seems to say. But the second half of the verse is obscure, and in order to give it an intelligible sense, some editions (including our Greek text) have attributed the words of the second half to the Apostle Paul’s opponents, whom the Apostle seems to be condemning as acting foolishly. However, even without adding a new subject (“they”) and predicate (“foolishly” — οὐ συνιοῦσιν), this half of the verse can easily be explained if it is regarded as a continuation of the Apostle’s speech about himself. In that case the whole verse can be translated as follows: “We would hardly dare to class or compare ourselves with those who praise themselves. Rather, we measure ourselves by ourselves and compare ourselves with ourselves.” The Apostle says that he can compare his actual self only with what he ought to be according to the divine plan.

2 Corinthians 10:13. But we will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God assigned to us — a sphere that extends even to you. The Apostle anticipates the objection that by comparing himself with himself he might go far beyond the limits of plausibility. No, he knows how to keep within bounds in self-commendation. At the very least, the Corinthians have no grounds at all to suspect him of exaggerating his merits or to regard him as a stranger to their church: the Lord brought him to Corinth, and he has truly done very much there — he has something to boast about.

2 Corinthians 10:14. For we are not overstepping ourselves, as though we did not reach you, since we did come to you with the Gospel of Christ. “We are not overstepping ourselves.” Evidently Paul’s opponents were telling the Corinthians that he “claims too much for himself” (oversteps), that it was not he who “reached” Corinth — that is, that the Corinthians did not owe their Christian enlightenment to him. Indeed, some Corinthians might have thought that Apollos, or someone other than Paul, had greater significance for them in matters of evangelization (cf. 1 Cor 1:12).

2 Corinthians 10:15. We do not boast beyond measure in other men’s labors, but we have hope that as your faith grows, our sphere among you will be greatly enlarged, 2 Corinthians 10:16. so that we may preach the Gospel in the regions beyond you, rather than boasting in work already done in another man’s sphere. The Apostle regards Corinth precisely as his own territory, allotted to him by God. He spread the Gospel here, and he will continue to strengthen the Corinthians in the faith, and then extend his activity further — not to Rome, of course, where the Church had already been founded by others, but to Spain (cf. Rom 15:24).

2 Corinthians 10:17. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.11 2 Corinthians 10:18. For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. In conclusion, the Apostle points to the correct standard for any human boasting: one must attribute everything not to oneself but to the Lord’s help (cf. Jer 9:24). And can one achieve anything through boasting? No, one must wait for the Lord to commend — for the Lord to declare a certain servant His faithful worker (cf. Matt 25:21). * * * Jer 9