CORINTHIANS
CHAPTER 11
Maintain the simplicity that is in Christ—Satan sends forth false apostles—Paul glories in his sufferings for Christ.
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent [ The serpent Is deprived of its arms and legs symbolizing that it will never be able to rise in full power and might again and its vulnerable head is made easy prey for the foot of man. ] beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.
7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.
12 But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
16 I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.
17 That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.
20 For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.
21 I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.
23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. [ They showed charity as the law called for forty stripes of lashes with the whip and they only gave him 39 each time. In Hebrew numerology means “the amount of time needed to accomplish what needs to be accomplished.” It may be an actual forty days and forty nights, but it is not meant to be taken literally. Examples: It rains for forty days and forty nights; Moses is upon the Mount for forty days and forty nights; Jesus is in the wilderness communing with God for forty days and forty nights; Jonah has to teach the people of Nineveh for forty days and forty nights—each signifying the length of time needed to accomplish what needed to be accomplished. What Was It Like to Be Scourged by the Jews? In Deuteronomy 25:1–3, Moses set down the principle that a guilty man could be lashed forty times. The Jewish rabbis had reduced that to thirty-nine, lest there should be a miscount and he be whipped more than forty times. (Moses warned against exceeding that number, and so the extra caution.) By Paul’s time this had developed into a brutally painful punishment meted out with great precision. To anyone familiar with the Jewish scourging, Paul’s claim that he endured such punishment five times is an impressive claim indeed, for often the victim died under the lashing. Farrar has given us a detailed description of the practice. “Both of [the victim’s] hands were tied to . . . a stake a cubit and a half high. The public officer then tore down his robe until his breast was laid bare. The executioner stood on a stone behind the criminal. The scourge consisted of two thongs, one of which was composed of four strands of calf-skin, and one of two strands of ass’s-skin, which passed through a hole in a handle. . . . The prisoner bent to receive the blows, which were inflicted with one hand, but with all the force of the striker, thirteen on the breast, thirteen on the right, and thirteen on the left shoulder. While the punishment was going on, the chief judge read aloud [Deuteronomy 28:58, 59; 24:9; and Psalms 78:38, 39 which dealt with God’s commandments, the punishment for their nonobservance, and the Lord’s compassion on the sinner] . . . If the punishment was not over by the time that these three passages were read, they were again repeated, and so timed as to end exactly with the punishment itself. Meanwhile a second judge numbered the blows, and a third before each blow exclaimed ‘Hakkehu’ (strike him).” (Farrar, The Life and Works of St. Paul, pp. 715–16.) One cannot help but wonder why Paul would submit to these at the hands of the Jews when he claimed Roman citizenship on other occasions and escaped this dreadful punishment (Acts 22:24–29). Again we turn to Farrar for a possible answer. He says that once a person was so lashed, he was viewed as being fully restored, having paid completely any debt incurred by his wrongdoing. Then Farrar adds: “To have refused to undergo it by sheltering himself under the privilege of his Roman citizenship would have been to incur excommunication, and finally to have cut himself off from admission into the synagogue.” (Farrar, St. Paul, p. 717). As we saw from Acts, Paul’s typical missionary approach was to enter the synagogue and begin preaching. To be cut off from such access would have been a serious curtailment of his efforts. When one undergo such a flogging a second time, after suffering it once, one gets some idea of the extent of Paul’s commitment to Christ. Little wonder that he is peeved by the empty boasting and petty criticism of the false teachers at Corinth! ]
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, [ Namely, at Lystra, Acts 14: 19] thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; [ in some shipwreck not on record; the apostle had most likely saved himself by holding onto a plank, and was a whole day and night on the sea ]
26 In journeyings often, [ As he went to different places in preaching the Gospel] in perils of waters, [both on the sea as well as crossing dangerous rivers] in perils of robbers, [Judea itself, and perhaps every other country, was grievously infested by bandits of this kind; and no doubt the apostle in his frequent peregrinations was often attacked, but, being poor and having nothing to lose, he passed unhurt, though not without great danger. ] in perils by mine own countrymen, [The Jews had the most rooted antipathy to him, because they considered him an apostate from the true faith, and also the means of perverting many others. There are several instances of this in the Acts; and a remarkable conspiracy against his life is related, Acts 23:12,] in perils by the heathen, [In the heathen providences while preaching as is noted in Acts] in perils in the city, [The different conduct or language designed by others to incie rebellion against him; particularly in Jerusalem, to which Ephesus and Damascus may be added. ] in perils in the wilderness, [crossing the wilderness as he went from city to city would have made him subject to cold, heat, wild beasts, hunger, thirst, and other dangers] in perils in the sea, [the dangers of the sea, the narrow seas in which he would have passed along the rough and dangerous coastlines] in perils among false brethren; [Those who joined the church, got close to him while acting as spies to bring insults and accusations upon him]
27 In weariness and painfulness, [One needs to ask himself, if Paul did not have such a testimony how could he have gone thru so much tribulation? wandering as a vagabond, hungry and naked, yet constantly in an effort of teaching and trying to save those who were less fortunate than himself - those without the gospel.] in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. [verses 24-33 so what Did Paul know about suffering? Do you think there is any relationship between the affliction that was heaped upon him, and the power of his ministry and the great wisdom that flowed from the pen of his experience? (Compare 1 Nephi 20:10.)]
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
29 Who is weak, [who in the middle of trials does not get beaten down, maybe discouraged] and I am not weak? who is offended, [those who have left the church - turned away] and I burn not? [ Paul trying to express his testimony, his zeal for the work to get them to change their ways.]
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.