Bible Commentaries
2 Corinthians 11

Verse 1

2Co 11:1

2 Corinthians 11:1

Would that ye could bear with me in a little foolishness:—[Paul has been forced by the challenge of the Judaizers into an argument which to him was very distasteful. In this case it was indeed necessary; but he describes it as foolishness, and he asks the Corinthians to bear with him a little longer, as the matter which has extorted his self-vindication from him is one of the greatest importance.]

but indeed ye do bear with me.—He turns from a request to an assurance that, on account of their love for him, they bear with him while he asserts his apostolic mission and authority.

Verse 2

2Co 11:2

2 Corinthians 11:2

For I am jealous over you with a godly jealously:—A godly jealousy is a pious zeal of which God is both the author and the object, and is such a zeal as he has. The feeling which Paul had for the church was no selfish or mercenary in­terest, but such as arose from his desire that the church should be faithful to Christ, and not turn aside to another.

for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.—In this the church is represented as a virgin espoused to Christ, arranged by Paul who pro­moted the espousal, desiring that she should be a chaste virgin who had not lavished her affections on others when Jesus shall come to take her to himself and abide with her. If the espoused cannot comply with the terms and conditions im­posed, she cannot stand the test he has made, and is rejected as a spurious and unreal love.

Verse 3

2Co 11:3

2 Corinthians 11:3

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness,—The false teachers who came into their midst and turned the disciples away from their true love to God and an unshaken fidelity to his word, to things Paul had not taught, is compared to the evil one entering Eden and turning Eve from her loyalty to God. [The New Testament writers sanction and confirm the historical verity of the Old Testament record. The account of the temptation as recorded in Genesis is regarded by the inspired writers of the New Tes­tament not as a myth, or an allegory, or fiction, but a true story.]

your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.—Satan operates through his word, institutions, and appointments to accomplish his work. Every rebel against God is a minister of Satan; every word of opprobrium, reproach, or disparagement of the church of Christ, every discouraging word spoken, or influence exerted against faithful obedience to the gospel in its spirit and pre­cepts, is the devil working and speaking through his minis­ters. The kingdoms of earthly mould, the institutions of man’s framing, the fashions, the public sentiment of the world, are all institutions of Satan to divert men’s heart from God. Every institution and appointment that is not God’s planting is a means through which Satan exerts his influence to wean man from God. Whoever comes into the church of God, and with fair promises leads men away from a strict loyalty to God and his word to things not taught, is used by the evil one to corrupt their minds from the simplicity of the truth re­vealed in Christ.

Verse 4

2Co 11:4

2 Corinthians 11:4

For if he that cometh preached another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive a different spirit, which ye did not receive, or different gospel, which ye did not accept, ye do well to bear with him.—Exactly what the false teachers taught is not clear. They denied that Paul was an apostle and sought to supersede his influence and authority among them, and probably sought to reinstate the law of Moses, yet this is not clear. This shows that men may acknowledge many of the leading truths of the Christian religion, yet so pervert the teachings as to make it another gospel. If he who comes should preach another Jesus, or if they received a different spirit bestowing miraculous powers, or a different gospel plan of salvation from that they received from Paul, then they might bear with him. But these teachers came with nothing different, acknowledging the Jesus that Paul preached, the same spirit, the same plan of salvation, yet denied that Paul, working miracles by the Spirit, was a teacher from God, and so perverted the teachings of the Spirit. Paul seems to think there was more inconsistency in acknowledging Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and then changing their teachings, than in deny­ing outright that Jesus is the Christ, or that the Spirit was sent from God. Many now do as these false teachers did—ac­knowledge Jesus and the Spirit, and the gospel from God, yet change and pervert the teaching. They are placed by Paul as he did these early teachers, in company with the serpent in Eden deceiving Eve.

