Whatever his critics said of Paul, it must have really hurt him. You can almost hear the pleading in his voice as he has come past the, “fine I’ll pretend to be what they say I am” part, now to the, “come one guys. Are you going to make me say it? Can’t you see how much I’ve done for you?” Perhaps the fact that he keeps insisting that he asked for no money means the false apostles asked for a lot, or maybe they tried to convince the Corinthian church to cut Paul out completely. Whatever the case, Paul is trying to win his congregation back, and call them back to the true Christ.

Paul's critics apparently tried to convince the Corinthian church that he was a fool, so he decided to embrace it. Then he turns it: their attacks are nothing but boasting, and he boasts only in Christ. If Christ isn't the message and the foundation, we wind up looking quite foolish indeed.

It’s a narrow road to walk, trying to follow the humble Christ but claim authority as a leader. Paul finds a pretty good standard: leave the focus on Christ. It certainly doesn’t help us out if we’re trying to be the most Holy (Jesus definitely always wins), but if Christ is the message and the way, it should be our default choice. If we’re always pointing the way to Christ, we’re not taking the time to point to ourselves. The others in Paul’s day who were comparing to one another, probably trying to establish who was the greatest, certainly seem to have lost sight of that.

There is a thread that runs throughout the passage from 1 Samuel and 2 Corinthians: obedience. Remember when Saul decided to make his own sacrifices because Samuel was late? Now he’s amending God’s commands on the battlefield. His refusal to be obedient as God’s chosen leader meant that he long longer WAS God’s chosen leader. Somewhat less dramatically, Paul wants the Corinthian church to give to the collection for the church in Jerusalem, but not just because he tells them to. While that would mean they were obedient to him, Paul isn’t trying to train them to be faithful to their all-star apostle. There’s something much bigger at stake: he wants them to be obedient to God, just as Samuel challenged King Saul to be.

The men that Jesus called to walk with him on earth shared a unique opportunity that would never be duplicated. The Kingdom was coming, and they had front-row seats. As we remember James today, the passage from Mark reminds us of his calling. He and his brother recklessly abandoned what they were doing to find a better way. These were also the same apostles who asked to sit at the right and left of Jesus in his Kingdom, Mark 10:35. They had no idea what they were asking. At the time, the fever for Jesus’ celebrity was high, but James would get a position he hadn’t dreamed would be given to him uniquely: in Christian tradition, it is believed that he was he first apostle to be martyred.

Showing “tough love” should not be administered with fury. Paul sums it up pretty well in this sentence: “I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways.” This should be the goal, but there must be love attached to the administration. Certainly not all of us have the discretion of an apostle, so we should always be very careful when we’re calling someone else to account… otherwise, we might be the ones who need correcting next.

This letter from Paul is more than just a reminder of the church's life in Christ, and our life in the body. It's also an answer to challenges to Paul's authority who must have descended upon the Corinthian church. There were hints of this earlier, but now Paul is starting to address it more directly. He also reminds the young church of his love for them, and asks for that love to be returned. Church division is certainly not unique to our times, it was there from the start. As Paul shows us, though, it's important to address those issues. To handle the situation with love is his primary command, though that certainly becomes difficult when we are faced with actual opponents.

We have something in common with Mary: we have been forgiven much. Do our lives show that? Is anyone every going to wrong us in the way we have wrong Christ, but been forgiven? The stance of someone who feels their forgiveness is different from someone who doesn’t feel like they need it. As we remember Mary today, let us adopt her approach instead of Simon the Pharisee’s.

Do we really believe that God holds us safe in his arms? Paul certainly did. We are like fragile jars that hold a great treasure, the light of Christ. It is not ours to keep, but to share. If we are being transformed, we are becoming more and more like Jesus. As that happens, the treasure we hold re-aligns our view of trouble and hardship.

As a Pharisee, Paul was an expert in Jewish law. As he reforms his theology around Christ, he doesn’t throw away the entire Hebrew body of scripture. Instead, he takes what he knows of Old Testament and uses it to frame Christ as the completion of that promise. What Moses had, we now have as believers in Christ. The Spirit that rested on him but faded after a time lives with us continuously. For a Pharisee like Paul, this was like hitting the jackpot.