Boasting in Weakness — 2 Corinthians 11

0:00 And he talks about why he is a superior minister of Jesus Christ as over against his opponents. Now he has been adamant in this Corinthian correspondence that he will not boast in himself. And in fact, at the very first chapter of book one, he's laid the theological foundation for this. He said, the reason why I will not talk about my accomplishments and boast in my self and how great I am is because this goes headlong against the very message that I preach of Jesus Christ and him crucified. The Bible says, let him who glories glory in the Lord.

0:42 First Corinthians chapter one. And then he reminds his readers of that again, well, right here at the end of chapter 10 verse 17. But he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. But in chapter 11, Paul reaches a breaking point, And he is so worried about the spiritual fate of his audience that he feels like he has to talk about himself a bit.

1:17 That desperate times call for desperate measures, and maybe after all I should crumble and play their game a little bit, And we'll see how the two of us compare. In other words, what the Corinthians wanted was for Paul to pull out his resume. So that way they could put... They could compare it with the resume of his opponents. And they can have a little bit of a competition with the trophy being, the allegiance of the Corinthian assembly.

1:47 In chapter 11, Paul admits that it's foolishness, but he says, okay, if you demand it, if you wanna see it so badly, I'll show it to you. In the first four verses, he explains why he is going to crumble in this way. Let's start reading in verse one and we'll just go through verse four. Oh that you would bear me in a little folly, and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, For I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

2:26 But I fear, lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity or the sincerity that is in Christ Jesus. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. The audience, I'm sure, if they catch... If they caught on to what Paul is doing is surprised that he is now going to bolster himself a little bit. And he calls it foolishness that he wants them to bear with.

3:23 He then... So in verse 11 he says, I want you to bear with my foolishness, and then he gives some reasons why. Why this is acceptable? Why should you put up with me acting like a fool? And the first reason that he gives is, for I am jealous.

3:40 Now if you just take a moment and step back, that sounds kind of strange, doesn't it? Under normal circumstances, what I'm about to do is not acceptable, but you don't understand in this particular case, I'm jealous. So that makes it okay. How would jealousy make something okay? How would you justify foolishness by being jealous?

4:42 Oh yes. You can read several times in the Old Testament that the Lord our God is a jealous God. And the idea behind these passages is that it's not that he looks down from heaven and he says, now that is a nice hedge trimmer. I wish I had a hedge trimmer like that. That's not what it means that God is jealous.

5:06 Instead, it's that your affections are somewhere where they should not be and they should be for me. But Paul doesn't say, listen, your affections should be rightly for me and I'm upset that you do not love me. He will show his personal hurt that the Corinthians don't want him later on in the letter. But he's not jealous for them for his own sake. He says, I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God not because they belong to him, but because they belong to Christ.

5:49 For I have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Here, Paul presents himself as a father. In the Old Testament, the father was responsible for watching over his daughter, protecting her virginity, keeping her pure until the day of the marriage, arranging the betrothal and things like that. And earlier in in first Corinthians, Paul says, I am your father, I have begotten you by the gospel. And he's gonna present them to their husband, Jesus Christ.

6:37 This is remarkable. What motivates the Apostle Paul is not so much what he would get out of the deal, nor is it simply what the Corinthians would get out of the deal, but it is because he wants to present something to the Lord Jesus, and that is his motivator. It is one thing to be involved in Awana or to be involved in some sort of ministry and to do it for your own sake. That's not good. Knock that off the table right there.

7:19 You can't... That's not a good motivation. It's another motivator to say, well, I'm interested in this Awana or this ministry because I care about you, and I want what's best for you because I love you. That's good. That should be our motivator.

7:39 But the thing that ultimately compelled the Apostle Paul is the love of Christ. And he said, and what motivates me in all of this ministry is because I want to give you to the Lord. I have in my mind this future day when you will finally meet him, and it's like I will be the father and I will present you to him. And I think that if all this goes well, I can bless the heart of the Lord Jesus. That is what motivated him.

