Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 2 Corinthians 11
Key Verse
2 Corinthians 11:17 — “That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.”
Devotional Thought
Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, and he is on the defensive—though he would rather not be. False teachers have slipped into the congregation, men who boast of Hebrew pedigree and apostolic credentials, and the Corinthians have begun to admire them. So Paul, almost against his own instincts, takes up the foolishness of self-defense. He calls it folly even as he does it. He is jealous, he says, with a godly jealousy, because he has betrothed this church to one husband, Christ, and he fears that the serpent who beguiled Eve will beguile them too—away from “the simplicity that is in Christ.”
What follows is one of the most staggering resumes in all of Scripture, and it is a resume of suffering. Five times forty lashes save one. Three times beaten with rods. Once stoned. Three shipwrecks. A night and a day adrift in the deep. Perils of waters, robbers, countrymen, heathen, cities, wilderness, sea, false brethren. Weariness, hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness. And pressing on him daily, the care of all the churches. He even ends with an escape so undignified it is almost comic—let down through a window in a basket to flee the governor of Damascus. This is the man the Corinthians are tempted to dismiss as “rude in speech.”
We are in February now, the bleak stretch of winter when the year feels long and resolutions have worn thin. It is a season that can teach us something about Paul. His authority was not built on charisma or comfort; it was forged in hardship faithfully endured. The false apostles looked impressive and cost nothing. Paul looked weak and had scars to show for his love. And he insists that this is the true pattern—that Satan himself transforms into an angel of light, and his ministers into ministers of righteousness, so the church must learn to tell the difference between polish and sacrifice.
Notice, too, the tenderness beneath the boasting. “Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?” He is not defending his reputation for its own sake. He is defending the gospel’s simplicity and the flock he loves. When he glories, he glories in his infirmities, because there the power of Christ rests upon him. That is a strange arithmetic the world cannot compute, and it is the arithmetic of the cross.
Reflection
- The Corinthians were drawn to teachers who impressed them but cost them nothing. Where in your own life are you tempted to prefer what looks impressive over what is faithful, sacrificial, and true?
- Paul boasted in his weaknesses and hardships rather than hiding them. What would it look like for you to speak honestly about your own infirmities as a place where Christ’s strength is shown?
Prayer
Father, we thank You for the apostle Paul, who loved Your church enough to suffer for her and to boast only in his weakness. Guard our minds, we pray, from the subtle corruption that draws us away from the simplicity that is in Christ. Give us discernment to recognize false light, and humility to love the truth even when it costs us. When we are weary, hungry, or afraid, remind us that Your strength is made perfect in our infirmities. Keep us faithful in small and hidden things, and let our lives, like Paul’s, point always to the Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.