Chapter 10
Chapter 9 ends with commentary on giving.
Vss 1-6 really threw me off. They don't seem to be connected with chapter 9. In fact, they don't seem connected with anything. So I checked MSB.
There is apparently a huge debate about how Chapters 10-13 seem like a whole separate letter than chapters 1-9, and some even say 10-13 were written first. Other's say 10-13 were a later letter, written by Paul after he received still more bad news from Corinth. There is no historical evidence of this. MSB position is that 1-9 were written to the repentant believers in Corinth, and 10-13 to those still holding on to the teaching of the fake apostles. So. With this context, I will start over...
2021 - I recall also that 1 Corinthians ended with a financial appeal, which is where 2 Cor 9 ends. I can see where a case could be made for Chapter 10 being a different letter.
2021-2, I also note, however, that there is nothing even a little like a salutation in Chapter 10. It does not really read like the start of a letter. Why would that have been left off?
vs 1 starts with "I, Paul, myself..." as if he is re-introducing himself. This could be seen as him now addressing a different group of readers. Paul says that while he "takes what they dish out" when he is there, he "tells it like it is" in his letters. And he hopes that when he next visits them, he won't have to be as bold in person as he has been in letters (likely referring to the severe letter.).
Paul says he walks in the flesh (admitting that he does make mistakes, does still sin, does do things the wrong way sometimes) but the battle he fights is spiritual. The real war is spiritual. It is not about eloquence or credentials, it is about spiritual things, the spiritual realm, and requires weapons of the spirit.
2021 - Or maybe that's not at all what he's saying. Here's the verse:
2 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. [2Co 10:2-3 ESV]
He is "suspected" of walking according to the flesh - which in my mind is a different thing than walking in the flesh. The first is "subject" to, or as disposed by the flesh. That is, the flesh rules over actions. But Paul says that is not the war he fights. He seems to me to be saying that the flesh does not "run" him, though he is in the flesh. Instead, he fights on a different battleground.
We are still here, on this same subject of flesh and spirit, even after Paul said it doesn't even apply to Christians because of the new man we become in Christ. The false, Greek Philosopher pretenders - likely extremely well educated and trained in debate - had made a case to throw Paul's argument out. They would just about have to. And likely, many in this church would have been persuaded to stick with the new teachers - after all, they allowed a lot more "fun", and reduced it all to obeying a few rules rather than actually changing yourself and making yourself better. Paul must feel like he is losing this battle. He must be losing some people who were very close to him the 2 1/2 years he was in Corinth. He is having to say things to these people he loves that it hurts him to say. He is feeling loss. He is losing relationships that he does not feel will ever recover because of the things he's had to say to them in letters. He appeals, but he knows. He knows the words were correct, that they had to be said, and that it was his place to say them. But he still feels great loss.
This verse:
7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. [2Co 10:7 ESV] Paul is trying to put himself on the same team with these he is writing to. Trying to remind them of his time with them. Of his own personal behavior as witness to the truth of what he says and his commitment to them and to the gospel - and NOT to any other kind of gain! Again, there were no NT scriptures for Paul to appeal to in debating the false teachers. He had his apostolic authority - in which he set great store, yet even this was subject to attack in that Paul did not actually walk with Jesus, was not among the 12 when Jesus was here. God was revealing Himself through the apostles. As in "new revelation", new scripture. But it was not done yet so Paul had his own example, and his own position...but what about signs and wonders? He never mentions or reminds the Corinthians of the "miracles" he did while in Corinth, he never asks why these new apostles don't do miracles? Why is this "witness", this confirmation that Paul talked so much about in 1 Co 12 not brought out like the big gun? Does it say anywhere in the Bible that Paul did any miracles at Corinth?
2024 - This verse:
10 For they say, "His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account." [2Co 10:10 ESV]. I wonder if somehow this is Paul's thorn in the flesh. Perhaps he was short, skinny, receding chin, and had an East Texas backward uneducated accent he couldn't quite shake. So when he talked people assumed he was too dumb to take seriously. But when he had time to sit down and write it all out, he was utterly imposing. Maybe the great "speeches" we see him make are those divinely inspired, according to Matt 24 where it says not to plan what you will say...And maybe, in person, and opposed by well educated speakers/debaters/orator, he was not quick enough on his feet to prevail. And maybe he had learned to just stay quiet, say little, when he was there in person, because the more agitated he became the bigger he lost the argument, and so did violence to his whole position. He knew that if he tried to debate these "better debaters" he would lose even more ground than if he just remained quiet. If so, that one passage where I've always thought he came to blows with one or more of these better speakers could be a time he was so agitated that he was drawn into one of these debates, and he got pounded, and knew it, and resorted to violence. That all sort of fits. And then in vs 11, Paul says "Think of me in terms of my letters - that is who I am - rather than in terms of my physical persona.
Paul says that all the Corinthians need do to determine who is genuine and who is fake is to look at what they've seen themselves. They know how Paul behaved among them. They know that though his "letter language" is severe, he walked the talk when he was there. He's not asking them to do what he won't do.
And this verse:
12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. [2Co 10:12 ESV]
This looks like sarcasm to me. Paul is saying he has no chance of coming out on top by comparing himself to what the fakes in Corinth say about themselves. That is, if it's a bragging contest, Paul knows he'd lose. MSB says the false teachers were setting up "standards" for apostles that they knew they could meet, and then tearing down others who couldn't reach their high standards. Bet the standards had a lot to do with keeping the law, but that's just my guess. It doesn't really say. Paul says it doesn't matter what these false teachers say about each other or how much they endorse each other. What matters is the results they get because it is God that endorses His own by the results of their ministry. I think that's what it says.