HONESTY WRAPPED IN HUMILITY
2 CORINTHIANS 12:11-21
NASB
11 I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the [a]most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. 12 The [a]signs [b]of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by [a]signs and wonders and [c]miracles. 13 For in what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not become a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!
14 Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I do not seek what is yours, but you; for children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? 16 But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself; nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit. 17 Certainly I have not taken advantage of you through any of those whom I have sent to you, have I? 18 I urged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Titus did not take any advantage of you, did he? Did we not [a]conduct ourselves [b]in the same spirit and walk in the same steps?
19 All this time [a]you have been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you. Actually, it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ; and all for your upbuilding, beloved. 20 For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances; 21 I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, [a]immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.
12:11 [a]Or super-apostles 12:12 [a]Or attesting miracles [b]Lit of the apostle [c]Or works of power 12:18 [a]Lit walk [b]Or by the same Spirit 12:19 [a]Or have you been thinking...? 12:21 [a]I.e. sexual immorality
NLT
11 You have made me act like a fool. You ought to be writing commendations for me, for I am not at all inferior to these “super apostles,” even though I am nothing at all. 12 When I was with you, I certainly gave you proof that I am an apostle. For I patiently did many signs and wonders and miracles among you. 13 The only thing I failed to do, which I do in the other churches, was to become a financial burden to you. Please forgive me for this wrong!
14 Now I am coming to you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you. I don’t want what you have —I want you. After all, children don’t provide for their parents. Rather, parents provide for their children. 15 I will gladly spend myself and all I have for you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me.
16 Some of you admit I was not a burden to you. But others still think I was sneaky and took advantage of you by trickery. 17 But how? Did any of the men I sent to you take advantage of you? 18 When I urged Titus to visit you and sent our other brother with him, did Titus take advantage of you? No! For we have the same spirit and walk in each other’s steps, doing things the same way.
19 Perhaps you think we’re saying these things just to defend ourselves. No, we tell you this as Christ’s servants, and with God as our witness. Everything we do, dear friends, is to strengthen you. 20 For I am afraid that when I come I won’t like what I find, and you won’t like my response. I am afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly behavior. 21 Yes, I am afraid that when I come again, God will humble me in your presence. And I will be grieved because many of you have not given up your old sins. You have not repented of your impurity, sexual immorality, and eagerness for lustful pleasure.
Deception and arrogance —these things usually characterize false teachers. Because they have rejected the truth, they must concoct false doctrines and weave questionable narratives. As Paul explained to Timothy, they are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). They “oppose the truth” and are “rejected in regard to the faith” (2 Tim. 3:8). Such imposters will “proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13).
Besides deception, false teachers exude arrogance like a bad odor. In fact, the arrogant “lie against the truth” (Jas. 3:14). Peter writes, “Speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error” (2 Pet. 2:18). Because the one identified as the Antichrist of the end times will be characterized by “a mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies” (Rev. 13:5), it should not surprise us that the spirit of antichrist today manifests itself in the same way.
What is the antidote to this devilish deception and arrogance? Honesty and humility. Paul exhibits both of these marks as an authentic minister of Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 12:11-21.
— 12:11-14 —
In this passage, Paul returns to the subject of his relationship with the Corinthians. False teachers in Corinth had verbally assailed Paul (2 Cor. 10–11), but rather than defending their founding apostle who had invested himself on their behalf, many of the Corinthians said nothing, and some of them actually sided with Paul’s opponents (12:11). Contrary to his usual style, and against his desire, Paul wrote back in self-defense, engaging in the same kind of “foolish boasting” that had been a hallmark of his adversaries rather than of his own ministry (12:11).
