So sorry this one is so late!
Paul's Consistency
| Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less? 16 Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you. Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery! 17 Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent you? 18 I urged Titus to go to you and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not act in the same spirit and follow the same course? (2Corinthians12:14-18) |
Paul intends to visit the Corinthians again - it seems his plan is to sort out their infatuation with the "super apostles" for once and for all - and he feels he wants to do it face to face.
But he makes his motives and intentions clear - He is not going to place any financial burden on them. He uses the beautifully generous analogy of a parent paying for the children and not vice versa because "what I want is not your possessions but you."
Paul reinforces this point in a number of ways:
- He fully intends being self-supporting while he is with them again: "I will gladly expend myself..."
- He makes it clear that he will continue to expend himself for them and even commits himself to loving them more even if they "love him less"!
- Although some accused Paul of offering his services without cost so that he could send his "henchmen" (Titus, Timothy and others) to "collect", it didn't take long for them to discover that Paul's "people" had the same honesty and integrity that Paul did.
From all of this it is clear that the "super-apostles" had leveraged their influence over the Corinthians to profit from them. They had brought a teaching that tickled itching ears, they had discredited Paul and they had placed a financial burden on the congregation.
And bizarrely, the congregation still took them seriously!
Paul has to point out that he has not done this, that he wasn't going to do this, that his team didn't do this and if others are doing this, they should be regarded with suspicion.
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This doesn't mean that congregations can't employ ministers and other staff members. This is an arrangement entered into where everyone understands the terms and conditions beforehand.
The difference in the Corinthian situation was that it was a developing congregation and Paul had decided not to burden them. The super-apostles came uninvited and used undue influence destabilise them and to place huge pressure on them for selfish gain.
