Homily 22 — Second Corinthians 10, verses 7 to 18

“You look at the things that are before your face. If anyone trusts in himself that he belongs to Christ, let him consider this again with himself: that just as he belongs to Christ, so do we.” [a]

Among the other things one may especially admire in Paul is this: when he has fallen into a pressing need to speak highly of himself, he manages both to do it and not to seem offensive to most people because of this talk about himself. We can see this particularly in his Letter to the Galatians. There, having fallen into the same kind of argument, he provides for both points at once — a thing of the very greatest difficulty, which demands much practical wisdom. He is modest, and at the same time he says something great about himself. And notice how here too he makes a great deal of it: “You look at the things that are before your face.”

Look at his practical wisdom here as well. Having rebuked those who deceived them, he did not confine his remarks to them, but leaps away from them to these as well; and he does this constantly. For in truth he lashes not only those who lead others astray, but those who are deceived as well. If he had let them go without calling them to account, they would not so easily have been set right by what was said to the others; they would even have grown very proud, as though no charge could touch them. That is why he lashes them too. And this is not all that is admirable in him; there is also this: he rebukes each party in the way that suits each.

Listen, at least, to what he says to these: “You look at the things that are before your face.” The accusation is no light one; it is the mark of people who are very easily deceived. What he means is this: “You judge by what appears, by things of the flesh, by things of the body.” What does he mean by “what appears”? If someone is rich, if someone is puffed up, if someone is surrounded by many flatterers, if someone says great things about himself, if someone chases after empty glory, if someone puts on a show of virtue without having virtue — that is the meaning of “You look at the things that are before your face.”

“If anyone trusts in himself that he belongs to Christ, let him consider this again with himself, that just as he belongs to Christ, so do we.” He does not want to be forceful at the start; he builds up and comes to a head little by little. But notice how much sharpness and hidden meaning there is here. He shows it by using the words “with himself.” For he says: “Let him not wait to learn this from us, that is, from our rebuking him; let him consider this with himself, that just as he belongs to Christ, so do we.” He does not mean that he belonged to Christ in the same way as the other man did, but this: “Just as he belongs to Christ, so I too belong to Christ. So far the common ground holds. Surely it is not the case that he belongs to Christ while I belong to someone else.” Then, having set down this equality between them, he goes on to add where he surpassed him.

Verse 8: “For even if I should boast somewhat more abundantly about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for pulling you down, I will not be put to shame.”

Since he was about to say something great, notice how he softens it. Nothing offends most hearers so much as someone praising himself. So, to cut this offensiveness off at the root, he says, “For even if I should boast somewhat more abundantly.” He did not say, “If anyone trusts that he belongs to Christ, let him reckon that he falls far short of us. For I hold great authority from him, so that I can punish and kill whomever I choose.” What, then? “For even if I should boast somewhat more abundantly.” And yet he had more than words can tell; nevertheless he lowers it in the way he speaks. He did not say, “I boast,” but “if I should boast” — if I should choose to — at once showing modesty and making his superiority plain. [c]

So he says, “if I should boast about the authority which the Lord gave me.” Again he credits the whole of it to God, and makes the gift a shared one. “For building up, and not for pulling down.” Do you see how he again takes the sting out of the envy his praise of himself might stir up, and wins the hearer over to his side by mentioning the purpose for which he received it?

Then why does he say, “pulling down arguments”? Because this is itself a special kind of building up: removing what stands in the way, exposing what is unsound, and laying what is true together in the building. It was for this purpose, then, that we received it: to build up. But if anyone should spar and do battle with us and prove incurable, we will use that other power as well, destroying and overthrowing him.

That is why he also says, “I will not be put to shame”; that is, I will not be shown up as a liar or a braggart. [d]

Verses 9, 10 and 11: “So that I may not seem as if I wanted to frighten you. For his letters, they say, are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is of no account. Let such a person reckon this: that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we are also in deed when we are present.”

What he means is this: “I could boast, indeed. But so that they may not say the same things again — that I boast in my letters and am contemptible when I am present — I will say nothing great.” And yet later on he did say something great — not about this power by which he inspired fear, but about revelations, and at greater length about his trials. “So that I may not seem to be frightening you, ‘let such a person reckon this: that what we are by letters when we are absent, such we are also in deed when we are present.’”

Since they were saying, “He writes great things about himself, but when he is here in person he is worth nothing,” he says these things — and even these in a moderated form. He did not say, “As we write great things, so when we are present we also do great things,” but put it in more subdued words. When he was addressing the others, he said it with force: “I beg you that when I am present I may not have to show courage with the confidence with which I intend to be bold against some.” But when he addresses these, he is more subdued. So he says, “What we are when present, such we are also when absent” — that is, lowly, modest, boasting nowhere. And this is plain from what follows.

Verse 12: “For we do not dare to number or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves.”

