2 Coríntios 10

2 Coríntios 10

McGee quips "Paul is injecting a little note of humor. A great many folk compare themselves among themselves, which is the reason that many people in our churches think they have arrived. They feel they are really fine, outstanding, spiritual Christians because they compare themselves with other Christians in their group. That is not the yardstick we are to use, my friend. This is one of the tragedies of the hour. A person can be in a cold church and grow cold himself and yet not be conscious of it because he compares himself with the cold Christians around him. We all need to be around other Christians who challenge us. There are too many Christians who are in some little clique or group or church, and they feel smug and satisfied because they are all in the same boat." (2 Corinthians 10 Commentary) Reformation Study Bible. Now the matter surfaces that caused Paul to defend his apostleship so vigorously. Encouraged by rival "apostles," some influential Corinthians had begun to compare these latecomers to Paul—with Paul coming out the loser. He was judged deficient as a speaker (2Co 10:10; 11:5), weak in his relationship with the church (vacillating between boldness while absent and timidity when present, 2Co 10:10, 11), unloving toward them (in refusing a monetary gift which, in their view, snubbed them as inferiors, 2Co 11:7-11; 12:14-18), and deficient in certain religious experiences of "power" (2Co 12:1-5 and notes). But Paul refuses to compare himself with his opponents on their shabby terms of self-boasting and self-promotion. When he yields and boasts to them (2Co 11:16-18), he does so ironically, using the form of comparison but always refusing their false values. (2 Cor 10:12)