[The import of this verse is not quite clear, and commen­tators differ in their interpretation. But it is clear enough that the reference is to the Judaizing teachers who threatened to carry away the Galatian Christians. (Galatians 1:6-9). In this case the import is that Paul might well be jealous over them, for they seemed ready to drink in the teaching of these men. In the interpretation of the passage it is necessary to bear in mind that Paul begins this paragraph with the wish that the Corinthians would “bear with me” in the constrained “foolish­ness” of boasting, to which he adds, “but indeed ye do bear with me.” He gives us a reason for this earnestness, his “godly jealousy,” which fills him with great anxiety as to their spiritual welfare. He then adverts (verses 3, 4) to the source of his fear of their estrangement from Christ through the perverse teaching of those who were preaching “another Jesus” than the crucified and risen Christ whom he himself had preached to them, and were consequently inculcating “a different gospel” from that which they had received from him. What now could be more appropriate and more closely con­nected with this than to end with the enforcement of the ear­nest entreaty which begins this train of thought by saying, “ye do well to bear with me” in his anxious effort to expose every such adversary of the truth and to hold them in stead­fast loyalty to the redeeming Christ of the gospel which he preached. He had said in full form of expression, “but indeed ye do bear with me,” and after presenting his argument in jus­tification of this entreaty repeats it in elliptical form, and ac­cording to usage the word to be supplied is the one that is found in the complete form of expression already employed. To suppose that Paul, after speaking of the false teachers who would preach “a different gospel” for his, ironically says, “ye do well to bear with him,” is absurd; for this would re­quire emphasis upon the pronoun and hence demand its ac­tual appearance in the sentence. The simple construction is that Paul, after entreating them to bear with him in his efforts to detach them from false teachers, shows from the character of their teaching that the Corinthians would do well to bear with him in his effort and accordingly urges them to do so.]

Verse 5

2Co 11:5

2 Corinthians 11:5

For I reckon that I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.—He had shown all the powers that the very chiefest of the apostles, Peter, James, and John, possessed. God had given his testimony to Paul as an apostle as fully as he had to them. He was behind them in no qualification, and greatly surpassed them in the extent of his labors and sufferings for the cause of Christ.

Verse 6

2Co 11:6

2 Corinthians 11:6

But though I be rude in speech, yet am I not in knowl­edge;—Paul was a scholar, learned and wise in the use of knowledge. He was plain and direct in speech and fearlessly denounced wrongs and perverters of the word of God. [They charged him with being rude and rough, and not following the rhetorical style of reasoning. He accepted this as true, but said he was not deficient in knowledge and the truths he preached, having received them by direct revelation from heaven. (Galatians 1:12; Ephesians 3:4-5).]

nay, in every way have we made this manifest unto you in all things.—In everything he had made himself plain, intelligi­ble, and had given ample proof of his knowledge of the gospel to all men while in their midst.

Verse 7

2Co 11:7

2 Corinthians 11:7

Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God for nought?—The only thing Paul had done that the other apos­tles did not was that he had not been chargeable to any of them while preaching to them. He worked with his own hands to supply his wants. He calls this abasing himself that they might be free from charge and that he might save the more. [In suggesting that it was perhaps a sin to preach the gospel of God for nought, Paul is using the language of bitter irony, compare 12:13, where the allusion is the same—“for­give me this wrong.” He was deeply hurt by the ungenerous construction of his generosity. The grace of God is more elo­quently proclaimed by the preacher who illustrates it in his own conduct.]

Verse 8

2Co 11:8

2 Corinthians 11:8

I robbed other churches, taking wages of them that I might minister unto you;—He accepted assistance from other churches while preaching to the Corinthians, but he does not mean that what he received was against the will of those help­ing him; but he deprived others of their goods by receiving help from them while preaching to the Corinthians. [There is a pointed contrast between others and you; and the language is very vigorous; the contribution from other churches he characterizes as robbery—the motive of which was service to you—though from another point of view it is simply wages. (1 Corinthians 9:7). In Corinth, as the sequel shows, the most scrupu­lous care must be taken to give no offense, and Paul would be less exposed to reproach, if he accepted nothing from the Co­rinthians for his services.]

Verse 9

2Co 11:9

2 Corinthians 11:9

and when I was present with you and was in want, I was not a burden on any man;—When he needed, and what his own labor did not furnish, the churches supplied. [This recalls with almost tragic force his laboring among the Corinthians, how earnestly and successfully they knew well, and yet in want.]

for the brethren, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my want;—He instances the brethren coming from Macedonia and supplying his wants when he began to be in need. [The Philippians had sent supplies to him while he was in Thessalonica “once and again” (Philippians 4:15-16), and it was a natural sequence that they should send to him also at Corinth.]

and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.—He had not been charge­able to any of them, nor did he intend to be. [He accepted with gratitude free gifts from a distance. For these he felt to be a meet expression of spiritual life.]

