2 Corinthians 10
v.3
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
v.4
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
v.5
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
v.12
We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.
Paul is not participating in the cultural competition to be the most popular or most followed public personality. In fact, he describes his opponents as being without understanding—they are unwise—as proven by their continual need to measure themselves against each other. That’s a game Paul refuses to play. He doesn’t need to win a cultural competition to prove he truly represents Christ to the Corinthians.
v.13
We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has assigned to us, a field that reaches even to you.
It was the activity of the false apostles from Palestine at Corinth that encroached on Paul’s legitimate “field” because it violated the concordat of Gal 2:1-10, which predated their arrival at Corinth (see comments in the introduction, sec. 5). Even if these opponents had no relationship with the Jerusalem church, they must have been aware of the agreement of Gal 2, particularly that Paul had been entrusted with special responsibility for propagating the Gospel among the Gentiles or uncircumcised (Gal 2:7-9). True, their presence at Corinth was not technically an infringement on any precisely defined apostolic “treaty,” but it amounted at least to a repudiation of the spirit of this agreement concerning apostolic “division of labor,” for they were not in Corinth to aid Paul (as Apollos had been, 1Co 3:5-6) but to supplant him.
v.18
For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.