2 Cor 10: Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Cor 10:1-2

1 By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you – I, Paul, who am ‘timid’ when face to face with you, but ‘bold’ towards you when away! 2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be towards some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.

A. Find Out:

1. How did he appeal to them? v.1a
2. What was he like when he was with them? v.1b
3. What was he like when away from them? v.1c
4. What didn’t he want to be? v.2a
5. To whom might he have to be like that? v.2b

B. Think:

1. How was Paul wanting to write?
2. How did he differ in the way he responded to them?
3. Why might he have to be “tough”?

C. Comment:

     Again, we might wonder why bother with a couple of verses which at first sight seem almost inconsequential. The fact is that they are still part of “Scripture” and as such are “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting” (2 Tim 3:16). So what do we see here?

     First observe Paul’s way of writing: he wants to come over with the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Now Christ, we see in the Gospels, was moderate towards men, trusting in God (meek) and gentle towards the humble and needy. Yet he was also strong and powerful against the religious hypocrites. Paul desires to be Christ-like.

     Now the trouble was that there were people who said Paul was weak when he was with them (timid) but strong when he didn’t have to speak to them face to face (bold). Oh really, says Paul, well I hope I won’t have to be strong when I do come to you, because understand this, I can be strong when it is necessary! If there are people there among you who seek to bring the world’s standards into the church, then you will soon see that I’m not timid as has been said!

     Paul shows us here that we are not called to be doormats when it comes to the standards of the kingdom. Yes, we will be gentle and caring towards the humble, the weak and the needy in the church, but those who distort the truth should receive severe rebuke.

D. Application:

1. Be weak with the weak and strong with the strong.
2. Put on Christ in the way you respond to different people.

Passage: 2 Cor 10:3-6

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

A. Find Out:

1. Where do we live but what do we do? v.3
2. What aren’t our weapons? v.4a
3. But what do our weapons do? v.4b
4. What do we do first? v.5a
5. What does this also involve? v.5b
6. So what did Paul say they were ready to do? v.6

B. Think:

1. What do you think are the world’s weapons that Paul considers?
2. What do you think are the weapons of the kingdom?
3. Why do you think this is so important to understand?

C. Comment:

     Paul has just written about the standards of the world and so now, by contrast, he says “WE don’t fight with the world’s weapons!”. What are the world’s weapons? Lies, untruth, deception. The world uses publicity organisations that convey “image”, usually a false picture, to make things seem different from what they are. It also plays on people’s fears or desires to bring change via emotions. Through these means the enemy creates strongholds in the mind’s set ways of thinking.

     No, says Paul, the weapons we use can bring down such set ways of thinking. To what does Paul refer? What are the weapons we use? Obviously they are love and truth (or ‘grace and truth’ as Jesus was described by John – Jn 1:14 ). Put these two things together and you have righteousness. When we come to people with the love and grace of God and we come speaking truth, then the Spirit of God witnesses to what we are saying and the truth penetrates and breaks down those rigid ways of thinking that oppose God in the unbeliever and they come to believe. Every thought, every belief that is contrary to the truth is confronted, taken captive and made to conform to the truth. When the mind is brought in line with the will of God then the actions follow, obedience comes and God is glorified.

D. Application:

1. The world works through selfishness, deception and lies.
2. We are to work through love and truth. God will back that.

Passage: 2 Cor 10:7-11

7 You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. 8 So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. 9 I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. 10 For some say, ‘His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.’ 11 Such people should realise that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.

A. Find Out:

1. What does Paul say some are doing? v.7a
2. Who should consider what? v.7b
3. What had Paul done and what did he feel about it? v.8
4. What didn’t he want to be seen to be doing? v.9
5. What had some said about him? v.10
6. What did Paul say they should realise? v.11

B. Think:

1. What did Paul ask them to remember about him?
2. How do you think Paul regarded his ministry from these verses?
3. How were some misjudging Paul?

C. Comment:

     We’ve said before that this letter, more than any other that Paul writes, reveals the man as much as his ministry. He is desperate that they receive what he is saying to them. He longs for them to be righteous in all they say and do, and therefore he goes to almost extreme lengths to convince them. He is aware of what some of them think and have been saying about him, and that stops them receiving the truth of what he is teaching, so he is now addressing that problem.