Verse 10

2Co 11:10

2 Corinthians 11:10

As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this glorying in the regions of Achaia.—This is a solemn form of earnestly saying he will not be stopped from this privilege of boasting that he preached the gospel without charge. (1 Corinthians 9:18). That is, in the regions of Achaia he did not in­tend to take help that would prevent his boasting. He desig­nates this region because there his course had been attacked.

Verse 11

2Co 11:11

2 Corinthians 11:11

Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth—He appeals to God as to how strong his love was for them.

Verse 12

2Co 11:12

2 Corinthians 11:12

But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them that desire an occasion;—He did not refuse their help because he did not love them, but because he had deter­mined to cut off all occasion for his enemies to charge that he was seeking gain of them.

that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.—[Paul’s enemies desired that they should be on an equality with him. But they accepted support while Paul did not; though it pleased them to construe this as an admission that he was not a true apostle, the obvious unselfishness of Paul’s policy was, to candid men, a sufficient refutation of this argu­ment. Paul therefore in this respect had a distinct advantage over them, and he was determined to retain it. The apostolic equality with him to which they aspired he rendered impossi­ble by adopting an unselfish policy which their avarice would not let them imitate.]

Verse 13

2Co 11:13

2 Corinthians 11:13

For such men are false apostles,—False apostles were those who claimed to be apostles. They claimed to be what they were not, and usurped an authority which did not belong to them.

deceitful workers,—They were workers in so far as they were preachers or teachers; but they were not honest; they availed themselves of every means to deceive and pervert the people. They were workers; but with hidden, selfish, and wicked motives.

fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ.—[Though their real object was not to advance the kingdom and glory of Christ, and although they were never commissioned for that work, they gave themselves out as Christ’s messengers and servants, and even claimed to have more intimate relation with him, and to be more devoted to his service than Paul himself.]

Verse 14

2Co 11:14

2 Corinthians 11:14

And no marvel; for even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light.—Satan pretends to be an angel of light to men, seeking their good. So he appeared to Eve and deceived her. He generally comes in the garb of righteousness pre­tending to seek the good of those he would ruin.

Verse 15

2Co 11:15

2 Corinthians 11:15

It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness;—Since this is true of Satan, it is not a strange thing that his servants should fol­low his example and claim to be ministers of light. These im­postors claiming to be apostles were an example of this. They yet do it. Every one who seeks to turn the children of God from his appointed ways is a minister of Satan, even though he thinks he is serving God. [This fearful description implies that Paul’s opponents, though church members and professed followers of Jesus Christ, were bad men, deliber­ately deceiving the Corinthian Christians. Therefore since Satan even assumes the garb of righteousness in order to en­snare men, it is no wonder that these men assumed a garb which was not their own.]

whose end shall be according to their works.—The end of all such shall correspond to their works; evil works bring an evil end. [They are guilty of the deepest sort of lie, and their punishment will be as terrible as their sin.]

Verse 16

2Co 11:16

2 Corinthians 11:16

I say again,—[Paul had made three attempts to begin his glorying. First (2 Corinthians 10:7), he stops to give attention to the empty glorying of his opponents; second (2 Corinthians 11:1), he pauses to express his anxiety for the Corinthian Christians under the in­fluence of false teachers; and third (2 Corinthians 11:6), he stops again to answer the charge of not accepting support. Now he returns to the point and expresses himself fully as far as 2 Corinthians 12:13.]

Let no man think me foolish; but if ye do, yet as foolish re­ceive me, that I also may glory a little.—While averring that his course was not that of a foolish, self-boaster, he tells them that if they think he is, receive him as such, as bear with him to see if he has not as much of which to boast as those whom they had received in their boasting.

Verse 17

2Co 11:17

2 Corinthians 11:17

That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of glorying.—[The words ren­dered “after the Lord” possibly mean according to the spirit of the Lord, “who never boasted in this manner.” Self-praise, in itself considered, is not the spirit of the Christian; it is not a work to which the Spirit of Christ impels the believer. But, when it is necessary to the vindication of the truth or the honor of Christ, it becomes a duty.] What Paul now says, he does after the manner of the boasters, to show that he has much stronger claims than they do to be received, even on their own grounds.

