August
27th I
love you all
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. 12: Truly the signs of an
apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and
wonders, and mighty deeds. 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. 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. 15: And I will very gladly
spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you,
the less I be loved. 16: But be it so, I did not burden you:
nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. 17: Did I make a
gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? 18: 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? 19:
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. 20: 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: 21: 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.
I
have embarrassed myself, says Paul. I have become a fool in glorying
in my ministry, but you pushed me into it, because l should have had
you to recommend me instead of having to recommend myself and it
should be you that realise that l do not come second place to the
most important apostles – although in myself l am nothing. The
signs of my apostolic authority were demonstrated among you in all
patience, in apostolic signs, wonders and mighty deeds. In what way
were you inferior to the other churches, except in this that l took
no wages from you for my ministry. I’m sorry if this was an offence
to you. And very soon l will be able to come to see you again, says
Paul, and l will still not take any money from you, because l do not
want your money, l want you. You are my children in the Lord and you
know that parents provide for their children not the other way
around. And so l will gladly spend myself and be spent out for you
because l love you even more when you do not love me. Let this always
be so. I have not been a burden to you but being clever, l caught you
with my craftiness. (Like a crafty fisherman, I caught you without a
bait on the hook) I won you for Christ without it costing you a
penny. And did l make money through any of those who l sent to you? I
asked Titus and another brother to come to you. Did Titus take any
money from you? (No of course not) And we lived in exactly the same
way. We walked the same path. Do you think that we are making excuses
for ourselves? (No we are not) We speak all this before God in
Christ. We do everything, my dear loved ones that you will be built
up in the faith. I am afraid that when l come I will not find you as
l would like to have you and that you will not receive me in a way
that l would like. I don’t want there to be debates, envy, anger,
wrath, arguments, talking behind people’s backs, whispering, pride,
riots. I don’t want God to use me to bring you to order and to
humble you before God. (I will if l need to) And l do not want to
find that sin has not been dealt with in the church. I don’t want
to have to deal with it when l come.
- Why does Paul speak of his Apostolic qualifications to the Corinthians?
- What does Paul mean by... the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved?
- How does Paul hope that he will never come to the Corinthians?
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