2 Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves… "They measure themselves by themselves," etc., they constitute a religious coterie, a sort of ring or clique in the Church, ignoring all but themselves, making themselves the only standard of what is Christian, and betraying by that very proceeding their want of sense. There is a fine liberality about this sharp saying, and it is as necessary now as in the first century. Men coalesce within the limits of the Christian community from affinities of various kinds — sympathy for a type or aspect of a doctrine, or liking for a form of polity; and as it is easy, so it is common, for those who have drifted like to like, to set up their own associations and preferences as the only law and model for all. They take the air of superior persons, and the penalty of the superior person is to be without understanding. The standard of the coterie — be it "evangelical," "high church," "broad church," or what you please — is not the standard of God; and to measure all things by it is not only sinful, but stupid. In contrast to this Judaistic clique, who saw no Christianity except under their own colours, Paul's standard is to be found in the actual working of God through the gospel. He would have said with Ignatius, only with a deeper insight into every word, "where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." (J. Denney, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. |
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