Paul now takes on the false apostles on their own ground. He doesn't want to boast, but says "if you want boasting, then here is some boasting". In a sense he is being sarcastic here. He is also rebuking the Corinthians, for they were looking for the wrong things. They assessed people by their boastings, and even by how much money they exploited the Corinthians for! Paul is telling them that they are really acting very foolishly.
Paul then turns to his Jewish ancestry. The false teachers were apparently boasting of their Jewish ancestry, claiming that this gave some superiority to them. Paul could outmatch them in any "I am a better Jew" contest.
Paul next talks about suffering. Now the false apostles would probably not boast of these things, but Paul does. For as he says at the end it is the things that show his weakness that he will boast about. Here we have the key difference between the false and real apostles. The false apostles exalt themselves and are proud of their own strengths. The true apostle boasts only of Christ and lives by Christ's strength.
No comments:
Post a Comment