Question

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Paul Boasts About His Weakness

2 Corinthians 11:1-33

Key Verse: 11:30

1. Read v. 1-4. What godly jealousy did Paul have for the Corinthians? (1-3) Against what was Paul fighting? (3-4) Read v. 5-11. Compared with the “super-apostles,” how did Paul defend himself? (5-11)

2. Read v. 12-15. How did he “unmask” them, and what will be their end? (12-15) What can we learn here about how to discern between true and false apostles?  

3. Read v. 16-21.  How did Paul equate self-confident boasting and foolishness? (16-18) Due to their lack of discernment, what were the Corinthians putting up with? (19-20) Who were the fools here? Why did Paul begin to boast about himself like them? (21a) 

4. Read v 21-27. How did Paul boast about himself compared with the “super-apostles”? (22- 23a) What sufferings did Paul go through as a servant of Christ? (23b-27) Why are sufferings always a part of Christian life and service? (2Ti3:12; Mk13:13; Jn15:18-20) 

5. Read v. 28-33.  In the midst of external trials, how had Paul suffered daily as a shepherd? (28-29) What should the Corinthians have realized through this? What did Paul boast about? (30) What can you learn from Paul’s attitude toward sufferings and mission (God’s calling)?

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Attachment

• 2 Co11-01-33-q.docx

Message

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Paul Boasts About His Weakness

2 Corinthians 11:1-33

Key Verse: 11:30 “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”

We live in this competitive world where those who attack and those who defend live together. People try to do their best to defend themselves when they are accused or blamed by others. They protect themselves to the maximum degree with their strong weapons whatever they may be. Even in an animal world a wounded lion roars out loud and shows his strong teeth to keep away from his enemies. But we Christians who follow the way of cross defend us differently from this world does. In today’s passage Paul defends himself by boasting about his weakness. Let’s see how and why he boasted about his weakness.

First, keep a sincere and pure devotion to Christ (1-4,12-15) Before Paul defended himself from the false teachers, he strongly warned against the deception of the false teachers. Look at verses 1-3. “I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.” As we have studied, in the church there were some false teachers who misled the believers from their faith. There were Judaizers who came from Judea and insisted the gentile believers to be circumcised like them. They said that faith in Jesus is not enough for their salvation, so they must observe Moses’ law, too. There were also Greek philosophers who denied the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The common weapon which these false teachers used was ‘deception’. They pretended to help the believers with good words, but they eventually misled Christians away from their sincere and pure devotion to Christ. In verse 3 Paul compares these false teachers to Satan who deceived Eve to be led astray from God. In verse 2 Paul also compares the Christians to a pure virgin bride who was brought to a husband Jesus Christ. Paul said that Satan cunningly deceives Christians to be astray from their sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Satan is like an immoral man who tempts a woman to cheat her husband and finally destroys her family.

What and who are the ones who take away from you your sincere and pure devotion to Christ? What makes you keep distant from God? We are Christ’s pure virgin bride, and Christ is our husband. When we accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, we confessed our commitment to Christ Jesus as our one and true husband. To a pure virgin bride, purity and devotion is required. Last Thursday one young man proposed to his girlfriend. She responded his proposal by saying, “Ja”, which means “yes” in German. Now they will keep their commitment to each other until they establish a family. Purity and devotion are the things which we show to our husband Christ Jesus. Amen!

Therefore, in verse 4 Paul strongly warns the church from the fake Jesus and the impure spirits and the false gospel. Look at verse 4. “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” As we know, spirit outwits mind. So even intelligent men and learned women are outwitted by evil spirits, and they become slaves to their leaders. We believe the Holy Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit based on the Apostles’ Creed. We believe Jesus Christ as God the Incarnate, his death, resurrection, ascension, and second coming. We believe the Holy Spirit who is in us and with us and lead us to Christ Jesus. If anyone teaches us another Jesus, different gospel with different spirits, we must strongly resist them with the truth of God. Our God is a jealous God. May God help us to keep our sincere and pure devotion to Christ Jesus as his pure virgin bride! Amen!

Second, not a burden to anyone (5-11) Now Paul resumes to defend himself. At that time There were so-called ‘super-apostles’ who attacked Paul. They were well-trained speakers who studied oratory and mastered the skill of speech. But Paul said that he was not inferior to them even though he was an untrained speaker because he had the knowledge. Indeed, Paul studied the law under Gamaliel, the great Rabbi in Jerusalem and mastered the eastern religion and western philosophy. Above all, he had the knowledge of God who provided the way of salvation through Jesus Christ.

