Responding to Insults
May 3, 2026
Preached by Ron Smith
Discussion Questions
How do you decide when to respond to accusations and when to let them go?
What other weapons do you see in Scripture that we should be using?
Why would these accusations be hard for Paul emotionally?
What would you say to him to advise him or encourage him?
How do you know if the Lord has commended you?
How does Jesus’s teaching on dealing with conflict in Matthew 7:1-6 compare to Paul’s? How do they mesh?
Scripture Reading
2 Corinthians 10:1-18
1 I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. 8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. 9 I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. 10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” 11 Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. 12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
13 But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. 17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
“His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” Ouch. What would you respond to this accusation if you were Paul? Or should he even respond at all? These are questions that Paul is going to help us wrestle with this morning.
[Pray]
As we continue our study of 2 Corinthians you might notice a change of tone in Paul. For the last 9 chapters there has been a positive tone. He has been encouraged by the progress the Corinthians have made in their walk with the Lord. Paul has been rejoicing with them.
But the work is not done. He needs to address some false accusations that are being leveled against himself. I imagine that this might be a little frustrating for Paul. He thought he had dealt with all of this and it’s still there. The source of these accusations are people outside the church of Corinth. But they have influenced some within the church. He finds himself once again needing to deal with conflict.
Conflict with others is very real and dare I say, unavoidable. It seems like that it is not a matter of if you will have conflict with others, but when. How do we respond? How do we respond to false accusations, criticisms that sting, especially from people we love and care for? A lot depends on your personality. Some of us will fight- we are coming with guns a blazing. You attack me with a knife, I’m coming back at you with a tank. Or, others of us will hide. We will do all we can to avoid the conflict. Break off relationships, change churches, just give up and retreat. The classic Fight or Flight. Both reactions in reality are nothing more than self-protection. That’s just what we do – we default to protecting ourselves.
This passage offers us a better way to deal with conflict. One that does not try to flee and hide nor fight fire with fire. To help us see this better way, let’s first look at the accusations that were being made against Paul, then consider the response he gives as we learn about the weapons that he used to bring an end to the conflict, and finally we will turn our attention to how he exposes the real problem hiding behind all the accusations.
The accusations, the response, the real problem.
The Accusations
There are four accusations that we can decipher scattered throughout this chapter. The first one is that he is a coward. We see this in verse 1 and verse 10 where he seems to be quoting his opponents.
1I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!—
10For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.”
This accusation is easy for us to understand today. It is the person who hides behind a computer screen or mobile device and writes strongly worded messages against people they disagree with, but when face to face, they cower and don’t say anything. Well, that’s what people are accusing Paul of being like.
This probably comes from the fact that that he has had to write some pretty strongly worded letters. We have 1 Corinthians that we know is direct in its correction. And we know that there was another letter that he wrote in between 1 and 2 Corinthians that has been described as a severe letter. It was not an easy letter for him to write and he even says that he wrote it with anguish of heart and many tears. But all they saw was the boldness of those letters.
But notice to add insult to injury that they attack his physical appearance. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing. It is just plain mean spirited.
Not only do they accuse him of being a coward, but they also accuse him of walking according to the flesh. Look in verse 2.
2I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
In other words, there are those who think that Paul has not been affected by the gospel. He walks according to the flesh. He just lives his life according to the way he wants to. He is living in sin and doesn’t see a problem with it. Who is he to tell them how they should live their life? He’s a hypocrite and should be ignored.
Then in verse 7 we see that he is accused of being a false apostle.
7Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we.
This accusation is a little tougher to decipher. The question revolves around what does it mean to be “Christ’s?” Clearly the first thing we think of is being a Christian – he belongs to Christ. But in context it seems best to take this as meaning being Christ’s apostle. The very next verse (8) Paul speaks of having received his authority from Christ. So, we could understand verse 7 like this: If anyone is confident that he is Christ's [apostle], let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's [apostle], so also are we [Christ’s apostles].
Clearly, being accused of being a false apostle would hurt his ministry. This would call in to question everything he has done for the Lord and desires to do for the Lord in future ministry.
There is one more accusation that immediately follows in verse 8. Paul is arrogant.
8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed.
While it is not explicitly said that they were accusing him of being arrogant, from what Paul says, we can infer that he was responding to that accusation. If it is true, this also would bring discredit to him and his ministry he was doing for the Lord.
Those are the accusations – Paul’s an ugly coward, he walks according to the flesh, he is a false apostle, and he’s arrogant. Are they justifiable accusations? Are they something that the church in Corinth should take seriously and cut off all communication with Paul? No. In fact they are simply ad hominem arguments. Those kinds of arguments that attack the personal character or qualities of the person instead of attacking the actual substance of the argument itself.
