2 Corinthians 11:16-33 - God’s Gospel Fool
We saw from v1-15 that Paul is about to engage in boasting not because he wants to but because he has to. He is driven to it because the Corinthian church are accepting the boasting of the false apostles and questioning Paul and his teaching. Paul is showing that his ministry and therefore the gospel are not inferior.
As he turns to boasting he exposes the real fools in Corinth and the foolishness of boasting in anything but Christ and the power of the gospel.
1. Spot the fools
The argument he makes is essentially this; boasting is foolish, therefore boasting is what a fool does, but because you tolerate fools I will act the fool. Paul here engages in the same activity as the false apostles do, he is not being Christlike(17-18) which is what he would love to be because they think that to be Christlike, to be meek and gentle is a tragic flaw. But if it will gain him a hearing he will do so because the gospel is at stake and therefore the salvation of the Corinthians.
Have you ever done a Where’s Wally picture. You look all over and have to find Wally. Well as Paul writes these verses the game is not where’s Wally but spot the fool. Paul is forced to act the part of the fool because the Corinthians are being foolish and listening to fools. As he writes Paul exposes the false apostles and the Corinthians for what they are.
(19)With scathing irony Paul addresses the Corinthians as so wise because they gladly put up with fools. The Corinthians with all their claimed wisdom can’t see what is obvious. (20)They can’t see that the false apostles are enslaving, exploiting, taking advantage of and abusing them. In fact the great irony is that they are paying them to do it and questioning Paul’s ministry because he is not like them.
The Corinthian’s are so tolerant in their wisdom that these false apostles are in key teaching positions, they have authority, and they are approved of.
Yet again the problem is that the church in Corinth has too much of Corinth in the church.
Have you seen the Apprentice? The people on it are often two faced, pushy, arrogant, power hungry, grabby and happy to put others down. They have to be in order to go on the programme – they are fighting for the top position they have to prove themselves, and some of them will do anything to get it.
In Corinth they have their own version of the Apprentice going on but its called ‘The Apostle’ and the more domineering, the more brash, the more boastful, the more you push yourself forward and big yourself up even at the expense of others the more likely you are to win the popularity contest.
(21)Paul confesses a failing; his team were “too weak for that”, they were not worldly enough in their leadership style for that. Instead their model was not the apprentice but Christ. (4:4-5)”The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.”
Who are the fools in Corinth? It is the Corinthian church, they are too worldly in the way they think of leaders and leadership. They are impressed by charisma, power, assurance, arrogance, authority, by getting the job done no matter how it is done. They do not use gospel criteria, they do not think to look for someone whose ministry is patterned on the Saviour, or whose ongoing life reflections the humbling nature of salvation.
2. A Gospel Fool
Only now after another warning about the folly of what he is doing will Paul reluctantly boast(21b). He begins by displaying his Old Testament credentials or his pedigree; just like the false or super apostles he is a Hebrew, an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham. He has the lineage, he has the breeding.
(23)Raises a bit of a question, some people wonder if he is talking about a different group than he has just referred to in(13-15) because here he says ‘Are they servants of Christ?’ But in (13-15) he describes the reality of what they are and here merely states what these super apostles claim to be namely servants of Christ.
They claim they are servants of Christ well so am I says Paul and now he goes on to list his credentials. I guess if we were writing it we’d but something like the blurb you get on conference brochures. ‘Our speaker this year is the Apostle Paul. The persecutor turned church planter called by the risen and ascended Jesus Christ himself. A one man mission task force responsible for taking the gospel to Syria, Lycia, Galatia, Cappodocia, Asia, Achaia, Macedonia and Crete. Author of bestsellers like the Letter to the Corinthians…and so on’
August Caesar did exactly that he wrote a eulogy about himself listing the number of his accomplishments and conquests, no doubt that’s what the Super Apostles did, and Paul engages in the same boasting but in a way that is markedly different, that subverts the boasting of the super apostles because Paul boasts in his weakness because it is Christ’s work for God’s glory that he is engaged in.
Paul boasts of sufferings, beatings, whippings, shipwrecks, hardships, dangers and the love, concern, anxiety and fears he has for the churches that he has planted, his anger at those who would lead them into sin.
Paul’s boasting is not triumphalist, it is not about success or achievement it shows his sufferings for the gospel. The very thing the Corinthians struggled so much with! The Corinthians struggle with the concept that the Christian life begins with a call to follow a crucified Saviour and continues to be patterned after a crucified Saviour as we wait for his glorious return.
He boasts of things which show his weakness, because it is not about him. And so appealing to God as his witness he refers to the incident we find in Acts 9 and his escape from Damascus in a basket. Saul who had so proudly set off for Damascus as the hunter of Christians flees the city a hunted man. Saul the up and coming rising star of the Pharisees is forced to escape like a common criminal.
In those days the first man up the wall to face the enemy in a siege was given the finest military award of valour you could earn. Yet Paul was let down from the wall when he faced opposition, the Corinthians couldn’t fail to get the contrast, not honour and glory but weakness!
Whilst the super-apostles boast of achievement, badges of honour, ministry success. Paul tells of how he ran away, of his weakness and reliance on God.
It’s not about me, is Paul’s point, it is about the gospel! It is not about his skill, comfort or success but about God working by his power for the salvation of many. God has taken those sufferings and weaknesses and by his power worked them to produce fruit, of which the church in Corinth is one.
The gospel pattern is of weakness, (13:3-4)“since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him in our dealing with you.”
There is no room for pride in the gospel. The gospel can by summed up by the word ‘Done’ – Christ does it all for us, he dies for us, calls us, saves us, secures our future. We do not contribute.
It is the same as we go on and grow in Christian maturity, he works by his Spirit to produce good works in us for his glory. He takes our weaknesses and imperfections and uses them, because the gospel is powerful and we are not.
It is the same as we engage in gospel ministry. As we share the gospel with our friends it is not about our persuasive skills, what determines the outcome is not how well you learn two ways to live, or how heart wrenchingly you give your testimony. It is whether God works. We give to God our weakness and failings and ask him to work through them so that the glory goes to him and not to us.
Have you spotted the fools? The Corinthians are the real fools because they are in danger of abandoning the gospel by listening to the egotistical self serving super apostles.
What should they do? They should spot their error see the danger and expel the false teachers. They should recognise their pride and repent of it.
But we need to be careful and hear the warning here, lest as we identify the fools in Corinth we condemn ourselves. We need to examine ourselves for pride. What are the things I boast in? The gospel leaves no room for boasting.
The gospel tells us we begin our Christian lives dependent on Christ, we live our Christian lives dependent on Christ, and we engage in ministry dependent on him.
Am I dependent on Christ? Are we conforming to the pattern of ministry Jesus gives.
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