Comparing Resumes with Paul

Expositional Preaching Through 2 Corinthians

I want to invite you to take out your copy of God's Word and turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and find your place at verse 16. I'm very thankful to be back this morning and Lord willing I will not be out again for quite a while.

I had several Sundays in the last few months where I have been out and thankful to the elders for holding down everything and looking forward to now hopefully in the next two months concluding the book of 2 Corinthians.

That is my goal so that by the time we enter into the Advent season to celebrate again the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ I'm going to be going into the Gospel of John. That will be our next exposition.

For those of you who are interested in reading ahead and preparing yourself for those messages that will be where we will be and Lord willing we will finish 2 Corinthians relatively soon. For those of you who are not normally with us, maybe you are a visitor this morning or have only been here for a few weeks, we do try to preach through books of the Bible.

This is an expositional style of preaching, one that we have tried to practice for the years that I have been here and pastoring. We are now again in this book of 2 Corinthians here at chapter 11. This is important because by going verse by verse through the scriptures it forces us to do what the scripture says and that is to preach the whole counsel of God.

To not simply pick and choose certain passages that someone may want to preach or some hobby horse that someone may want to ride, but it forces us to be confronted with passages that may not even be easy to preach.

As I said when I began chapter 11 of this book, I said chapter 11 is not the easiest to preach because it's not highly theological and it's not even really highly practical. It's very personal. Second Corinthians chapter 11 is Paul's personal appeal to the Corinthians because of their willingness to listen to what he calls the super apostles.

That doesn't mean the good righteous apostles like Peter and James and John, but the super apostles was the moniker that Paul had given to those men who had risen themselves up as powerful speakers and teachers in Corinth and had called into question Paul's integrity as a minister of the gospel and called into question the very gospel that Paul preached.

And Paul says I am not inferior to these super apostles. In fact he goes on to say these are false apostles, false brethren, agents of the devil. He says Satan disguises himself as an angel of light and his servants disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness.

So this is the context that we're in. Paul is, he says I am jealous for you. I'm jealous for you like a father with a virgin daughter who is under the threat of being raped, being mistreated and I want to present you as a pure virgin to Christ but you like my daughter are in danger from these false teachers who are coming in and they want to ravish you spiritually and I'm concerned for you.

I love you. I hate those who are going to hurt you and I want to see them to be turned away from their sin, to turn away from what they're doing to you. Paul is very concerned for the people at Corinth and he's passionate about it and he says at the beginning of this chapter I'm even going to engage in some foolishness.

You say well why would he engage in foolishness? Sometimes, sometimes the best way to deal with the fool is to mirror back to them their own foolishness. Sometimes the best way to deal with the person who is acting in a way that is contrary to God is to show them what they're doing, point it back to them and say this is what you're doing and this is why it's wrong.

And so today that's what we're going to see. In chapter 11 beginning at verse 16 down to 21 he's going to say I'm engaging in foolishness and this is why and then in verses 22 and we're going to stop today at verse 29 because I believe verse 30 if we didn't stop we'd have to go into chapter 12 and I'm not ready.

To do that.

We'll do that next week. He continues to go through this act of foolishness but it's a foolishness with a purpose. He's not simply being foolish for foolish sake but he's doing so to demonstrate to the Corinthians the problem that they are facing.

So let us with God's word stand and read. I'll be reading from the English Standard Version and it will be on the screen for you if you would like to read. Beginning at verse 16 Paul says, For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you or devours you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or strikes you in the face.

To my shame I must say we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of I speaking as a fool I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews?

So am I.

Are they Israelites?

So am I.

Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm a better one. I'm talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death.

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, in dangers from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardships through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food and coal and exposure.

And apart from other things, there's the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak? And I am not weak. Who is made to fall? And I am not indignant. Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

I pray now, O God, that your word be proclaimed correctly, that I be kept from error, and that, Lord, you would be glorified, your people would be edified, and those who are not your people would be given the gift of regeneration and faith and drawn to your Son.

