Paul Boasts About His Sufferings
16I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. 17In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. 18Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. 19You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! 20In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. 21To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!
Dig Deeper
The kids at my school used to love to rap at lunchtime. They would all gather round and play beats or make their own and then have a great time rapping to each other. I actually used to enjoy it quite a bit, as they used to do it in my classroom. One year, however, a new group of students came in and joined in the tradition, but through the influence of two or three new students, the rapping began to take a nasty tone. They introduced something that is done on the streets but had not been in our school, the practice of ribbing and battle rap. This is a style of rap where you make fun of anything you can about the other person, and then they answer back by making fun of you.
After becoming aware of what was going on, I warned them not to do but it kept managing to creep in, especially when I would step out of the room. I was close to ending the lunchtime rap sessions altogether when I decided upon a different approach one day. I joined in. I wouldn’t normally do that, but desperate times call for desperate measures. As I walked up, one of the boys had the nerve to take a few shots at me, even though they were marginally good-natured. Then he challenged me to rap back at them. He was sure that I was going to decline and maybe yell at them, but by doing that, he would have won in the eyes of the other students. I smiled wryly because they never expected that their old history teacher had spent a lot of timing rapping in his youth. I quickly sent out a few good-natured but verbally intricate shots at them, which caused all the other students to "ooah and aaah." Then I took a few shots at myself to disarm the situation, and finally I launched into a rap about how silly it was to make fun of other people. By the time I was done, it was obvious that I had beaten them at their own game, and in the process shown that they really weren’t very good rappers and that making fun of others was counter-productive. The problem of battle rapping was over and things went back to the good-natured rap.
As I mulled over what Paul is about to do in the next section, I immediately thought of this story, because it is very similar to the mindset that I believe Paul had, and is almost identical to what Paul is about to do. His opponents have been boasting in the way that the world does, in order to exalt themselves, and Paul is about to expose them as frauds, by playing their own game for a brief moment.
These other teachers had blown in to town, and no doubt, seemed quite exciting and authoritative. They were preaching a gospel of self-fulfillment and excitement and appealing to the weaknesses of the Corinthian’s culture. These guys were impressive. They were witty, clever, good speakers, and said that their version of the gospel could deliver on things like health, wealth, and happiness, the types of things that people want to hear. Yet, there was apparently a downside. They were bossy, they demanded a lot of money, and they were rude and dismissive to the people in Corinth. They had put up with quite a bit of foolishness in order to receive the wisdom of these so-called apostles, all because they were so wise, Paul says rather sarcastically. If they would just wake up and take a look, though, they would see that the result has been anything but the freeing power of the true gospel. They have been enslaved, exploited, taken advantage of, and even slapped in the face (Paul is probably speaking metaphorically here, but it is possible that these teachers had actually slapped people in a demeaning fashion, putting them in their ‘place’.)
The Corinthians have allowed themselves to get sucked in by a worldly view of wisdom, one that values things like flash, charisma, and impressive communication skills rather than actually having the blessing of the Holy Spirit upon them and their ministry. Because they have been so willing to engage in this type of foolishness, however, Paul will enter into that realm, if only for a moment. He will, just for a minute, become all things to all men, in order to help them to see not only that his opponents have engaged in a foolish, worldly brand of wisdom and boasting, but also that they really don’t have much to boast about. Even if Paul were to sink down to their level and look at the things that they value, God has allowed him to be more impressive even by human standards. Once Paul has their attention, though, he will turn things around and boast in the very things that his detractors never would. He will boast in his weakness. He will brag about the suffering that he has endured on the behalf of the Messiah. We should be clear that Paul only boasts at their level in verse 22 and 23a. In 23b, he will engage in the type of boasting that would horrify his opponents, by talking of beatings, danger and imprisonment.
What Paul is about to do is not serious biblical teaching; he is quite clear about that. Yet, in a sense, he feels that engaging in this is necessary to expose his opponents so that the real gospel can be recognized and heard. The next passages will make clear that the gospel will shine through even when Paul engages in what he calls foolishness. In 1 Corinthians 1:25, Paul declared that the foolishness of God was wiser than any human wisdom. He is about to show the truth of that in living color.
Devotional Thought
It was a bold move by Paul to engage the world at their level in order to expose their foolishness and demonstrate the differences and the superiority of the true gospel. How many of us would be willing to do the same thing in with our culture?
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