Verse 18

2Co 11:18

2 Corinthians 11:18

Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.—As the false apostles gloried in their fleshly relation to Abraham, he meets them on this ground. [Here for the first time, he tells just what course his glorying is to take. It is to his claim to honor as a man. It includes his ancestry, his en­durance of physical hardships in his ministry, and the special visions and revelations which had been granted to him. His opponents so magnified themselves and their services, and so depreciated him and his labors, that he was forced, in order to maintain his influence as the advocate of the pure gospel, to set forth his claims to the confidence of the people.]

Verse 19

2Co 11:19

2 Corinthians 11:19

For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise your­selves.—Before presenting his claims as a child of Abraham, he tells them that they are wise (in their own conceits), that they can afford to bear with him while he meets the foolish on their own ground to show that he has greater claims than they.

Verse 20

2Co 11:20

2 Corinthians 11:20

For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you captive, if he exalteth himself,—This is given as a reason why they should bear with him in his boasting. A reason personal to them. The false apostles had brought them into bondage; they had become lords over God’s heritage; they had devoured their substance; they had taken them captive by bringing them around to serve their ends. They had borne all these things from the false apostles. They certainly could bear a little boasting from him.

if he smiteth you on the face.—[To smite on the face was the highest indignity; as such it was offered to our Lord (Luke 22:64), and to Paul (Acts 23:2). Such was the treat­ment to which the Corinthians submitted from the hands of false teachers. They really took away their freedom is Christ as much as if they had been abject slaves. It is only the pure and undefiled of our Lord Jesus Christ that gives perfect free­dom. All heathens are slaves to their priests; all those who embrace error are slaves to those who are their guides.]

Verse 21

2Co 11:21

2 Corinthians 11:21

I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak.—In this boasting he ironically brings reproach upon himself, or disparages himself as though he were weak, but he was not weak

Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.—In this he refers to the reproach cast upon him, as a weak preacher, because he showed none of that proud and insolent bearing which the false teachers did. But he could be as bold as they, and with much better reason too. [Now fol­lows that incomparable burst of indignant eloquence, embody­ing particulars of history, or rather bare allusions to facts in his apostolic history—extending over about fourteen years, without any of those details which we should be so glad to have.]

Verse 22

2Co 11:22

2 Corinthians 11:22

Are they Hebrews?—This then was their boasts. [They were Jews of Palestine, speaking Aramaic, reading the law and the prophets in the original.]

so am I.—His answer is that he too was a Hebrew [or as he puts it, “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” (Philippians 3:5). What he means is obviously that his parents were Jews of Palestine and that the accident of his birth had not annulled his claim to that nationality. As a matter of fact, it made him able to unite things that were commonly looked upon as incompatible, and to be both a Hebrew and a Hellenist.]

Are they Israelites?—They claimed to be members of the nation which traced its origin to Jacob (Genesis 32:28), and which had, through all its history, been a nation whose God was Jehovah.

so am I.—His response to this was that he too was an Isra­elite of the purest blood and the accident of his having been born in Tarsus did not annul his claim to that nationality, nei­ther did it prevent his being brought up in Jerusalem at the feet of Gamaliel their great teacher. (Acts 22:3).

Are they the seed of Abraham?—They boasted that they were the descendants of Abraham. This will all the Jews was regarded as a distinguished honor (Matthew 3:9; John 8:39), and no doubt the false apostles gloried in it as eminently qual­ifying them to engage in the work of the ministry.

so am I.—The mention of the “seed of Abraham” to Paul was an equivalent to “heirs according to the promise” (Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 22:17; Galatians 3:8; Galatians 3:29); it describes the Jewish people as directly and immediately interested in “this salvation of God” (Luke 2:30; Acts 28:28). [No one can read Romans 9:4-5 without feeling that pride of race as pride in his people—and in their special relation to God and their special place in the history of redemption—was among the strongest passions in his heart; and we can understand the indignation with which he regarded men who trailed him over Asia and Europe, assailed his authority, and sought to undermine his work, on the ground that he was faithless to the lawful prerogatives of Israel. There was not a son of Abraham in the world prouder of his birth, with a more magnificent sense of his people’s glo­ries than the apostle to the Gentiles. And it provoked him be­yond endurance to see the things in which he gloried debased, as they were debased, by his enemies—made the symbol of paltry vanity which he despised, made barriers to the univer­sal love of God by which all the families of the earth were to be blessed. Driven to extremity, he could only outlaw such op­ponents from the Christian community, and say to the Gentile Christians: “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confi­dence in the flesh.” (Philippians 3:3).]