Lord, all these are things only you can do. Your word tells us you use the foolishness of preaching to accomplish your will. So I pray today that your word be preached, and I pray, Lord, that you would use it to do what only you can do, that the Spirit would use the words that he would cause them to go not only just into the ear where they may lay dormant or into the brain where they may be contextualized, but into the heart where they would be transformative.

And, Lord, I pray that you would transform us by the preaching of your word. And as we look at the words of Paul as he goes through this period of boasting, help us to remember, O God, that Paul himself said that his only true boast is in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May that be our boast as well. In Christ's name.

Amen.

Boasting, Humility, and the Greco-Roman World

Most of us probably do not like people who we consider to be braggarts or boasters. I don't know if you've ever sat with somebody who was just so full of themselves that every other word that came out of their mouth was I, me, or some kind of boast of an accomplishment that they've done, how much they can do, how much they have done, where they've been, who they've spoken to, where they've spoken at, how much they can accomplish at work, this, that, or the other.

It just gets tiring to hear someone who is constantly bragging on their own accomplishments. And in Western culture, which has, in many ways, been influenced by the Christian faith, there is a tendency in polite company within Western culture to favor humility over hubris.

We tend to say the person who's humble, that's the person we like, and the person who's hubris or prideful, that's the person we would tend to turn away from. But in the world of the Apostle Paul, boasting of one's accomplishments and seeking personal glory was commonplace.

In fact, I want to read from Paul Barnett, who wrote a wonderful commentary on 2 Corinthians, and he says this, he said, People in Greco-Roman antiquity possessed no hope of glory in the afterlife, a detached immortality was the most anyone could expect, therefore it was customary to achieve glory in this life, and to boast of one's achievements in this life, thus citizens and soldiers without embarrassment and as a social convention outdid one another in boasting of their military or political achievements.

These were listed on monuments and public buildings, depicted in household murals, or set forth in epic narratives. We know this, if we look back and read of the time, we read of these things that were meant to glorify individuals for the things that they had done.

The spirit of boasting was present all throughout the Greco-Roman world. In fact, it even made its way into the religious people's lives. Most of us remember the Pharisees. What were the Pharisees known for?

Boasting of their religious accomplishments. Remember Jesus talked about them for making their long prayers, making their phylacteries broad, right? That was the thing that they would wear on their head that would have a section of scripture in it and they would want to outdo one another.

How much can I put on my forehead? How much can I do to exemplify my spirituality? Think of my favorite parable, which is the parable of the two men who went to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a publican.

What was the Pharisee doing? Lord, I thank Thee that I am not like other men. I do this and that and tithe this and that. I do all these things. Understand the attitude of the Pharisee in that particular parable was not unique.

It was commonplace among the Pharisees to exalt themselves in their accomplishments. So it would be no strange thing if men came into Corinth, men who exalted themselves as super apostles to make their names known by their accomplishments.

Beloved, it's not much different today. Just about any time I get together with a group of pastors, it is unfortunate how much we like to try to outdo one another, even though subtly. Well, how many people go to your church?

What's your annual budget? You see, it's not, it's just more subtle now, but it still exists. And so in today's passage, Paul chooses to engage in some boasting of his own. But from the outset, he identifies it as foolishness.

And he actually indicates that what he's doing is he's going to mirror the behavior of his opponents who have boasted in their accomplishments and essentially say this to them. Hey guys, if you really want to compare resumes, we can do that.

But understand, my resume is going to look different than yours. Because your resume is going to be how good you can speak, how many places you've spoken, how many letters of commendations you have, how great you are.

My resume is going to be, I've taken this many beatings, I've been in this many shipwrecks, I have been on my knees crying out to the Lord for the souls of the people. And that's what the resume of an apostle looks like.

You want to compare resumes? We can do that. But understand, your resume and my resume aren't going to look at all the same. Now remember the context of the book, if you will. Again for those who haven't been here, the context of 2 Corinthians overall is Paul's defending of his ministry and it's broken into three parts.

The first seven chapters, Paul defends his ministry as being a ministry of reconciliation, a ministry of the new covenant. He gives us some wonderful theological points. Some of the most important theological truth in the whole New Testament is found in the first seven chapters of 2 Corinthians.