Here he both shows that those false apostles are braggarts who say great things about themselves, and ridicules them for commending themselves. “But we do nothing of the kind. Even if we do anything great, we refer it all to God, and we compare ourselves with one another.” That is why he also added, “But they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves, are without understanding.” What he means is this: “We do not compare ourselves with them, but with one another.” [e]

For further on he says, “In nothing am I behind the very chief apostles” (Second Corinthians 12, verse 11); and in the former letter, “I labored more abundantly than they all” (First Corinthians 15, verse 10); and again, “Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you in all endurance” (Second Corinthians 12, verse 12). “So we compare ourselves with ourselves, not with those who have nothing; for that kind of arrogance comes from folly.”

So either he says this with reference to himself, or with reference to them, meaning: “We do not dare compare ourselves with those who compete with one another, boast of great things, and do not understand” — that is, who do not see how ridiculous they are in being so arrogant, and in exalting themselves among one another.

Verse 13: “But we will not boast beyond our measure” — as they do.

For it is likely that in their boasting they said, “We have converted the world; we have reached the ends of the earth,” and let fly many other big words of that kind. “But not so we,” he says, “but according to the measure of the territory which God assigned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you.” So his humility is plain on both sides: he boasted of nothing more than he had actually done, and he credits even this to God. For he says, “according to the measure of the territory which God assigned to us, a measure to reach even as far as you.” It is just as if someone were parceling out a vineyard to vinedressers; that is how God measured out a share to us. “As far, then, as we have been counted worthy to reach, so far we boast.” [f]

Verse 14: “For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach as far as you; for we came even as far as you in preaching the good news of Christ.”

Not simply “we came,” but “we announced, we preached, we persuaded, we succeeded.” For it is likely that they, having merely come to the apostles’ disciples, claimed the whole work for themselves simply because they were there. “But not so we. No one can say that we were unable to come as far as you, and that we stretched our boasting as far as you in words only; for we preached the word to you ourselves.”

Verses 15 and 16: “Not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but having hope that as your faith grows, we will be made great among you according to our territory, to further abundance, so as to preach the good news even in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another’s territory about things already made ready to our hand.”

He sets out a heavy accusation against them on these grounds: that they boasted of things beyond their measure, and of other men’s labors; and that while the whole of the toil was the apostles’, they preened themselves on those labors. “But we,” he says, “have shown these things in our deeds. So we will not imitate those men, but will say such things only where our deeds bear us witness. And why do I say ‘you’?” he says. “For I have hope that as your faith grows.” He does not state it outright, keeping to his own character, but says instead: “I hope that if you make progress, our territory will be extended even further, ‘to preach the good news in the regions beyond.’ For we will go further yet — to preach and to labor, not to boast in words about what others have labored over.”

And he did well to call it “territory” and “measure,” as though he had come into possession of the world, a rich inheritance, and to show that the whole of it was wholly God’s. “Having such works, then, and expecting greater ones, we do not boast as those do who have nothing; nor do we claim any part for ourselves, but credit the whole to God.” That is why he also adds:

Verse 17: “He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”

“This too,” he says, “comes to us from God.” [g]

Verse 18: “For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”

He did not say, “we are,” but “the one whom the Lord commends.” Do you see how modestly he speaks? If, as he goes on, he stirs up loftier words, do not be surprised; this too comes from Paul’s practical wisdom. If he had kept on speaking humbly throughout, he would not have hit these men so effectively, nor have pulled the disciples out of their error. For it is possible to do harm by modesty at the wrong time, and to do good by saying something admirable about oneself at the right time. And that is what he did. For there was no small danger in the disciples being persuaded into a low opinion of Paul.

Not that Paul was seeking the glory that comes from people. If he had been seeking it, he would not have kept silent so long about those great and wonderful things of “fourteen years ago” (Second Corinthians 12, verse 2); nor, when necessity was laid on him, would he have shrunk back so much and hesitated to speak of them. Very plainly, he would not have spoken even then if he had not been compelled. Certainly, then, it was not out of a desire for the glory that comes from people that he said these things, but out of tender care for the disciples. Because they were throwing it at him that he was a braggart, big in words and able to show nothing in deeds, he is compelled afterward to come to those revelations. At the time he said these things he could have convinced them by his deeds; yet even so he still holds to using threats in words.

For he was more free of empty glory than anyone, and his whole life proves it, both before this and after. For instance, it was because of this that he changed all at once; and having changed, he threw the Jews into confusion and cast away all the honor he had from them, although he himself was their leader and their champion. He took no account of any of that once he had found the truth, but accepted their insults and abuse instead; for he looked to the salvation of the many and counted this everything. The man who thinks nothing of hell, or of heaven, or of ten thousand worlds, compared with his longing for Christ — how could he hunt after the glory that comes from the crowd? By no means. On the contrary, he is very lowly whenever he can be, and he brands his former life with disgrace when he calls himself “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and an insolent man” (First Timothy 1, verse 13). And his disciple Luke, too, tells many things about him, plainly having learned them from Paul himself, and sets out his former life in full no less than his life after he turned.

