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2 Corinthians

2 Corinthianschapter 10

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Speaks with:2 Corinthians 10×42 Corinthians 13×3Romans 12×21 Peter 4×21 Corinthians 1×2Romans 15×2

Summary

Chapter summary

Here the tone shifts. I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. Who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you. Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh; the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. We will boast not of other men's labours. He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Calvin marks the chapter as the beginning of the apostle's defense against the false apostles.

Context

Epistle · Paul — 2 Corinthians overview

  • A. 1–6 Weapons Not of the Flesh: Strongholds Pulled Down
  • B. 7–11 Weighty Letters, Unimpressive in Person
  • C. 12–18 Measuring Themselves by Themselves

The outline

  1. A.Weapons Not of the Flesh: Strongholds Pulled Downvv. 1 to 6

    Read vv. 1 to 6 →

  2. B.Weighty Letters, Unimpressive in Personvv. 7 to 11

    Read vv. 7 to 11 →

  3. C.Measuring Themselves by Themselvesvv. 12 to 18

    Read vv. 12 to 18 →

The world behind this chapter

2 Corinthians 10
When
Written from Macedonia · c. AD 55–56
Where
The turn to Paul's opponents — a change of tone so sharp that some think a separate letter begins here.
Who first heard it
Corinthians repeating a criticism: his letters are weighty, his bodily presence is weak, and his speech amounts to nothing.

The history

That criticism is a professional review. Ancient rhetoric graded a speaker on presence, voice, gesture, and delivery as much as on content, and a man who wrote powerfully but underperformed in person had failed at the visible part of the craft. The Corinthians were applying the standards of the lecture circuit to an apostle.

The siege imagery — weapons with divine power to destroy strongholds, taking every thought captive — comes from war. Rome's armies reduced fortified cities by ramp, ram, and tower, and everyone knew what happened afterwards to the captives.

Paul's talk of staying within the field God assigned him addresses a real practice: itinerant teachers moving into territory another had opened and claiming the credit. He refuses to boast in another man's labour, which by implication is exactly what his rivals were doing in Corinth.

The whole passage is shaped as reluctant self-defence. He knows that commending yourself was a recognized rhetorical move and says the one who is approved is not the one who commends himself but the one the Lord commends.

What it meant to them

The first hearers were told that the fight was not against people. The war is over thoughts, arguments, and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God, and the weapons are not worldly ones.

They were also being warned. Paul says he is begging them now so that he will not need to be bold when present — a plain notice that the gentleness in the letters is not incapacity.

Sources cited

  • Bruce W. Winter, After Paul Left Corinth
  • F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on 2 Corinthians 10. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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