2 Corinthians 10:1-7 Bible Teaching

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2nd Corinthians 10.1-7
February 3rd 2019
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Okay, this is really an interesting epistle, folks, containing some real highlights, and some real low points (in my estimation) and it rambles around at times with Paul spending quite a bit of time promoting the idea that he is worthy to be an apostle.

As I have said, it was one of the books I most least looked forward to teaching through due to these things.

So now, after finishing the two-chapter subject on “the duty of alms-giving” Paul enters in now on a vindication of himself from the charges of his enemies.

His general design is to vindicate his apostolic authority, and to show that he had a right, as well as others, to regard himself as sent from God.

This vindication continues through chapters 10, 11 and 12.

Here in 10 the stress of the argument is that he did not depend on anything external to recommend him.

No “carnal weapons;” nothing by the outward appearance; or on anything that was so much valued by the admirers of human eloquence and learning.

It not possible, except from the epistle itself, to ascertain the nature of their charges and objections against him. One point that seems to come out was an objection that though he was bold enough in his letters, and had threatened to exercise discipline, yet that he would not dare to do it.

Everything points to them thinking he was weak and lacking the courage to inflict the punishment which he had threatened in his letters. He appears to reply to these charges in this chapter.

So, let’s read through the eighteen verses:

1 Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:
2 But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.
8 For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:
9 That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.
10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
11 Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.
12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
13 But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.
14 For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ:
15 Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,
16 To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man’s line of things made ready to our hand. {line: or, rule}
17 But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
18 For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

Back to verse one please:

1 Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:

I Paul entreat by the meekness and gentleness of Christ , who in your presence I am lowly but in my absence I am bold toward you.

Paul has expressed confidence in the church in general but he could not speak this way of all there. There are some among them who spoke with contempt of his authority and his claims as an apostle.

He adds that when in their presence his “outward appearance” appeared humble, mild, gentle or he was referring to his actual physical stature being underwhelming.

Verse 10 says:

10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
So it seems that his enemies were unimpressed with his physical presence and presentation and were saying something like:

“Well, he can certainly write powerful threatening letters but when he is here with us there isn’t much to fear, is there?”

Of himself Paul says:

“in your presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you.”

The word here translated base usually means low, humble, poor. Paul could have meant that or he could have meant that when he was with them physically he appeared timid, modest, the opposite of bold.

In Old English the term came to mean vile and degraded but that would not be his meaning.

Then he adds, “But being absent am bold toward you.” Of course this means through his letters. At verse two Paul explains himself, saying:

2 But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

It’s a tough passage in the king James but what he is saying is, I again beg you not to have me bold toward some according to my flesh – the way they think I should be.

One version translates this passage like this:

“I implore you not to drive me to “show my boldness,” when I do come, by the confident tone which I expect to have to adopt towards some of you, who are expecting to find us influenced in our conduct by earthly motives.”

By itself these words sound pretty bold themselves, right? In the first epistle to Corinth Paul has used similar language, asking in 1st Corinthians 4:21

“What would you like? That I would come to you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?”

The man has a war going on with some in that place. They are being critical of his leadership and suggesting that he is too meek and lowly in person and too bold and forceful in letters.

As a follower and true disciple of Christ it is quite likely that when he was in an among them that the Spirit of Christ overwhelmed him and he did, in fact, deal with people gently.

It is also possible that upon hearing of their trials and troubles from Titus and Apollos and Timothy and others, he got bold in the letters he sent.

His point here is, “you don’t want me to come with true fleshly boldness among you. That would not accomplish anything good, heavenly, for Christ and it is not the way I am lead to operate among you.

With this as the back-drop, Paul now adds some famous verses, saying:

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

These verses are directly attributed to Paul and those with them and their work in the fallen world. We read them today and draw tremendous inspiration and guidance from them but we must remember the context.

This being said I have to make a comment, an observation, a question if you will:

I believe, I trust with all my heart, that this and thousands of words like them are inspired, they are the Word of God, and they have application to us today as much as they did then.

