In our studies in 1 Corinthians, we saw that Paul had been pretty tough on the Christians in Corinth about their need to correct a lot that was wrong in the church. This included theological error, selfishness, their relationships with God and with each other, and even problems with chaos in their meetings and gluttony and drunkenness at their fellowship meals.
Last week, we discussed the overall direction of the book of 2 Corinthians, in which Paul expresses his pleasure that many of the problems in Corinth were taken care of because of his instructions to them. His opening paragraphs also deal with assurances of comfort and care from God amid the sufferings of Christians and the church. He assures them that God cares for them and comforts them directly and through other Christians who also have suffered.
In our passage today, Paul deals with a lingering problem in the relationship between him and the Corinthian church. While they had made great changes and had heeded Paul’s advice and instruction, there was some lingering doubt or resentment by some in Corinth against Paul. The resentment surfaced in the reaction of those people to Paul’s change in his travel plans. He also gives advice about forgiving a member who had been disciplined by the church and who now was repentant.
From the tone of the entire letter, it is obvious that the church by and large had taken Paul’s instruction to heart and had experienced the positive changes that resulted. They were in general grateful Paul had been so frank with them, because the church had progressed from its bickering and chaos to more Christlikeness.
But there was still some unrest among some of the people. This is a human reaction. Nowhere in the text does Paul tell us who, but we can surmise that there were still some hurt feelings among some of the people, perhaps the some of the leaders of the bickering factions who harbored some hurt or resentful feelings because Paul had so shown them so clearly that they were in error.
Human pride and hurt are hard to deal with, as everyone has experienced. When I have been wrong about something and have been corrected, I may fully accept the correction, but I still may feel embarrassed or somewhat uncomfortable about what I had said or done. Our human side looks for ways to feel better about our words and actions, because we know the people around us remember them, and we often feel they are still judging us because of them.
Paul’s change of travel plans evidently gave some people in the church an excuse to criticize and accuse Paul. In their human reaction to the correction they had received from Paul, some members wanted to use his change of travel plans to criticize Paul and thus have some measure of self-justification. Evidently, they were critical of Paul for not following through on his earlier travel plans, and said Paul had not been honest or forthright with them. Remember, it has been only a few months since they received his first scolding letter. I imagine there were still some hurt feelings, some measure of resentment, and some who still harbored defiance or hard feelings.
Here is the problem. Paul had first told them he planned to leave Ephesus, travel to Macedonia, then Corinth, and then on to Jerusalem, taking with him the contributions from the churches to the Christians in Judea. After writing his first letter to the Corinthians, however, he changed his plan, telling them that he would come to Corinth first when he left Ephesus, go from there to Macedonia, and then return for a second visit to Corinth before going on to Jerusalem. His actual itinerary, however, had him leaving Ephesus and traveling to Corinth for a short visit (Paul calls this a painful visit; see 2 Cor 2:1), and then returning to Ephesus, proceeding to Troas (2:12), and then to Macedonia, from where he wrote 2 Corinthians (7:5). He did not plan to make a second visit to Corinth.
Remember that it could take weeks to communicate over distances in the first century. There was no government mail service, no telephones, no email. The Corinthian church had one expectation, and when Paul changed his plans, there was no way to quickly communicate the change to Corinth.
The change in plans prompted the accusation from some of the people in the Corinthian church that Paul had not been honest with them. They were relying on him to follow through with the itinerary he had given them, and they seemed to dislike and even resent the change. It doesn’t take much imagination to guess that some may have voiced the opinion that Paul had intended all along not to do what he said he would do, and that he was therefore dishonest and deceptive with the church.
Paul defended his decisions and his actions in the passage we are studying today, and in doing so, he gives us some principles for acting with integrity.
1. Always Act With Pure Motives
In verse 12, Paul says he acted out of pure motives or integrity: Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God.
Paul is addressing the issue head-on. He is telling them there was no hidden motives or unspoken agendas in his actions. In changing his plans, he acted with purity and integrity. Even though he had told them his intentions to do one thing, and then changed his plans, he had not been insincere or dishonest; he had merely made the change because it was a change for the better.
There is some question about the word that is translated holiness in this verse. Two groups of manuscripts (Western & Byzantine) show the Greek word for integrity is used here, while another textual tradition (Alexandrian) shows the word holiness. The NIV translators have used the Alexandrian textual evidence. You’ll remember from earlier Bible studies that there are some instances in the Bible where a copier’s error may have influenced a whole family of copies of the Scripture, but all of these variations found in centuries of study are relatively minor. There were no printing presses in the early centuries of the church, and copies of manuscripts were made by hand. One practice to reproduce manuscripts was that a number of copiers would be together and make copies as someone read a manuscript aloud. The Greek words for holiness and integrity are very similar in pronunciation, and this may be the source of the differences in families of texts.