8:20 Now, the marriage illustration. He wants them to be a chaste virgin, undefiled. When Paul uses this imagery, this picture, he's drawing from a very deep well in the Old Testament, in which the people of God again and again are presented as the Lord's bride, the Lord's wife, the wife of Yahweh. Now, if you're familiar with some of these passages in the Old Testament, is Israel a chaste virgin? There's some pretty graphic descriptions, like in Ezekiel and in Hosea and other places, that emphatically say, no, she isn't.

9:14 I bring that up to point out that this this passage might be understood just on a surface reading as saying, the idea is that we would be pure like a virgin to Christ, but then once we sinned, that's it. We've lost it. We're no good to him. But as our husband, he is very forgiving. With the Lord Jesus, it's enough is never enough.

9:38 He never draws the line and says, I'm done with his people. Thinking about this first... Thinking about marriage has got the apostle Paul to think about the very first marriage of Adam and Eve. And he says, I'm afraid lest somehow the serpent... As the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

11:03 There's a person who just started coming to Curtis Gospel Chapel. He's gonna be baptized next week. And he likes to say, but I I did I did such and such a thing and then old slick was there. It took me a while to figure out, what in the world is he talking about? I was there, and I went to the bar, and old slick was there.

11:20 And realized that slick is how he calls... What he calls Satan. And I like that. Old slick. The devil is very crafty.

11:29 Now, earlier he had said, we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. But here he says, somehow. You never know how Satan's gonna attack. He has been deceiving people for millennia. You are not smarter than him.

11:48 He is very good at his job. So Paul is rightly afraid. Notice that this also is second... Is Paul's second motivation. The first one is his jealousy, the second one is his fear.

12:07 He's afraid because the devil can be so clever and so tempting. He doesn't care what he distracts us with, some of them are good things, some of them are bad things. But if you can get our minds off the simplicity through our sincere... From our sincere devotion to the Lord Jesus, then whatever forms that wedge is good enough for him. By the time we reach the end of...

12:44 Well, actually let let's look at this here, verse four. He explains in verse four that if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, etcetera, you you might... You're listening to them. You may well put up with it. In other words, it's like he's saying, I can see Satan's fangs already inside of you.

13:07 I can tell that these people are gaining traction. And so that's why I'm afraid that you might be led astray. And so desperate times call for desperate measures. For why you should listen to me, says Paul, rather than these competitors. In verse five, he begins to compare himself, actually goes from five through the rest of the chapters when he compares himself with the false apostles, and particularly in five through 15 he presents reasons for why they really don't have the upper hand.

13:49 Let's read these together. For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge, but we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things. Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you.

14:20 And when I was present with you and in need, I was a burden to no one. For what I lacked, the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything, I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself. As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Why?

14:45 Because I do not love you? God knows. But what I do, I will also continue to do that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. For they are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

15:15 Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. These verses give us a window into the sorts of opponents that were there. One of the difficulties in studying first and second Corinthians, as I'm sure you've realized as you go through this chapter by chapter, is that it's like we're listening to someone else talk on the phone, and you can only hear half of the conversation. And it becomes clear as we're reading through second Corinthians that sometimes Paul is sarcastic, or he's ironic, and he doesn't always straightforwardly mean what he seems to mean on the surface. But we can get a window into what these other people look like a little bit in these few verses.

16:05 He calls them the most eminent apostles. Now some people have taken this to mean like Peter, James, John, and the big name apostles in Jerusalem. It's much easier if we just see him as being sarcastic talking about his opponents who think of themselves more highly than they ought. These super apostles. He says, they...

16:30 He says, I'm not... Am untrained in speech but not in knowledge. Oratory skills were highly prized in the Corinthian culture. Being able to speak well and use play on words and things like that. Paul had never been to school for rhetoric.

16:51 But it's not that he's a dummy. He knows what he's talking about. But he's just not gonna write it all in poetry. What matters to Paul is not so much the how. I'm sorry.

17:11 Yeah. It's not so much the how of communication, it's the what of communication. Have you ever... I'm sure not here, but somewhere else, sat and listened to a very eloquent speaker. I'm sure you get plenty of eloquent speakers here, that's not what I meant to say.

