If, indeed, the standard of strength which the deceiving ministers of Satan had set up among them were a correct one, then he must say that he had been weak in his intercourse with them on his visit to Corinth. He had not abused them as slaves, nor been avaricious, nor offered them insults. Yes; he must admit that they were strong and he weak, they wise and he foolish, and he confesses the shame he felt. The sharp irony is now dropped, and he proceeds to show what reasons he had for genuine boasting. If he had to vindicate his claims against these men who had transformed themselves into "ministers of righteousness," it was extremely abasing, but he would be bold (boastful), since there was no escape from the painful task. And, as we shall see, he would do it with great deliberation, item by item, the points clearly made, and only such points as were capable of easy verification.

I. AS TO NATIONALITY. These Judaizers, seeking to prop up a sinking theocracy by means of a perverted Christianity, and putting a most inordinate and carnal estimate on their prerogatives as members of an elect race, had made on this score a very earnest appeal to the Corinthians, and especially to the converted Jews. "Are they Hebrews?" By this general race title the chosen people had been early known, and it was still in vogue. If they are Hebrews, St. Paul says, "so am I." Again, "Are they Israelites?" That name was derived from Israel, the name given to Jacob after wrestling with the angel at Peniel, and designated, originally, the union of the tribes as one community under Jehovah's rule, and set apart to bear witness against all idolatry. "Israelite" carried in its import a reference to the nation as representative of the Divine unity, and was, therefore, distinctively religious. St. Paul responds again, "So am I." Finally, as to nationality. "Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I." One by one the honourable distinctions are mentioned, closing with the highest - a son of Abraham, and in them he claims equality with these pretentious teachers. There was an evident reason for this mode of procedure. No one suspected his devotion to the Gentiles and his zeal in behalf of the apostleship of the uncircumcision. But there were prejudices, strong and bitter, against him on his supposed want of fealty to his nation, and hence his anxiety to show on all occasions that he prized his blood and loved his people. We see from our standpoint that he was an ideal Jew, the truest and most sagacious Jew of his age; and yet it was a memorable part of his discipline, anti a main factor in his fortunes, to be subjected to all sorts of vexations and persecutions on the ground of disloyalty to his nation. Other uses he subsequently made of these and similar facts, giving them an enlarged application (Philippians 3.), and directing them with exclusive intent to objects then engaging his thought; but, at present, he only individualizes far enough to prove that the "false apostles" had no advantage over him as to national ties.

II. AS TO THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD JESUS. Do these men claim to be Christ's ministers? Whatever they might assume to be in this regard, he (speaking as one beside himself) "was more." And what evidence shall he give of the fact that he was more? Shall he point to his wonderful successes? "He proceeds to mention, as the reason for his pre-eminence, no illustrious achievements or wonderful results he had accomplished, but difficulties, troubles, conflicts, perils" (Kling). Could more be condensed in the same number of words than he compresses in one short verse? The "more" means "in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft." But he will furnish particular illustrations of the statement just made. His own countrymen head the list, for "of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one," thrice was he "beaten with rods," once stoned, thrice ship wrecked, "a night and a day in the deep." Yet this is only a partial account, and he offers other instances of his superior devotion as a minister of Christ. There were his frequent journeys, and what a history of perils! - perils of waters, perils of robbers, perils by his own countrymen, perils by the heathen, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea; did not this enumeration exhaust the sad experience? Nay; one pictures him pausing at this point and falling into a mood. of most touching reflection. To one who loved the name of brother in Christ as he did, who recalled how Ananias had come to him at Damascus and addressed him as "Brother Saul," and who remembered how often it had cheered him to be recognized and honoured as a brother in the ministry, what could be more oppressive to his spirit than to write at the last, "perils among false brethren? Thus closes the account of perils. Have his sorrows all been catalogued? The outward sufferings have been generalized in classes of peril and in forms of physical torture. Enough has been said to make good his claim to pre-eminence in affliction for the cause of Christ. Outside of the duties he was discharging as the Lord's servant, not one of these evils had befallen him. It was the cross of Christ, and only the cross, which had brought all these upon him. But he had more to say. A man of feeble health, of acute nervous sensibility, struggling with disease and infirmity; who among us can enter into all he meant by weariness and painfulness, watchings often, hunger and thirst, lastings often, cold and nakedness"? It is only a rude outline; imagine the details. But what were details to him? The rapid summation shows why he writes. Artistic effect offers him no temptation. Literary motives are impossible to his imagination and tastes. The eagerness of his spirit, approaching a topic most dear to his soul, hurries him to "the care of all the Churches." Ah! that was something transcendent. Daily it came upon him amidst weariness, painfulness, and other ills, and daily it came as a crowd pressing upon him with anxieties beyond utterance. Sympathy is incapable of complete expression. It cannot make itself known. It can only make itself felt, and therefore contents itself with hints. "Who is weak," sympathy asks, "and I am not weak?" And who is overcome by temptation (made to stumble), and I burn not? The sympathetic man is now deeply moved, and his heart breaks forth, "If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities [my weakness]."

