Thursday 1st June
Read 2 Corinthians 11:7
“Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?” (NIVUK)
An innocuous accusation? The Corinthians remain upset that Paul would never accept payment from them, (unlike the ‘super-apostles’) for preaching and teaching them the good news about Jesus. They have gone so far as to suggest that it was a sin for Paul to work without payment, as if somehow it was a wrong against them for which repentance is warranted. In a culture where payment for preaching services rendered was proportional to the value of the teaching and the skill of delivery, to offer the gospel of God free of charge is tantamount to confessing that it is worthless!
But is this really an innocuous accusation? There are clues in the way Paul phrases his question that far more is at stake than sour grapes at refusal to accept payment. Paul undertakes manual labour, supporting himself and humbling himself to provide the gospel to them for free. He literally gets his hands dirty. To the Corinthians this is a mark of disgrace. If you can earn income with your teaching, a noble profession, why would you become a menial labourer? Why would Paul do that? Why would he deliberately offend them? The clue lies in the way Paul describes his actions as ‘lowering himself’ in order to ‘elevate them’.
Earlier in the letter Paul described the disgrace and shame of being an apostle in these terms: “So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:12) (NIVUK). The life of an apostle is a living breathing picture of the grace of the gospel. Death (a lowering if ever there was one) works in Paul, so that life (an elevation by any description) works in the Corinthians. An apostle’s life is a mirror of their Lord’s. Jesus lowered Himself in every way, even to death on a cross, in order that glory and honour and praise abound for the people He died to save (cf Philippians 2). Paul’s life and actions copies His Lord.
The Corinthians have completely misunderstood the nature of the gospel. It is not about praise and glory and honour, it is about self-sacrifice, abasement and even humiliation. That is at the heart of the difference between Paul and the ‘super-apostles’. What looks like an innocuous accusation by Paul is a challenge to the very categories they are using to judge him. If you become angry at not being able to contribute to your own salvation, to your own ‘lifting up’, have you understood grace at all? Where is the sin really?
Hope is built only the humiliation and death of Jesus.
