2 Corinthians 5:12

We are not again commending ourselves unto you, but speak as giving you occasion of glorying on our behalf, that ye may have wherewith to answer them that glory in appearance, and not in heart.

Throughout this part of this noble epistle, Paul was laying the groundwork for a decisive attack upon his enemies that would be unleashed in 2 Corinthians 10. There is a hint of what is to come here; but for the moment Paul was establishing a few facts with reference to himself, these being: (1) his integrity (2 Corinthians 5:11); (2) the acute need to commend himself (2 Corinthians 5:12); (3) his motivation of doing it all for the sake of the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 5:13); (4) that the love of Christ compelled such action on his part (2 Corinthians 5:14); and (5) that as an ambassador of Christ commissioned to deliver the word of reconciliation to people, the utmost necessity lay upon him to the effect that he should not merely affirm his own credentials but that he should also press an unrelenting attack against the enemies of the truth (2 Corinthians 5:18ff).

Commending ourselves ... "What Paul says is not sell praise; he is only giving his friends in Corinth some facts which they may use in his defense."[19] "Paul had dangerous detractors at Corinth, about whom he will have more to say in 2Cor. 10,2 Corinthians 11."[20] Hughes also was impressed with the overtones of this verse which are a clear indication of "the unity and coherence of this epistle."[21] We join him in the following quotation from Allo:

It is plain as Windisch has well observed, that this as yet vague allusion to a subject which will be treated with such precision and emphasis in the concluding chapters shows that those chapters were not yet written. When they read or hear them, the Corinthians will no longer need that "something by way of rejoinder" should modestly be suggested to them. The eagle is beginning to cast its gaze from on high on the martens and foxes; but the moment has not yet come to swoop down in vertical descent.[22]

Paul could never have written the mild words of this verse if the Corinthians had already received such a forthright and devastating exposure of Paul's enemies as that contained in 2Cor. 10,2 Corinthians 11. Thus, the notion (and it is only that) of those chapters being a fragment of a lost "severe letter" Paul had delivered to Corinth in the interval between the two canonical epistles cannot be logically supported. As this mighty epistle moved to its climax, the holy passions of the matchless apostle gradually reached a plateau of inspiration, from which, with a vigor unsurpassed in scripture, he unleashed the full powers of his righteous anger against those emissaries of the devil who were opposing his work in Corinth.

Them that glory in appearance ... The false teachers were boasting of certain external advantages, probably their wealth or social standing; but "in heart" they were wolves in sheep's clothing.

[19] Raymond C. Kelcy, op. cit., p. 34.

[20] R. V. G. Tasker, op. cit. p. 84.

[21] Philip E. Hughes, Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), p. 189.

[22] Ibid.