Five-year Bible reading plan for 16 June 2020

King James Version (en)

King James Version (en)

2 Corinthians, Chapter 10, verses 1-11

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, ⁷ assuring them that at his coming he will be found as mighty in word, as he is now in writing being absent

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:

²But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

³For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

⁴(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

⁵Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

⁶And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

⁷Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's.

⁸For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:

⁹That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.

¹⁰For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.

¹¹Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.

Read more:2 Corinthians, Chapter 10

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10

10:1 Now I Paul myself - - A strongly emphatical expression.Who when present am base among you - So, probably, some of the false teachers affirmed. Copying after the meekness and gentleness of Christ, entreat - Though I might command you.

10:2 Do not constrain me when present to be bold - To exert my apostolical authority. Who think of us as walking after the flesh - As acting in a cowardly or crafty manner.

10:3 Though we walk in the flesh - In mortal bodies, and, consequently, are not free from human weakness. Yet we do not war - Against the world and the devil. After the flesh - By any carnal or worldly methods. Though the apostle here, and in several other parts of this epistle, speaks in the plural number, for the sake of modesty and decency, yet he principally means himself. On him were these reflections thrown, and it is his own authority which he is vindicating.

10:4 For the weapons of our warfare - Those we use in this war. Are not carnal - But spiritual, and therefore mighty to the throwing down of strong holds - Of all the difficulties which men or devils can raise in our way. Though faith and prayer belong also to the Christian armour, Eph 6:15, etc , yet the word of God seems to be here chiefly intended.

10:5 Destroying all vain reasonings, and every high thing which exalteth itself - As a wall or rampart. Against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought - Or, rather, faculty of the mind. Into captivity to the obedience of Christ - Those evil reasonings are destroyed. The mind itself, beingovercome and taken captive, lays down all authority of its own, and entirely gives itself up to perform, for the time to come, to Christ its conqueror the obedience of faith.

10:6 Being in readiness to avenge all disobedience - Not only by spiritual censure, but miraculous punishments. When your obedience is fulfilled - When the sound part of you have given proof of your obedience, so that I am in no danger of punishing the innocent with the guilty.

10:7 Do ye look at the outward appearance of things - Does any of you judge of a minister of Christ by his person, or any outward circumstance? Let him again think this of himself - Let him learn it from his own reflection, before I convince him by a severer method.

10:8 I should not be ashamed - As having said more than I could make good.

10:9 I say this, that I may not seem to terrify you by letters - Threatening more than I can perform.

10:10 His bodily presence is weak - His stature, says St. Chrysostom, was low, his body crooked, and his head bald.

NOTES

Continuing the discussion about who argues and persuades, and how, Paul says bluntly that he is not going to take his cue from those who “commend themselves” and “measure themselves by themselves.” This is how the apostle assesses lovers of debate who argue for argument's sake in order to...

Continuing the discussion about who argues and persuades, and how, Paul says bluntly that he is not going to take his cue from those who “commend themselves” and “measure themselves by themselves.” This is how the apostle assesses lovers of debate who argue for argument's sake in order to assert themselves and their own point of view. Such people really are concerned only with “putting themselves forward”; the truth does not interest them. Moreover, their only criterion of truth is usually their own opinion. They are convinced in advance that they are right, believing, though they do not always say so directly, that there are only two points of view: their own and the wrong one.

Of such disputants the apostle says that they “boast in other men's labours,” contrasting them with himself and his own ministry. This is understandable: disputes and debates of this kind are intended to assert oneself at the expense of others, not to help those others become established in the life of the Kingdom. The disputants Paul mentions think first of winning as many supporters as possible, while often caring nothing at all about their fate or spiritual condition. They leave it to someone else to concern themselves with their supporters' spiritual state.

The apostle, by contrast, cares first of all about the spiritual life of those with whom he associates. He does not need supporters; he has no intention of creating circles, schools, or church parties. He wants only to bring as many people as possible to Christ and draw them into the life of the Kingdom in which he himself abides. It is in this sense that Paul says he does not boast in other people's labours, but in “his own field” among those to whom God will reveal the Kingdom through him, strengthening their faith.

Such ministry can be considered truly Christian. As for boasting, if it makes sense to boast of anything at all, it does so only when it is God, not people, who commends us. If God values highly what a person has done, then that person has not lived in vain and has devoted his life to what was worth doing and ought to have been done. But glory, influence, and fame in this world are worth as much as the world itself. Compared with the life of the Kingdom, its value tends towards zero, as do its glory, influence, and fame.

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...

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 were being made in the Corinthian church and had reached him while he was still in Macedonia.

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...

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.

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