As we finish up here, we see Paul giving us a nice summary of the point that he's really been making. We've been on quite a journey through Second Corinthians here, seeing all of the emotions that have been involved, essentially culminating in that last chapter when Paul told the story of his being taken into heaven.

This chapter starts out in a rather interesting way with Paul saying that he has been a fool. Now, what he is meaning here is that he has told this story that we saw on Friday about being taken into heaven, and he didn't want to tell it. He didn't feel that it was necessary, but he was forced to do it.

We have arrived in what I find to be my favorite part of second Corinthians. Paul has been concerned about the boasting of these Super Apostles. We don't know exactly what they were saying, but they were claiming to be better than Paul and that they should not listen to Paul. Instead, they should listen to them. Paul believes they're leading the people in Corinth astray.

Here we see Paul continuing to address this idea of the Super Apostles, these people who are claiming to be better than Paul. He is going to do some boasting of his own, and he decides to, as he says, boast according to the flesh.

As we start off here in 2 Corinthians 11, things are starting to get a little bit spicy. Paul starts off here. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. He's using some of his intellectual skill here. He is trying to set himself up against these Super Apostles. Now, that is not a good term. Paul is using the term Super Apostles to make fun of them, like woo, you're super apostles.

So, as we start here with Chapter 10, the issues at hand in Corinth, or at least the issues they have with Paul, become even more clear. They're saying, This Paul, he writes a really strong letter. But when he's around, look at the dude. He's not very imposing. He is not a good public speaker. Come on, who are you going to listen to? Paul, who writes a good letter when he's not around, or us?

As we start to consider what we've read today, I want us to first look at the obvious point that Paul is making in verse 6. He says the point is this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Now, we know that you can have a good harvest. You could plant a few plants in your garden and have those plants have a ton of stuff come from them.

As we come to this text, we see Paul making a request of the church in Corinthians. Now, he is talking about the generosity of the churches in Macedonia. That would be the churches in Philippi, in Thessalonica, and in Berea. What has happened from what we can see here in the text, is that there was a point where they were asked to give for another church, and they did this, and they did it way beyond their means. These churches in Macedonia did not have much means.

 So, this passage here from 2nd Corinthians helps us piece together a lot of what has happened since the first letter to the Corinthians, right? He sent that letter. Uh, challenging them, calling them to repentance, and then we see here written out. What happened? How, how they eventually did come to repentance, and how proud Paul is of them.

 So, we come to this passage, and we see Paul calling back upon an Old Testament passage about not unequally yoking animals. Now, Paul is obviously seeing a deeper spiritual reality here. Now we understand the idea of unequally yoking animals being counterproductive, right? Animals of different size animals who have maybe ideas of different directions to go.