III. THE TRUE NATURE OF HIS BOASTING. Examine this fragment of St. Paul's biography, and what do you find as the shaping thought? It is the idea of suffering as expressive of human infirmity. Suffering for a moral purpose is continually kept before the mind, and, agreeably to that end, it is suffering that not only humbles its subject in a spiritual point of view, but humiliates him in the eyes of the world. Hence the conclusion to which he brings the mournful narration, "If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my weakness." No doubt it seemed very strange to many that he should boast of these things, but this was its justification. Had it not appeared as "folly," it would not have vindicated him against the malicious taunts of his adversaries; for it is exactly such a "folly" as identifies his life and experience with the "foolishness" of the gospel, the preaching of Christ crucified, on which, at the outset, he had laid a very distinctive stress. Boast he must to meet the low state of intellect and spirituality in those of the Church who had fallen under the influence of these self-aggrandizing "apostles." Boast he would in defence of himself, of his motives and intentions. Yet, while stooping to such a worldly method, he would do so in no carnal spirit, but as one who had a profound sense of his own unworthiness. What did the Jewish world think of his apostleship? Let the five times "forty stripes save one" answer. What did the Roman world think of it? The thrice "beaten with rods" was the reply. No allusion is made to his having been a "blasphemer" and "persecutor," for this had no bearing on the question at issue. It is a contrast throughout of himself with the "deceitful workers." And, finally, to make the contrast as perfect as possible, he refers to "the care of all the Churches" among the Gentiles. This point reached, he shows why he had made these concessions to the folly of certain Corinthians, and his true heart exclaims, "If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my weakness." Here, then, we have the first distinct appearance of one among those great thoughts that we find frequently in various forms in his subsequent writings - the idea of glorying in his infirmities. Not enough is it for him to accept it as a burden and tolerate it as a thing providentially ordained to be borne. From this hour he enters on a higher experience, for he has learned to cherish a sentiment as well as find a duty and a principle in his infirmities. He will welcome them, he will press them to his heart as a treasure, he will "glory" in them. And if, hereafter, we shall often listen to his exultation when he rejoices in tribulation and glories in the cross, we can revert to the time and circumstances that first made this experience an era in his career. No wonder that he appeals with such solemnity to God for the truths asserted. It is a moment of impassioned thought which brings the past most vividly before his eye, and lo! the opening scene in a long series of afflictions for the gospel. There it was - the far-off Syrian city of the Damascenes, and the beginning of that persecution which the Jews had continued so unrelentingly. And there, too, it had been announced to Ananias in a vision that the Lord had made Saul of Tarsus "a chosen vessel" unto himself, and would show him "how great things he must suffer." Straightway the revelation of sorrow began, for the stay at Damascus was interrupted by a conspiracy of the Jews, and he sought refuge in Arabia. All the intervening years had been years of suffering, the first link of the unbroken chain forged by the hatred of the Jews at Damascus, the last up to this period forged by the same hands at Corinth, and the issue of his experience was that he had learned to glory in his weakness. - L.

I. HIS MANLY AVOWAL OF HIS DISTINGUISHED ADVANTAGES.

1. His superior character (ver. 21).

2. His superior ancestry (ver. 22).

3. His superior apostleship (ver. 23).

II. HIS HISTORIC SKETCH OF HIS EXTRAORDINARY TRIALS. The trials here sketched indicate several things.

1. The mysteriousness of God's procedure with His servants. One might have thought that the man inspired with supreme love to Him, and receiving a commission from Him, involving the salvation of souls, would have made his way clear, safe, and even pleasant. The more important the Divine work intrusted to a man, and the more faithful he is in its discharge, the more trials will embarrass and distract him. For an explanation of this we must await the great explaining day.

2. The unconquerableness of Christly love in the soul. What stimulated Paul to embark in, and what bore him up under such an enterprise as this? The answer is, "The love of Christ constraineth me."

