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8 For even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the LORD gave us for building you up rather than pulling you down, I will not be ashamed of it. 

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Early in this letter, we learned that Paul had a rather rocky relationship with some leaders at the Corinthian church. Some of them (in the next chapter he’ll sarcastically call the “super-apostles”) had talked him down to the members of the church.

Paul has been saying some pretty difficult things to this church. He needs to put it in perspective.

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9 I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. 10 For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing." 11 Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.

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Some people were saying “don’t be too concerned about Paul – he’s all talk, no action.” Paul assures them that when he comes he’ll be the same in person as he was in his writing.

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12 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.

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 His critics were commending themselves. They were giving themselves authority. But by using human authority they showed that they lacked wisdom, because true wisdom comes from God alone.

Most important here is how they measured their own effectiveness. They “measure themselves by themselves” – that is, they decided what they wanted to accomplish, and if they accomplished it they considered themselves to have been successful!

This is such a common way of approaching accomplishment. In fact, it’s exactly what I professionally teach businesses to do during my strategic consulting years –determine what you want to accomplish, develop a strategy, set goals, put measurements in place to know if you’ve achieved them, develop an action plan, assign responsibilities, and get busy. If you make your goals, you’ve succeeded.

That’s what these individuals were doing, but in their ministries! But despite the way so many modern churches approach ministry, that is completely antithetical to God’s way. It eliminates godly wisdom. It bypasses the power of the Spirit. It humanizes what should be divine. It robs ministry of its power to accomplish the only thing that matters – saving souls.

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13 We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us, a field that reaches even to you. 14 We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. 15 Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our area of activity among you will greatly expand, 16 so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in another man's territory.

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Paul is clear that his authority comes from God. It is only in God that he will boast, and only about the things God has called him to accomplish. The existence and growth of the Corinthian church is one of those measurements of the success of Paul doing what God called him to do.

V. 13, The NASB, KJV, and others are accurate in choosing the word “measure” or “measurement” in verses 13 and 15 rather than “limit” and “field” as the NIV does. The Greek word is “μέτρον” (metron), from which we get the English word “metric.” It’s the same word as in v. 12 when he says “they measure themselves by themselves.”

It simply means “measurement.” His message in vv. 12-16 is this:

V. 12 “These critics of mine determine the measurements of their own success in ministry. When they accomplish what they themselves set out to do, they boast about their successes. They use themselves – their own goals and plans – to determine whether or not they are successful, and then they pat themselves on the back for a job well done.

V.13 But we will not boast according to our own measurements. We will only boast according to the measurements that God measures us by – faithfulness in doing what He called us to do.

V.14 We won’t boast about things we haven’t done, only about what He does through us. If we hadn’t come to you [implied], we’d be boasting about things that we didn’t do! But we did come to you.

V, 15 Neither will we exaggerate our own work by comparing it against what other people have done. What we hope for is that as you continue growing in your faith, the measurement of our own faithfulness to God’s direction will grow.

V. 16 This will allow us to preach the gospel in other areas beyond Corinth. We don’t want our work to be measured by what God has called another man to do.

Paul is only concerned with measuring the success of his ministry by the things God gave him. A genuine minister enters the doors God has opened. That is how Paul got to Corinth.

You can trace this through the book of Acts. It started back with that Macedonian call, where Paul had a vision one night from a man in Macedonia saying, "Come across into Europe and help us," (Acts 16:9). In response to that, Paul landed in Philippi. There he got into trouble and ended up in jail. When he got out he went to the next city, Thessalonica. Again, his preaching of the Word aroused opposition, and he was driven out of town. He went to the next city, which was Berea. Once again there was trouble and a riot. He had to leave there by night and was taken down to Athens, which is only 50 miles to the east of Corinth. He preached on Mars Hill in Athens, but they did not receive his message. So he showed up in Corinth, all alone in the dust of the road, armed with nothing but the power of the Spirit of God, and began to preach the gospel throughout that city. And out of that came this Corinthian church whose leaders were boasting of their own accomplishments.

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17 But, "Let him 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.

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It’s only the work God commends us for that matters, not whether we are happy with the results of our work. God is not our copilot, as the popular bumper sticker used to say. He is the pilot, I am just the airplane. He doesn’t even need a copilot.

Eric - Your comments are straight on-point. I have to admit that I appreciate recognition from others. I don't generally seek it, but when it comes it's nice. But I've noticed that recognition, even for human-centered things (such as accomplishments at work) can distract me from the achievement and its purpose. Even when, at work for instance, I've successfully achieved the challenging goal that I've set out to achieve and am recognized for it, it's easy for my attention to become distracted from the whole point of doing it to "a job well done." And, I admit, when I've really achieved something complex and meaningful and value-creating and it goes unrecognized, I get a little quietly disturbed inside.

When it comes to Kingdom work that is visible to others, I generally don't want the recognition or praise. But how are we to put aside our inherent desire for human recognition?

jb