¹⁶But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself; nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit. ¹⁷Certainly I have not taken advantage of you through any of those whom I have sent to you, have I? ¹⁸I urged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Titus did not take any advantage of you, did he? Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit and walk in the same steps?

Sarcasm can be a rude tool for attempting the upper hand in the face of defeat in reason. But not so with Paul; he uses sarcasm judiciously to show that he understands his detractors’ accusation. The ESV infers this correctly in its loose translation:

But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. (2 Cor. 12:16 ESV, see also NLT)

While not a literal translation (the phrase “you say” is not specifically part of the original language), that rendering does capture the criticism that Paul was cunningly deceitful in his life and teaching among them. Nothing can be more biting than the criticism of one’s motive and thus his character. Paul was not a foreigner to the worst rejections!

“Be that as it may,” which introduces the passage, may refer, as the ESV translates it, to his not being a burden to them. But more likely it responds to the point made by his rhetorical question from the previous verse: “If I love you more, am I to be loved less?” (2 Cor. 12:15b). Like a parent, the apostle would not require their love, but he would “most gladly spend and be expended for your souls” (2 Cor. 12:15a). In other words, sarcasm aside, Paul is moved by love, by what he as a spiritual parent can do for the Corinthians, not what they can do for him.

Yet in response to the challenge concerning his motives, the apostle puts his actions and those of his associates on the table for discussion. What advantage did Paul, Titus, or “the brother” (see 2 Cor. 8:18) take? What benefit did they derive from their interactions with the Corinthians? In the original Greek, the questions are worded to infer a negative answer. “Did we …?” Answer: “Of course not!” Paul could lay out his life and behavior among them. He and his emissaries, whom he sent to them, all bear the same witness by their consistency and their lives. His actions and message reflect “the same spirit.”

None of us can make it through life without our motives or integrity challenged. How important it is, therefore, that our lives be consistent with our speech, being motivated not by what we get but by what we can give.

Lord, I do not want to give my detractors any reason to believe that I benefit from being a burden to them. Show me the inconsistencies in my motives.