In Paul’s day teachers and philosophers in Greece got paid after they taught people. The more they got paid, the greater they got recognized. But Paul taught the church free of charge. (7) Of course, Paul needed financial support to run his ministry. But not to give any burden to the Corinthian Church, he taught them free of charge. In verse 9 he said that he got the financial support from the Macedonian churches. In fact, the Corinthian church was richer than the Macedonian churches. Still, Paul did not get paid from the Corinthian Church. When he needed money, he worked by himself as a tentmaker and supported his ministry. Now, his enemies attacked Paul saying that Paul was not a real apostle, because he did not get paid. But Paul said that he would keep doing without getting paid so that the super-apostles might get ashamed and cut their ground to accuse Paul. If Paul began to get paid from the church, their accusation might be proved true, and Paul might become equal with them in exploiting the church. Paul knew that Satan disguised itself as an angel of light and misled the church. In verses 13-15. Paul accuses them of false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

I am proud of being a self-supporting missionary. Not only I, but also most of UBF missionaries served the Lord like me as self-supporting missionaries. UBF is not the first one who started self-supporting ministry, but Paul the Apostle. I don’t get paid from the church but offer world mission offerings to support God’s ministry. I will keep on doing what I am doing in order not to give any financial burden to the church. Paul was accused by his enemies who said that Paul did not love the church because he didn’t get paid. But Paul said in verse 11. “Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!” Because I don’t get paid, do I not love God’s sheep? Yes, God knows I do! I do love God’s sheep in all situations throughout my lifetime. Recently God sent more students from Wash U to me for Bible study even though I don’t get paid. Is this the proof for my love for God’s sheep? Is it not the evidence that God is working through me? I am using the same logic which Paul uses now to defend himself.

Third, I boast about my weakness (16-33) Those who boast about themselves are not called wise, but foolish. But Paul uses this self-confident boasting to defend himself from those who had attacked his qualification as an apostle. Paul was ready to boast about himself even though he dared to be considered to be a fool. Look at verse 22. “Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I.” Here Paul claims that he is genetically pure Jew who spiritually keep the Jewish religion, including circumcision. Genetically, religiously and traditionally Paul was not inferior all to the super-apostles. He was more than others in serving Christ. In verse 23 he said that he had worked much harder than anyone else. He suffered much for Christ. Look at verses 23-27. “Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.” When we study the book of Acts, we learn how much Paul suffered for the gospel during his mission trips. I don’t have time to mention all about it, but one thing which he went through in the city of Lystra during his first mission trip. The Jews who came from Antioch and Iconium stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. (Ac 14:19-20) According to Deuteronomy 25:1-3, if a man is found guilty and deserves to be beaten, the judge makes him lie down and have him flogged in his presence with the number of lashes the crime deserves. But the judge must not impose more than forty lashes so that the fellow Israelite might not be degraded in his eyes. (Duet 25;3) So the Jews usually lashed forty times minus one, 39 times, avoiding any violation of the law caused from their miscount or miscalculation while they flog. Paul received five times of 39 lashes. Paul endured all these hardships and sufferings during his mission trips. Perseverance is not the end of Paul’s story about his boasting. He cared for the church in the middle of his sufferings. Look at verse 28. “Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” Paul was like a responsible father who takes care of his family in the middle of his personal sickness. He boasted about his care and concern for his churches in the middle of such constant persecutions. Thus far Paul boasted about his sufferings. He also boasted about his shepherding the churches.

Paul’s self-confident boasting continues. But this boasting is not the same ones which this world usually does. People of this world boast about how much they achieve and how strong they are and how great their success is, and so on. But Paul boasted about his weakness. Paul boasted how he suffered and how weak he was. Look at verses 29-30. “Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.” In order to defend himself Paul must have boasted about how strong he was or how great his achievement was. No! Rather he boasted about how weak he was. He showed an example. Look at verses 31-33. “The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.” This story is written in Acts 9:23-25. Here what Paul wants to say is that he was too weak to die in Damascus for Jesus name's sake. He meant that he was a coward who escaped from death.

It is not easy for us to expose our mistakes and boast about our weakness. Rev. Kyung Jik Han was appointed to receive Templeton Prize, which is known as Christian Nobel Prize. At the award ceremony Rev. Han confessed to the world, “I don’t deserve this award because I bowed down before Japanese Emperor.” Rev. Han boasted about his mistake which moved the hearts of the world. The way of the cross is weakness. Jesus did not try to overcome the way of cross but submitted to it. Through his obedience he saved the world. Through his weakness, we became strong. Through his poverty, he made us rich. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Mt 5:5) When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. Peter refused showing his dirty feet. Jesus said to Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me!” (Jn 13:9) Jesus wants us to show our dirty feet, our weakness, admit our mistakes, and confess our sins. Let us come to Jesus as we are. Bring our weakness, mistakes, and sin before him to be washed, healed, forgiven, and strengthened. Let us not be ashamed of our weakness, but come to Jesus by faith. Amen!

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• 2 Co 11-01-33-message -4th draft.docx