2 Corinthians 12

2 Corinthians 12:11-18

Paul Has Been More Than Fair (12:11-18) Had Paul been writing an essay, 12:1-10 would have been a good climax. Nothing more needed to be said; nothing more profound could be said. Yet because this is a letter, not an essay, he goes on with a collection of anticlimaxes, as we all do in most of our letters. Once more, he says, he has been talking like a fool. He blames the Corinthians for it, because they have been swept off their feet by these “superlative apostles,” the eccelesi­astical impostors who have been blackening his name and motives. If they had eyes and memories, they should remem­ber that “the signs of a true apostle” had been performed among them by Paul.

What Paul means by this we do not know, unless it was the “signs and wonders and mighty works” (a stereotyped phrase for all kinds of miracles) of verse 12. The point is, what Paul had accomplished in Corinth marked him as a true Apostle, and they should have seen this. He points out, in sarcasm once more, that the poor Corinthians were mistreated in that Paul did not take any salary from them; he begs forgiveness for this mis­treatment! There is one more charge which Paul’s enemies apparently brought against him: that his friends and representatives were crooked. This must have stung Paul sorely. He speaks sharply to defend Titus and “the brother” (unnamed here as in 8:18); they acted in the same generous and honest spirit shown by Paul.

2 Corinthians 12:19-13

Mend Your Ways, or Else— ! (12:19-13:10) After all, Paul says, it is not himself he has been defending; it is Christ, and it is for their sake rather than his own. Paul can see through the slanders of his critics; but some in Corinth can­not, and if they are misled their fate will not be good. Further, Paul feels that if the Corinthians follow these false apostles, they will drop right back into the quarreling, disorderly church they used to be; and the harmony not only among themselves but between themselves and Paul, themselves and God, will be broken. Paul hangs his third visit over the Corinthians as a kind of threat. When the second visit was, no one knows; but 12:14 probably, and 13:1-2 certainly, show that there was a second visit not mentioned in Acts. It may have been very short. Paul promises, in effect, not only to have the authority of an apostle, but to use it. He is not going to rush in blindly. Any charges (this is all vague as to details, but they no doubt knew what he meant) must be formally made and sustained by two or three witnesses. Nobody is going to be dealt with on mere suspicion. But then Paul reminds these people, as he has before, that they themselves have all the right and power to deal with their local problems and problem-members. Examine yourselves, he says. Test yourselves. Even if they are spiritually stronger than he, and consequently better able than he to deal with their prob­lems (a pretty wild supposition, to be sure), Paul will be glad of that. What I want and pray for, he says, “is your improvement.” Paul, by the way, is far from thinking that “what is to be is bound to be.” He talks as a man can honestly talk only when he feels that men affect their “fate” by their own decisions. His language here (as well as elsewhere)— “I hope,” “we pray,” “un­less indeed you fail to meet the test,” “in order that when I come I may not have to be severe”— is not the language of a man who believes the future is already packaged and will finally be handed across time’s counter just as it is wrapped up at this moment.