2 Corinthians 10: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul appeals to the Corinthians about his own authority, answering critics who say he is bold in his letters but weak in person. He says his weapons are not human ones but have power from God to tear down strongholds, arguments, and every proud claim raised against the knowledge of God. He refuses to compare himself with people who measure themselves by themselves, and says he boasts only within the area of work God assigned him, which included bringing the gospel to Corinth. He hopes to preach further out, and closes with the rule that whoever boasts should boast in the Lord, since approval comes from the Lord's commendation, not one's own.

Claim by Claim

1. 10:1
   • Paul appeals to the Corinthians.
   • Paul makes the appeal by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
   • Paul is lowly when present face to face among them.
   • Paul is bold toward them when he is absent.
2. 10:2
   • Paul asks that when he is present he may not have to be bold with the confidence he expects to use.
   • Paul reckons on being bold against certain people.
   • Those people regard Paul and his companions as walking according to the flesh.
3. 10:3
   • We walk in the flesh.
   • We do not wage war according to the flesh.
4. 10:4
   • The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly.
   • The weapons of our warfare are powerful through God for the demolishing of strongholds.
5. 10:5
   • We tear down reasonings.
   • We tear down every high thing raised up against the knowledge of God.
   • We take every thought captive into obedience to Christ.
6. 10:6
   • We are ready to punish every act of disobedience.
   • That punishment awaits the time when your obedience is complete.
7. 10:7
   • The verse can be read either as a question or a statement or a command about looking at what is before the face; the Greek does not settle which.
   • The Corinthians are looking at outward appearance.
   • If anyone is confident in himself that he belongs to Christ, he should consider this again about himself.
   • Just as such a person belongs to Christ, so also do we belong to Christ.
8. 10:8
   • Paul might boast somewhat more about the authority he and his companions have.
   • The Lord gave that authority.
   • The authority was given for building up the Corinthians.
   • The authority was not given for tearing the Corinthians down.
   • Paul will not be ashamed for such boasting.
9. 10:9
   • Paul does not want to seem to be frightening the Corinthians by his letters.
10. 10:10
    • They say that Paul's letters are weighty and strong.
    • They say that his bodily presence is weak.
    • They say that his speech is of no account.
11. 10:11
    • Such a person should consider this.
    • What we are in word by letters when absent, that we will also be in deed when present.
12. 10:12
    • We do not dare to class or compare ourselves with certain people who commend themselves.
    • Those people measure themselves by themselves.
    • Those people compare themselves with themselves.
    • Those people are without understanding.
13. 10:13
    • We will not boast beyond measure.
    • We will boast according to the measure of the assigned sphere God apportioned to us.
    • That measure reaches as far as the Corinthians.
14. 10:14
    • We are not overextending ourselves as though we did not reach as far as you.
    • We came as far as you with the gospel of Christ.
15. 10:15
    • We do not boast beyond measure in other men's labors.
    • We have hope that as your faith grows we will be enlarged among you according to our assigned sphere, abundantly.
16. 10:16
    • The purpose is to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.
    • The purpose is not to boast in another man's sphere about things already prepared.
17. 10:17
    • The one who boasts is to boast in the Lord.
18. 10:18
    • The one who commends himself is not the approved one.
    • The one whom the Lord commends is the approved one.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

10:1

"Base" in 1611 English meant lowly or of low standing, with no suggestion of anything shameful. Paul is picking up the taunt his opponents make about him, that face to face he is unimpressive and yielding while his letters from a safe distance are forceful. "Meekness and gentleness" render two Greek words describing someone who does not throw his weight around and who is willing to give way rather than press his rights.

10:2

"Walk" is a standard biblical idiom for the whole conduct of a life, not for physical walking. "Flesh" in Paul's letters usually means human nature working from its own resources and motives, so the charge against him is that he operates by ordinary self interest and ordinary methods.

10:3

The Greek uses the same word twice for effect: we walk "in flesh," meaning we live as physical human beings, but we do not wage war "according to flesh," meaning by merely human methods. English has to split the one word two ways, which is what the rendering does.

10:4

"Carnal" is 1611 English for "of the flesh," meaning merely human, and carries no sexual sense here. From this verse through verse 6 the picture is a military siege: an army breaking down the walls of a fortified town, leveling its high defenses, and marching the population off afterward.

10:5

"Imaginations" in 1611 English meant reasonings or arguments, not daydreams. "Every high thing" continues the siege picture, a high wall or tower that has to come down. "Bringing into captivity" is what a victorious army did with a conquered population: leading them away as prisoners of war.

10:6

"Revenge" in 1611 English meant to impose justice or exact a penalty, without the modern sense of a private grudge. Paul is speaking of the disciplinary action he could take when he arrives.

10:7

The Greek of the opening sentence can be read three ways, and translators divide over it: as a question ("Are you looking only at the surface?"), as a flat statement ("You are looking at the surface"), or as a command ("Look at what is plainly in front of you"). The rendering takes the second, but the other two remain possible.

10:8

"Boast" translates a Greek word covering both taking pride in something and saying so out loud. It is not automatically a fault, and Paul uses it in both senses across this letter. "Edification" is literally "building up," a construction word that answers the demolition language of verse 4.

10:9

Letters were read aloud to the whole congregation when they arrived, so a letter from Paul worked as a public speech delivered in his absence. That is why his critics can compare the letters directly with his performance in person.

10:10

In the Greek and Roman world a public teacher was judged largely on delivery: voice, bearing, physical impressiveness, and trained rhetorical skill. "Weighty and powerful" was standard praise for an effective speaker, and "contemptible" here translates a dismissive phrase meaning worth nothing, the verdict a trained audience passed on an amateur.

10:12

Commending yourself, or carrying letters of recommendation from respected people, was the ordinary way a traveling teacher established his credentials. Paul is refusing to play that game. The Greek of the second half piles up forms of "themselves" over and over, so the sentence itself sounds like the closed circle it describes.

10:13

"Rule" translates the Greek word kanon, a measuring rod or surveyor's line, and by extension the marked out area assigned to someone. From here to verse 16 the image is of assigned territory with boundary lines, and Paul's claim is that Corinth falls inside the lines given to him.

10:14

Being first to arrive mattered because it was widely accepted that whoever founded a community had a standing there that later arrivals did not. Paul is not boasting about speed; he is saying the Corinthians are his own work, not a place he has muscled into.

10:15

Taking credit for "other men's labours" is the specific accusation Paul is turning back on his rivals: they arrived after the church existed and built their reputation on ground someone else had cleared. The hope in the second half is practical. If the Corinthians mature, he can stop firefighting there and push the mission further out.

10:16

"Another man's line" is the surveying word again: the boundary of someone else's allotted district. "Things made ready to our hand" means work another person had already finished before Paul got there.

10:17

A loose quotation of Jeremiah 9:24. "Glorieth" and "glory" here translate the same Greek word the King James renders "boast" earlier in the chapter; the English varies but the word does not.

10:18

"Approved" translates a word used of metal or coinage that has been tested and passed as genuine. "Commend" belongs to the language of formal recommendation, so the question in view is who has the standing to issue the credential.