2 Cor 11:16-33 Boasting in Weakness

Boasting in Weakness

2 Corinthians 11:16-33

Social media you (has it all together and living the dream) and the real you. Other extreme social media you is the constant train wreck, life is horrible you.

In this text, Paul is neither putting forward the perfect version of himself nor is he putting forward the horrible version of himself. He explains another way...counter cultural way...

Main Idea: Servants of Christ embrace weakness and difficulty for the glory of God.

Throughout 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Paul has been dealing with the opposition he has received from the “super apostles” who have infiltrated the church at Corinth. They are winners and in their eyes Paul is a loser.

In 2 Cor. 11;16-33, Paul brings the discussion and argument to a climax, by playing their foolish game by talking about himself...By his personal example, he reveals two things about servants of Christ..

What they reject and what they embrace...

Servants of Christ reject arrogance and mistreatment.

16 I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. 17 What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord would but as a fool. 18 Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. 19 For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves!

ends in v. 19 w/sarcasm...Paul is going to use their manner of “boasting” = verbal explanations to discount what the super apostles are saying about him and to show the Corinthians a better way.

Though he utilizes boasting, he rejects arrogant boasting.

... Paul decides to fight fire with fire--but as we will see, he turns the tables on his opponents in the process, for his boasting is not “according to human standards” after all. (Guthrie 538)

Further, he rejects mistreating others to get ahead.

20 For you bear it(put up with, embrace) if someone makes slaves of you(reduces you to slavery), or devours(ravenous eating-Illus:dog swallowing arm) you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face(culturally a slap was humiliating--literally or metaphorically).

21 To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that! With sarcasm, Paul rejects their mistreatment with an explanation of the manner in which servants of Christ carry themselves.

“In 1 Corinthians 2:3 he told the Corinthians that he came among them in weakness and fear and much trembling. There was a sense in which he admitted and professed himself to be weak. He had no self confidence. He did not believe in his own ability to persuade or convert men. He felt the responsibility of his office, and he relied both for knowledge and success entirely on the Spirit of God. His conceited and arrogant opposers were strong in their own estimation; they condemned the mean-spirited apostle, and considered him destitute of all sources of power. The weakness of which Paul here speaks is that which was attributed to him by his enemies.” (Hodge 646)

Paul now takes up his “boast” in keeping with what he stated just a few sentences earlier...

2 Corinthians 10:17–18 ESV

17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

His boast does not center on his wins…he focuses instead on his challenges..Why?

Servants of Christ embrace weakness and difficulty for the glory of God.

But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. Paul takes the literary convention of boasting and inverts it. His boast is in folly, weakness, disappointment and defeat. (Barnett 173)

22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I.

... Hebrews is to be understood ethnically, and Israelites religiously and socially, then descendants of Abraham could be understood theologically and related to God’s call and promises to Abraham’s offspring. (Kruse 253)

Philippians 3:4–5 ESV

4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman— (he cannot believe what he is saying…)

He does not proceed to inform how many of come to Christ, how many churches that have been planted, how many sermons he has preached, or the rapid growth of his missionary efforts. Instead he focuses on the difficulty and hardship of taking up the cross and following Jesus.

They had brought letters of commendation, but he bears on his body the marks of Jesus (Gal 6:17). (Wilson 147)

We serve the suffering Savior, the one who died in out place for our sins.

He explain the sources of the marks he bears...

with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods.

Beaten and abused by Jews and gentiles.

Once I was stoned. Stoning was the prescribed Jewish method of execution for blasphemy and, prior to his conversion, Paul himself had been an accomplice to the judicial murder of Stephen.” (Naylor, 181)

Acts 14:19–22 ESV

19 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. 20 But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. 21 When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

he possessed phenomenal physical stamina. His endurance can only be attributed to God’s grace. (Kistemaker 389)

Travel difficulties

Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea,These three phrases cover “the whole surface of the earth.” (Kistemaker 391)

Is it safe to travel with you Paul? no

Would Paul have continued in ministry during COVID?

danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

Difficulties of ministering to people

28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Corinth led to much of that anxiety.

29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? God never quenches the smoking flax. (Hodge 652)

Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

“The fierce counterpart to Paul’s empathy was his indignation over the thought of someone falling away from Christ. Literally, the question reads, ‘who is entrapped in sin, and I do not burn?’” (Hughes, 206)

Acts 20:27–38 ESV

27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” 36 And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37 And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, 38 being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

So What?

Am I embracing weakness and difficulty as a servant of Christ for the glory of God? are you looking for easy ministry, easy church, easy people…As Christendom(dominant worldview in culture) crumbles, are you looking for a place of power or are you embracing weakness?

30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

“At heart theological, it reminds superficial Corinthians that divine strength is always and only manifested in human weakness. As it was with Christ, so it has been with his servant.” (Naylor, 162)

31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, 33 but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

Acts 9:23–25 ESV

23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.

“It was to Damascus that Paul first went as a proud Pharisee to seek out and destroy the people called Christians. But it was on the road to that city that he met Christ and received his call. And when he left the city it was like a lowly criminal, lowered like a catch of dead fish in a basket whose smelly cargo he had displaced.” (Hughes, 207)

1 Corinthians 4:1–2 ESV

1 This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

Social media me will be judged by public opinion that can be swayed through exaggeration and other worldly means...

As a servant of Christ, we answer to him and will answer to him on the day of judgment. It is required that we are found faithful with what he has trusted to us. That stewardship will lead you to discover your weakness and the power of God.

Prayer ...for embracing weakness...

Baptism 9:30

Generous Giving.

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