17:28 But you say, you listen to somebody and you think, wow, this guy is good. And you turn to the guy next to you and you say, he's good, isn't he? Oh yeah, he's good. And then afterwards, you think, you say to the guy sitting next to you, hey, what do you think he was talking about anyway? And the other guy says, I have no idea.

18:22 Many preachers and philosophers and teachers were were paid just as they are today. And Paul says in first Corinthians nine, this is the normal way of doing things. For example, there is a Roman writer named Lucian who says that a laborer is a... Your quote, is personally inconspicuous, getting meager and illiberal returns, humble witted, an insignificant figure in public, neither sought sought sought by your friends, nor feared by your enemies, nor envied by your fellow citizens, nothing but just a laborer, one of the swarming ravel ravel ever cringing to the man above, a man who has nothing but his hands, a man who lives by his hands. Manual labor was looked down upon by many in Corinth.

19:18 I mean there were the slaves, the people had to work with their hands, and then there were a few other people who actually had to sell things and work in places like tent shops. But really if you were well-to-do, if you were the educated, you wouldn't have to work for a living like this. You could find somebody to support you. One study of the ancient world concludes that there were four ways a philosopher could make ends meet. He could charge fees for his teaching.

19:42 He could enter into the household of a wealthy patron and teach their sons. He could beg or he could do work. This writer concludes, quote, among the philosophers and itinerant preachers of Paul's day, continuing to work at a craft was regarded as the least acceptable way of providing for life's necessities, end quote. You get this idea that there are in Corinth professional teachers, and their job is to study all day. They're over here, and then over here you have Paul with dirt under his fingernails.

20:20 Working all day, making tents, exhausted by the end of the day, which is the only time he has left to go and preach and teach the people. Well really, who are you going to trust? Are you going to trust the professionals? Or are you going to trust the amateur? This was the sort of reasoning that you can easily imagine going on at Corinth.

20:42 And Paul says, I not take money from you because I hate you? No, it's because I love you. This is interesting. Does Paul take money from the Corinthians? Well in chapters eight and nine, the whole theme of that chapter is that I want to take money from you and not just a little bit, I want to take a lot.

21:09 And I'm going to give it to the church that's in Jerusalem. In chapter 16 of first Corinthians and in chapter two of second Corinthians, Paul says, I hope to be furthered on my journey by you. I'm hoping that you will support me in my missionary adventures. But... And and then he also talks about these Macedonians.

21:28 And he says, when I was in when I was in Corinth, the Macedonians supported me. But Paul's principle is that when I'm at a place like Corinth, I do not get supported by that place. The Macedonians can give me money, but when I'm at Corinth, I'm not gonna take your money. But when I'm away from Corinth, then you can support me. The culture in Paul's day, especially at Corinth, was one of a patron and a client.

21:57 In other words, you would pay a teacher or a preacher because you agreed with what he was doing, but the idea was that he would stand up to deliver his great oratory product and he would say, I would like to dedicate this message to my patron and my provider to whom belongs glory and honor and so and so and so and so. And that the the patient, the one who's providing for you, if they didn't like what you had to say, they could kinda call you down afterward and say, listen, you see all that stuff about sin and repentance? Let's not talk about that anymore. That's gonna... That makes me uncomfortable.

22:38 Well, and since they hold the purse strings, what are you gonna do? And Paul says, I refuse to engage in a relationship like that, to let you think you have the upper hand over me by me a lot... By me accepting your money. He then talks about them being... Well, he uses very strong language.

23:41 It is no great thing if his ministers, he has his opponents in mind, also transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness. In other words, they looked good. They did a lot of good things. But Paul can see through the facade. He can see through their mask.

24:00 And he says, you know, the fact that you're involved in a in a lot of charitable works, or you work with children, or you work at the soup kitchen, or you work with homeless people, or that... That doesn't fool me. In fact, you you look like you're full of light. You know who also is full of light? Satan.

24:28 Satan is able to transform into an angel of light. How important this is for us? Now, on the one hand, I need to be balanced here. On the one hand, some people have taken verses like this as precedent for saying, anybody who disagrees with me is a minister of Satan, is a servant of the devil. And if you don't agree with all of my doctrine, it must be because you are a liberal, bible denying, hypocritical heretic.