In chapters 8 and 9, he stops for a moment to address an important offering that's meant for the church at Jerusalem because the church of Jerusalem at that time was hurting. They were suffering from poverty, they were suffering from a famine, they were suffering from persecution and they needed the help of the other churches.

So Paul stops for two chapters to address the need of giving and it is, I would say, some of the most important teaching on giving in all the New Testament is found in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. This is a very important book.

Though it's personal, though it's passionate, it's not impractical, it's very practical. So we have Paul's defense of his ministry, Paul's reminder of the offering and then in the last four chapters, chapters 10 through 13, he has this powerful drive, offense against the false teachers.

As the one man said years ago, the best defense is a good offense. And so he decides rather than staying on defense for the last four chapters, he's going to be like a quarter pack driving to the end zone.

He's going to go right through his opponents and he's going to take them down one at a time and describe to them the complete error of their folly. So that's where we are. Now today's sermon is broken into two parts.

We're going to look first at Paul explaining the reasoning for his boasting. That's verses 16 to 21. And then we're going to look at Paul challenging his opponents in verses 22 to 29. And as I said, we could continue because the challenge continues beyond verse 30, but it goes into chapter 12.

And so what I've decided to do is I've decided to end at verse 29 today, Lord willing, and then next week pick up immediately at verse 30 and follow through through chapter 12, probably around verse nine, we should get to next week.

So let's begin by looking at Paul's explanation for his boasting. He says in verse 16, he says, I repeat, let no one think me foolish. Remember, again, if you go back up to verse one of chapter 11, he actually says, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness.

So he understands that he's engaging in a worldly method of conversation, but he says, let no one think me foolish, but even if you do, accept me as a fool so that I too may boast a little. Consider this, they're already accepting the foolishness of the false teachers.

Why not give Paul the same deference? If you're going to think I'm a fool, put up with it for a moment. Deal with it for a moment. Because you've been dealing with it all this time from these other men, give me the same opportunity because I'm going to be mirroring the tactics of them.

Look at verse 18 just for a moment. He says, since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. That's what he's doing. Since this is what they're doing, I'm going to do this just for a moment.

But verse 17 is the key because verse 17, he says this, what I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not as the Lord, but as a fool. Now I've got to address this. Some people use verse 17 to say that this is Paul indicating that this section of his writing is not inspired because he says it's not as the Lord would say.

That is not what Paul is indicating. By the way, he says something very similar in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 when he's talking about the subject of marriage and divorce. He says, I want you to know I say this, not the Lord.

Now why does Paul do that? Does Paul say those things to say, okay, while you're reading, there's going to be some things from God and some things from me. You got to obey the things that are from God and you don't have to obey the things that are from me.

No, that's not Paul's point. In fact, it was Paul himself who wrote in 2 Timothy 3 verse 16, all scripture is theopneustos, Greek word, it is God breathed. All scripture is, King James, given by the inspiration of God.

I knew you'd amen to King James, of course. No, but it's all inspired. But in 1 Corinthians 7 when Paul says, I say this, not the Lord, what he's saying is when the Lord talked about this subject, he didn't say this, but I'm going to add to it, not outside of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to add something that Jesus didn't say.

And you know the apostles had the right to do that. You say, but wait a minute, wait a minute, how in the world can the apostle have the right to add to the words of Jesus? Because they are under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that inspired the red letters, inspired the black letters.

The same Holy Spirit that gave us the four gospels is the same Holy Spirit that gives us the 13 letters of Paul, all of the general epistles and the book of Revelation, all of those come from the same Holy Spirit.

So when Paul says, I say this, not the Lord, he's not saying the Lord is not behind this, he's saying the Lord didn't mention this, but I'm going to say this, because Paul in dealing with the Corinthian church is dealing with a context that Jesus wasn't dealing with at the time.

Paul is dealing with a Greco-Roman context mixed of Gentiles and Jews who are dealing with divorce in a different context than Jesus was dealing with when he was in Matthew 19 answering the question of the Pharisees who came to him and said, what about what Moses said about divorce?

Guess who don't care what Moses said about divorce? The Greeks don't care what Moses said about divorce. So Jesus, Paul speaking in a different context says, I have to say this because there's a different context here and this is no less true and no less from the Spirit.

