Useful Bible Studies > 2 Corinthians Commentary > chapter 10
Some people had come to teach in the church at Corinth. These teachers wanted to impress the people there and so to gain authority over the church. So, they (the teachers) constantly compared themselves with each other. They spoke proudly about how far they had travelled to teach at the churches.
Paul had travelled further than them, but he did not want to speak like that. Rather, he considered it his duty to keep inside the limits that God had given to him. He did not want to go beyond the regions where God was sending him to work. To travel further would not be a great thing, as those teachers thought. Rather, the person who did that would not be obeying God.
However, Paul was glad to record how far God had sent him. Paul was one of the first Christians to reach Corinth, which was a great city. It was at the limit of how far the gospel (God’s message about Christ) had reached. Perhaps only the church at Rome was further away from the first Christian churches in Judea. Paul did not then know that very many people would become Christians in Corinth. He did not know about the wonderful things that God would do there. He simply went to obey God; and then God approved of Paul’s work in the most wonderful way*.
Paul considered himself a servant of God*. God gives to each of his servants their proper tasks to carry out in his work*. A servant who carries out someone else’s tasks is not obeying his master. However, Paul had not gone further than God had sent him. God had given Paul authority even in Corinth*. So Paul was not speaking too proudly when he used that authority. He was simply obeying God in the work that God had given to him.
Next part: The desire to do God’s work in another place (10:15-16)
* See complete article for these Bible references.
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