For marks of his authenticity in contrast to their fraudulence, Paul pointed to his willingness to suffer extreme hardship for the gospel (11:23-33). As proof of his authority, he recounted a spiritual journey to paradise fourteen years earlier that contained revelations he could not articulate to others (12:1-6). Now Paul turns to a specific demonstration of his equality with the “most eminent apostles” (12:11). Here he likely refers to the heroes of the Judaizers —those apostles to the Jews, such as Peter. We should not take this as Paul setting himself up against Peter, but rather as a means to correct the Judaizers’ attempt to create a wedge between the unified apostles. Paul argues that he is just as much an apostle as those that the Judaizers were illegitimately claiming as their own.
To demonstrate the truth of his apostleship, Paul points to the “signs” performed among the Corinthians (12:12). He implies that only those truly sent by God in the power of the Spirit could do these things. This function of signs and wonders as verifying the apostles’ gospel message is confirmed in Hebrews 2:3-4, when the author recalls, “After it [the gospel] was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.”
Paul reminds them that during his stay with them they received all of the works of an authentic apostle. All those reading or hearing this letter would have instantly remembered many of the miracles —the healings, the revelations, the mighty signs that only a true prophet of God could do. What a powerful and persuasive argument for his authority! Yet at the same time, Paul mockingly apologizes that he refused to become a burden to them (2 Cor. 12:13). To what was he referring? A statement in 1 Corinthians 9 clarifies this:
My defense to those who examine me is this: Do we not have a right to eat and drink? Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working? . . . If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we reap material things from you? If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ. (1 Cor. 9:3-6, 11-12)
In other words, he had every right to expect them to provide his living expenses for preaching the gospel, but he refused to rely on their support. Whereas other authentic ministers of the gospel —such as Peter, James, and John —did rely on the churches in which they ministered for their support, Paul did not. This, Paul says, was the only difference between his own apostolic ministry and that of the Corinthians’ “favorite” apostles. With biting sarcasm, Paul ironically asks the Corinthians to forgive him for not letting them have the full apostolic experience (2 Cor. 12:13)!
Despite their extremely unkind behavior toward him, however, Paul says he wants to visit them (12:14). How could he overlook their disrespect and disloyalty? Why wasn’t he angry and resentful? Because he had deliberately set aside his pride. His ministry experiences taught him how to handle abuse, rejection, persecution, and hatred. He could handle a little Corinthian confusion and waffling. Pride produces anger, resulting in resentment and retaliation. His thorn in the flesh and his confidence in the Spirit’s empowerment replaced his pride with humility, his anger with forgiveness. He had no pristine public image to project or to protect; he was a “nobody” (12:11). He had no greedy desire for material goods; he wanted only a loving relationship with his children in the faith (12:14). Clearly, he was a man of honesty and humility.
— 12:15-18 —
Like any loving parent, Paul is willing to give everything he has for his spiritual children, even to “spend and be expended” for the souls of the Corinthians (12:15). What Christlike humility! Christ didn’t come to be ministered to but to minister to others. He didn’t come to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). He didn’t come to take but to give (Matt. 20:28). Yet this absolute surrender to the service of the gospel among the Corinthians had led to a gross inequality. Paul had poured himself out for them, but they failed to reciprocate. Here Paul returns to a theme he first introduced earlier in this letter: “O Corinthians, our heart is opened wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in a like exchange —I speak as to children —open wide to us also” (2 Cor. 6:11-13).
Another aspect of Paul’s honesty and humility is his refusal to take unfair advantage of the Corinthian believers. Everything he did in his conduct remained aboveboard. His words and actions were honest and open. The language Paul uses (12:16) may be designed to directly counter the claims of his critics, who likely suggested that Paul’s apparent honesty and sincerity —as well as his extreme sacrificial service to them —were all part of an elaborate, clever plot to lure the Corinthians in by deceit. False teachers will always twist the simple facts with a complex explanation to make themselves look better and their opponents look worse.
