Main news for 26 December 2016

King James Version (en)

2 Corinthians, Chapter 10, verse 1

¹ Against the false apostles, who disgraced the weakness of his person and bodily presence, he setteth out the spiritual might and authority, with which he is armed against all adversary powers

¹Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:

NOTES

In speaking about himself and his ministry, Paul seeks to dispel the misconceptions about him that were current among the Christians of Corinth. He probably utters such words not without irony, for the apostle apparently has in mind the statements that...

One may suppose that these statements came from those whom Paul had rebuked in his first letter to the Christians of Corinth without naming them. They were probably emboldened by the fact that the apostle had decided not to mention particular people in the letter. They apparently attributed this to Paul's indecision and hoped that, when he met them face to face, the apostle would not dare to rebuke them openly before the whole church.

Paul explains his supposed timidity quite differently. He says plainly that his purpose is neither victory in an argument nor a public triumph over those who rebuke him, for he does not seek such things in the ordinary human sense. Paul has no need of such victories: in his own words, he “does not wage war according to the flesh.” In a personal encounter he could, of course, be no less severe than in his letters. But the apostle's task was not to demonstrate his power over people's minds, but to resolve the questions facing the Corinthian church. He points to the problems of both the Corinthian church as a whole and its individual members not for the sake of reproach in itself, and certainly not for self-assertion, but because otherwise those problems cannot be resolved.

It is quite possible that the apostle's restraint, which some mistook for timidity, was prompted precisely by his fear of doing harm through excessive harshness. Indeed, severe words read on paper, even in a letter addressed to the reader personally, still affect the soul less painfully than the same words spoken face to face. Yet the first reaction caused by acute inner pain often prevents the reader or listener from grasping the meaning of the words addressed to him, because the pain simply obscures it. Words of rebuke may then prove not a medicine, but a deadly poison which, instead of healing a person spiritually, may destroy him. Such a person can then be lost to the Kingdom, temporarily in the best case and forever in the worst. It is hardly surprising that the apostle is very careful with his words, especially in a personal encounter, for his task is not to destroy the Kingdom, but to build it up.

Speaking about his strength, Paul characterizes it not as human strength, but as God's strength, given to him for the destruction of "mental fortresses" and for resisting everything that exalts itself before God. The apostle states this while commenting on the idea about him that, judging by his words, had spread: that he is strong in letters but weak when meeting opponents face to face. Judging by the mention of "mental fortresses" and exaltation, the matter apparently concerns certain arguments and debates, perhaps public ones, that took place in the Corinthian church. And Paul's reference to exaltation in such a context was hardly accidental. One may think that the participants in these arguments and debates had already, for quite some time and by quite a distance, gone beyond the boundaries within which it was still possible to speak of the search for truth and authentic spiritual life. At the time when the apostle was writing his letter to the Corinthian Christians, their arguments and debates were probably aimed first of all at self-assertion and the defense of their own rightness, whether the issue concerned individual people or certain groups within the church.

Paul undoubtedly wanted to stop these meaningless and spiritually harmful disputes. But, of course, this was not a matter of stopping them by using power or authority: Paul did not have such power, and not everyone was ready to recognize his authority. He could act only as a Christian, by God's strength and by the breath of the Kingdom by which he lived. Very often it is precisely God's strength and the breath of the Kingdom that turn out to be the decisive argument in disputes among Christians.

If all Christians lived the full life of the Kingdom opened to them, the breath of the Kingdom would always and in every case be their only argument. But since full Christian life is not found all that often even among Christians, disputes and debates among Christians often unfold according to the laws of this world, and here the main goal becomes precisely self-assertion: if not of one's person, then of one's school, one's ideas and views, one's position.

But if those arguing are still not completely closed to the action of God's breath, then the appearance of a person living a full Christian life can change the situation, forcing them to look differently both at themselves and at their disputes. And then it may well turn out that there is nothing to argue about, because the argument was about things that are not so important from the point of view of spiritual life.

The main thing is renunciation of self-assertion, which is the spring behind many arguments and debates, including among Christians. Often it is enough to remove this spring for the disputes to grow quiet, and for the strength and energy spent on them to be directed toward spiritual life as such, toward recognizing and building relationships with God and with people. This is the kind of change in their church life that Paul would like to bring to the Corinthian Christians.

As this epistle moves into chapter 10, the Apostle’s tone changes abruptly. Perhaps he had received...

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