Now I say these things not so that we may merely listen, but so that we may learn as well. If he remembered those wrongs committed before the washing, even though they had all been wiped away, what forgiveness can we have, who do not remember our own committed after the washing? What are you saying, my friend? You have offended God, and you forget it? This is a second offense, a second hostility. What sins, then, are you asking forgiveness for? Ones you do not even know yourself? No doubt — for is it not so? — you are deeply anxious and thoughtful about how you will give account of them, you who do not even care to remember them, and play with what is no matter for play!

But a time will come when our playing can go on no longer. For we must die — the great dullness of so many forces me to speak even of things that are obvious — and we must rise again, and be judged, and be punished. Or rather, this last need not happen, if we choose. For those other things are not in our own control — our end, our resurrection, our judgment — they are in our Lord’s. But whether we suffer punishment or not is in our own control, for it is one of the things that may happen or may not. If we choose, we will put it among the things that are impossible, just as Paul did, as Peter did, as all the saints did; for it is actually impossible for them to be punished. So if we are willing, it is equally impossible for us to suffer anything. For even if we have offended in ten thousand things, it is possible to recover ourselves as long as we are here.

So let us recover ourselves. Let the old man consider that in a little while he will depart, since he has taken his pleasure long enough in his lifetime — although what kind of pleasure is it to live in wickedness? But for now I am speaking in terms of his own way of thinking. Let him consider, besides, that in a short time he can wash all of it away. And the young man, let him too consider how uncertain death is, and how often, while many older people stayed on here, the young were carried off before them. It is for this very reason that death is left uncertain: so that we would not make a bargain of our death. That is why a certain wise man also advises: “Make no delay in turning to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day; for you do not know what tomorrow will bring” (Sirach 5, verse 7; Proverbs 27, verse 1). For in putting off there is danger and fear, but in not putting off there is salvation, plain and secure.

Hold fast to virtue, then. If you do, even if you depart young, you have departed in safety; and if you reach old age, you will arrive at death with great provision made, and you will have a double feast all your life long: both in keeping away from vice and in laying hold of virtue. Do not say, “A time will come when it will be good to turn back”; this kind of talk provokes God exceedingly. Why so? Because he has promised you countless ages, and you are not even willing to labor during this present life, this short life that lasts only a season. You are so lazy and unmanly that you look for a shorter time even than this. Are not the same revels there every day? Are there not the same banquets, the same prostitutes, the same theaters, the same wealth? How long will you love these things as though they were something? How long will your appetite for evil stay unsatisfied?

Consider that as often as you have committed sexual immorality, so often you have condemned yourself. For this is the nature of sin: the moment it is committed, the Judge has already passed his sentence. Have you been drunk, or gluttonous, or have you robbed? Stop now; turn right around; acknowledge to God that it was a mercy he did not snatch you away in the middle of your sins. Do not look for yet another stretch of time in which to do evil. Many have been snatched away in the middle of their greed and have gone off to open punishment. Be afraid that you too may suffer this, and without excuse.

“But God has given many people a time for confession in extreme old age.” What of it? Will he give it to you as well? “Perhaps he will,” someone says. Why do you say “perhaps,” and “sometimes,” and “often”? Consider that you are deliberating about your soul. Put the opposite case too; reckon it up, and say, “But what if he should not give it?” “But what if he should give it?” he says. God has indeed given it; still, this way of reckoning is safer and more profitable than that one. If you begin now, you have gained everything, whether time is granted you or not; but if you are always putting it off, it may be for that very reason that none is given you.

When you go out to battle, you do not say, “There is no need to make my will; perhaps I will come back safe.” When you are deliberating about marriage, you do not say, “Suppose I take a poor wife; many have become rich even that way, against all expectation.” When you are building a house, you do not say, “Suppose I lay a rotten foundation; many houses have stood even so.” Yet in deliberating about the soul, you lean on things more rotten still, pleading your “perhaps” and “often” and “sometimes,” and you trust yourself to these uncertainties.

“No,” someone says, “not to an uncertainty, but to the mercy of God; for God is merciful.” I know that too. But this same merciful God snatched away the people I spoke of. And what if, after you have been given time, you still go on as you were? For a man of this kind will be listless even in old age. “No,” he says, “not so.” But this way of reasoning, even after eighty years, wants ninety; and after ninety, a hundred; and after a hundred it will be still less inclined to act. And so the whole of life will have been used up for nothing, and what was said of the Jews will happen to you too: “Their days were consumed in futility” (Psalm 78, verse 33). And if only it were in futility alone, and not for evil as well! For when we have gone there carrying the heavy burden of our sins, it will be for evil as well: we will carry away with us fuel for the fire and a rich feast for the worm.

So I beg and implore you to stop at last, as noble people should, and to turn away from wickedness, so that we may also obtain the good things that are promised. May we all attain them, by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might and honor, now and always, and forever and ever. Amen.