Verse 23

2Co 11:23

2 Corinthians 11:23

Are they ministers of Christ?—They called themselves apostles and ministers; but Paul called them false apostles and ministers of Satan. [This defines fairly accurately who they were. They claimed to be more genuinely ministers of Christ than Paul. That is, they were Judaizers seeking to ground all Christian faith, first of all in Jewish form and cere­mony.]

(I speak as one beside himself)—[This is a strong expres­sion, and is said out of the consciousness of ill desert and utter insufficiency. Feeling himself to be in himself both im­potent and unworthy, this self-laudation, though having refer­ence only to his infirmities and to what God had done in him and by him, was in the highest degree painful and humiliating to him.]

I more;—He claimed to be something beyond the ordinary servant of Christ. [This is the frantic boast which he pro­ceeds to justify in a fragment of biography which must ever be accounted as the most remarkable and unique in the world’s history.]

in labors more abundantly,—More abundant in labors nec­essary to propagate the gospel and more indefatigable in it. [The comparison between himself and them were reference to these conclusively shows how far they were from being minis­ters of Christ. They did not labor, but claimed the fruits of his labor. (2 Corinthians 10:15-16). But comparison, in fact, was out of the question—the sufferings of Paul in laboring for the advance­ment of the cause of Christ were unparalleled and alone. The few lines he devotes to them are the most vivid light on the apostolic age and the apostolic career.]

in prisons more abundantly,—[Luke mentions only one im­prisonment of Paul before this time. That was at Philippi. (Acts 16:23-39). But we must remember that many things which actually occurred were omitted by Luke. He does not profess to give an account of all that happened to Paul.]

in stripes above measure,—[This probably refers to scourg­ings inflicted by the heathen, which were not limited to forty stripes save one to which the Jews were restricted.]

in deaths oft.—He suffered as though he died, “for we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11). No one familiar with his life can doubt that he was often in danger of death.

Verse 24

2Co 11:24

2 Corinthians 11:24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.—[None of these occasions are mentioned in Acts but he may have been whipped at Damascus on his conversion, and then at Jerusalem, and again at Antioch. The chiefs of the syna­gogue had the power to inflict stripes on their own people, and would often exercise the jurisdiction against Paul, who was in the habit of preaching in the synagogue what was re­garded as heresy. The number of stripes was not to exceed forty (Deuteronomy 25:3); whence the Jews took care not to exceed thirty-nine (Josephus, Ant. iv. 8, sec. 21). The convict was stripped to the waist and tied in a bent position to a low pil­lar, and the stripes with a whip of three thongs were inflicted on the back between the shoulders. (Acts 22:25). A single stripe in excess subjected the executioner to punishment. The fortieth was omitted that they might not by mistake ex­ceed the number allowed. The infliction was severe and fre­quently resulted in death.]

Verse 25

2Co 11:25

2 Corinthians 11:25

Thrice was I beaten with rods,—This was the Roman mode of scourging, and this also sometimes resulted in death. Only one of these three cases is recorded in Acts 16:22-24. In Paul’s case it was an illegal act, and inflicted barbarously and with cruel aggravation, the bleeding backs of him and his companion being left to smart on the floor of a dark dungeon, while their feet were fast in stocks.

once was I stoned,—This was the usual mode of punish­ment among the Jews for blasphemy. The instance referred to here occurred at Lystra. After stoning him, they “dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.” (Acts 14:19).

thrice I suffered shipwreck,—[None of these are recorded, but Paul was frequently on the seas in the course of his la­bors, and from defective navigation and unskilled shipbuild­ing, and from want of the mariner’s compass, wrecks were fre­quent.]

a night and a day have I been in the deep;—It is probable that in this Paul refers to some time, when having been ship­wrecked, he was saved by supporting himself on a plank or fragment of the vessel until he obtained relief. Such a situa­tion is one of great peril, and he mentions it, therefore, among the trials which he had endured.

