September 11 / II Cor. 12:11-13:10

II Corinthians 12:11-13:10

And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. (v. 12:14b) In this context my Study Bible discussed Paul’s ongoing collection for the saints in Jerusalem. That is, when Paul writes, “…for I seek not what is yours…” my Study Bible suggests that the Corinthians thought that Paul was lining his own pockets with this collection and that it would never make it to Jerusalem – or that the full collection amount would be substantially diminished. Beyond that, I really like Paul’s sentence construction here: for I seek not what is yours but you.

Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ… (v. 12:19a) Paul’s writing in these four chapters (10-13) is very different that anything else he writes in all of his 13 epistles. But even as he writes what he calls “foolishness” he is fully aware of his standing before God and that it is God to whom he is responsible.

So now we have finished this troublesome section, Paul’s boasting. He mentions twice in today’s reading that he will be coming to them again a third time (12:14, 13:1). Very soon we will be reading from Acts again of what I assume to be this third trip to Corinth by way of Macedonia and we will see him spending three months in Corinth. I can’t see him spending three months there if he is received so harshly by those “super Apostles / most eminent Apostles”). So it seems as if his second visit (and a lost letter?) must have been sometime between his first visit (on his second missionary journey, after Athens) and the next visit that we have recorded in Acts 20. Yes, the time frame of II Corinthians is confusing. I suggested to John S. a few days ago that many dissertations have probably been written about this book!

See also: June 6 / II Cor. 12:14-21; June 7 / II Cor. 13:1-14