2 Corinthians10chapter 10

2 Corinthians 10:1-2

Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: the letter turns abruptly from the collection to open combat, and the bench marks the change as real, Paul answering a specific charge the false apostles had been pressing at Corinth, that his letters are strong and his presence weak. I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh: he would rather the confrontation stay in the letter than come to a personal reckoning, and the commentators read the plea as genuine pastoral reluctance, not a bluff.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds: the flesh here names ordinary human existence in verse 3 and fallen method in verse 4, and the bench keeps the distinction sharp, since Paul does not deny he lives in a body but denies that his ministry fights with the world's tools of rhetoric, intimidation, or political maneuver. Strong holds, ochyromata, a military term for fortifications, sets the register for the whole passage as spiritual warfare, mighty through God rather than through eloquence, and the exposition holds the phrase in that register rather than moralizing it into a general call to willpower.

2 Corinthians 10:5-6

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ: logismoi, reasonings, and hupsoma, a raised barrier, name the target of the warfare as proud arguments set against the true knowledge of God, and the bench across the eras reads this as the classic text for the mind's submission to Christ, every thought taken captive rather than left to run against him. Having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled: Paul reserves discipline until the church's own obedience is first secured, and the commentators note the order, the majority's compliance coming before any confrontation with the minority still resisting.

2 Corinthians 10:7-8

Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's: Paul answers a rival's claim to belong specially to Christ by matching the claim rather than disputing the man's sincerity, the bench noting the irony already beginning that will run through chapter 11. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed: authority is stated as a gift for building up, and the commentators read the qualifying clause as the standard by which every claim to spiritual authority in the letter is tested, construction rather than demolition.

2 Corinthians 10:9-11

That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible: Paul quotes the accusation directly, and the bench reads the charge as a real physical and rhetorical criticism, Paul unimpressive in person against orators trained in the sophistic style Corinth prized. Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present: he answers not by denying the description but by promising consistency, the letter's force will match the visit's force, and the commentators note this as a warning aimed at the specific offenders rather than the whole church.

2 Corinthians 10:12

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise: the verse turns openly ironic, Paul refusing to enter a contest of self-commendation while describing exactly the closed loop his rivals have built, a standard with no reference outside itself. The bench reads the line as diagnosing a permanent temptation, ministers who rank themselves only against other ministers and never against Christ's own measure, the very failure the next two verses correct by naming God's actual assignment.

2 Corinthians 10:13-14

But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you: kanon, rule, originally a measuring reed, names the field God assigned Paul, and Corinth stands inside it since Paul planted the church there himself. For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: the bench reads the argument as a direct answer to rivals who arrived after Paul and claimed credit for ground he had already broken, Paul's authority resting on God's own assignment and on having actually done the founding work.

2 Corinthians 10:15-16

Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you: Paul states his actual ambition, further unreached territory, not credit for churches others founded, and the bench notes the contrast this draws with the rivals who had walked into an already-planted field and claimed it as conquest. And not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand: the image is a surveyor's measuring line marking off territory, and the commentators read the phrase as Paul's plain charge that his opponents were building on his foundation while boasting as though the foundation were their own.

2 Corinthians 10:17-18

But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord: Paul closes the chapter with Jeremiah 9:24, the same text he had already cited at 1 Corinthians 1:31, and the bench reads the repetition as the settled center of his whole theology of ministry, every legitimate boast referred back to the Lord who gave the field and the fruit. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth: the sentence answers the self-commendation named at verse 12 and sets the standard for the boasting Paul is about to undertake in the next chapter, foolish by his own description, entered into only because Corinth had forced the comparison and only ever under this rule.