In a moment I am going to teach on these passages and bring them into our day and age and encourage all who seek God and His Son in Spirit and Truth to receive them as if they were written to them directly.

But here’s the problem:

They were NOT written to us. They were written by Paul, about himself (and those who were with him), as they ministered in that age, and then they were directed to the believers at Corinth.
They are couched in a letter where in parts of it, Paul is clearly not inspired (he even admits it).
The reproductions of this letter were available only in part for several hundreds of years and the availability of it linguistically and materially en masse took some 1500 plus years.

So, how do we justify reading the words today, not only claiming them to be true and inspired but AS applicable to us in our day now, amidst all of these factors?

I know that I believe that there are principles in the scripture that have merit and application. But I cannot prove it by anything but my own subjective belief and the factors I just mentioned do provide mitigating circumstances that can thwart my views.

In any case, I choose to . .
take the contents by faith.
trust by the Spirit to tell me that they have application.
examine them contextually and discern their merit if they don’t.
And honestly admit that I am giving these words power on how I believe that I ought to live as a Christian.

That is Subjective Christianity and it is NOT easily defended in light of everything we’ve just mentioned.

In any case, I believe that what Paul says here has as much application to believers today as it did in his day.

What does he say again?

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:”

Though we are mortal, like other men; though we dwell, like them, in mortal bodies, and though our flesh is as corrupt as all other humans on earth, and we are conscious of our imperfections, we do not war after the flesh.

We walk after its demands, eating, sleeping, and doing all the things that human beings do, but we don’t war after the flesh.

The next two passages help us understand what Paul means when he writes of warring after the flesh:

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Warfare bring to mind a battle. When we go to war we engage in battle with an opponent. Weapons of carnal warfare are whatever tools we use to defeat someone in a battle.

Carnal weapons can be words, anger, threats, criticisms, violence, maiming, and killing.

The criticism against Paul by the enemies at Corinth is that he does not use weapons of carnal warfare. And they wanted him too.

He has made it clear that these are not the tools of a Christian – especially a Christian apostle.

So where he walks in the flesh like others he does not warfare in the flesh. He approaches warfare – which are all spiritual when we think about it – through a different means.

To go to war in the flesh we appeal to:

(1.) our corrupt desires and sensual propensities of the heart; with internal corruption and depravity; these are the tools of our fallen nature with the remaining unsubdued propensities of a fallen nature.

It can be supremely difficult to not appeal to our flesh – especially when dealing with others who, calling themselves Christians, seem to only use the flesh to engage.

And when we think about it, such an appeal is the ONLY true solution to earthly warfare.

Let me explain.

We are in an arena of difficulty with members of the world – you pick the topic:
Abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, sin, homosexuality, pedophilia – you name it – we are in a battle with some one right?

That someone, armed with what they believe is the proper point of view, comes at you relentlessly with their facts and rhetoric, and you fire back with yours.

Back and forth and back and forth all day long. It gets heated. Insults fly. This is carnal warfare.

Now, rewind. And I am learning to do this. And consider operating completely outside the flesh and by the weapons of spiritual warfare.

A soft answer.
Love
Prayer
Kindness
Self-control
Longsuffering
And on and on and on.

In the face of all the weapons of carnal warfare these weapons have the GREATEST chance of creating an actual change in the heart of another.

The weapons of carnality will almost always just cause us all to dig in deeper. But when we appeal to the weapons God provides by His Spirit we have an advantage that cannot be overcome.

And we plant seeds.
And bring peace.
We pray and trust and wait on God to move.
We might choose to fast.
We gently love the unlovable . . . in His name.

These means are unquestionably the road to winning hearts. Not the weapons of carnal warfare.

Additionally, by refusing to appeal to the powers of the flesh, the powers of darkness have less a hold.

Recall what Paul wrote in Ephesians 6

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The wrestling Paul speaks to here, I believe, is spiritual – its not against flesh and blood – not against other people.

And the only way to war against principalities and powers and rules of the darkness of this world, and against SPIRITUAL wickedness in high places is through the means established on high, given by the Spirit, and that operate by the fruit of the Spirit.