Verse 26

2Co 11:26

2 Corinthians 11:26

in journeyings often,—[Traveling in those days was both arduous and dangerous. Journeyings seem to introduce the various forms of peril, just as labors introduced the experi­ences with magistrates and mobs.]

in perils of rivers,—[In all countries which, like parts of Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece, abound in unbridged mountain torrents, journeys are constantly accompanied by deaths from drowning in the sudden rush of swollen streams.]

in perils of robbers,—Some of the mountain regions through which he passed are known to have been infested by robbers, and it is probable that he was often attacked and his life was endangered.

in perils from my countrymen,—The Jews in most cases were the first to stir up opposition and to excite the mob against him. This was the case at Damascus (Acts 9:23), at Jerusalem (Acts 9:29), at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:50), at Iconium (Acts 14:5), at Lystra (Acts 14:19), at Thessalonica (Acts 17:5), at Berea (Acts 17:13), and at Corinth (Acts 18:12). They had deep enmity against him as an apostle, and he was in constant danger of being put to death by them.

in perils from the Gentiles,—The Gentiles were generally stirred up against him by the Jews, but sometimes by inter­ested idolaters, as at Iconium (Acts 14:5), at Philippi (Acts 16:19-24), at Ephesus (Acts 19:23-31).

in perils in the city,—Damascus (Acts 9:23), Jerusalem (Acts 9:29), Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:50), Iconium (Acts 14:5), Lystra (Acts 14:19), Philippi (Acts 16:19), Thessalonica (Acts 17:5), Berea (Acts 17:13), Corinth (Acts 18:13), and Ephesus (Acts 19:23).

in perils in the wilderness,—[In traveling through the wild waste tracts of land between Perga and Antioch in Pisidia, or thence to Lystra and Derbe; or over the mountain of Taurus into the cities of Galatia where he would be exposed to the at­tacks of wild beasts, or to hunger and want.] He met with constant danger wherever he was, whether in the busy haunts of men or in the solitude and loneliness of the desert.

in perils in the sea,—He had encountered many storms, shipwrecks, and had most likely been beset by pirates.

in perils among false brethren;—It is probable that this re­fers to the treachery of those who professed to be his brethren in Christ, and yet endeavored to deliver him into the power of his enemies. [This was the crowning danger and trial to Paul, as it is to all others. A man can better bear danger by land and sea, among robbers and in deserts, than he can bear to have his confidence abused, and to be subjected to the ac­tions and the arts of spies upon his conduct.]

Verse 27

2Co 11:27

2 Corinthians 11:27

in labor and travail,—Wearisome toil and consequent ex­haustion and suffering resulting from the hard work wherever he preached.

in watchings often,—He pursued the labor and travail by night as well as by day and so incurred the want of sleep. He also sacrificed sleep for teaching and preaching (Acts 20:31), as well as for prayer and meditation (1 Thessalonians 3:10).

in hunger and thirst,—The hunger and thirst endured was through lack of necessary food.

in fastings often,—The fastings were abstinence practiced when he preferred the service of Christ and labor for the sal­vation of men to the satisfaction of physical want. (2 Corinthians 6:5).

in cold and nakedness.—All these hardships were the neces­sary accompaniments of a life spent in traversing half-civi­lized countries, such as Syria, Asia Minor, and Greece. [He was insufficiently clad. In his labors his clothing became old and badly worn, and he had no friends to replace them, nei­ther had he money with which to buy new ones.]

[In all this we cannot resist the impression of triumph with which Paul records the “perils” he had faced; so many they were, so various and so terrible, yet in the Lord’s service he had come safely through them all. It is a commentary from his own hand on his own words—“As dying, and behold, we live.” (2 Corinthians 6:9). In the retrospect all these perils show not only that he was a true servant of Christ, entering into fellowship with his Master’s sufferings to bring blessings to men, but that he was owned by Christ as such. The Lord had deliv­ered him from deaths so great; yes, and he would deliver him; and his hope was set on him for every deliverance he might need. (2 Corinthians 1:10). In all their kinds and degrees—violence, priva­tion, exposure, fear—they are a historical testimony to the de­votion with which Paul had served Christ. He bore in his body the marks which they had left, and to him they were “the marks of Jesus” (Galatians 6:17); they identified him as Jesus Christ’s bond servant.]

Verse 28

2Co 11:28

2 Corinthians 11:28

Besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches.—In addi­tion to all these bodily afflictions, one harder to be borne was that he, as the apostle to the Gentiles, felt the care of all the churches resting upon him. The anxiety which he had for them was more real and intense than that which the ordinary man has about food and raiment. This came as a daily and a constant burden—to see that they were properly taught and trained in the way of the Lord. Each epistle which he wrote manifested different causes of anxieties, and different admoni­tions, and different thanksgivings, so that he must have kept himself perfectly alive to the spiritual necessities of each.

