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ABRAHAM AND THE GENTILE 67
Are they the seed of Abraham? ............................ So am I'.
2. His superiority as to labours and sufferings.
`Are they ministers of Christ?.............................. I am MORE.
In labours MORE abundant.
In stripes ABOVE measure.
In prisons MORE frequent.
In deaths OFT.
Of the Jews FIVE times received I forty stripes save one.
THRICE was I beaten with rods.
ONCE was I stoned.
THRICE I suffered shipwreck.
A DAY AND A NIGHT have I been in the deep.
In journeys OFTEN.
In perils of waters, robbers, mine own countrymen, heathen, city, wilderness, sea, and false
brethren;
in weariness and painfulness, in watchings OFTEN:
in hunger and thirst, in faintings OFTEN,
in cold and nakedness;
besides those things which are without,
that which cometh upon me daily.
THE ANXIETY OF ALL THE CHURCHES.
Who is weak and I am not weak?
Who is offended and I burn not?'
Twice does the apostle use a term that is reminiscent of Galatians 2, `the very chiefest apostles'-`extra super', as
one has well rendered it - and he follows the line of Galatians 2 where he not only establishes equality with Peter,
James, and John, but in the case of Peter, shows that he had to withstand him to the face. But in 2 Corinthians the
apostle not only says `so am I', but also `I more'.
When we turn to the epistles to the Thessalonians, we discover the enemy adopting different tactics, but having
the same goal in view, viz., the spoiling of the apostle's witness. The gospel had been received in Thessalonica with
great readiness, and the fruitful results were a cause for thanksgiving. Chapter 1 of the first epistle is practically
occupied with the grateful recognition of the grace of God to the Thessalonian church. The second chapter,
however, introduces statements which reveal the attack of the enemy:
`For our exhortation was NOT of deceit, not of uncleanness, nor in guile' (1 Thess. 2:3).
Why should any one suddenly deny such things, in such a letter, if those shameful charges had not been made
against him! Here sounds the charge which finds its echo in 2 Corinthians 12:16. In the capital cities of both
Macedonia and Achaia the false brethren were unscrupulous in their attacks upon the apostle. If the direct attack
upon his independent apostleship appeared to fail, then they would make insinuations as to his morals, attacking
apparently upon the principle that when mud is thrown some is sure to stick. Imagine the feelings of such a nature
as Paul's being charged with uncleanness! The charge of verse 3 is repudiated by the affirmation of the apostle's
sacred trust:
`But as we have been approved by God (dokimazo) to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing
men (the echo of Gal. 1) but God, Who proves (dokimazo) our hearts' (1 Thess. 2:4 Author's translation).
Paul had been approved of God; he still was approved of God. Throughout his ministry he maintained a
conscience void of offence: