10:1 The letter continues to bristle with pathos and longing, here as much as anywhere. This verse begins an appeal but does not actually articulate the appeal—that will come in verse 2. Here in verse 1 Paul simply sets up the appeal, first by saying something about Christ and then by saying something about himself.

The opening to the appeal is unlike any other in all the NT. Paul appeals to the Corinthians through the “meekness and gentleness of Christ.” We immediately remember that, in the only place in the Gospels where Jesus himself describes his own heart, he describes it as “gentle and lowly” (Matt. 11:29, using the same root for “gentle” rendered “meekness” in 2 Cor. 10:1a; the word for “lowly” in Matt. 11:29 is used by Paul in 2 Cor. 10:1b to call himself “humble”). When we tunnel into the recesses of who Jesus is, we find that he is “gentle and lowly.” It is quite appropriate, then, for Paul to appeal to this in seeking to heal his precarious position among the Corinthians as they are assaulted with the claims of the super-apostles and their worldly mindset. Paul is reminding the Corinthians of who Christ is, inviting them to join Paul in those interpersonal green pastures and still waters. Such gentleness is the tone Paul sets for the rest of the letter.

Paul then makes a comment about himself, using healthy sarcasm to reproduce what he is being accused of (cf. v. 10), namely, that he acts one way when he is with the Corinthians (“humble”) but another way when he is safely at a distance from them (“bold”). The mock concession exposes the silliness of the accusation. Paul will continue to deconstruct the accusation in various ways throughout the chapter.

10:2 Now we hear the actual appeal for which verse 1 has prepared us: Paul hopes he does not have to treat the Corinthians like he will the super-apostles when he finally arrives on the scene.

“I beg of you” does not imply in Greek what it might to some English ears—that Paul is helpless, on his knees, pleading with the Corinthians. The word (Gk. deomai) instead speaks of an urgent request against a backdrop of an existing relationship. We must understand that these opening two verses of chapter 10 are the umbrella under which the final four chapters of 2 Corinthians are to be received. While Paul will defend himself adamantly, scold the Corinthians sharply, and indict the super-apostles mercilessly, he nowhere shames or even commands the Corinthians in these chapters. All is under an umbrella of appeal, of longing, of beckoning.

Those “who suspect us of walking according to the flesh” are the super-apostles. The word translated “suspect” (logizomai) means to “view” or “consider” or “account.” These are the people in Corinth who have determined that Paul and his colleagues, in their unimpressiveness by worldly standards, are ridiculous and to be rejected. But this fleshly mindset is precisely what Paul has said he has already rejected (5:16), inviting the Corinthians to join him in assessing according to gospel standards rather than the flesh. When Paul arrives in Corinth, he will be forced to deal with such rejection of the gospel with public forthrightness.

10:3 This verse carries forward the closing phrase of verse 2, that some in Corinth view Paul as “walking according to the flesh.” As in 5:16, this means to conduct oneself in a way that accords with the world’s natural intuitions about significance and success, lauding human impressiveness, eloquence, and strength while eschewing human unimpressiveness, speech that is “of no account” (10:10), and weakness. Paul now articulates in verse 3 a fundamental axiom of all gospel ministers, and indeed of all true Christians: we live in physical bodies, but the deepest realities of life for those in Christ are not physical but spiritual. Paul thus uses the word “flesh” in two different ways, as signaled by the two different prepositions used (“in” vs. “according to”). “In the flesh” refers to mere corporeality, whereas “according to the flesh” refers to a mindset in accord with our natural fallen instincts, instincts given full vent by the super-apostles in their ridicule of Paul.

Specifically, Paul says that “We are not waging war according to the flesh.” Here begins a sustained use of military imagery, just as the second half of chapter 9 uses sustained agricultural language (sowing, reaping, seed, harvest, etc.). The NT refers regularly to the Christian life as a matter of warfare (1 Cor. 9:7; 1 Tim. 1:18; 6:12; 2 Tim. 2:3–4; 4:7; James 4:1; 1 Pet. 2:11), despite our enjoying peace with God (Rom. 5:1) and being called to exhibit peace toward one another as a fundamental mark of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22).74 In the next two verses Paul will explain the nature of this warfare.

