Questions for Littles: What does the apostle say he has become in 2 Corinthians 12:11? Who has commended him? Who should have commended him? Whom was the apostle not at all inferior to? But what does he call himself? What had he performed among them in 2 Corinthians 12:12? What were the signs of an apostle? What did the apostle fail to do to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 12:13)? What is he hoping to do now (2 Corinthians 12:14)? What does he not what? What does he want instead? How does he describe his relationship with them? What is he willing to do for them (2 Corinthians 12:15)? How have the Corinthians responded to all the things that the apostle has done for them in love? What did he not do to them (2 Corinthians 12:16)? But what did the apostle do to them? What did neither he nor Titus nor the unnamed brother (Luke?) do to them (2 Corinthians 12:17-18)? But Whose opinion of the apostle is much more important than the Corinthians’ opinion (2 Corinthians 12:19)? What does he call them at the end of verse 19? At what is he aiming in all things? What does he fear (2 Corinthians 12:20)? What kinds of things is he hoping there will not be? Who would be humiliated by this (2 Corinthians 12:21)? Over whom would the apostle mourn?Love. True love. That’s what this passage is about.
The apostle has been badly treated, but his goal is not to be treated well or thought of well. True love cares about others’ good even more than for others to feel good about them. He doesn’t want anything from them. He wants the wellbeing of them themselves.
True love doesn’t begrudge service. There are many who serve tirelessly, and the apostle does spend and be spent. But he doesn’t just serve tirelessly. He serves gladly. True love is glad to spend and be spent, even if he isn’t recognized by anyone but the Lord.
True love doesn’t just want its dear ones to receive good. It wants them to do good. What the apostle fears most for them is not that they would have hardship, but rather that they would be sinful. Contentious. Jealous. Wrathful. Selfishly ambitious. Gossipers. Conceited.
But we sin. What can true love do for us then? Well, the true love of the apostle really has its start as the true love of God (2 Corinthians 12:21). And God’s true love, and the apostle’s true love, aims at the Corinthians’ repentance. That’s what true love really wants: to see its dear ones turn away from sin!
Who truly loves you? What do they want for you? Whom do you truly love?Suggested songs: ARP32A-B “What Blessedness” or TPH32B “How Blessed Is He Whose Trespass”
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