3. The indelibility of the impressions which trials produce. They had long since transpired, but they were fresh in Paul's memory. It is a law in our nature that our trials make a deeper impression on us than our mercies. Why? Because they are the exceptions, not the rule.

4. The blessedness which the memory of trials rightly endured produces. In Paul's case —(1) It generated sympathy with the woes of others (ver. 29). No man can sympathise with the trials of others, unless he has passed through trials himself.(2) It inspired the soul with true rejoicing (ver. 30).

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

Look at yon miller on the village hill. How does he grind his grist? Does he bargain that he will only grind in the west wind, because its gales are so full of health? No, but the east wind, which searches joints and marrow, makes the millstones revolve, and together with the north and the south it is yoked to his service. Even so should it be with you who are true workers for God; all your ups and your downs, your successes and your defeats, should be turned to the glory of God.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

Now, from many causes, "from the temper of the day, and from the temper of our nation, the being busy is most natural to us"; around us on every hand men and women are largely occupied, toiling for the necessaries, for the comforts, or for the luxuries of life. The more men have, the more they seem to need, and so that desire. Still, to be busy is natural, and to be busy is good; slothfulness, in the case of the majority, would mean poverty or misery. Honest industry stands upon the footing of being a service agreeable to God. Herein lies one of the trials of this life.

1. In proportion as a person's work is great, as the activity of busy life increases, especially if that activity be attended with temporal success, then increases the danger of this God-ward aspect being lost sight of — the work comes to be more and more regarded, as from the first it may have been taken up, only on its earthly side. So much of success seems to be dependent on the individual himself, his knowledge, his energies, his foresight, that at last he comes to say, "My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this," forgetting "Who it is that gives power to get it." Then mark what flows from this forgetfulness of God, or this failing to recognise life's work as given us of Him.

2. Restlessness and disquietude, when success is denied: pride and presumption when it flows in full tide. The present are days of great restlessness; disquietude and much anxiety are too common. Oh! it is sad to see, "a sight which makes a thinking man weep at any time, to look around him anywhere, and see how Satan and the world are befooling souls for which Christ died, and which might find rest in Him."

3. The third trial to which busy life is exposed, is the trial of procrastination, the putting off until the "convenient season" life's higher duties. "Business" in these days seems to occupy all people's time, and nearly all their thoughts. It thins our churches, breeds a painful irregularity in the actions of the truer life of the soul.

4. Another trial which attends busy life is the trial of steadfastness. "Business" is often another name for the world; and what a world is this with which we have to do! What a mixture of good and bad, of vice and virtue, of honesty and corruption! And when the Christian has to face all this, to mix daily with all this, to act under or against all this, how terrible must be the strain on his steadfastness, that is, his walking uprightly before God.

5. The last trial is the trial of integrity: that trial, I mean, which, in some form or other, comes to every one — the conflict between principle and our interest. Oh! in the busy life, does not this conflict rage? Such are a few, a very few, of the many trials of busy life. The one leading thought of them all, is this, their danger — unless we be watchful — to divert the soul from its God. Their snare is to leave no time, or to leave no inclination, or to leave no power for high and holy things. But this, remember, through the abuse of them, not through the right and prayerful use. If God has given us our work, however great, we must do it, and we may do it unto Him.

(C. C. Chamberlain, M. A.)

Aretas, Corinthians, Ephesians, Eve, Israelites, PaulAchaia, Corinth, Damascus, MacedoniaAbraham's, Descendants, Hebrews, Israelites, Offspring, Seed1. Out of his jealousy over the Corinthians, he enters into a forced commendation of himself,
5. of his equality with the chief apostles,
7. of his preaching the gospel to them freely, and without any charge to them;
13. showing that he was not inferior to those deceitful workers in any legal prerogative;
23. and in the service of Christ, and in all kinds of sufferings for his ministry, far superior.