10:4–5 Paul’s logic continues to unfold. Having introduced the notion of waging war in verse 3, he develops this thought in verse 4 by defining the instruments used in this war. He states what these weapons are not (negatively) and then the power that these strongholds have (positively).

Our weapons are not “of the flesh”—rendering a single Greek word (sarkikos, “fleshly”), used one other time in the letter (1:12, “earthly”) and five other times in the NT (Rom. 15:27; 1 Cor. 3:3 [2x]; 9:11; 1 Pet. 2:11). Paul is saying that true Christians do not engage those who are antagonistic to the gospel on their own terms, playing by their rules, boasting of what is outwardly impressive—as is so natural to our fallen intuitions. Rather, our weapons “have divine power to destroy strongholds.” The word translated “destroy” is used just three times in the NT, all in 2 Corinthians, with the other two used as the opposite of “building up” and rendered “destroying” (10:8) and “tearing down” (13:10). Paul is saying that his smallness and weakness, yielded to God, brings into his apostolic ministry nothing less than the very power of God himself to demolish any looming obstacles to the progress of the gospel, however impressive or daunting by the world’s standards such obstacles may be.75

In Greek 10:3–6 is a single sentence. Thus verse 5 continues the thought, specifically drilling in more deeply to the nature of gospel-shaped warfare. “Destroy” is the verb form of the same noun translated “destroy” in verse 4. This is the only use of the verb in Paul’s letters. Elsewhere it is used to speak of the taking down of Jesus’ body from the cross (Mark 15:36, 46; Luke 23:53; Acts 13:29), the destruction of pagan nations (Acts 13:19), the deposing of the magnificence of the goddess Artemis (Acts 19:27), the humbling of the mighty (Luke 1:52), and the tearing down of barns to build bigger ones (Luke 12:18). The common notion in each case is the bringing down or lowering of what is lifted up—an apt notion in light of the broader theme of 2 Corinthians that it is by going down that one goes up, whereas those who go up will be brought down. This notion continues in this verse with the mention of “every lofty opinion raised” in defiance of the gospel, which Paul and all true Christians deconstruct through their personal weakness, not strength, as God’s power flows through them.

What, then, is the object of this warfare? What is to be subdued? “Every thought.” The word for “thought” (Gk. noēma) occurs six times in the NT, all but this one in the plural, and all but one (Phil. 4:7) in 2 Corinthians (2:11; 3:14; 4:4; 11:3). The word means something more than cognitive or merely intellectual properties; it refers to the mind’s settled loyalty. The idea in capturing one’s thoughts to obey Christ is the bringing down of our natural human self-vaunting, being humbled into a desire to exalt Christ, the turning around and reconditioning of the fleshly mindset with which we are all naturally born.

10:6 This verse continues the military imagery, with the opening phrase perhaps alluding to a soldier standing at the ready, and “punish every disobedience” being a reference to the “Roman military practice of completely subjugating a region where rebellion was persistent.”76 We note further the comprehensiveness of the war the gospel wages against human self-exaltation—“every lofty opinion” is destroyed (v. 5), “every thought” taken captive (v. 5), “every disobedience” punished (v. 6).

Throughout the letter Paul has referred to a vocal rebellious minority in the church at Corinth that is disrupting the congregation through its promotion of a fleshly, anti-gospel mindset. When Paul shows up in Corinth, following the delegation (8:16–24), he intends to do some spiritual spring-cleaning of any remaining opposition headed up by the super-apostles. Yet to this punishment is tied the Corinthians’ own faithfulness: Paul’s punishment of the opposition coincides with the obedience of the Corinthians, because part of their own obedience is the refusal to put up with the subversive ways of the opposition. As long as the super-apostles hold some sway in the church, the Corinthians are not yet completely obedient to Christ.

10:7 The exhortation to “look at what is before your eyes” is a veiled reproof—the Corinthians have indeed been looking at what is before their eyes, but not in the right way! “Paul is chiding the Corinthians,” writes Calvin, “for letting their eyes be dazzled by an empty show.”77 The phrase “before your eyes” is literally “according to face” (also in v. 1). Paul himself had been before their eyes, present in the flesh, even though he is now away. He subtly reminds the Corinthians that even though he was unimpressive outwardly, his ministry was attended with the power of God, a power that torpedoes strongholds hostile to Christ. The infiltrators, however, while outwardly impressive, are spiritually impotent.

