What is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches? — His mind travels back to the insinuation that he cared less for them than he did for the churches of Macedonia, because he had maintained his independence and had received no gifts from them. If they complained of this, they should, at least, remember that this was the only point of inferiority. They had experienced fully all the advantages that flowed from his special power as an Apostle. For that wrong, so far as it was a wrong, he asks their forgiveness.
That I myself was not burdensome. — He uses here, and in the next verse, the same characteristic word for “sponging” on them, which has been commented on in the Note on 2 Corinthians 11:9. He obviously dwells on it with a touch of irony, as a word that had been used of him by some of his rivals.