I bring this up for two reasons. First, there are some differences in families of texts, and translators have to make decisions about which is the more accurate rendering. That’s why you will sometimes see a footnote in your Bible giving a possible alternate translation of a word. Where there is a footnote, the translators indicate a possible alternate word. The second reason I bring this up is that none of the variances in the texts involves a casts doubt on any essential or important theological truth. When you hear or read a critic of our faith citing there are errors in the Bible, it is these minor variants he refers to. None of them affect any truth of Christian doctrine. The difference in meaning in this instance--holiness or integrity--is not a crucial issue. Both express that Paul was acting with purity or honesty in his actions.
The principle for us in verse 12 is that our actions should come from pure motives. Paul changed his plans, but his motivations for doing so were pure and honest. He concludes he had acted with integrity or holiness in making his decision. He asked himself the same question we should ask ourselves. When I am struggling in a relationship with another person, or when there is a controversy of some kind, I should examine my motives. Are they selfish or dishonest? Or are my motives pure?
2. Always Act With A Godly Purpose
Paul gives a second reason for his change of plans in the latter part of verse 12: We have done so not according to worldly wisdom, but according to God’s grace.
Paul points out here that changing his mind about his travel plans served a higher purpose. In other words, it was a better decision. It was not arbitrary or to serve some worldly or selfish purpose, but a superior plan in the grace of God for the Corinthians.
We have to do a little digging and reasoning to understand Paul’s point. His change of plans had a purpose. He had visited them at some time in recent months, after his first letter to them, and it was a painful time, presumably for him and for the church. He alludes to this visit in 2 Cor 2:1.
The people in the church at Corinth, at least some of them, needed more time . . . time to concentrate of making things right in the church according to Paul’s instructions in his first letter . . . time for personal feelings to heal . . . time to complete the church disciplinary steps he wanted them to conduct against rebelling and sinning members. We are not sure what all was going on in Corinth, but Paul’s visit to them after his first letter was not pleasant and evidently stirred up ill feelings or controversy.
Whatever the specifics of the situation, Paul cancelled his next visit according to God’s grace. He did it for their good. He was not snubbing them or refusing to return to them because of ill feelings. He was showing God’s grace to them by not returning, which he explains further in verse 23: I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.
Occasionally, we, too, are called on to change a decision or a plan when such a change might not make sense according to purely secular reasoning. But in light of relationships in Christ or in furthering the cause of Christ, it makes perfect sense, because the change best reflects God’s grace. It is difficult to come up with examples that closely parallel Paul’s situation in this instance. In our decision-making, we are called to be like Paul and reflect the grace of God.
3. Always Be Truthful with Others
Perhaps the charge of being deceptive is the one which affected Paul most. Here is how he responded to it: For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Again, we have to do some surmising to ferret out the accusation which Paul was answering. I see two possible accusations he is responding to in verses 13 to 22.
First, it appears that his detractors in Corinth used his change of travel plans to accuse him of simply not being truthful in anything he had told them or written to them. Paul felt it necessary to point out that he had not written anything to them that could not be read and understood--that is, he was always truthful with them. The doctrines he had emphasized in 1 Corinthians, along with the steps they were to take to correct the problems in the church, were all true, accurate, and understandable. There were no hidden agendas. Even those things they didn’t completely understand (or, more likely, may have found hard to accept) were true. Full understanding and acceptance would come with spiritual maturity.
Second, Paul really had intended to make a second visit to Corinth when he told them that was his plan. But he changed his mind for their benefit. He did not deceive them, because that was his intention before he changed his plans. His yes means yes, and his no means no. Despite his change of plans and the reaction of some people to him because of it, his word and his promises are as true and dependable as God’s word and God’s promises.
Paul acted out of pure motives, he changed his plans because the change served a higher purpose, and he reminded the Corinthians that they had always known him to be truthful. He was able to tell them these because they really did know him well. When he had first arrived in Corinth to preach and establish a church there, he had stayed with them for 18 months (see Acts 18:1-18). He had lived with them, worshipped with them, and they knew him very well from observing him over those 18 months. People who know you best know your character.
It is almost out of character for the Corinthians to have taken exception to his change of travel plans and leveled accusations against his integrity and truthfulness. It was on his good reputation with the Christians in Corinth that Paul relies to answer the accusations.
We should be able to take a similar stand when faced with questions about our motives, our serving God rather than serving the world, and our integrity. Regardless of what someone may think about a specific decision or action, our Christlike witness should be so strong that we need to merely remind those who criticize us that we always act with pure motives, we serve the Savior in Whom we believe, and that our lives are characterized by truth and integrity in what we say and what we do.
