¹⁶Again I say, let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little. ¹⁷What I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. ¹⁸Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also. ¹⁹For you, being so wise, tolerate the foolish gladly. ²⁰For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face.

Faux foolishness should not be confused with actual foolishness. Paul’s technique in getting through to the Corinthians must be understood for what it is. Superficial interpretation would surely conclude that Paul was arrogant, for clearly he boasts considerably about himself. Paul recognizes that some will take it that way, so he brings that out front and center. Paul was in such command of the logical progression of his thought process and writings that he could easily anticipate the objections. And so he preempts the objection, in this case that he is boastfully arrogant and therefore foolish, by bringing the objection out in the open before they actually ask it; he knows at this juncture in the letter that an intelligent reader/listener who follows his argument might object and what his objection would be.

No, Paul is not boasting. In fact, he says, “What I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would, but as in foolishness.” He is not saying the Lord would not use foolishness in his teaching; he is saying the foolish talk in itself does not contain spiritual truth, as though it were a “thus says the Lord” statement. No, but we could say that the Holy Spirit—having inspired the writing of Paul, who speaks with the authority of an apostle—is using faux (or pretend) boasting to show readers how it would look for a true apostle to boast. There would indeed be much to boast about, given the authority of Paul’s apostleship and the sacrifice of his love for them. However, his boast is not a true boast but fleshly boasting, he says, just like others do. If Paul was truly boasting out of arrogance, he certainly would not admit it as fleshly, like others do it!

The only way to understand this cogently, then, is that Paul is showing them how foolish this kind of boasting looks, so as to shame the Corinthians for running after those who are truly boasting arrogantly. To this he adds satire when he says, “For you, being so wise, tolerate the foolish gladly.” In fact, Paul gives his summary of his Corinthian detractors, that they have willingly enslaved themselves to arrogant boasters and can’t see how those teachers are abusing them, most likely a metaphor for their spiritual abuse.

Lord, help me see through the smooth preachers who seek their own following.