25:09 Because you don't take the same view as me on baptism, or whatever it is. But the opponents that Paul has in mind here are seriously transforming the nature of the gospel, that it is no longer about Jesus Christ and him crucified. And in that case, it doesn't matter how many good things a person does. And it's easy because Satan is so clever and so crafty. His plan, if you think about him as actually having a plan, which he does, is to trick so many in Christendom or in Christianity and thinking, well these people they must be the real deal.

25:58 They must be legitimate voices of Christ because look at all the good things they do. It was possible to be a minister of Satan and be full of good works. Paul assures them their end will be according to their works. God will judge them someday and he knows their secrets. In the remaining half of the chapter, Paul then in 16 to 21, he he gears himself up for actually presenting his own resume.

26:46 In verses five through 15, he's talked about how his opponents don't really have the upper hand, and then he says, okay, now because you want it so badly, and because I viewed the circumstances so desperate, I'm gonna tell you some great important things about myself. I'm gonna hand you my resume. Before we actually read the verses, might try to think about what are some of the great things the Apostle Paul might say about himself. I mean, he's highly educated, trained underneath one of the leading rabbis of his day. He could talk about the dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of assemblies of God's people he has started.

27:34 People now are saved throughout all the Mediterranean area because of his work. He could just start naming place after place after place. Or he could just think a little bit about the book of Acts. We're told that God had granted to Paul such miraculous abilities that even if you had a handkerchief that at one time belonged to Paul, and you touched it, your illness would be healed. The Apostle Paul really has quite an impressive resume that he could put together, Whether it's of his education, or it's of his accomplishments, or his power.

28:20 Well, let's see what he actually does say. I'll start reading in verse 16. I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool that I may boast a little. What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were foolishly.

28:41 For in this confidence of boasting, seeing that many boast according according to the flesh, I also will boast. For you put up with fools gladly since you yourselves are wise. Or do you put up with it if one brings you into bondage? If one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts you, if one strikes you on the face? To our shame, I say that we were never too weak for that.

29:12 But whenever anyone is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold also. Okay, so now he's prepared himself. He says, Alright, I'm going to do it. Here's my resume, and it's a stupid thing that I'm going to do. But because you like this sort of thing, and because all of my opponents, this is apparently what's fashionable, and what I need to do, I'm gonna do it.

29:30 Okay. Are you ready for all my incredible accomplishments? Here they come. Are they Hebrews? So am I.

29:38 Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?

29:47 I speak as a fool. I am more. Okay. Now what are some of the great things, these impressive features about the Apostle Paul that he's gonna list off? In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.

30:11 From the Jews, five times I received 40 strikes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. In a night, a night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeys often, in perils often. Perils of waters, perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.

30:53 In weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger, in thirst, in fastings often, in cold, in nakedness. Besides the other things which come upon me daily, this is the one that gets me the most, my deep worry for all the churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble and I do not burn? If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity.

31:36 The God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is blessed forever knows that I am not lying. In Damascus, the governor under Eretus the king was guarding the city of the the Damascenes with a with a garrison, desiring to arrest me. But I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands. This really is an amazing list. What a resume.

32:11 Now some of the things that Paul says we know about from the book of Acts. For example, like when he stoned. This happens at Leistra. It's really an incredible story, where they, the Jews come and persuade the people that he's he's out to deceive them, and so they stone him. He's taken up for dead and carried outside the city.

32:33 He barely survives, and so what does he do? Throw in the towel and say, I need to take a good break from all this missionary stuff. Packs up and goes on to the next city. And then he says, you know what I should do? I need...

32:47 We need to go back. We need to go back and visit the church one more time. Five times he was whipped 39 times, one short of the death penalty. Some of these, we don't know what he's he's referring to. It's not recorded for us in the book of Acts, but it would be a mistake to think that Luke knows everything that happened to Paul, let alone that he recorded it all.