Paul continues on in Ephesians six and provides the weapons that are not carnal, saying:

13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

These were the weapons Paul resorted to in his wars with darkness fomenting in the hearts of his enemies . . . for the most part.

But we do see him, in my estimation, slipping from the spirit and into elements of the flesh in this epistle.

I don’t blame him, but do not see all of his approaches falling in line with the Spirit. Could be wrong.

SO he adds, after making it clear that though he walks in the flesh he does not war after the flesh:

4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds)

The key phrase here is that the weapons of the Spirit, not carnal, are MIGHTY THROUGH GOD to the pulling down of strongholds.

In other words, they depend on Him for their efficacy. And those weapons are again specified by Paul in Ephesians 6 and other places as well.

The sense is that God is the Author of the doctrines which we preach, and that he attends them with the agency of his Spirit, and accompanies them to the hearts of men. The hope and belief is that when we trust Him and His ways He will take things into the hearts of those willing to hear and change will occur.

What kind of change? Paul here says:

“To the pulling down of strong holds.”

To the leveling of fortresses of darkness and all of their fortifications.

Of course he is appealing to terminology used in physical warfare and perhaps it is even more real in spiritual. And again, there is application in both the general sense as well as the individual.

Imagine just for a minute, if the Christians around the world, would collectively step away from all fleshly warfare – no more name calling, no more protests at clinics, or parades. No more legislation in Jesus name, and we collectively retreated to our homes and churches and kept out mouths shut, and our fists unclenched, and all we did was publicly love and embrace all souls as they are, but privately prayed for the strongholds to fall, for light to shine into the darkness, and for all who are trapped to be liberated.

What if we held private prayer, fasting, and recommitted ourselves to loving and actually serving those who are trapped, all the while allowing God to work His wonders . . . instead of getting in his way with out mouths?

A GIANT step in this direction would be for Christians to understand that

Jesus has saved the world.
Sin has been paid for (except the sin of failing to love).
He is not coming back to destroy the world.
That hell and Satan have been overcome. And that
the faith is entirely spiritual and subjective.

If Christians around the world understood these BIBLICAL facts, we might be able and willing to silently, humbly, gather and actually address the worlds issues NOT through the flesh but by the Spirit.

So whether fortresses of darkness need to fall that hover over the world or whether they are built up around a persons heart, the ways and means of helping them crumble and fall are through Spiritual weapons – not carnal.

Paul adds some dimension to his description of what the spiritual warfare he engages in accomplishes. And it is a powerful verse as he says (in the King James)

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Another way to read this is he says:

“We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

I love this. I don’t love the fleshly way we tend to interpret it and apply it today where we look to destroying opponents of the faith.

When that is the objective the only result is hurt or angry feelings and alienation. Somehow we have to master the art of introducing the truth to people without introducing animus to them too.

Not an easy task. But I can’t help but love how Paul describes what they do in the ministry of that age:

“We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

Naturally the natural world and natural man will thrive in philosophies and doctrines that stand in opposition to God, and the commands of Christ – you name the arena and there is an opposing force.

I bring us back to the method and means of truly, and most effectively, engaging with such forces.

Interestingly, we read in

1st Corinthians 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
And then in

1st Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

How does God bring the wisdom of the wise down? How does he take captive all their vain imaginations?

He tells us back in 1st Corinthians 1:21

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Paul was being criticized for the demeanor he maintained toward the people of Corinth when he was with them in person.

He was humbly preaching the Gospel in the Spirit and letting the ways of God work among the people.

Gentle ways, ways of the Spirit. And he was criticized for it by those who wanted him to engage in the flesh.

Because that is what fed them and what they fed off – the flesh.

And so this continues today. Our popularity was through the roof when I approached people through the flesh on Heart of the Matter. But the minute I started trying to rely on God through the Spirit and the fruit thereof, and to reason gently (or at least more gently) with others, the crowds got bored.

