2 Corinthians: Like master, like servant

It is significant that Paul, the apostle of Christ, listing the persecution of the Jewish forty lashes minus one and stoning as well as the Roman rod (2 Cor. 11:24-25), suffers at the hands of Jews and Gentiles (11:26) and their rulers (11:32).  Paul knew himself to be following in the footsteps of his Lord Jesus, God’s anointed, against whom both Israel and the Gentiles and their respective leaders had gathered together (Acts 4:27).  Paul’s commission as an apostle was to carry Christ’s name “before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).  The nature of Paul’s suffering (Acts 9:16), far from causing doubt about his legitimacy as a servant of Christ, should rather have been a confirmation of his apostleship to any church that really “got” the gospel.  Their confused judgment shows just how far from the cross of Christ the Corinthians had turned their gaze through the influence of the false apostles.