by Scot McKnight
The Paul of the letters to the Corinthians is a vulnerable Paul with emotions and transparency. Read the following lines, mostly from 2 Corinthians, from Paul carefully. As you do, let your imagination seek an image of his face. What did it look like as he said these words, as his words matched his emotions, as he rehearsed his experiences and responses? As you read these verses, you may not be able to resist making the face you imagine he had. Go ahead, no one’s looking.
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To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. (1 Corinthians 4:11)
. . . about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:8–9)
For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you. . . . Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. (2:4, 12–13)
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (4:8–9)
Make room for us in your hearts. (7:2)
Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? (11:28–29)
Paul was no stiff. He was an emotional man who cared deeply whether the Corinthians liked him or not. Homeless and without food at times; tested to the limit in confronting a possible martyrdom; full of “distress and anguish of heart and with many tears”; unable to preach the gospel because of anxiety over news about the Corinthians; pleading with them to love him; and full of pressure about all his churches.
Is this the Paul you picture when you think of Paul?
Lots of people make disparaging remarks about this man. I suspect they have not read him carefully enough. My own attitude toward Paul mirrors my attitude toward the pastors of our family and churches, the leaders I have known. I respect them; I disagree with them; I get irritated. But I know they love us, they are doing their best, and no pastor and no apostle is perfect. A recent email I read from a pastor mentioned having “1,000 bosses.” Paul knew that experience, too.
In the letter of 2 Corinthians, you will meet the real Paul. His relationship with the Corinthians was not a happy one. At least not all the time. He’s transparent about it, more than he even perhaps realized.
2 Corinthians is part of the New Testament Everyday Bible Study Series:
Scot McKnight is Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lisle, Illinois. He is the author of more than eighty books, including the award-winning The Jesus Creed as well as The King Jesus Gospel, A Fellowship of Differents, One.Life, The Blue Parakeet, and Kingdom Conspiracy. He maintains an active blog at www.christianitytoday.com/scot-mcknight. He and his wife, Kristen, live in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, where they enjoy long walks, gardening, and cooking.
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