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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 2 Corinthians 12:11 - 12:16
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What Paul Expects of the Corinthians.
Their love should have commended him in his love for them:
v. 11. I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you; for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
v. 12. Truly, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.
v. 13. For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!
v. 14. Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you; for I seek not yours; but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
v. 15. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
v. 16. But be it so, I did not burden you; nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
Paul here turns the fact of his boasting against the Corinthians, to their reproach, saying that his becoming foolish in that way, in a manner which he personally considers scandalous, was occasioned by their having omitted commendation of him: For I should have been commended, praised, of you; for in nothing do I fall behind those superfine, those very superior, apostles to whom you have yielded obedience so readily,—that is, the Judaizing teachers, the false prophets who had disturbed the Corinthians. And this in spite of the fact that, in the low estimate which he places upon himself, he is nothing, just as he calls himself the least of the apostles, 1Co_15:9. He realized fully that he was nothing, that nothing depended upon his person, upon his ability, upon his talents, that he was not indispensable to the work, that he was merely an instrument of grace in the hands of his Lord, that Christ was all in all.
But so far as the false apostles are concerned, against whom the present passage is directed, he will not for one moment admit their superiority: The signs of an apostle indeed were wrought among you in all patience, by signs as well as by wonders and powers. The special indications of his apostolic authority, the signs which marked him at once as an apostle of the Lord, the miracles and powers which had been given to the Lord's servants as a seal of their calling, Mar_16:17-18, had been wrought in Corinth through his agency. What greater proof did they desire? Why did they withhold from him the proper acknowledgment?
Paul refers also to that moot question as to his supporting himself while preaching in Corinth: For what is it wherein you were inferior to the other congregations, except that I myself did not burden you? Had they reached such a point in their critical attitude that they felt insulted and set back because he had insisted upon earning his own means of subsistence, and had saved them the money which they really owed him? If this was really their attitude, then, as he ironically adds, they should forgive him that wrong; he humbly craves their pardon for having slighted them. But instead of changing his method, he expressly declares: Behold, this is the third time that I am ready to come to you, and I shall not be a burden. His first visit was that related in Act_18:1-28; of his second we have no account, although he refers to it, chap. 13:1-2; 2:1. In carrying out his intention of visiting them, he has decided to abide by his practice and not to demand money for his support from them: For I seek not yours, but you. No one should be able to make the charge against him that he is seeking their money, their goods. His only motive is to gain them for Christ and keep them in fellowship with Christ. In support of this principle he quotes a proverbial saying: For the children are not bound to gather treasures for the parents, but the parents for the children. See Pro_29:14. He was their spiritual father, and as such he was concerned about gathering spiritual treasures for them, making them the heirs of the wonderful spiritual gifts which had been entrusted to him for their benefit.
In this spirit his attitude toward them is: But I very gladly will spend, and be wholly spent, for your souls. Such is the apostle's love for the Corinthians that not only was every thought of gain for himself excluded, but he was also ready, with a hearty good will, to give up all that he had in the world for them, yea, to sacrifice his life, if he could thereby promote their spiritual welfare. It is the same unselfish devotion which he exhibited also at other times, 1Th_2:8; Php_2:17; 2Ti_2:10. But he is obliged to add, with melancholy sadness: If I loved you more abundantly, am I loved the less? or: Although the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. He was willing to go to the utmost in overcoming their prejudice and hostility, but he was not meeting with success in proportion, rather in inverse ratio, a fact which he felt very keenly. Yet his love is able to make even this sacrifice: But be it so! He at least has the satisfaction that he has not burdened them with his maintenance, and this the Corinthians must concede. Now, however, his opponents made another insinuation: But being crafty, I caught you with guile. They insinuated that he was keen enough to take care of his own advantage, that he did not accept any means of support directly, but that he was not above suspicion in the matter of the collection alleged to be for the poor in Judea. This matter he now takes up, in the last part of the chapter.