     Hey, he says, remember I’m a Christian as well and (implied) I’m just as answerable to Christ as you are, so I have to be careful in what I say. Look, he goes on, if I seem to have boasted here about what I’ve done for you, that’s quite legitimate, for that is what I’ve done, and I just want you to remember that to help you receive what I’m now saying. Look, I’m not saying that to frighten you, that’s not the point at all! I’m saying it (implied) to help you keep me in right focus. Some of you heard me when I came to you in weakness and humility, and you think that I’m being completely different in my letters. Understand that I’m not always weak. When it needs, I can and will be strong to bring correction face to face.

D. Application:

1. When we have a fathering role in Christ it’s important that we aren’t misjudged if our “children” are to receive God’s words through us.
2. Being a doormat doesn’t help anybody! The truth is still important.

Passage: 2 Cor 10:12-14

12 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. 13 We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. 14 We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ.

A. Find Out:

1. What did Paul say he couldn’t do? v.12a
2. How were others not being wise? v.12b
3. What did Paul say he wouldn’t do? v.13a
4. But what would he do? v.13b
5. Why could Paul’s boasting have been wrong? v.14a,b
6. Yet why was it right? v.14c

B. Think:

1. How had others been wrongly assessing themselves?
2. How was Paul assessing himself?
3. Why do you think he is saying this?

C. Comment:

      Let’s be honest – these are verses which, if you were looking for passages to really strengthen your Christian walk, you would miss out. But they are still part of God’s inspired word and we need to see what they say, and say to us!

     Paul has gone to some lengths to show himself as he really is. He wants the Corinthians to listen to what he’s been saying and in a measure he’s been having to justify himself. Look, he now says, we’re not putting ourselves forward as some others do, saying how wonderful we are with no real cause to say it. They compare themselves with themselves and have no justification for any boasting. We’re not going to do that, trying to declare how wise we are. No, we’ll simply confine our boast to what we’ve achieved and what you know we’ve achieved. If we hadn’t come as far as you with the Gospel we wouldn’t have grounds to boast, but actually coming as far as you is some achievement to be proud of, and (by implication) we want you to feel good about us (so you can receive what we say today), that we put ourselves out to come all that way from home to you with the Gospel.

D. Application:

1. Sometimes we do need to justify what we’re doing, for the sake of those that we’re speaking to, so they will believe.
2. Most of the time we need not justify ourselves but leave it up to God to make us be seen in a good light.

Passage: 2 Cor 10 :15-18

15 Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, 16 so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory. 17 But, ‘Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.’ 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

A. Find Out:

1. What will Paul not boast about? v.15a
2. What did he hope would happen? v.15b
3. With what result? v.16a
4. What did he not want to do? v.16b
5. What spiritual principle does he remember? v.17
6. Who is commended? v.18 

B. Think:

1. What does “to boast” mean?
2. What doesn’t Paul want to boast about? (v.15,16)
3. But what does he want to do instead?

C. Comment:

     Paul has previously said (v.13) that he will not boast beyond what he can boast about. Now boasting in a worldly sense usually means bragging or showing off, but the word that Paul uses has more of a sense of “glorying in”. In a sense he is saying “I am rightly blessed by being able to say that…”. So, now he is saying in verse 15a, I won’t be blessed by claiming the works of others for ourselves, but I do hope that our area of activity with you will be able to grow so that we can expand our area of ministry and go further with the Gospel to areas where it has not yet been taken.

     Paul is therefore, saying to them, I want you to receive me and what I have been saying, so that you will grow spiritually so that I can move on from having to worry about your problems and get on with sharing the Gospel with others who have not yet heard it.    

Look, he goes on, the Scriptures (Jer 9:24) say if you want to boast, just boast in knowing God, and that’s what I want to do. I simply want to know the Lord and be known by Him so that he may commend me for what I have done. That is the most important thing! 

D. Application:

1. Are we able to glory in, be blessed in, the things God has done through us and blessed us with?
2. Can we rest, at the end of the day, with the Lord’s commendation, when few others recognise us?