2 Corinthians 12:11-21--Concern for the Corinthian Church

2 Corinthians 12:11-21
English Standard Version

Concern for the Corinthian Church​
11 I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. 12 The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. 13 For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!

14 Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? 16 But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. 17 Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? 18 I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?

19 Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. 20 For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. 21 I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.

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Paul wraps up this part of bragging and being a fool by saying that he's done this because the Corinthians kept comparing him to these others they called "super-apostles" and didn't simply accept the signs and wonders that accompanied his apostleship when he was in their presence.  Paul also says they seem to be the only church struggling with this particular issue and thinks perhaps he himself is to blame for treating them differently than he treated the other churches--I think namely this is about not asking them to financially support him like he asked the other churches to do.

Paul then starts making plans to visit them again, for a third time.  Travel plans are one of the ways that Paul likes to end his letters so you might imagine that we're nearing the end of the book of 2 Corinthians, and you'd be correct in that assumption.  After this passage we will have Paul's "Final Warnings" and "Final Greetings" (again, a typical way he closes his letters) and that will be it for the letters to the church in Corinth.

Even though Paul is probably in no condition to make the trip from the verbiage he uses about being "spent" for his spiritual children, he knows it is his responsibility to shepherd them, protect them and care for them as Christ would if He were present.  Apparently their were some wild accusations that Paul and his team had tried to take advantage of them and fleece them, which Paul rebuts by saying that he knows he never asked them for anything, that Titus never did so either, and that there was another brother there with Titus as a witness, so Paul knows that Titus treated the Corinthians the same way that Paul did, never asking them for anything, but allowing the other churches in the region--even the poor churches in Macedonia--to support them.

Paul then says that this message is not their own and they are not fighting for themselves and their livelihood.  They are fighting for "the sign of God" (this is probably the Holy Spirit, but could also be the Church, Christ, the cross,....but we have to think this was a phrase they would understand).  Paul then steps back into his same voice that he had in 1 Corinthians--he wants to come to encourage them, but he may find that they once again need correction and that they will not be in the condition he wants and that will mean that Paul will not come in the way in which they want.  Paul is concerned that these people are still controlled by the flesh and not by the Spirit (see I Corinthians 9-20 as Paul seems to indicate that they are still living in those same sins that he told them should not identify a person who is joined with Christ.

Paul fears that he may have to deal with the issue of unrepentant sin in the body of Christ and probably fears that it's time once again to "clean house" and excommunicate some of the "church members" in the same way that they did for the man who was living in an incestuous relationship with his step-mother and was loud and proud about it--shaming Paul, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Church universal.  It should be impossible for these people to have bene "born again" and still live like the "natural man"  Remember the Sermon on the Mount, "By their fruits, you will know them."  Perhaps there were a lot of fakers in this church.  We don't hear an more about them after this point, but it does seem like the Corinthian church has a lot in common with our Western churches.  We are controlled by our lusts and passions instead of by the Spirit.  We live in sin and make excuses about how it's not hurting anyone other than us and how no one should be able to judge us because we are "under the blood" and think we have been forgiven.  We live in open rebellion to God and expect Him to bless us.  We are stingy with our material belongings and for the most part refuse to support the local church, the missionaries, or other churches and gospel work elsewhere in the world without being embarrassed and shamed into doing so.  We try and live a double-life where we act one way on Sunday and live a different way in the workplace so that no one in the "real world" will know who we are and that we're not one of them--that's not how ambassadors are supposed to act.  Do you want God to be ashamed of you in the day of judgment?  Then don't be ashamed of Him in the here and now!   Don't make God have to send correction.  Come under His authority and lordship today and be obedient to "all that He has commanded you." (see The Great Commission in Matthew 28).  We have one who is coming soon who is greater than Paul.  Do we think about His coming with joy and expectation or with fear and dread?  How will He find you when He returns?  A good and faithful servant or a wicked servant who has been selfish and misused the time, talent, and treasure that has been entrusted to him?  Remember what happened to the wicked servants in the parables of Jesus?  They weren't simply protected because they called themselves His servants.  It was only those who obeyed their Master that proved they were truly His servants where the others proved they never submitted to His authority and therefore never received the protection that would be provided if they did so.  There is no true salvation without repentance.  It is not about belief or intellectual ascent.  Even the demons do that, but it is about a faith that works in concert with your works to bring about a change in heart and life so that you become obedient to the Word of God.  Your works don't save you, but your works are what others look at to determine if your faith is genuine or not.  James the half-brother of Jesus would put it this way, "Faith without works" is both "dead" and "useless."