2 Corinthians 11:16-33 Study Guide: How Our Weakness highlights the Gospel

Community Group Study Guide — How our Weakness Highlights the Gospel

2 Corinthians 11:16-33

Study Information:

Is weakness an asset in our lives? On surface level many of us would say “no." Typically we want to be physically stronger, more emotionally resilient and independent. Feeling weak is uncomfortable. Our culture has also put a pressure on many of us to be successful and competent in everything. What makes someone successful? Is it a life of comfort, financial security, emotional stability or something else? What if God’s plan for you life included a lot of suffering, hardship and vulnerability. What would “success” look like in that scenario or would that kind of life be unsuccessful in general? The false teachers in Corinth criticized Paul for how much he suffered and saw it as a reason for why he was not called by God. They emphasized was a veneer or image of strength and put pressure on the Corinthians to be powerful, wealthy and influential and to avoid things that would make them uncomfortable and by doing so they minimized the gospel message. Core to the gospel is that we are people in need of God and that God has responded to our sin by sending his son who embraced humility and human weakness becoming like his creation in order to save us. Paul wanted the Corinthians and us to understand that our suffering and weakness are key to faithfully following Christ and that our genuine weakness shows the gospel more than our pretend strength.

Pretend Strength

2 Corinthians 11:16-21

This section of the letter is often called “the fool’s speech,” where Paul took a common speech style in the ancient world and turned on its head. It may sound funny to us today but powerful men in the ancient world would boast about their accomplishments even citing specific numbers of times they were triumphant. Augustus in his Res Gestae had this line: "Twice I received triumphal ovations. Three times I received curule triumphs. Twenty times and one did I receive the appellation of imperator.” We may see this kind of speech during political campaign seasons, but other than that this kind of thing would make many of us cringe. Yet, the false teachers in Corinth were “boasting in the flesh.” So Paul adopted a similar boast, but he will boast in what made him dependent on God.

Before he began his “fool’s speech” Paul made it clear that the false teachers were selfish and used the Corinthians to make themselves stronger and more influential. Paul gave them five warnings. First the false teachers wanted to make the Corinthians slaves again and keep them stuck in sin. Second, they devoured them. This is a word that meant to eat ravenously or consuming. Third, the false teachers took advantage of them, which has the idea of stealing or robbing someone blind. Fourth, they “put on airs,” basically exalting themselves at the expense of the Corinthians. Finally, they struck them in the face which was an image of humiliation. Ultimately the Corinthians were “bearing with fools,” and were being harmed spiritually, physically and financially because of it.

Genuine Weakness

2 Corinthians 11:22-29

Paul did something incredibly uncomfortable, he boasted about himself but with a twist rather than celebrating his accomplishments he celebrated how God used his personal suffering and weakness to magnify the gospel. The speech started with “credentials” that matched these false teachers. He was a Hebrew, an Israelite, an offspring of Abraham and a servant of Christ… but he was a better one! Then Pauls shifted to his “Jesus resume.”

First, Paul boasted in his sufferings. He experienced hard work, imprisonment, countless beatings and often near death. In fact Paul was near death 11 times, according to verse 24-25, for his work as a minister of the gospel. He detailed those situations with great specificity and this is where his speech matched the Res Gestae, Five times he received lashes from the Jews, three times beaten with rods, once pummeled with stones, three times shipwrecked and adrift a night and a day at sea. We can imagine Paul using a voice of mock triumph with this since no one would have celebrated this in the ancient world.

Second, Paul listed the dangers he faced in his call to serve Christ. He journeyed frequently and faced danger from rivers, robbers, his own people, gentiles, danger in the city, wilderness and at sea, and finally danger from false brothers. This last danger was the most pressing danger to the Corinthians and was saved for the end to emphasize their situation.

Finally, Paul listed his general human needs and weakness. He experienced toil and hardship, meaning that work was just hard. Like many of us, he had sleepless nights. This service to Christ also included going hungry and thirsty when food and water were scarce. Paul also experienced cold and exposure. Things were not comfortable and climate controlled! Finally, the most pressing human weakness Paul experienced was his own anxiety and stress for the church. Anxiety can be a sinful thing when we allow real concern and pressure to turn into a sinful catastrophizing of things or we allow it to ruminate around our minds that leads us to fear. We do not know what Paul was doing with his anxiety, but we do know it was part of his human weakness. Paul ended this section here stating that he identified with the weak and was fuming about how the false teachers were abusing the Corinthians (2 Cor 11:29).

Boasting in Our Weakness

2 Corinthians 11:30-33

If we are to boast, we ought to boast in things that show our weakness and help us to depend more on Christ (2 Corinthians 11:30). Paul ended this part of his speech with a humiliating story, one that stuck out from the previous section because it uniquely highlighted how Paul was humbled by God and it showed the gospel. In the ancient world siege warfare was the most brutal kind of warfare. In order to take a wall of a city you’d need more soldiers and it would require a lot of loss of life as the defenders had a distinct advantage. In order to encourage bravery, the one who scaled the wall and took it was given a crown called the Corona Muralis. This crown looked a lot like the turrets on a wall and became the model for the European crowns we’re familiar with from movies and shows. The idea was “climb the wall, defeat your enemies and receive honor.” Rather than climbing a wall to receive honor, Paul had to escape death and his enemies by being lowered down a wall in a basket. A position of vulnerability, weakness and humility. This story highlights the gospel and is an echo of God the Son, who descended taking on the form of a human, and a servant and was humbled to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:1-10). Paul wrote in Philippians 2:9 “Therefore God has highly exalted him.” Christ was exalted through suffering and weakness, he went low and was lifted up.

One way we can boast in our weakness is by being vulnerable with God’s people. This does not mean we’re vulnerable with everyone but we are vulnerable with someone. We can stop pretending that we have it all together and that we’re strong because if we pretend then we subtly force everyone close to us to pretend to. It is impossible to be successful as a Christian if you never really need to depend on God. We also don’t have to worry that we will one day be found out as someone who is weak, God already knows and that is why he sent his son! God can use our weakness to show the gospel to others and to help us rely on him day to day.

At your community group:

Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.

How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week?

Discussion Questions:

2 Corinthians 11:16-33

What are some ways people boast in their accomplishments in our culture today? Do they usually try to show how strong and successful they are or their weakness?

What were the goals of the false teachers in Corinth according to 2 Cor 11:20?

Paul gave three categories of hardships in 2 Cor 11:23-33 (Trials, Dangers, Human Weakness). How do these hardships and trials connect to what Jesus experienced?

Why do you think Paul ended with the story of being lowered down the wall?

How can you grow in recognizing and sharing our weaknesses with others? How would the church be different if people felt even more safe to share how they needed Jesus?