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and moreover he had already written to the Corinthian church, giving his reasons for
avoiding mere oratory, so that their faith should stand in God and not the human ability
of any speaker (I Cor. 2: 4, 5). No one could deny the Apostle's deep knowledge of the
Truth. By this time this should have been abundantly plain.
Another thing that still rankled with some was the fact that he refused to accept
material support from them, though he had done so from other churches. The reason for
this he had made clear in I Cor. 9: He would not be beholden to them in any way,
though, as this chapter clearly shows, he had the right to do so as an apostle. By not
doing so he appeared to `abase himself' in this capacity (II Cor. 11: 7). Had he received
material gifts, it would surely have been misrepresented by his critics and the last thing
he wished was to appear to be sponging on them. Consequently he supported himself by
tent-making (Acts 18: 3) when he was at Corinth.
In this way he did not burden anyone there, though it might have seemed on the
surface as `robbery' to accept money support from other churches (11: 8). His needs were
supplied by brethren from the Macedonian churches (11: 9). The reason for his
independent spirit in connection with the Corinthian church was certainly not due to lack
of love (11: 9-11). God was his witness to that. Rather, as we have seen, it was to give
no opportunity for his enemies, the false apostles, to have any grounds for accusation and
criticism. The Apostle Paul was a wise man. He had learned to do what he had exhorted
others to do, to walk in wisdom, even if this was at considerable cost to himself.
No.10.
11: 12 - 29.
pp. 226 - 231
Continuing our study of the eleventh chapter of II Corinthians, we are dealing with
the section where the Apostle Paul, owing to misrepresentation on the part of his critics at
Corinth, was forced to stress the superlative nature of his Christ-given apostleship,
although this was very distasteful to him as it appeared to be self-praise. He had refused
material support from the church and earned his own living by tent-making when he was
with them. As he explains, this was not because he was too proud to receive such
support, but rather because he would not give his opponents any opportunity to accuse
him of making money out of them.
He now speaks of them in scathing terms:
"And I shall go on doing as I am doing now, to cut the ground from under those who
would seize any chance to put their vaunted apostleship on the same level as ours. Such
men are sham apostles, crooked in all their practices, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
There is nothing surprising about that; Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It
is therefore a simple thing for his agents to masquerade as agents of good" (11: 12-15,
N.E.B.).