The infiltrators and their followers may think they are “Christ’s.” And the faithful among the Corinthians (more justifiably) may believe themselves to be in Christ. But if they are, then how much more must they consider Paul to be a true servant of Christ—Paul, whose ministry evidences a supernatural power to tear down satanic strongholds (vv. 4–5); Paul, who lives in the flesh yet does not wage war according to the flesh (v. 3); Paul, who himself brought the gospel to the Corinthians (v. 14)! If the Corinthians will stop and think straight about the power so obviously on display in Paul’s apostolic ministry, however silly it might seem according to worldly standards, they will be shaken out of their spiritual stupor with the smelling salt of gospel priorities.

10:8 The theme throughout chapters 10–13 of boasting continues, here given poignant articulation. One senses the reluctance in Paul to boast at all. In the next chapter he will positively boast of his weaknesses. Here, however, he flags his discomfort with any kind of boasting whatsoever. Paul has every right to exercise his “authority.” But he does not want to push the Corinthians around. He wants to love them, not bully them. So, as soon as he acknowledges that he is boasting—maybe even a “little too much”—he immediately follows this with two clarifications, one regarding the source of his authority and another regarding the purpose of his authority.

First, regarding source, his authority is divinely given (“which the Lord gave”). Paul has not manipulated his way into his apostolic position of authority. Indeed, he was the least deserving of such a calling (1 Cor. 15:9)! Even if he were to exercise his authority, therefore, he would do so in a posture of trembling humility, not of braggadocious parading. Second, regarding purpose, this boasting is not like all natural human boasting. Normal human boasting is for the sake of self. It lifts up oneself on behalf of one’s own interests. Paul’s boasting is for the sake of others. It lifts up others on behalf of their interests. Paul capitulates to a little healthy boasting for the sake of “building you up and not for destroying you” (using the same word for “destroy” as 2 Cor. 10:4; cf. 13:10). Therefore he does so without shame.

10:9 In Greek this verse continues a sentence begun in verse 8. It could be rendered, “. . . in order that I might not appear to be frightening you with my letters.” Paul is thus continuing his point that he is not throwing his apostolic weight around. On the contrary, he labors for their edification and encouragement. In verse 10 Paul will quote the accusation against him, including the claim that “his letters are weighty and strong,” unlike his presence and way of speaking. Paul is apparently burdened to assure the Corinthians—as he did in 1:12–2:4 regarding his travel plans—that he is not duplicitous, one person from a distance but another person when present.

In heading off this misunderstanding Paul drills into the deepest suspicion we tend to have of those in authority over us. There is a perverse tendency in the human heart to assume that those over us in authority are really out for themselves, “lord[ing] it over” (Mark 10:42) those under them and using their position to stroke their ego. This is often the case, so the suspicion is perhaps warranted. But Paul and his colleagues have not been gleefully exercising authority over the Corinthians. Rather, as Paul put it earlier, “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy” (2 Cor. 1:24).

10:10 Almost all of Paul’s letters must be “mirror read,” as we see Paul’s side of the conversation and can make only educated guesses as to what exactly he knows himself to be engaging. Here, however, we are given an explicit window into the other side of the conversation, the side of the infiltrators or super-apostles. Paul quotes them as making a threefold claim regarding Paul’s letters, his physical presence, and his speech.

In Greek the word “letters” (epistolai) is separated from the instance of the same word in verse 9 by only two short Greek words, indicating that in claiming in verse 9 that he is not out to frighten the Corinthians, Paul is locking horns with a previous accusation made about him in Corinth by the infiltrators. What Paul describes as “frightening” the Corinthians with his letters in verse 9 he calls writing in a way that is “weighty and strong” in verse 10. Like a coward who talks brazenly but would never last long in a real fight, Paul’s letters are nothing but empty bombast launched from the comfortable safety of hundreds of miles’ distance, some claim.

