In 10:1 Paul says that he entreats through the meekness and forbearance of Christ. This indicates that the apostle, being firmly attached to Christ (1:21) and one with Him, lives by Him, behaving in His virtues. All the virtues of Christ were becoming Paul’s virtues. Meekness was a virtue in the humanity of Christ by the divine life. Christ’s meekness is not a simple matter, for it is in His humanity and by the divine life. When He was on earth, He lived a human life by the divine life. Through this mingling of divinity and humanity the virtue of meekness was manifested.
The principle is the same with Christ’s virtue of forbearance. Forbearance is another virtue of Christ lived in His humanity by the divine life. Do you know the difference between meekness and forbearance? To have the virtue of meekness means that you do not invade others or fight with them. Instead, you are willing to give in. The meek give in to others. But those who are strong in a natural way fight and refuse to give in. At the least, they want to stand their ground. The meek, however, give in, do not fight, and do not invade others’ territory. To have forbearance means that you are willing to allow others to invade you. This means that to have forbearance is to suffer affliction and injury. To have meekness is not to invade others, but to give in to them; to have forbearance means that you are willing to be invaded by others. These are two of the virtues Christ lived in His humanity by the divine life.
Because Paul lived Christ, the virtues of Christ became his. The phrase “through the meekness and forbearance of Christ” indicates that Paul was one with Christ and took Christ as his life. Therefore, he entreated the believers not by himself, but entreated them through the virtues of Christ, in particular through Christ’s meekness and forbearance. Paul entreated others by Christ, in Christ, and with Christ.
After telling us the way he entreats, Paul goes on to speak of the kind of person he was. He says in verse 1, “I myself, Paul,...who as to appearance am indeed lowly among you, but absent am of good courage toward you.” This description of Paul’s person fits in with the subject of 2 Corinthians. The subject of this Epistle is the kind of person Paul was and the kind of life he lived. Paul did not care that much for the work he did; he cared much more for his person and living. As we have pointed out, in chapter ten he does not even mention the purpose of his entreaty. He was so concerned about the way he entreated that he did not mention why he entreated.
Regarding his person, Paul says that he was lowly when among the Corinthians, but was of good courage when absent from them. The apostle was bold, having courage to speak out in his Epistle the real situation among the Corinthians. We can learn from Paul to be meek when in the presence of others, but to be bold when we are absent from them. When you are with a particular person, you should not be too bold. However, you may be bold in writing a letter to that person. Some may say, “I can be bold when I am present with a person; however, when I am absent from that one, my boldness seems to evaporate.” This indicates that your boldness in that person’s presence is not proper. If your boldness does not evaporate after you have left a person’s presence, then it may be a proper kind of boldness. Paul was very bold in writing to the Corinthians. But if we could be in Paul’s presence, we would find him meek and lowly.
There is much for us to learn from the way Paul conducted himself. Whenever we want to treat a person in a bold way, we should wait until we are no longer in that person’s presence and see if our boldness remains. This was Paul’s way of dealing with the Corinthians. He entreated them through the meekness and forbearance of Christ, and he was lowly among them, but he was bold in writing to them. In these verses we see Paul’s meekness, forbearance, lowliness, and proper boldness.