2 Corinthians 11:16-22

     6121   boasting

2 Corinthians 11:21-29

     5109   Paul, apostle

2 Corinthians 11:21-30

     8820   self-confidence

Simplicity Towards Christ
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.'--2 COR. xi. 3. The Revised Version, amongst other alterations, reads, 'the simplicity that is towards Christ.' The inaccurate rendering of the Authorised Version is responsible for a mistake in the meaning of these words, which has done much harm. They have been supposed to describe a quality or characteristic belonging to Christ or the Gospel; …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

This we have Undertaken in Our Present Discourse...
2. This we have undertaken in our present discourse: may Christ help us, the Son of a virgin, and the Spouse of virgins, born after the flesh of a virgin womb, and wedded after the Spirit in virgin marriage. Whereas, therefore, the whole Church itself is a virgin espoused unto one Husband Christ, [2028] as the Apostle saith, of how great honor are its members worthy, who guard this even in the flesh itself, which the whole Church guards in the faith? which imitates the mother of her husband, and …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

Letter ii (A. D. 1126) to the Monk Adam
To the Monk Adam [3] 1. If you remain yet in that spirit of charity which I either knew or believed to be with you formerly, you would certainly feel the condemnation with which charity must regard the scandal which you have given to the weak. For charity would not offend charity, nor scorn when it feels itself offended. For it cannot deny itself, nor be divided against itself. Its function is rather to draw together things divided; and it is far from dividing those that are joined. Now, if that …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

What 'the Gospel' Is
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.--Mark i. 1 My purpose now is to point out some of the various connections in which the New Testament uses that familiar phrase, 'the gospel,' and briefly to gather some of the important thoughts which these suggest. Possibly the process may help to restore freshness to a word so well worn that it slips over our tongues almost unnoticed and excites little thought. The history of the word in the New Testament books is worth notice. It seldom occurs in those …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Protevangelium.
As the mission of Christ was rendered necessary by the fall of man, so the first dark intimation of Him was given immediately after the fall. It is found in the sentence of punishment which was passed upon the tempter. Gen. iii. 14, 15. A correct understanding of it, however, can be obtained only after we have ascertained who the tempter was. It is, in the first place, unquestionable that a real serpent was engaged in the temptation; so that the opinion of those who maintain that the serpent is only …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Of this Weakness of His, He Saith in Another Place...
13. Of this weakness of his, he saith in another place, "We made ourselves small among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children." [2510] For in that passage the context indicates this: "For neither at any time," saith he, "used we flattering words, as ye know, nor an occasion of covetousness; God is witness: nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others when we might have been burdensome to you as the Apostles of Christ: but we made ourselves small among you, even as a nurse cherisheth …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

Wherefore they who Say that the Marriages of Such are not Marriages...
13. Wherefore they who say that the marriages of such are not marriages, but rather adulteries, seem not to me to consider with sufficient acuteness and care what they say; forsooth they, are misled by a semblance of truth. For, whereas they, who of Christian sanctity marry not, are said to choose the marriage of Christ, hence certain argue saying, If she, who during the life of her husband is married to another, be an adulteress, even as the Lord Himself hath laid down in the Gospel; therefore, …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.

The Godly are in Some Sense Already Blessed
I proceed now to the second aphorism or conclusion, that the godly are in some sense already blessed. The saints are blessed not only when they are apprehended by God, but while they are travellers to glory. They are blessed before they are crowned. This seems a paradox to flesh and blood. What, reproached and maligned, yet blessed! A man that looks upon the children of God with a carnal eye and sees how they are afflicted, and like the ship in the gospel which was covered with waves' (Matthew 8:24), …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Paul at Corinth
'After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; 2. And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them. 3. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tent-makers. 4. And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. 5. And when Silas and Timotheus …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts

For not Even Herein Ought Such as are Married to Compare Themselves with The...
10. For not even herein ought such as are married to compare themselves with the deserts of the continent, in that of them virgins are born: for this is not a good of marriage, but of nature: which was so ordered of God, as that of every sexual intercourse whatever of the two sexes of human kind, whether in due order and honest, or base and unlawful, there is born no female save a virgin, yet is none born a sacred virgin: so it is brought to pass that a virgin is born even of fornication, but a sacred …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

But when He Might Use to Work, that Is...
15. But when he might use to work, that is, in what spaces of time, that he might not be hindered from preaching the Gospel, who can make out? Though, truly, that he wrought at hours of both day and night himself hath not left untold. [2518] Yet these men truly, who as though very full of business and occupation inquire about the time of working, what do they? Have they from Jerusalem round about even to Illyricum filled the lands with the Gospel? [2519] or whatever of barbarian nations hath remained …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

Moreover, if Discourse must be Bestowed Upon Any...
21. Moreover, if discourse must be bestowed upon any, and this so take up the speaker that he have not time to work with his hands, are all in the monastery able to hold discourse unto brethren which come unto them from another kind of life, whether it be to expound the divine lessons, or concerning any questions which may be put, to reason in an wholesome manner? Then since not all have the ability, why upon this pretext do all want to have nothing else to do? Although even if all were able, they …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