The evidence the opposition uses to convince the Corinthians of this is that his actual presence and speech are anything but “weighty and strong.” On the contrary, “His bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” The only surviving description of Paul’s physical appearance is from the second-century Acts of Paul, which describes the apostle as “short, bald, bow-legged, healthy-looking, single-browed, a bit long-nosed” (3.3).78 Evidently Paul was a thoroughly unimpressive specimen of humanity from a crassly physical vantage point. And his speech, likewise—the word rendered here “of no account” could equally be translated “despised” or “contemptible” (cf. Luke 18:9; 1 Cor. 1:28; 16:11).” In 2 Corinthians 11:6 he will acknowledge that he is “unskilled in speaking,” a point already made clear in earlier correspondence with the Corinthians (1 Cor. 2:1–5). Indeed, the same two words accusing Paul now (“weak” and “of no account”) were used in conjunction in 1 Corinthians 1: “God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Cor. 1:27–28). In 1 Corinthians 1 this is an abstract truth; in 2 Corinthians 10 we see that Paul himself is living evidence of this truth.

10:11 Paul therefore returns naturally to a point he has made already: he is the same person when absent that he is when present. Paul appeals directly to the opposition (“Let such a person understand”) and by implication to the whole Corinthian body to recognize his and his colleagues’ integrity. The word rendered “say” is the same as that translated “speech” in the previous verse (Gk. logos). Picking up the third accusation, related to speech, Paul does not exactly engage his opposers at the level of their accusation. He does not claim that his speech is of some account or that he is eloquent or skilled in speaking. He and the opposition agree that he is not! His lack of skill in speaking is not the point. The point is that his words from a distance map exactly on to his actions when present.

10:12 Paul has mentioned his opponents’ assessment of him in verse 10. Now he mentions their assessment of themselves. With regard to Paul, they are condescending accusers. With regard to themselves, they are calculating comparers. We come here to one of the most penetrating analyses of true gospel ministry in all the NT.

Six times in this single verse we see the Greek reflexive pronoun heautou, translated “themselves,” “ourselves,” or “one another.” This simple observation is a window into the core problem Paul is combatting. His opponents are locked in the prison of self-referentiality. All they know how to do is to “measure” and “compare” themselves with one another. This is what the flesh loves to do. It is the nicotine of the soul for someone functioning out of gospel deficit. When our hearts are not alive to the full and free approval of God, we naturally vacuum up approval anywhere else we can find it. Christian ministry, far from being exempt from this dynamic, is especially prone to it. So function the super-apostles, betraying their lack of true “understanding.” Not so Paul. He had settled early on that his approval was already behind him (cf. Gal. 1:10). He did not even “dare” to compare himself with others, knowing the pride that comes from a positive assessment and the despair that comes from a negative assessment.

10:13 “We” is emphatic in the Greek structure; our opponents are caught up in self-comparisons (v. 12), Paul says, but we operate differently. How? By restraining with cautious objectivity what he and his companions will claim with regard to their ministry. There is a play on words in verses 12–13. In verse 12 Paul says his opponents “measure [metrountes] themselves by one another.” Paul continues the use of “measure” language into verse 13, though it is difficult to show this transparently in smooth English; woodenly, to show the common word roots, one could render verse 13, “But we ourselves will not boast in an unmeasured [ametra; also in v. 15] way, but according to the measure [metron] of the rule that God has imparted to us, a measure [metrou] that reaches even to you.” There may be a subtle irony at play here: the opponents measure themselves for the sake of unhealthy boasting and comparing, whereas Paul measures himself but in a very different way, for the sake of restraining any unhealthy boasting.

Coming through loud and clear is Paul’s cognizance that whatever ministry he and his colleagues seek to discharge has been entrusted to them by God and God alone. They did not win their way into this stewardship. Undeserving, they were gifted with this ministry (cf. 1 Cor. 15:8–10; 1 Tim. 1:12–16).

10:14 The first half of this verse restates negatively (“We are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you”) what the second half of verse 13 states positively (“to reach even to you”). Paul will not boast beyond what is true. But neither will he deny what has in fact been accomplished through his ministry. We see a wonderful objectivity here in Paul. He does not stick his hands into his pockets and look at the ground with an “aw-shucks” kind of attitude. He openly acknowledges what he has done. He and his colleagues have indeed brought the gospel to Corinth. This is simply a fact. And it is an important fact. The Corinthians are being wooed away from Paul and tantalized with a new allegiance to a much more outwardly impressive kind of ministry. But for them to embrace the super-apostles would be not a step forward but an abandonment of the gospel.

