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Paul now moves on to begin a defense against a complaint leveled by the Corinthians. They charged his with being unreliable or untrustworthy because he did not keep his plan to visit Corinth. Paul rebuts that. He acted with sincerity and on judgment day both will be proud of each other when their mutual sincerity is proven.
Paul did mean what he said. He wanted to visit and intended to. He is Christ's ambassador and "the reliability of Christ who puts the divine promises into effect is reflected in the reliability of his apostle."[1] God is faithful and that should be good enough for the Corinthians since Paul is his authorized ambassador.[2] God anointed him for this work, and gave them both the Spirit as a guarantee of God's grace, a continuation of the grace they had already seen through Paul. Thus, they should trust Paul's sincerity because God's has already been demonstrated.
The goal of his visit was to be uplifting to the Corinthians, to bring them joy. However, if he had come he would have had to chastise them. So, he was not inconsistent, because it was not possible for him to have the type of visit that he had originally intended. None of this implies superiority on the part of Paul, he is carrying out his commissioned role to serve the Corinthians and bring them the joy of the Lord and this was the way to do it.
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[1] Thrall p. 136.
[2] As Matera notes, Paul doesn't give excuses as one might expect.
Paul now moves on to begin a defense against a complaint leveled by the Corinthians. They charged his with being unreliable or untrustworthy because he did not keep his plan to visit Corinth. Paul rebuts that. He acted with sincerity and on judgment day both will be proud of each other when their mutual sincerity is proven.
Paul did mean what he said. He wanted to visit and intended to. He is Christ's ambassador and "the reliability of Christ who puts the divine promises into effect is reflected in the reliability of his apostle."[1] God is faithful and that should be good enough for the Corinthians since Paul is his authorized ambassador.[2] God anointed him for this work, and gave them both the Spirit as a guarantee of God's grace, a continuation of the grace they had already seen through Paul. Thus, they should trust Paul's sincerity because God's has already been demonstrated.
The goal of his visit was to be uplifting to the Corinthians, to bring them joy. However, if he had come he would have had to chastise them. So, he was not inconsistent, because it was not possible for him to have the type of visit that he had originally intended. None of this implies superiority on the part of Paul, he is carrying out his commissioned role to serve the Corinthians and bring them the joy of the Lord and this was the way to do it.
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[1] Thrall p. 136.
[2] As Matera notes, Paul doesn't give excuses as one might expect.
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