2 Corinthians 12:11-21

(2 Corinthians 12:11-21)

 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.  Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.  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.  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.  And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.  But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?  Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.

 

Paul's authenticity was completely ignored by the members of the Corinthian church. His sincerity was not for himself, but for Jesus Christ, and for the Corinthian church. For this reason, his argument, which he argued for himself, was accompanied by a great pain of heart. However, since Paul was not merely expressing his resentment with self-excuse and defense, his foolish argument became rather paradoxically a confession of sad love for the Corinthian Church.

Paul, who inevitably began to make foolish arguments and foolish boasting, says once again that he is not in any shortfall than the greatest apostles. He says that the mark of his apostolate is all patience, signs, wonders, and powers performed in the Corinthian Church. Targets and abilities do not mean separate things. This is the appearance of the transcendent work of the Holy Spirit. Knights show miracles appearing, powers show the origin of miracles, and signs show that miracles come from God.

The Corinthians knew that these things happened when Paul was with them. Besides these supernatural wonders and abilities, Paul is speaking of one more apostle, which was all patience. All patience is the strength to endure adversity silently, and it is the inner grace given from heaven with the desire to endure the mission that God has entrusted to you. For this reason, all patience became a clear sign of Paul's apostleship, no less than transcendent power and knightly.

The Corinthian Church abandoned Paul's true heart toward the Corinthian Church in Jesus Christ, but Paul did not give up his heart toward them until the end. Paul wanted to visit the Corinthian Church again for the third time. He also says that the ministry will continue. This is because the ministry of evangelism indicates that one's true interest is not with wealth, but with the members of the Corinthian church themselves. Paul thought it was useless to him, but he became a fool in his own defense. The reason is that the father's heart did not give up the Corinthian Church until the end.

 

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