In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, I have the Spirit too. I think I too have the Spirit, that's what he said. So when we come to 2 Corinthians 11 and he says in this text, I say not as the Lord, but as a fool, what he is saying, I believe is this.

I'm about to engage in boasting, which is something you would not hear from Christ. I'm about to engage in self-defense, which is something we didn't really hear Christ.

Do.

This is not what the Lord did. But I'm going to do this because I am now mirroring back what the men who are my opponents are doing. This is how we get to verse 18. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.

You say, well, how dare you, Paul, act like the world? That's how we want. We want to be so pious. We want to tell Paul what he's doing wrong. You know what I watched this week? I watched the lady, lady preacher.

I'll let that hang for a minute. Lady preacher stood in her church and she said, you know, when Jesus dealt with the Syrophoenician woman, he gave a bad example and we should know Jesus was wrong. What kind of hubris, what kind of pride would say, yeah, Jesus got it wrong, but I know.

Better.

What kind of knucklehead? Sorry, I'm getting a little too comfortable. But the reality is, that's just some knuckleheaded nonsense to say, I know better than Jesus. Well guess what? Same thing when we say we know better than Paul.

In this context, because again, it's under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What is being written here is being communicated by God through Paul for the Corinthians and as Mike mentioned in Sunday School this morning, a very important truth, none of the books of the Bible are written to us, very true.

But all the books of the Bible are written for us, right? So there's benefit here for us. It's not written to us, it's written to the Corinthians. We need to know what it meant to them first and how it applies for us and what way does it apply for us.

And Paul is saying here, he's saying, I'm going to exercise a bit of foolishness for the purpose of mirroring back to you what these men are doing. And then he says this, verse 19, he gives them a chastisement.

Notice in verse 19 he says, for you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourself. I want to put this in your mind. Verses 19, 20 and 21, Paul engages in something that you might not think he would, but I think it's obvious in the text.

He engages in sarcasm. And you say, well, how do you know? Well, I think it's easily discernible because notice what he says, you gladly bear with fools being wise yourself. You think you're so smart, you're letting the fools run the show.

Notice the four things they bear with. You bear it if someone makes a slave of you, devours you, takes advantage of you, puts on airs, I'm sorry, the five, and strikes you in the face. You're tolerant of these false teachers and they're abusing you.

You have been tolerant of the abusive false teachers who have done these five things to.

You.

They've made slaves of you, brought you under the slavery of their false teaching. They've devoured you. What does Satan do? He seeks those whom he may devour. They've taken advantage of you, probably financially, most certainly spiritually.

They put on airs, that means to parade themselves in a way that is false. To put on airs is to put on a, like to put on a mask. And they've struck you in the face. Now there's some interesting commentary on that last one.

I've read a few commentaries in preparation. And some people believe that church discipline at that time could include physical hitting.

I don't know.

I know it don't happen that way no more. But there is this story, you guys know the story, and it's somewhat apocryphal. We don't know if it actually happened, but the story at the Council of Nicaea, where St. Nicholas of Myra became so enraged at, I was going to say Pelagius Arius, who was the heretic who was teaching that Jesus was not fully divine.

And the story goes that St. Nicholas punched him in the face. And so I, you know, I'm going to have a shirt made for Christmas that says we love to punch.

Heretics.

I don't know, that's probably not a good idea. But the idea of a physical altercation, a physical striking over doctrine has some at least historical merit at least within, if nothing else, within legend.

Could it be that these men were physical with the people of God? We don't know for certain. But there is something to be said for the reality that we could say that it could be a reference to a non-physical type of striking.

We talk about leaders who have a heavy hand. What is a leader with a heavy hand? It's a person who oppresses, it's a person who pushes down the people of God, who suppresses the people of God, who mistreats the people of God.

And Paul saying strikes you could be a reference simply to their heavy handed use of their.

Authority.

Was it a physical striking? Possibly.

Possibly.

Could be. We don't know.

But it's certainly something they shouldn't have tolerated. But Paul says you have tolerated. You think you're wise and yet at the same time you're tolerating fools. In verse 21, this has to be sarcasm because notice what he says in verse 21.