Which Thing Whoso Thinks Cannot have Been done by the Apostles...
6. Which thing whoso thinks cannot have been done by the Apostles, that with them women of holy conversation should go about wheresoever they preached the Gospel, that of their substance they might minister to their necessities, let him hear the Gospel, and learn how in this they did after the example of the Lord Himself. Our Lord, namely, according to the wont of His pity, sympathizing with the weak, albeit Angels might minister unto Him, had both a bag in which should be put the money which was …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

And that which Follows Concerning Birds of the Air and Lilies of the Field...
35. And that which follows concerning birds of the air and lilies of the field, He saith to this end, that no man may think that God careth not for the needs of His servants; when His most wise Providence reacheth unto these in creating and governing those. For it must not be deemed that it is not He that feeds and clothes them also which work with their hands. But lest they turn aside the Christian service of warfare unto their purpose of getting these things, the Lord in this premonisheth His servants …
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

That the Ruler Should be a Near Neighbour to Every one in Compassion, and Exalted Above all in Contemplation.
The ruler should be a near neighbour to every one in sympathy, and exalted above all in contemplation, so that through the bowels of loving-kindness he may transfer the infirmities of others to himself, and by loftiness of speculation transcend even himself in his aspiration after the invisible; lest either in seeking high things he despise the weak things of his neighbours, or in suiting himself to the weak things of his neighbours he relinquish his aspiration after high things. For hence it is …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

"The Carnal Mind is Enmity against God for it is not Subject to the Law of God, Neither Indeed Can Be. So Then they that Are
Rom. viii. s 7, 8.--"The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God." It is not the least of man's evils, that he knows not how evil he is, therefore the Searcher of the heart of man gives the most perfect account of it, Jer. xvii. 12. "The heart is deceitful above all things," as well as "desperately wicked," two things superlative and excessive in it, bordering upon an infiniteness, such …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Blessed Hope and Its Power
PHILIPPIANS iii. 17-21 The problem of the body--Cautions and tears--"That blessed hope"--The duty of warning--The moral power of the hope--The hope full of immortality--My mother's life--"He is able"--The promise of his coming The Apostle draws to the close of his appeal for a true and watchful fidelity to the Gospel. He has done with his warning against Judaistic legalism. He has expounded, in the form of a personal confession and testimony, the true Christian position, the acceptance of the …
Handley C. G. Moule—Philippian Studies

What the Ruler's Discrimination Should be Between Correction and Connivance, Between Fervour and Gentleness.
It should be known too that the vices of subjects ought sometimes to be prudently connived at, but indicated in that they are connived at; that things, even though openly known, ought sometimes to be seasonably tolerated, but sometimes, though hidden, be closely investigated; that they ought sometimes to be gently reproved, but sometimes vehemently censured. For, indeed, some things, as we have said, ought to be prudently connived at, but indicated in that they are connived at, so that, when the …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

An Essay on the Mosaic Account of the Creation and Fall of Man
THERE are not a few difficulties in the account, which Moses has given of the creation of the world, and of the formation, and temptation, and fall of our first parents. Some by the six days of the creation have understood as many years. Whilst others have thought the creation of the world instantaneous: and that the number of days mentioned by Moses is only intended to assist our conception, who are best able to think of things in order of succession. No one part of this account is fuller of difficulties, …
Nathaniel Lardner—An Essay on the Mosaic Account of the Creation and Fall of Man

St. Malachy Becomes Bishop of Connor; He Builds the Monastery of iveragh.
16. (10). At that time an episcopal see was vacant,[321] and had long been vacant, because Malachy would not assent: for they had elected him to it.[322] But they persisted, and at length he yielded when their entreaties were enforced by the command of his teacher,[323] together with that of the metropolitan.[324] It was when he was just entering the thirtieth year of his age,[325] that he was consecrated bishop and brought to Connor; for that was the name of the city through ignorance of Irish ecclesiastical …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

How to Make Use of Christ as the Truth, when Error Prevaileth, and the Spirit of Error Carrieth Many Away.
There is a time when the spirit of error is going abroad, and truth is questioned, and many are led away with delusions. For Satan can change himself into an angel of light, and make many great and fairlike pretensions to holiness, and under that pretext usher in untruths, and gain the consent of many unto them; so that in such a time of temptation many are stolen off their feet, and made to depart from the right ways of God, and to embrace error and delusions instead of truth. Now the question is, …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

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