19Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening. 20For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 21I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
2 Corinthians 13
Final Warnings
1This will be my third visit to you. "Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." 2I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent: On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others, 3since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. 4For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you.
Dig Deeper
The young Bible teacher spent two hours on the phone with a young man struggling in his faith. It was at least the fifth time they had had such a conversation. The young man had become a Christian but now he was struggling with the temptations of the world and the pull to give up the demanding walk of a disciple. Specifically, he had come upon some other teachers who began to teach him some false doctrines. He had once admired and been quite close to the teacher who helped him become a Christian, but now he was becoming increasingly critical of his one-time teacher. These other teachers seemed so impressive and seemed to make so much sense. So, each time they talked, they spent some time talking about doctrine and what the Bible said, but they spent more time talking about the validity of the teachers. The Bible teacher spent a great deal of time trying to convince this young man that what he had taught him from the very beginning was valid. He wasn’t particularly comfortable with talking about himself and how God had used him, but he felt it was necessary in order for the young man to see that he was getting dangerously close to walking away from the truth and following false teachers. After quite some time and many conversations, the young man realized that his teacher had been presenting the true gospel to him all along. What really surprised the young man was when he realized that the teacher had never been defending himself or his teachings from a worldly point of view to validate himself or keep his ministry from shrinking. Rather, he was taking all of that extra time in meeting with and talking to the young man for his benefit, to strengthen him so that he would remain secure in Christ.
This is exactly the reasoning Paul gives for what he has been doing in this letter. He hasn’t been doing all of this boasting and defending for his own sake. Everything he has done, he has done because of who he is in Christ and to strengthen the Corinthians. All of the time, energy, struggles, abuse, humility, worry, and effort has been for their sake so that they might not be fooled by the false apostles and teachers.
We might have thought based on some of Paul’s earlier statements that all of the problems between Paul and Corinth have been dealt with (particularly 2 Cor. 7:5-16), but that doesn’t seem to be the complete story. Paul says that he is afraid of what he will find when arrives. So which is it? Does Paul have confidence in their repentance or is he still worried about them? The truth is probably that both statements are true. Paul knew human nature quite well and he knew that what someone truly believed and intended to act upon one day, might change drastically the next day if they weren’t careful. No doubt, Paul has every confidence that the majority has turned back to him and his apostolic ministry but he also knows that the teachers who caused all of the problems are still around and people might be susceptible to being fooled again if they’re not careful. Just because the church declared and even demonstrated their loyalty to Paul does not mean, by any stretch, that all of the sin and problems disappeared over night. His fear is that there will still be evidence of the type of sins that he lists in v. 20.
We should note that Paul has already made it quite clear that he sees the true apostles as a type of Moses and what has been happening to him to him in Corinth had many analogies and parallels to Korah’s rebellion. Korah and his followers began to quarrel with Moses due to their jealousy (Ps. 106:16-18). In there insolent rebellion they certainly had outbursts of anger against Moses and tried to create factions among the people. Korah boldly engaged in slander against Moses (Num. 16:3, 13-14) and according to Jewish tradition, he questioned Moses’ role as the revelatory mediator between God and the Israelites (cf. Philo, On the Life of Moses 2.176-177, 278). As we continue through the list of gossip, arrogance, and disorder we realize that not only is Paul talking about very real potential sins in Corinth, he is also, once again, drawing a parallel between his situation with the false apostles and the situation between Moses and Korah. When they rebel against Paul, they are rebelling in the Spirit of Korah.
Paul still has some apprehensions, then, that when he does come, despite the encouraging signs to this point, things will turn out more like his painful second visit. It is clear that Paul will not continue to be as patient as he has been. If he does find any situations like those that had existed in the past, he will deal with things swiftly. What does he mean though when, in quoting Deuteronomy 19:15, he says that “Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses”? Paul probably does not intend to say that each of his visits have counted as a separate witness against them, and that this is now the third one required by the law. No, the issue to which Paul is referring is his own apostolic authority not whether or not they have sinned. When Paul comes into his God-given apostolic territory, they will be judged if they fail to accept his apostolic authority by questioning whether or not Christ is speaking and working through him. It is probable, then, that the witnesses to whom he refers would be himsef (2 Cor. 1:12); God the Father (2 Cor. 1:23), and to Jesus who made a similar defense of his own questioned authority (John 8:12-20). Those who continue to question Paul and his ministry will not be spared this time around. Presumably, Paul is referring to the type of church discipline that he prescribed in 1 Corinthians 5. If the troublemakers persist in questioning Paul, they will find themselves on the outside of the Christian community looking in.
So, how can we today distinguish between grumbling against the true leader of God and righteously standing up against a false teacher or someone who is damaging a flock? What is the line between righteous opposition and ungodly rebellion? The answers to that are not generally as clear and easy as we would like. It often takes a great deal of prayer and discernment in the midst of specific situations. Yet, I think we can find some important clues in Paul’s behavior to help us determine how we should act in many situations. The false teachers sounded good and were flattering, but they do not seem to have personally sacrificed for the benefit of the congregation. They claimed to teach the truth, but all of their actions benefited themselves with no apparent evidence of personal sacrifice. Paul, on the other hand, acted constantly in their best interests rather than his own. Jesus had said that we would be able to recognize his true disciples in the fact that they loved others with the self-sacrificing kind of love that he had demonstrated. It is in this that we can, in many situations, begin to clearly see who is really acting on God’s behalf (although it is important to realize that it does often take a great deal of wisdom and discernment in difficult situations to determine who is really demonstrating this kind of Christly love, and it is possible in rare situations that both parties are acting self-sacrificially, but in those cases, resolution will usually come quickly).
Paul will come to them in the same sort of strange mixture of weakness and power that we see on display in the life of Christ. The Messiah was crucified in weakness, yet was resurrected by the power of God. Paul is weak because he is in Christ; the Corinthians have already seen that side of Paul and didn’t particularly care for it. Yet, Paul is also quite strong when he needs to be, precisely because he is in Christ and has the power of God in the Messiah in his life as well. By God’s power, Paul will come to serve the Church in Corinth, but he wants to give them just one more reminder that if they continue in their worldly ways, he will be forced to serve them in the power of God by brining judgment upon them.
Devotional Thought
We often find it difficult to strike the balance between weakness and strength that Paul did. We either want to treat others in Christ in a tyrannical fashion, never demonstrating the love and humility of Christ, or we become complete doormats, never allowing the power of Christ to become evident in our lives. To which extreme do you more often tend to drift to? How can you find a godly balance between those two extremes?
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