To my shame I must say we were too weak for that. Think about what he's saying. We just weren't strong enough to come and beat you up. We weren't strong enough to come and raise a hand to you. We weren't strong enough to do that.

I think there's sarcasm dripping from there because Paul's never lifted a hand to them. Paul's never abused them. Paul's never mistreated them. But whatever anyone else boasts of, in fact the ESV, what anyone dares boast of, I'm speaking of a fool, I also dare to boast of that.

Again, he chastens them for bearing with their abusive leaders. He calls them wise but not in a way that we would think is positive. He says you're wise for bearing with fools and that he was too weak to take advantage of them himself.

In the New American Standard Bible it says to my shame I must say that we have been weak by comparison. In what way? We've been weak on the external. We have not shown you this heavy hand that you seem to love.

Paul's Resume: Stock, Service, and Suffering

So now we get to Paul's challenge to his opponents. And he challenges them in three ways. He challenges them first to match his stock, second to match his service, and third to match his suffering. Again, this is not what would have been expected.

Someone who was boasting about their accomplishments might boast in being related to Abraham and that's the first thing he's going to talk about. They might boast in how much they have accomplished but likely not would they have boasted in their suffering because at this particular time suffering was not seen as a virtue.

Suffering was seen as a distinction of someone who wasn't blessed by God. If you're suffering that's because God has abandoned you. Remember back in chapters 1 and 2 Paul talked about the fact that his suffering was one of the things that he was being accused of being a false teacher in regard to.

Your suffering proves that you're not well, you're not right with God. The prosperity gospel is not new. Even back in the first century there were those who said look at me, look at what I've accomplished, look what I've amassed, look at the blessings I have and my blessings prove that I am God's man.

And if you're suffering that proves that you're not. So Paul's resume is not going to look like theirs. So let's look first at verse 22. He says, he's challenging them to match his stock. He says, are they Hebrews?

So am I.

Are they Israelites?

So am I.

Are they offspring of Abraham?

So am I.

Now that is basically three ways of saying the same thing. Because a Hebrew and an Israelite and an Abrahamite or an offspring of Abraham would all be the same thing. Now it is never stated specifically or categorically what the error of Paul's opponents is.

But likely the error that Paul's opponents are engaging in is the same error that the opponents of Paul in Galatia and the opponents of Paul in Colossae were engaging in. And it is the error that we call Judaizing.

The Judaizing error was rampant in the first century among Gentile churches. Because there were those who came from the Jerusalem churches who were Jewish Christians who believed that to be a righteous Christian, a righteous follower of Christ, one had to adopt the Old Covenant law and fulfill the Old Covenant law in their life.

Most specifically the laws of circumcision, the laws of Sabbath keeping, the dietary restrictions. How many times do you read in the New Testament where this issue is being addressed? Think specifically at the very first time when the churches had to come together to address an issue.

Bert and Andy dealt with this in their class on Acts. It's Acts 15. Sometimes we call it the Jerusalem Council because it would be the first time when the churches got together to solve a problem. Therefore we would say it's the first time there was a council of the churches.

Paul comes, Peter is there, James is there. And what is the subject of the council that was held in Jerusalem in Acts 15? Does anybody remember? The subject was whether or not Gentiles were required to keep the Old Covenant ceremonies.

That the Old Covenant law, was it binding on the New Covenant Christian? The answer is no. Emphatically, full stop. Therefore when someone comes to you and you're enjoying your pork sandwich and they say you're in sin, you can say no.

There's a Greek word for it, baloney, which is also made of pork. We can say no, that's false. That teaching is false. We live in the New Covenant and within the New Covenant, the Old Covenant has been made obsolete.

Hebrews chapter 8. And so I believe the issue Paul is addressing here is he's addressing these false teachers who are Judaizers. And so why would he make his stock part of his argument? Well, he is showing them that in fact, if you want to compare our Jewish bona fides,.

Mine are impeccable.

Does he not also say in other books that he is a Hebrew of Hebrews? Does he not say this in the book of Philippians? If you go to Philippians, you don't have to turn there, but if you go to Philippians chapter 3, he says, if anyone else thinks he has a reason to confidence in the flesh, I have.

