2 Corinthians 13:1-4 (HCSB)
This is the third time I am coming to you. Every fact must be established by the testimony[a] of two or three witnesses. I gave a warning when I was present the second time, and now I give a warning while I am absent to those who sinned before and to all the rest: If I come again, I will not be lenient, since you seek proof of Christ speaking in me. He is not weak toward you, but powerful among you. In fact, He was crucified in weakness, but He lives by God’s power. For we also are weak in Him, yet toward you we will live with Him by God’s power.
Paul wants to make one thing very clear to the Corinthians. Despite what the “super apostles” have been saying about him, he is a genuine apostle. He received his commission as apostle directly from the lips of the risen Jesus, and he had come to Corinth in the first place because he had been sent there by Jesus Himself.
Paul had more than proved his credentials as an apostle by the miracles he had done, and by his success in establishing a large and thriving Church in the city where there had been no presence of the gospel at all before his arrival. He had come a second time to build up the leadership of the Church and to offer correctives.
But now he was on his way for a third visit. And this time he is expecting to have to exercise his authority as an apostle to confront those who were refusing to turn away from their sins, and those who were causing divisions in the body.
Paul has testified in his letter that he is indeed weak in his own humanity. But that external weaknesses was like the weakness in which Jesus came and allowed Himself to be captured and crucified. In a very real sense, it was a voluntary weakness, a complete willingness to do nothing in his own strength, but to be completely dependent on God.
But Jesus could be powerful and even intimidating to those who would not submit to God’s rule, as He demonstrated conclusively in driving out the money changers in the temple and in His confrontations with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the teachers of the law. In the same way, Paul had all the power and authority and strength necessary to clean house in the Church in Corinth. But he is urging the Corinthians to clean their own house before he arrives, so that his visit can be a pleasant one.
Father, so often when we judge others by external appearances we find out, often tragically, that we are badly mistaken when a confrontation arises. Those who seem so meek and gentle in You can be fierce and powerful when the need arises to confront evil or to oppose injustice. Help me to never judge other Christians as weak or unimpressive, but to see in them Your own character that You have put into their hearts: loving and gentle by preference, but strong when necessary. Amen.