Paul therefore reminds the Corinthians that he was the “first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ.” Corinth was a long way from the part of the world where the life and ministry of Jesus was played out. To a Galilean, the city of Corinth was virtually the other side of the world. But Paul had gone there. As he put it in an earlier letter to them, they had many teachers, but not many fathers. He became their father (1 Cor. 4:15).

10:15 Now Paul restates the point of verse 13—that, unlike the super-apostles, he will not exaggerate his ministry or claim what others have accomplished as his—but also adds a point. Paul explains that even though he will not embellish what he has done, this is not to say that he has zero desire to extend his ministry and amplify the gospel further still (on which see also Rom. 15:23–27, remembering that “Achaia” in Rom. 15:26 is Paul’s reference to Corinth). On the contrary, his “hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged.” Paul is saying that the Corinthians’ spiritual life and the gospel’s geographical spread rise and fall together. How so? As long as the Corinthians are “infants” in need of “milk” rather than “solid food” (1 Cor. 3:1–2), Paul’s apostolic energies in that region of the world must be directed toward them. That foundation must be firm before further building. Moreover, a mature Corinthian church can support Paul’s further efforts materially and spiritually.

10:16 The enlarging of Paul’s “area of influence” (v. 15) is not simply a matter of name-building or power-nurturing for Paul. The whole point is “that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you.” The Greek uses a passive infinitive without an explicit first-person plural, perhaps indicating a subtle self-effacement that expresses a desire that the gospel be preached, whoever does it; “so that in lands beyond you the gospel is preached” is a more wooden rendering. Again, this will prevent any unhelpful overlap of ministry charge: “without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence.” The Mediterranean world was a wide-open gospel frontier, uncharted, spiritually uncivilized. Paul was called to preach accordingly.

10:17–18 These two verses summarize Paul’s argument throughout this chapter and commend his line of reasoning in the broadest, deepest angle possible—bringing God himself into the discussion. Throughout the preceding context Paul has been explaining his actions, defending his hopes, setting himself as over against the super-apostles, and debunking their incessant comparing. Now God enters the picture.

Verse 17 draws on Jeremiah 9:24, which reads, “Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me.” As in 1 Corinthians 1:31, Paul tweaks this slightly to instruct the Corinthians and defend his own words at one and the same time. Paul has been boasting throughout this chapter and throughout this letter, yet it is not a self-aggrandizing preening and parading of what he has accomplished but a boasting in the Lord, a healthy celebration of what God has done through Paul and his associates, summoned and sustained by God and God alone (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10; Col. 1:29). The super-apostles, on the other hand, are apparently exemplifying (and beckoning the Corinthians to slide into) a fleshly mindset that gives vent to our natural fallen instincts to boast in our own superiorities over others.

2 Corinthians 10:18 gives the reason for boasting in the Lord (as signaled by the opening “For”): final approval before God rests on divine commendation, not self-commendation. “Commends himself” picks up explicitly on “those who are commending themselves” in verse 12, though the entire passage is being synthesized and brought to a trumpeted conclusion. Paul is unearthing here the great secret to a liberated ministry. One can move through Christian service day by day in one of two ways. One can do what comes naturally to the unaided human heart and draw strength from an ongoing mental narrative that nurtures one’s own identity as over against others. This way of operating results in a vicious cycle of swiveling back and forth between haughtiness and smugness toward others whom one deems inferior and envy and despair with regard to others whom one deems superior.

The other way feels like death at first, but its green pastures and still waters are for those who relinquish all comparing and self-assessments and collapse instead into a significance determined by God. This way of functioning humbles and sobers us as we consider that we are being assessed by the all-knowing God, who sees how mixed our motives are and knows all our thoughts. The blessed way, however, also bolsters us with a quiet invincibility because we are no longer leveraging ourselves as over against others and what we think others think of us. That game is over. We have died to that. All human commendation is finally empty. Divine commendation is all that will matter forever.