Paul Plays The Fool.

PAUL PLAYS THE FOOL.

2 Corinthians 11:19-31.

While the Apostle Paul was delayed from his next visit to Corinth, certain ‘false apostles’ (as he calls them in 2 Corinthians 11:13) had come into the Corinthian church preaching ‘another Jesus, whom we have not preached,’ and offering ‘another spirit, which ye have not received,’ and ‘another gospel, which ye have not accepted’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:4).

If you take me as a fool, reasons the Apostle Paul, then bear with me and let me boast a little (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 11:16). ’Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:18).

There is a touch of irony in what Paul is saying: “For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise” (2 CORINTHIANS 11:19).

The fools to whom he is referring are those whom he styles (in 2 Corinthians 11:5 and 2 Corinthians 12:11) as ‘in a surpassing degree apostles’ (Greek); ‘the very chiefest apostles’ (KJV); ‘the most eminent apostles’ (NKJV). The tokens of their ministry appear to be violence and manipulation (2 CORINTHIANS 11:20).

Boasting was very much in vogue in the ancient world. The Pharisees boasted of their religiosity (cf. Luke 18:11-12). Politicians boasted of their accomplishments.

Soldiers boasted of their military prowess. It was an honour indeed to be first over the wall in the siege of a city. The irony in Paul’s boasting is that he mentions, almost as footnote, that he was let DOWN the wall of Damascus in order to escape persecution (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:32-33).

The false apostles were boasting about their authority, and Paul ironically suggests that in this “we” (the true apostles) have been “weak” (2 CORINTHIANS 11:21), not being of such a mind as to domineer over the Corinthian Christians the way these intruders did. Even so, Paul asserts, if any man “is bold, (I speak foolishly), I am bold also.”

Paul’s boasting ranges from his Jewishness (cf. John 4:22), in which he matched the false apostles (2 CORINTHIANS 11:22); to a catalogue not of his achievements, but of what he, as a servant of Christ, has suffered for the gospel of Christ (2 CORINTHIANS 11:23-27).

And “the care of all the churches” (2 CORINTHIANS 11:28). This is his ongoing pastoral concern for the churches which he has planted, and for the wellbeing of his spiritual children.

Especially the “weak” ones, who might so easily be led astray (2 CORINTHIANS 11:29).

“If I must needs glory,” concludes the Apostle Paul, “I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not” (2 CORINTHIANS 11:30-31).