Scripture Daily

Context No. 915 of 4322 · 2 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

2 Corinthians 11:12-27: in context

12But what I do, that I will continue to do, that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity, that in which they boast, they may be recognized just like us. 13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles. 14And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. 16I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little. 17That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. 18Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast. 19For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise. 20For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face. 21To my shame, I speak as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. 22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I. 23Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often. 24Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews. 25Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. 26I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; 27in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

Paul is dealing with rival teachers in Corinth who have dazzled the church with their credentials and eloquence, and who question Paul's authority. Against his own instinct, Paul stoops to their game and boasts, but he calls it foolishness the whole way. He warns that these self-styled super-apostles are actually false apostles, servants of Satan masquerading as servants of righteousness, just as Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Then, forced to compare resumes, Paul lists his: Hebrew, Israelite, servant of Christ, and then the strange boast, imprisonments, countless beatings, five floggings, three beatings with rods, a stoning, three shipwrecks, and danger from every direction, hunger, cold, sleeplessness.

What matters about Paul's boast is what he chooses to boast about. His rivals were selling strength, polish, spiritual superiority, the impressive things. Paul, when finally cornered into boasting, lists his scars. Instead of his successes he counts his floggings and shipwrecks, the times he was weak and battered and nearly killed. He turns the whole idea of credentials inside out: the mark of a true apostle is not how commanding he looks but how much he has suffered for the people. And underneath it is a warning that still holds, that Satan and his servants come disguised as light, as righteousness, as the more spiritual option, so that the false is often the more attractive on the surface. The counterfeit looks better than the real, because the real has been beaten half to death carrying the gospel. Paul would rather show them his wounds than his trophies.

Am I drawn to the impressive, polished version of faith, and would I recognize the true servant of Christ by their scars rather than their shine?

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