A Model of Christian Maturity by D. A. Carson

Author:D. A. Carson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biblical Studies/Pastoral Helps;REL006000;REL006070
ISBN: 9781441201751
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2018-09-07T00:00:00+00:00

B. Answer to a Specific Charge: Paul’s Independence from the Corinthians (11:7–12)

Before embarking, at last, on his “foolish boasting” (2 Cor. 11:16–12:10), Paul pinpoints one more specific area where his apostolicity has been called into question, and where the criteria used by his opponents are fundamentally evil.

Traveling teachers in the first century, professional sophists and rhetoricians, did not normally work with their hands. The best of them avoided begging, even if some manual work was required; but the ideal was to make a good living from teaching itself. The more famous the teacher, the more he could charge, and the more students would attach themselves to him and count it a privilege to pay his fee. Thus in many ways a teacher’s status could be assessed by the price he could command, much as a figure on modern college or political lecture circuit can be ranked by the size of his fee.

Unlike his sophist contemporaries, and unlike his intruding opponents, Paul has refused to accept any support at all from the Corinthian believers. It is not absolutely clear why he has taken this decision. Certainly Paul recognizes the principle that those who preach the gospel have the right of support from the people to whom they minister (see esp. 1 Cor. 9; cf. 3 John 5–8), a principle that goes back to Jesus himself (Luke 9:3–4; 10:4, 7). Moreover, Paul on occasion received financial help from the churches he founded: in particular, he received support from the churches of Macedonia, such as the church in Philippi (2 Cor. 11:8–9; Phil. 4:10–15), and he could also on occasion actively solicit assistance for his travels and ministry (Rom. 15:24). True, Paul sometimes refused to take any money just so the gospel could be preached free of charge (1 Cor. 9:16–18); but since that was not his universal practice, why does he refuse money from the Corinthians, especially when the issue has become such a sensitive one? Why not accept the money and thereby defuse the explosive situation? The Corinthians, after all, were aware that Paul had received help from other churches (and if they didn’t know before 2 Corinthians was written, he candidly informs them of the fact in this letter, 11:8–9). Why should he treat them any differently?

Carefully tutored by the false apostles, already prejudiced by the surrounding pagan society to assess teachers by the size of their take, the Corinthians came to believe that Paul could not be much of an apostle after all. Perhaps they began to think of him the way Antiphon thought of Socrates:

If you set any value on your own society, you would insist on getting the price for that too. It may well be that you are a just man because you do not cheat people through avarice; but wise you cannot be since your knowledge is not worth anything.

Xenophon (Memorabilia 1.6.12)

Faced with such a deep bias, one that erects a condition of apostolicity, or at least a form of ranking, Paul attacks the problem head-on.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.