2 Corinthians ~ Part 18

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As I have emphasized in my previous posts, we are delving into the profound significance of Sha’ul’s Letters to the Corinthians, a crucial cornerstone of our faith. This significance is not to be taken lightly but deeply understood and appreciated. Your active engagement in grasping the depth of its meaning and impact on our spiritual journey is not just crucial. Still, it also shows your responsibility to understand the importance of this text in our faith.

We continue to examine the Defense of Sha’ul’s Apostleship, which covers 2 Corinthians 10:1 to 13:14. In this post, we begin in Chapter 12:14.

As you reflect on 2 Corinthians 12:14-21, consider how you can show genuine love and care for those around you, especially in your family. Stop for a moment and think about practical ways to express your love through your actions, such as spending quality time together, listening attentively, and offering help and support when needed.

No Ulterior Advantage

¹⁴ Look, I am ready this third time to come and visit you; and I will not be a burden to you; for it is not what you own that I want, but you! Children are not supposed to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

Sha’ul’s first visit to the Corinthians was a long church-planting visit, around a.d. 50–51 (Ac 18:11). His second visit was a brief, painful experience (2 Co 2:1). Earlier in the letter, he had promised a third visit (see note at 9:5). This was fulfilled, as Rom 15:26 shows. Sha’ul would not burden the Corinthians by asking for money for his personal use. He did expect them to support the offering for the Yerushalayim saints (2 Co 8–9). He wanted their hearts and affection, not their money.

 

 

Sha’ul’s second visit to Corinth was devastating because the Corinthians had rejected him (2:1, 5). The vices in verse 20 were not sexual, as these were. First Corinthians 5 shows that sexual sins had been longstanding challenges in the Corinthian congregation. The false apostles may have added insult to injury by approving sexual licenses.

¹⁵ And as for me, I will most gladly spend everything I have and be spent myself too for your sakes. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

The fatherly love Sha’ul felt for the Corinthians resulted in a great sacrifice of time and money (see notes at 6:12–13 and 11:2–3). He yearned for this love to be returned, even though he didn’t expect the Corinthians to love him as much as he loved them.

¹⁶ Let it be granted, then, that I was not a burden to you, but, crafty fellow that I am, I took you with trickery! ¹⁷ Was it perhaps through someone I sent you ¹⁸ that I took advantage of you? I urged Titus to go and sent the brother with him; Titus didn’t take advantage of you, did he? Didn’t we live by the same Spirit and show you the same path?

By the phrase, I took you in by trickery!  Sha’ul is either using irony (in which case he meant the opposite) or repeating the slanderous claims made by the false apostles. Their argument may have been along these lines: “Granted, Sha’ul never personally took money from you for his own use, but now he’s come up with this elaborate scheme for Yerushalayim. He’s scamming you and plans to use the money for himself.”

Sha’ul was sending Titus and an unnamed brother (see 8:6, 18, 22) along with this letter to oversee the collection for Yerushalayim. Sha’ul knew that Titus’s behavior in financial matters had been, and would continue to be, above reproach.

Reason for Defense

¹⁹ Perhaps you think that all this time we have been defending ourselves before you. No, we have been speaking in the sight of God, as those united with the Messiah should, and, my dear friends, it is all for your upbuilding. ²⁰ For I am afraid of coming and finding you, not the way I want you to be, and also of not being found the way you want me to be. I am afraid of finding quarreling and jealousy, anger and rivalry, slander and gossip, arrogance and disorder.

Sha’ul’s integrity in the sight of God was more important than his reputation with any human group. The phrase I will not find you to be what I want is another appeal to the unrepentant minority of Corinthian Believers (see note at 10:1). The eight vices listed in this verse were the “works” of the false- apostles, which would result in eternal condemnation (11:15). Sha’ul’s other vice lists (1 Cor. 6:9–10; Galatians 5:19–21; Ephesians 5:3–5) also noted that those who practiced such sins were not part of God’s family.

²¹ I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me in your presence and that I will be grieved over many of those who sinned in the past and have not repented of the impurity, fornication, and debauchery that they have engaged in. ^[1]

Sha’ul’s second visit to Corinth had been devastating because the Corinthians had rejected him (2:1, 5). The vices in verse 20 were not sexual, as these were. First Corinthians 5 shows that sexual sins had been longstanding challenges in the Corinthian congregation. The false apostles may have added insult to injury by approving of sexual license.

In our next post, we conclude Sha’ul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians.

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^[1] 2 Corinthians 12:14–21.