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2 Corinthians 11:7–9
“Did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached God’s gospel to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need. So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way.”
As Paul deals with the problems caused by the false apostles in Corinth and defends his Apostolic ministry, he must counter several criticisms levied against him. We have seen him respond to charges that he acted one way in person and another way while absent, that his ministry was ineffective, and so forth (2 Cor. 10). These charges had the potential to shake the Corinthians’ confidence in Paul, the Apostle who had brought them the gospel and planted their church (see Acts 18:1–16). So that the Corinthians will be prepared to hear his Fool’s Speech in 2 Corinthians 11:16–12:10 that will silence his critics’ boasting, Paul must shore up the Corinthians’ confidence in him. Thus, he answers another charge against him in today’s passage.
The Apostle asks the Corinthians if he sinned against them by preaching the gospel to them free of charge (11:7). He refers here to the fact that he did not accept financial support from the believers in Corinth for his ministry there. This refusal of their support was continuing to cause some issues for Paul, but this is not the first time he addresses it, for he dealt with it in a previous letter to the Corinthians (see 1 Cor. 9). You may remember that in the first century, it was expected that religious teachers and philosophers would charge money for their teaching and that audiences would pay. Apparently the Corinthians were offended by Paul’s not following this custom, not to mention that he supported himself partly through the manual labor of tentmaking (see Acts 18:1–3), and manual labor was not esteemed back then. By the time 2 Corinthians was written, the false teachers were stirring up trouble for Paul again by emphasizing his not receiving compensation from the Corinthians.
In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul stressed that he had the right as an Apostle not to accept financial support from the church in Corinth, and in today’s passage he notes that his choice was not sinful. Indeed, Paul saw it as a special sign of his love for them, and he stresses how good they had it with his ministry because he “robbed” others to be able to preach to them (2 Cor. 11:7–9). Obviously, Paul engages in exaggeration here to make the point that he was willing to receive support from others (“rob”) to benefit the Corinthians and not to receive from them, thereby proving his affection for the believers in Corinth. He overstates things to prove that the Corinthians should not have been offended by his practice.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The Corinthians had misunderstood Paul in his refusal to accept support from them, but they were not the only Christians in history to have misunderstood their pastor. Today it is possible for us to misunderstand our church leaders and to take offense at them when they have pure intentions. We can avoid this by not assuming the worst of our pastors and elders and by engaging with them charitably.
For Further Study
- 2 Corinthians 12:14
- Hebrews 13:17