33:15 For example, this being the suffering shipwreck and so on, and a day and a night in the deep. The fascinating details of this list should not distract us from what's going on though. We've been waiting to see Paul stoop to his opponent's level to boast in his resume. We don't see here any real accomplishment on Paul or by Paul. He talks about things like I've been naked.

33:49 Is that an accomplishment that you would want to put on your resume as you go for a job interview? Or, me tell you how... Now, don't worry. I've... Let's say I'm a new new guy in town.

34:03 I'm looking for a job in Christian ministry, and I said, now listen, let me tell you how great of a minister I am. This is why I should be your pastor. The last place hated me so much that they whipped me 39 times. That's how great of a preacher I am. What kind of a resume is this?

34:49 Now, the beautiful thing about this is by making this the criteria of greatness. As if he's saying to his opponents, can you do that? Have you done these things? I mean, after all, it's one thing. You can have an argument if you want to see who went to the better school.

35:13 You can have an argument about who has a better grade point average, or who has... Even if you're thinking about ministry, who has a greater outreach. But can you have an argument about humility? By saying let's have an argument about humility, you stop the conversation right there, And you show how stupid this whole thing is. There are important lessons for us here.

35:46 Are you ever tempted to give your resume to people? Do you know anybody who... You're just talking about the weather or small little things, and then all of a sudden unbeknownst to you somehow the conversation has turned to an opportunity for them to tell you how many great things they've done. Oh, speaking of that school, that reminds me of my alma mater. I went to such and such a school and a while while I was there, I happened to meet this person.

36:15 Have you ever met that celebrity? He's really great. Are we the sort of people who love to show off our credentials? To boast in our accomplishments? Or would we prefer to keep those things hidden?

36:34 So we could boast in the Lord and say, let me tell you about the great things God is doing and how he has been my strength? Now what this does not mean, this doesn't mean that it's wrong to do great things. Paul does have a theoretical resume that he could present. The idea of glorying in our weaknesses doesn't mean we never try to do anything good or impressive. I used to think that this principle meant that you know one should never really try to go to a good school.

37:10 Because that meant that you were going to be proud. Or one shouldn't exert oneself too much in earning good grades, or trying hard at work, or trying to get a promotion because that necessarily meant that you were boasting in your accomplishments. That's not the idea here. Paul does excel at whatever he does and that's biblical. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.

37:37 We should work hardly as to the Lord and not to men. But after having done our best, are we excited about everyone else knowing about our accomplishments? Or ultimately have we been working the whole time as under Christ? Paul says, If I must boast, if I have to, I'll boast in the things which concerned my infirmity. He gives this little illustration about how he's let down, in a basket down the wall.

38:17 There was a Roman award, called the... Well the latin is the corona moralis. It's the wall crown. And it was given to the the first soldier to scale an enemy wall. Here at Battlefield, the first one up.

38:35 These seem to be sort of prevalent around, Paul's time. In fact, in Corinth, archaeologists have found one of these on a statue that dates to Paul's time. Paul says, let me tell you something I'm really proud of. It wasn't being the first one to scale the city wall. It's about that time, the very beginning of my ministry, in which, in the most shameful circumstances, I had to be hidden in a basket and lowered down the wall.

39:06 Those are the things I'm proud of. I mentioned that a couple weeks ago my friend had his son say this thing to him. What do you do for the Lord anyway? And my friend can get worked up easily. And so, only I think one person might know him.

39:31 And he said, I'll tell you what I do for the Lord. I am not gonna let the devil win that game. And that was it. And he walked away. Now he was not expositing second Corinthians chapter 11.

39:51 He told me that story and I thought, that's a pretty good response. And then as I studied second Corinthians 11 in preparation, for today, I thought, oh my goodness, this is exactly what Paul is doing in so many words. He's saying, I'll tell you, I will not play that game. And may we be people who follow his example. Father in heaven, we are so thankful that we can boast in the Lord Jesus Christ.

41:14 We pray that in all things, he would have the glory, that he would have the preeminence in our lives as an assembly. We thank you for these truths, and we pray that the Lord Jesus would be exalted in our midst. We pray these things in his name. Amen.