²¹To my shame I must say that we have been weak by comparison. But in whatever respect anyone else is bold—I speak in foolishness—I am just as bold myself. ²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. ²³Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so …

Continuing his faux boasting to show how foolish it is to arrogantly compare oneself with other believers, Paul descends into even more foolishness. In fact, lest anyone miss it, he clearly states it: “I speak in foolishness.” If we were to take these verses in their non-satirical, literal sense, we would draw the only conclusion possible, namely that the apostle Paul had an enormous, gargantuan ego. Either he is actually boasting that he is greater than others, or else he is humbling himself to play the role of the fool as a means to teach the Corinthians. And that would take extreme humility to do.

So he continues on, but what is interesting is that everything he is about to say is actually true. If Paul wanted to genuinely gloat over his superiority by human comparison, he could do it. This brings to mind the proverb, “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes” (Prov. 26:5). In other words, he is saying, “If you want to boast about how great you are, I could play that game and shut you down!” When we fully consider the life and ministry of Paul, it is a wonder that he was able to suppress the natural, fleshly human tendency to gloat in one’s status and accomplishments.

Paul begins by adopting the critics’ viewpoint that he has been shamefully weak because he has not been boasting, and probably because, they suggest, he has little to boast about compared to themselves. But now, Paul is going to become bold just as they see themselves. And so he launches into his mimicry of their foolishness, but uses his own actual “credentials.”

On the level of ethnic backgrounds, Paul is a Hebrew and an Israelite. The second term refers to his ethnicity as a Jew, a descendent of Abraham. The first term, Hebrew, probably indicates that he is culturally and religiously Jewish, unlike the perception of the “Greek” Jews. In those days, there was a clear distinction in how the two groups saw each other, with the “Hebrew” Jews seeing themselves as better. Paul’s critics were either Christians of the Hebrew Jewish sort, still zealous for the Law of Moses, or unbelievers posing as believers. Finally, Paul says he is more a servant of Christ than his critics. And with that he confesses that making such a comparison borders on insanity.

Lord, help me never be so foolish as to consider myself better than other Christians.