More.

I was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. And to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

You want to talk about someone who has Jewish pedigree, I'm the guy. And so you want to match stock? You're an Israelite, so am I. You're Hebrew, so am I. You're an Abrahamite, so am I. So Paul is showing anyone who questions his integrity regarding his Jewishness would be foolish to do so.

So he moves then, not only does he challenge them to match his stock, he challenges them to match his service. Verse 23, are they servants of Christ? Now right away, full stop, the answer is actually no.

Because he's going to tell us in chapter 12, these are false apostles. He's already said they're false brothers, false apostles. Are they servants of Christ? The answer is no. But in this context, he's simply building a case.

Are they Hebrews? I am. Are they Israelites? I am. Are they Abrahamites? I am. Are they servants of Christ? And here's what he changes. He doesn't just say, I am. He says, I'm a better one. To hear Paul say he is a better servant of Christ may be difficult for some of us because it sounds arrogant.

In fact, he acknowledges that. Notice what he says? I'm talking like a madman. What does the NAS say? Insane?

I sound like I'm insane.

I just said I'm a better servant of Christ than you and that sounds crazy. But it's not because I do actually have far greater labors. Understand this, Paul was not one of the original 12 apostles. Paul was not even the man chosen to fulfill the place of Judas as that went to a different apostle.

And Paul is not even indicated with as much prominence as Peter in the time of the gospels and in the first part of Acts. Yet Paul does become the focus of the latter part of Acts. And when we consider all that Paul did just in Acts and in his letters, it is hard to truly quantify all that he contributed to the Christian faith.

Almost impossible. Because we can't know everything that he did. All we know is what was written. And you remember the last part of the gospel of John where it says if all the things that Jesus ever wrote or said were written down, there wouldn't be enough books in the whole world to contain, right?

We know that's true of Jesus and I wouldn't say that's true of Paul in the same sense. Of course, I would never compare Paul to Jesus, neither would he. But there is so much about Paul that we don't know and we're gonna see that in just a moment because when he starts listing off the things he's been through, most of this is not written down anywhere else.

It's only here. And it's crazy stuff. And by crazy, I mean just outrageous amounts of suffering. And this is just him listing a few things that he has been dealing with as a servant of Christ. So when he says he has far greater labors, it would be very hard to challenge that.

In fact, I would say this. There's one labor that Paul gave to the church that is beyond compare. Paul gave us 13 of the 27 New Testament letters. Whether or not you count Hebrews in that, I personally don't.

I think Hebrews is Pauline, but I don't think Paul wrote it, meaning I think that Paul preached.

It.

I think it was written down by one of his associates, possibly Luke, which would make Luke the longest writer in the New Testament, having written Luke, Acts, and possibly Hebrews. But the point is, if you just took Paul's writings and said, okay, we're gonna say who has contributed more to the Christian faith and understanding of doctrine and theology than the Apostle Paul?

Certainly none of these super apostles would have been able to compare at all. They have not planted the churches that he has planted. They have not watered the churches that he has watered. And they certainly have not written to the churches that he has written to.

And their writings have been sustained now for 2 ,000 years. Paul's service is without compare. Want to match his stock? Want to match his service? But now, the real heavy part. Can you match his suffering?

He says, this is continuing, verse 23, he says, I'm talking like a madman with far greater labors. And now he just goes into a list. Far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes, less one.

Let me just stop there for a moment. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 25, it tells us that it was a rule in the Jewish law that you could not beat someone more than 40 times, lest you degrade him. And so the law said 40 times was the maximum.

So it became standard practice that they would only beat 39 times so as to not go over the law. Some have said that it was 13 times 3, that they would do 13 lashes, 13 in the back and 13 in the front and 13, or one on each shoulder or something.

It was like 13 here, 13 here, 13 there. None of that is in scripture, even historical. I think somebody made that up. But it is 39 times. It is 39 times. And that's what Paul's referencing here, is this was a standard practice.

Notice what he says, I received at the hand of the Jews 40 lashes, less one, five times. Three times I was beaten with rods. That's actually mentioned in the book of Acts, at least one of those times.