So, should Paul respond to these accusations? Or should he turn the other cheek? What would you advise him to do?
Paul is going to go on to answer these accusations. But the reason he does is because these accusations hurt the gospel ministry that he is engaged in. It’s not a matter of defending his reputation. It is a matter of removing obstacles that would prevent people from seeing and knowing Jesus. In fact, he is not even going to respond to the attacks on his looks and ability to speak. The other things though, could hurt ministry.
Let’s turn our attention to the response.
The Response.
Look with me again at verses 3-6.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
When faced with false accusations and especially when some of those are irrelevant like making fun of your physical appearance, we can become overwhelmed with strong emotions. When that happens it’s easy for us to get lost in the weeds and focus on things that really aren’t the issue.
Thus, these verses in particular call us to focus on the issue. For Paul that means focusing on those things that are against God and lead to disobedience to Christ. Let’s walk through these 4 verses to get the flow of the argument.
Notice that Paul points out that we do live in this physical world. “We walk in the flesh.” But as Christians, we don’t respond according to the flesh. We don’t respond according to the rules of this world. We don’t repay evil with evil. We don’t insult others. We don’t respond by getting even. If we are males, we don’t beat our chest and act like alpha males. We don’t spill the dirt that we might know about others, just to make them look bad. We don’t justify responses of hatred simply because I am right and they are wrong. We don’t sin in our anger.
At the same time, we are not passive. Paul is calling us to war. Just that we are not waging war according to the flesh. There is a better way. We wage war according to the kingdom of God. We use kingdom weapons. Weapons that have divine power to destroy strongholds. What are these weapons? There are several biblical answers we could give.
But I think the primary weapon that Paul alludes to is the proclamation of the gospel. I get this from his declaration in verse 5, We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. What has the power to destroy the arguments and the opinions that people have against God? What can break through the strongholds of false beliefs? What has the power to cut through the empty philosophies that foolishly try to make sense of the world without reference to God? The proclamation of gospel! We see this all through 1 and 2 Corinthians as Paul puts an emphasis on the fact that he came to the Corinthians and made nothing known except for Christ crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5) The simple and divinely empowered proclamation of the gospel. They needed to hear truth.
Paul was not concerned to win the Corinthians through theatrics and by his clever use of words. No. He knew the only hope for them was to proclaim the gospel. Even if he wasn’t the best speaker, the gospel has the divine power to destroy strongholds. His goal was to bring every thought, every purpose in man’s heart, into obedience to Jesus.
The only way to destroy the false beliefs that people buy into that go directly against God is by using weapons designed by God, empowered by God. Telling someone they are stupid because they don’t believe in God will get us nowhere. Tearing people down is not the way to go. They need to hear the truth.
Let’s take a step back. We could use these verses to talk about spiritual warfare or the way we should evangelize. So, what is Paul’s point in bringing this up right here in chapter 10 when others are attacking him? I think what Paul is getting at is that when others tear us down and attack our character, we don’t respond by playing their game, rather we focus on the issues that are against God and lead to disobedience of Christ. We keep Jesus in the center. We don’t put ourselves in the center and make it all about us and our own personal standard of right and wrong. Nor are we putting the other person in the center – like the center of our bullseye that we are taking aim at. We speak in a way that brings the truth of the gospel to bear on the conflict. We attack arguments that are against God, not people.
Time for reflection. Think about some conflict you had this past week (maybe even this morning). How did you do? What grade would you give yourself? Were you able to keep Jesus at the center? Focus on the argument, the issue? Or did you let your opponent become your bullseye? Do we stick to the issues, or do we stoop to low ball tactics?
We are not quite done yet. Have you ever noticed that often times the things you argue about aren’t really the problem. There is actually another nuclear problem that fuels these little brush fires. The classic is the bully at school. The bully picks on you, but you find out that the reason they pick on you is because of the problems they face at home. Now the bully’s actions need to be dealt with – they can’t insult other kids. But the real problem needs to be addressed if there is to be any hope of long-term healing. That’s what Paul turns to next. He puts his finger on a deeper issue. The real problem.
The Real Problem
Let’s read verses 12 and then skip down to 17-18. See if you can spot the real problem.
12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
Do you see the problem? There are several ways we could describe it. Let me put it in a form of a question: who commends you? Who is that presents you to others in a favorable way? Who is that says “this man/lady is alright?” Who is that recommends you to other people as being someone trustworthy? As someone that should be allowed to join the group. As someone approved. What we see in verse 18 there are only two ways to answer the question. It’s either the Lord or someone else, might even be yourself.