Verse 29

2Co 11:29

2 Corinthians 11:29

Who is weak, and I am not weak?—Paul, in sympathy with all men, felt their weaknesses and infirmities. He be­came all things to all men. He felt and bore the weaknesses of the body with them.

who is caused to stumble, and I bum not?—Who was led into sin that he did not feel the shame and sorrow with him? Paul, like Jesus, bore the sins and weaknesses of the children of God with them. Yet despite all these sufferings in spirit and body, sorrows and burdens, Paul rejoiced as few men have rejoiced. Jesus was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” on whom the stripes of all were laid, suffered as never man suffered, yet beyond all doubt was the happiest being who ever trod this earth. Happiest because he did and suffered most to make others happy. After Jesus, Paul was the happiest man on earth because he suffered more to make others happy. This is a new way of happiness opened by Jesus to man that we learn so slowly. Yet the truest happi­ness of earth comes from denying self to help others. This is akin to the happiness of heaven.

Verse 30

2Co 11:30

2 Corinthians 11:30

If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that con­cern my weakness,—As Paul was forced to glory, he gloried in what he had suffered for God and man. This was a new theme for glorying, it was a new way to prove his apostleship and power from God. How strange, how unanswerable, how crushing to his enemies. It was like the Master. He proved his love for men by what he suffered for them.

Verse 31

2Co 11:31

2 Corinthians 11:31

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not.—[Paul’s glorying was so different from the common glorying among men that he felt that some would not appreciate his deep feelings, and would listen to his words with astonishment and doubt; but this sol­emn affirmation is in keeping with the fervid character of the whole passage. It is thrown in somewhat independently, hav­ing reference to what precedes and what follows.]

Verse 32

2Co 11:32

2 Corinthians 11:32

In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me:—From the mass of his past endurances for Christ, he selects as a specimen and proof of all the rest this great fact, occurring at the beginning of his Christian career—a fair note to the whole—to show his sufferings and deliverances as an apostle. [Paul saw enacted in Damascus a scene like some in which he had played a part in Jerusalem, but with his own part re­versed. He experienced some of the ill-treatment which he had heaped upon others. From the account given by Luke (Acts 9:23; Acts 9:25), we learn that when he heard of their plot to kill him he hid himself; but his enemies, thinking that he would try to escape through one of the gates of the city, and that they would be sure of finding him, kept constant watch for him. This watching also became known to his friends, which shows that they too were on the watch, and they provided for him another mode of escape.]

Verse 33

2Co 11:33

2 Corinthians 11:33

and through a window was I let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.—[Along the wall of Damascus some of the houses were built against the wall, with upper stories of wood resting on the top of the wall. Out of a win­dow in one of these he was let down by the side of the wall in a basket. This attempt to kill him was the effect of his preaching on unbelieving Jews. The effect was seen “when many days were fulfilled” (Acts 9:23), an indefinite expres­sion which might mean a few weeks, a few months, or a few years. But we learn from Paul’s own statement (Galatians 1:17-18) that his escape occurred three years after his conversion and within this period he had made a sojourn into Arabia. How far he had gone into Arabia, or how long he had re­mained there, he does not say; but he does say that after the excursion he returned to Damascus, and it is easy to see that the attempt to kill him occurred after his return. He also says that “the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes” in order to take him, which shows that Damascus was then under the dominion of Aretas, who was king of Arabia, and that the Jews had his cooperation in the attempt to arrest Paul in the gates. Furthermore, as Da­mascus was at that time under the king of Arabia, the country of and adjacent to it must have been overrun by his forces, and for the time in which he held it it would be styled a part of Arabia. Saul’s sojourn there, then may have been into this re­gion for the purpose of preaching in its cities and villages; and it may have been his activity in this work which aroused the Jewish opposition to its highest pitch, and at the same time enabled them to enlist the Arabian government in their plot. For many reasons unknown to us the danger in Damas­cus, and the escape from it, had a peculiar interest for Paul. He gloried in what he had endured there in imminent peril and in the undignified escape alike—as in things belonging to his weakness. Another might choose to hide such things, but they are precisely what he tells. In Christ’s service scorn is glory, ignominy is honor; and it is the mark of loyalty when men rejoice that they are counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.]