¹⁰Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. ¹¹I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. ¹²The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.

Coming full circle with the train of thought begun in chapter 10, Paul moves to brings his boasting to an end. He first reviews what he has been teaching them, that his only genuine boast is sourced in his weakness, not in what fleshly thinking would call his accomplishments, the normal source of pride. The key to Paul’s perspective is an overriding desire to experience the genuine strength of Christ, not a strength that comes from his own human resources. This comes only through weakness, for therein is no ambiguity. With Paul this is clear, but he had to go through the painful process of faux boasting to help the Corinthians see clearly about this as well.

Yes, Paul subjected himself to the foolishness of pretended boasting, as we showed before, to demonstrate for them how foolish boasting would look if he were to engage in it. In fact, the Corinthians should be the ones boasting in Paul. And here Paul begins to assertively lay out his apostleship without any sense of arrogance or pride. He is not (and on Paul’s behalf I would add, “I repeat, not”) any less an apostle than the “most eminent apostles.” Of whom he may be thinking, he grants no clue. The phrasing carries an intonation, “of whom you may rank as the most eminent ones; it doesn’t matter to me who you have in mind.” Lest anyone think Paul is ranking himself as being an “eminent apostle,” he quickly adds, “even though I am a nobody.” He is simply the one who planted the seed in Corinth, while others did their respective roles of watering and nurturing (1 Cor. 3:6–7). In the end, the ultimate cause of growth is God, who used a variety of instruments—of which Paul was just one.

Yet in his humility, Paul accepted the role God gave him with neither pride nor false humility, not to be compared with any other, but simply as an apostle, confirmed by God with validating credentials (signs, wonders, and miracles, see Acts 14:3 and Hebrews 2:4). So while Paul was adamant that his boasting only be in his weakness for the sake of being a free-flowing vessel of God’s power, he would not in false humility hide his assignment and authority given by God to be an apostle and act as an apostle, especially toward the Corinthians.

Lord, help me not be proud or falsely humble, that I might serve in Your power.