He refuses to take this insidious strategy lying down. He asks them to think for themselves: Had any of Paul’s companions, such as Titus or Timothy, ever taken financial advantage of them, even long after they had been “reeled in” by Paul’s alleged trap of deception (12:17-18)? Both Paul and his assistants —the pioneer church planters and those continuing the work —lived by the same standard, walked the same walk, while conducting themselves with honesty and humility during their entire ministry among them. If Paul had been deceptively fishing for converts to a devious falsehood in order to cash in later, surely the hook would have snagged them, or the net would have fallen by now. Yet instead, Paul and his associates continued to live with integrity.
— 12:19-21 —
Paul concludes this chapter with brutal honesty regarding his hopes and fears. Though he had been defending his apostolic authority, he had done so not for selfish reasons but with honesty before God for the sake of the Corinthians (12:19). Yet he fears that when he comes, he will find the Corinthians still in disarray, that his efforts at confronting their wrongs will have fallen on deaf ears, that he will be utterly disappointed to the point of open mourning in their presence (12:20-21).
If that were to happen, then they would find an apostle Paul they didn’t expect —and one they would not like (12:20). They would not find an open-armed father beaming with pride over his children, but a stern-faced disciplinarian ready to deal out justice. From the beginning of this letter, Paul had been trying to preempt such a sorrowful visit. He wrote, “But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again” (2:1). What things would make Paul sorrowful? He rattles off a brief sampling of what have become typically Corinthian problems: “strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances, . . . impurity, immorality and sensuality” (12:20-21). Add to this their potential failure to follow through on their promise of financial support for the Jerusalem church (9:3-4), and Paul’s visit to them would be nothing short of a disaster!
By the end of 2 Corinthians 12, the apostle has made his expectations clear. He has openly shared both his fears and his hopes. He has exhibited complete honesty in a spirit of true humility. Now the ball is in the Corinthians’ court. Would they pick it up and play by the rules on Paul’s team? Or would they pass it to Paul’s rivals and join them in their unfair opposition?
APPLICATION: 2 CORINTHIANS 12:11-21
Responding with Honesty and Humility
In our churches, as in our families, people will hurt us. This is the reality of any close and meaningful relationship built on honesty and humility. In the close-quarters living to which we are called, we can easily offend others, and be easily offended. We can hurt each other’s feelings, harm each other’s reputations, and break each other’s relationships. I wish I could say that among brothers and sisters in Christ who genuinely love each other, these things are an exception rather than the rule. But the truth is, the closer we allow ourselves to get to each other, the more the sharp edges of our personalities jab and scrape each other.
How do we respond when someone has offended or mistreated us? What do we do when we’ve been wronged, slighted, or humiliated? Paul’s parental response to the Corinthians, who had belittled, betrayed, and berated him, gives us a great example to follow. His model of honesty and humility in 2 Corinthians 12:11-21 produces several questions we can ask ourselves.
First, Is my image a little too important to me? In humility, Paul wrote, “I am a nobody” (12:11). Can we approach ridicule and mistreatment with the same attitude? Or is our knee-jerk reaction to respond in defense of our reputation? Is responding for the sake of our public image a pursuit of honesty?
Second, Am I falling into the trap of keeping score? Paul said he wouldn’t take a penny from the Corinthians (12:14). He had given sacrificially but never demanded or expected anything in return. In fact, he remained willing to “spend and be expended” for their sakes. Though they should have responded with love and respect, he did not make these a condition for his love for them. Are your own relationships built on a give-and-take desire for equality, or are you willing to give repeatedly, even if you see no signs of a “return on investment”?
Third, Do I flatter other people for my own advantage? Paul made it clear that he never took advantage of the Corinthians —either personally or through his representatives (12:16-18). He didn’t say or do just enough good to string them along in feigned friendship, only to load them down with a list of hefty demands. He didn’t have ulterior motives when dealing with those believers in Corinth. People with such motives engage in flattery, not friendship. Friendship doesn’t try to manipulate others for personal gain.
As we try to develop authentic, vulnerable relationships with those in our church body, we are wise to do so with honesty and humility. And when those brothers and sisters in Christ inevitably let us down, we need to remember these characteristics of Christlike love.