This is going to become clearer as we move into the next chapters. But there were these so-called apostles who had come to Corinth who were the ones bringing these accusations against Paul and causing trouble in the church. He refers to them as ‘super apostles’ in chapter 11. But as we read chapters 11-13 it becomes apparent that they had constructed a list of criteria for what it meant to be approved as an apostle. And guess what? Paul didn’t meet their standard. They looked for things like a charismatic personality, a powerful presence, impressive speech, how much money you make as an apostle, the person’s Jewish lineage, how many visions and revelations the person has had. Those were the things they looked to. Outward appearances.
But notice what’s missing. Approval from the Lord. Their boasting was only in their own abilities, their own giftedness, in what they deemed as success. Their boasting was not in the Lord. So, they stooped to attacking Paul personally instead of sticking to the issue.
Ultimately, these super apostles were seeking approval from one another. They compared themselves to each other. They used one another as the measuring rod, not the Lord. They are just looking around at each other making up their list of what makes a person a true apostle and if you fail to measure up to just one of those criteria, you don’t make the cut. Not only do you not make the cut, but now you have to be villainized. You will not be commended.
They needed to seek to be commended and approved by the Lord, not each other. Not by a list they made up. That’s the real problem. And until it is dealt with, these false accusations will continue.
So, we end up with arguments like Paul’s an ugly coward, lives a worldly lifestyle, arrogant, not an apostle of Christ. He doesn’t have any right to come to Corinth and exercise authority over them. He is not commendable. Not approved. He should be kicked the to the curb.
Does this sound at all even remotely familiar? It should. It is the world we live in 2000 years later. It’s the air we breathe. People all around us have their standards and if you don’t measure up, you’re out. You’re canceled.
We are lectured by celebrities about all the social injustice we are guilty of as they receive their golden statues. They look to each other for approval. They decide what’s in and what’s out. They just pat each other on the back as they decide what agenda should be pushed and which one should be done away with.
I am being a little vague. If we wanted to, we could come up with a long list of the ways we see this happening in our world. It is easy to identify how others are guilty of commending and approving themselves. But what if we flip the roles? Are we guilty of doing the same thing?
Sadly, we’ve seen it in the church in recent years. Frankly, one of the reasons I did not want to leave Italy and come back to the US was because I was seeing this very thing happen to the church in America. I didn’t know what we would get ourselves in the middle of. Should we wear masks or not? That question was dividing churches. Depending on the way you answered that question was causing Christians to accuse other Christians of not being Christians. Or even the racial fireworks that were going off at around the same time was another way Christians were attacking each other without focusing on the real issues – this church is too woke, this church is not woke enough. We put up our own criteria measured and compared ourselves to those who thought like us, who interpreted the Bible like us and if you didn’t agree to all of the finer points, you are not a Christian; you are progressive; you are a bigot; you are not loving like Jesus.
Good thing we have come through all of that. It’s in the rearview mirror. Right? Maybe. Maybe those issues. But there are others. What about the way we should educate our children? Homeschool, private Christian school, public school, online. Are we OK when other parents make decisions to educate their kids in a way that is different than what we decided? It’s easy to get trapped in one of those bubbles and begin to think this is the way to educate our kids. We feed on others who think like we do. We build an echo chamber that just keeps reinforcing what we think is right. The algorithms on social media keep a steady stream of like-minded arguments. So, if you disagree with me, I need to distance myself from you. You don’t truly understand what the Bible says.
But who is it that commends you? Who is that commends your understanding of how to educate your child? Is it the Lord who approves you? Or others who think like you do?
I’m picking on education and I know I am presenting things in an extreme manner, but there are a ton of other issues we could bring up. What we learn here from Paul is that we we need to keep Jesus at the center, attack the arguments that are against God, and not go to war against the person.
Conclusion
Conflicts are going to come. False accusations will be raised. How will we respond?
Paul could have responded to his accusers in a way of self-protection. He could have attacked back- take no prisoners, no mercy approach. Or he could have just given up. “What’s the point? I have tried and tried with this church and we are in the same place – I give up.” Paul did not descend into self-protection because he looked to the Lord. Vs 1. I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. That’s who we should look to as well. Jesus wasn’t worried about self-protection. He gave himself to the very ones who would cause him harm. The very night before he was crucified what do we see Jesus doing? He’s washing the feet of his disciples. The ones who were going to abandon him at his hour of need. He even washes the feet of the one who would betray him with a kiss. He goes through with death on the cross even though he was innocent. He even prays from the cross for those who put him there, “Father forgive them they know not what they do.” His meekness and gentleness overcame the world at the cost of his life. And he works his gentleness and meekness in us.
This morning we are going to turn out attention to the Lord’s table and remember his gentleness and meekness that destroyed our arguments and lofty opinions we had against God, and that silenced once and for all the accuser of the brethren.