Fancied Wisdom.
I. The influence exercised by the Judaising teachers at Corinth was so noxious that the Apostle found himself most unwillingly driven to the ungracious task of boasting of his services. Such a necessity must have been peculiarly repulsive to him, because a great part of his own special teaching was directed against any self-complacency or assertion of personal merit. He introduces it, therefore, with reluctance and apology. Such boasting, he says, becomes a fool rather than an Apostle, but the perversity of the Corinthians has left him no alternative, and he feels obliged to give them a picture of the man whom they are deserting for their new and unworthy favourites.
II. (1) The text accounts for certain forms of unbelief. There is a certain pleasure in appearing cleverer or more profound than our neighbours or feeling able to despise them as the bigoted votaries of a worn-out creed and lingerers behind the age. Thus we are led by our own fancied wisdom to suffer fools gladly. (2) The fancied wisdom which leads us to suffer fools gladly may be, not of an intellectual, but of a religious, character. The man gladly tolerates the groundless fancies of some new teacher who casually crosses his path, or perhaps himself seeks one out; he adopts in his ignorance untenable interpretations of Scripture. Thus he too suffers fools gladly.
III. If any one is disposed to lament the licence of modern criticism, the hundred forms of modern sectarianism, the readiness with which men are carried about with divers and strange doctrines, the perils to which their faith is exposed, let him consider whether his own conduct is such as to strengthen or weaken that faith. Remember that every Christian, whether qualified or not to solve Scriptural difficulties and answer sceptical arguments, is able in this way to prove the truth of Christian doctrine by the beauty of Christian life.
G. E. L. Cotton, Sermons on the Epistles,vol. i., p. 180.
References: 2 Corinthians 11:13; 2 Corinthians 11:14. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 81. 2 Corinthians 11:19. W. C. E. Newbolt, Counsels of Faith and Practice,p. 238. 2 Corinthians 11:22. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 158. 2 Corinthians 11:23. F. W. Aveling, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 100. 2 Corinthians 11:24. A. Maclaren, Sermons in Manchester,p. 14; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 56. 2 Corinthians 11:26. Talmage, Old Wells Dug Out,p. 26; Church of England Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 224; A. Rees, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 243. 2 Corinthians 11:30. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 89. 2 Corinthians 11:32; 2 Corinthians 11:33. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. iv., p. 540.