In this passage he suggests that one of the weapons of spiritual warfare is taking every thought captive to obey Christ.

A fantastic tool – but doing it!? Brutal.

The idea is evidently taken from military conquests and the idea is, that all the strongholds of heathenism, and pride, and sin, and all the retaliation and vengeful words and insults would be taken captive and placed in a cell called, obedience to Christ.

He told us to love. To obey him is to take every thought, (which is where all actions begin) and putting those that push for non-love, and to make the captive to the commands of Christ.

He told us to forgive. Same. Be patient. Same. Go the extra mile, to trust God in all things, to be selfless, not of this world, humble . . .

All going into the cell and taken captive in obedience to Him.

Then after having established himself in this manner, and being set and willing and ready to lay all the fleshly responses on the line, Paul adds:

6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

In other words, I will, in spite of all I have said about the Spirit and our weapons of warfare not being fleshly, “I will come in and kick butt,” he seems to be suggesting. But he hinges his promise on the condition that they first act in obedience to all things.

Now, in chapter 6 and 7, Paul commends them for being obedient, and in chapters 8-9 he amplifies this compliment.

So this passage really makes me wonder what the heck in going on. As an apostle to the church in that day and age was it part of his job to really throw down on people who threatened the church?

Could he look to the actions of Jesus clearing the temple to justify this promise in verse 6 – I don’t rightly know.

The problem I have with this verse is that many fleshly Christians will use it to justify behaviors they might indulge that come from their flesh just because Paul does.

But there are so MANY other passages in scripture, given by Jesus and Paul and others that speak to the opposite of what he is promising, I don’t know what to say – except perhaps this is one of those paradoxes in scripture and there may be times in the modern Christians life where a throw-down is appropriate.

All we can say is that Paul says, “I am ready to punish all disobedience, notwithstanding all that is said to the contrary.”

And then he says in our last verse for today:

7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.

This is a cumbersome verse in the King James. The Darby reads this way:

Do ye look at what concerns appearance? If any one has confidence in himself that he is of Christ, let him think this again in himself, that even as he [is] of Christ, so also [are] we.

RSV “Look at what is before your eyes. If any one is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that as he is Christ’s, so are we.”

The wordy TCNT says:
“You look at the outward appearance of things! Let any one, who is confident that he belongs to Christ, reflect, for himself, again upon the fact–that we belong to Christ no less than he does.”

The general meaning seems to be that Paul is now comparing himself, and His walk and apostleship, with those who were challenging Him.

And he appears to be asking the members of the church at Corinth what they look for in a teacher of truth.

There is little doubt that those who challenged Paul’s apostleship placed a value on their external advantages or they laid claim to some honor bestowed upon themselves. Perhaps they were superior in personal appearance, in rank or in eloquence compared to Paul.

So, Paul takes the time to reprove them for this approach. Which a not new to the faith and its tenets.

We know that this was a problem there in Corinth at the time as 2nd Corinthians 5:12 says

“For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.”

We remember that Isaiah clearly describes the Messiah as not being handsome but as a dried reed.

And we know this same Messiah said:

John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

And of course we know that James wrote:

James 2:1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
2 For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
3 And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
4 Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?

Paul reproves the believers at Corinth for
Judging this way and reassures them that this was not a proper criterion by which to determine on qualifications for the apostolic office.

Again these things were highly valued among the Greeks, and a considerable part of the effort of Paul in these letters is to show that these things constitute no evidence that those who possessed them were sent from God.

So Paul says:

If any man trust to himself – meaning, if any of these false teachers lay claim to being followers of Christ by way of eminence, who trust themselves and their stance due to some external factor, Paul says

“Let him of himself think this again: that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.

I have given as much evidence that I am commissioned by Christ as can be produced. It may not be of an eloquent rank, or the gift of a fancy elocution, but it may be superior to what they are able to produce in the Spirit.

And in this Paul could have been referring to the fact that he had seen the Lord firsthand (and had been taught by Him) and or directly commissioned by Him, and or he had amazing and miraculous powers he could do in his name.

Let’s stop there.

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