The church at Corinth was larger than most. As with any congregation anywhere else, its membership ranged from spiritually mature at one extreme, down to those who were infiltrating enemies seeking to destroy the fellowship at the other extreme, and everything in between. It didn’t matter what motives drove those who criticized Paul’s leadership; those who were still struggling to overcome the flesh needed some ammunition. Sometimes you need to state the obvious so that it forms a mental structure that supports faith.
The only reason Paul writes so much about himself here is to provide that structure. It is neither anger nor panic; it’s really not even a defense. It’s an explanation of how things work. Paul is not going to bail out on them. He’s willing to struggle with them because there’s nothing to hide and nothing to lose. He has the confidence to let people evaluate him and his work by their own convictions.
The only people who cannot tolerate Paul and his message are those who still belong to this world. The Devil has blinded them to the truth, persuading them to rely on their own fallen capabilities, as he has done ever since the Garden. His captives cannot receive something that speaks only to the spirit, since their spirits remain dead. Their minds are closed so that Christ cannot reveal Himself to them as the very manifestation of God in human form.
Paul never promoted himself, but Christ as Lord. The apostles and those assisting them were servants of Christ, which makes them also servants of Christ’s Elect. Thus, Paul was the servant of the folks at Corinth. The same God who said, “Let there be light” is the One who shone His light in the hearts of believers so that they could see the glory of Christ. This transforms the heart, which in turn transforms the mind. This is the foundation of Paul’s confidence as an apostle. He was a nobody, a simple clay utility vessel, but who bore the incalculable treasure of miracles that come from God, not something Paul ginned up.
It was a critical distinction, since Paul had no power in his flesh. He carries on in the language of paradox, asserting over and over again that the man was nothing, but the power God placed in him was beyond measure. His flesh was squeezed hard by troubles, but his spirit was never crushed. His flesh had no answers, but his spirit never despaired. He was hounded everywhere he went, but his spirit never felt abandoned. His flesh had been body-slammed countless times, but his spirit never perished. He was always carrying the death sentence of Jesus so that Jesus could live in his body. Thus, while death was eating away at his flesh, the church was still very much alive.
This same spirit of faith had been around since at least the time of King David. In Psalm 116, David declared that his human sorrows could not actually do him any harm as long as he testified faithfully of God’s revelation. David understood the vast difference between flesh and spirit, and the paradox of having a foot in two different realms of existence; this is the same faith Paul carried to Corinth and the rest of the world. Anything that happens to Paul in this life cannot affect his election. If Jesus rose up from the grave, so would Paul, and so would the rest of the Elect.
The existence of a church at Corinth was reason enough for Paul to have faced every sorrow of the flesh. A faithful servant could reach a few; a thriving church was a beacon calling the masses. Divine grace was overflowing into the world, bringing more and more people into the Kingdom and generating a tsunami of glory and praise.
Again, Paul was not giving up on the church at Corinth, despite the sorrow they caused him. If his flesh got used up on just this one congregation, it simply meant that his spirit could gain more ascendancy over the flesh. The death of his body was a cheap price to pay for what was waiting on the other side of death. That vast treasury of eternal glory was where he focused his attention, not on the fading shadows of this life. He did not regret having worked so hard in Corinth, nor all the sorrow that kept chasing after him since leaving there.
