I HAVE TO BOAST. Paul personally feels the whole thing of boasting is a waste of time! Yet he must go on with it, because he must destroy false arguments and pull down proud obstacles. ABOUT VISIONS AND REVELATIONS. The false apostles bragged about visions and ecstatic experiences. Paul may have had... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO FOURTEEN YEARS AGO. It is a Jewish form to speak in the third person. 2 Corinthians 12:7 identifies this man as Paul. The date must have been in 41 or 42 A.D. (by the corrected calendar). _Johnson_ thinks it may have been while Paul was at Antioch or Tarsus (Acts 9:29-30.) SNATCHED UP. Compare R... [ Continue Reading ]
I REPEAT. Paul uses the word Paradise this time, which is _heaven before the Judgment._ See notes on Luke 16:19-31. See_ also_ Luke 23:43; Revelation 2:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE HE HEARD THINGS. The false teachers may tell others about their visions and boast of how God spoke to them, but Paul's experience was too sacred to reveal! God does not allow Paul to tell what he saw and heard!!! Compare Revelation 10:3-4 and notes.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO I WILL BOAST. What God allowed Paul to see, gave him great courage! Yet because the false teachers seem to think visions and revelations prove a person to be a true disciple of Christ, Paul speaks about these things as though it were someone else who had experienced them. He will only boast of hi... [ Continue Reading ]
I WOULD BE TELLING THE TRUTH. He can truthfully boast of many such things!!! But his appointment as an apostle is not based on this! Also, such things can be easily faked and are impossible to test. Therefore Paul wants people to evaluate him on the basis of what they see him do and say!!!... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT TO KEEP ME. This shows that 2 Corinthians 12:2 speaks of Paul himself. PUFFED UP. One who is puffed up by his visions and experiences, tends to de-emphasize God. In contrast to the boasting of the false teachers, Paul says God gave him a painful physical ailment to keep him from being proud. Wha... [ Continue Reading ]
THREE TIMES. Like Jesus (Mark 14:36), Paul prays to escape suffering. But he learns that God's refusal is his answer, and he submits to the will of his Lord!... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS ANSWER WAS. Paul did not receive what he wanted, but really something better!!! The fact that Paul could do so much in spite of his weakness, showed it was the Lord's power working through him!!! _Suffering is no curse!!!_... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM CONTENT. He can be content, because it is all for Christ's sake!!! His weakness, etc., all work out to a more successful ministry!!! Compare Philippians 4:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM ACTING LIKE A FOOL. "I know I am acting like a fool to come down to your level and boast about such things, but you have forced me to do it! You should have taken my part against the false teachers, because I am in no way inferior to those super-apostles' you seem to be so proud of!... [ Continue Reading ]
THE THINGS THAT PROVE. "During the time I spent at Corinth when I planted the church there, you saw much evidence that I was an apostle!" Compare 1 Thessalonians 1:5 and note.... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW WERE YOU? In order to discredit Paul, the false teachers have said that the fact he would not take their pay proved he did not really love them, and that he thought they were inferior to the other churches! See notes on 2 Corinthians 11:7-12. But the only _sign_ he omitted at Corinth was to take... [ Continue Reading ]
THE THIRD TIME. The first was Acts 18:1; the second was the painful visit mentioned in 2 Corinthians 2:1. He still refuses to take their money, but he did take money from other churches (2 Corinthians 11:7-9 and notes). As their _spiritual father,_ he must provide for them!... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL BE GLAD to. Paul's whole life is a living sacrifice in imitation of Jesus Christ. Compare Mark 10:45. WILL YOU! They have completely misunderstood his act of self-sacrifice. He intended this as a sign of his great love, but they misinterpreted it and thought he did not love them, and even sai... [ Continue Reading ]
YOU WILL AGREE, THEN. Paul asks them to take this as evidence of his love for them! BUT, SOMEONE WILL SAY. The false teachers said he was tricky enough to drain the treasury in other ways.... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW? How could he have done anything like this??? None of the messengers Paul sent _made slaves_ of the Corinthians as the false teachers had done (2 Corinthians 11:20).... [ Continue Reading ]
I BEGGED TITUS TO GO. Evidently the attack has all been against Paul, and the Corinthians continued to trust Titus, and also the unnamed brother. WOULD YOU SAY? "Certainly you would not accuse Titus of taking advantage of you and draining the treasury!!! DO NOT HE AND I? Paul points to their good op... [ Continue Reading ]
PERHAPS YOU THINK. Paul wants to make it plain that he says all this to help the church at Corinth, and not just to clear his own name. He speaks as Christ's servant.... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM AFRAID. "This is why I have defended myself. You must be helped! I am afraid that when I come, I will still find you living in the old way of sin!... [ Continue Reading ]
MY GOD WILL HUMILIATE ME. Paul is thinking of that painful second visit (2 Corinthians 2:1). AND I SHALL WEEP. It will bring him great sorrow to be forced to punish those who have failed to turn away from their sins and reform!!! IMMORAL. Here it means any kind of unholy living. SEXUAL SINS. These w... [ Continue Reading ]