2nd Corinthians Chapter 11 verse 7 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - Have I? literally, or have I? An ironical exception to his manifestation of knowledge; "unless you think that I committed a sin in refusing to accept maintenance at your hands." It is clear that even this noble generosity had been made the ground for a charge against the apostle. "If he had not been conscious," they said, "that he has no real claims, he would not have preached for nothing, when he had a perfect right to be supported by his converts" (1 Corinthians 9:1-15). Abasing myself. The trade of tentmaker was despised, tedious, and mechanical, and it did not suffice to provide even for Paul's small needs (Acts 18:3; Acts 20:34). That ye might be exalted; namely, by spiritual gifts (Ephesians 2:4-6). The gospel... freely. Some of them would feel the vast contrast between the words. The gospel was the most precious gift of God, and they had got it for nothing. Compare the fine lines of Lowell - "For a cap and bells our lives we pay,Bubbles we earn with our whole soul's tasking;Tis only God who is given away,Tis only heaven may be had for the asking." To be a free and unpaid missionary was St. Paul's pride (2 Corinthians 12:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 2 Thessalonians 3:8, 9; Acts 20:33).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) Have I committed an offence (literally, a sin) in abasing myself . . .?--The rival teachers apparently boasted of their disinterestedness. "They didn't come for what they could get." St. Paul, we know, more than most men, had acted on the law of which they boasted as their special distinction, and in 1Corinthians 9:1-18, in the discussion on the question of eating things sacrificed to idols, had dwelt with a pardonable fulness on his own conduct in this matter, as an example of foregoing an abstract right for the sake of a greater good. His enemies were compelled to admit this as far as his life at Corinth was concerned; but they had detected what they looked on as a grave inconsistency. He had accepted help from the churches of Macedonia (2Corinthians 11:9), and in this they found ground for a two-fold charge: "He wasn't above taking money from other churches--he was only too proud to take it from that of Corinth;" and this was made matter of personal offence. To take money at all was mean; not to take it from them was contemptuous.He does not deny the facts. He repeats the irritating epithet, "abasing myself"; he adds the familiar antithesis (Matthew 23:12; Luke 1:52; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:11), "Yes, but I did it that you might be exalted," perhaps with reference to elevation in spiritual knowledge, perhaps, because the fact that he laboured for them without payment was the greatest proof of disinterested love for them which could be given. . . .