But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you.
Not boast of things without our measure, х eis (G1519) ta (G3588) ametra (G280)] - 'to unmeasured bounds'. There is no limit to a man's self-conceit so long as he measures himself by himself (2 Corinthians 10:13) and his fellows, and not with his superiors. It marks the personal character of this letter that "boast" occurs 29 times in it, and only 26 times in all the other letters. Undeterred by the charge of vanity, he must vindicate his apostolic authority by facts (Conybeare). It would be to "boast of things without our measure" were we to boast of conversions made by "other men's labours" (2 Corinthians 10:15).
Distributed assigned Distributed - assigned.
A measure to reach - `that, as our measure, we should reach as far as even to you;' not that he meant to go no further (2 Corinthians 10:16; Romans 15:20-24). Paul's "measure is the apportionment of his sphere of Gospel labours ruled by God. A 'rule' among the so-called 'apostolic canons' subsequently was, that no bishop should appoint ministers beyond his own limits. At Corinth no minister ought to have been received without Paul's sanction, as Corinth was apportioned to him by God as his apostolic sphere. The letter here incidentally, and therefore undesignedly, confirms the independent history, the Acts, which represents Corinth as the extreme limit as yet at which he stopped, after he had from Phillipi passed southward successively through Amphipolis, Apollonia, Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens (Paley).