The Meaning of Being Crafty
2 Corinthians 12:16 • 1 min. read • grade level: 10
The expression, "Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile" (2 Cor. 12:1616But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. (2 Corinthians 12:16)), is the low insult which "deceitful workers" insinuated among the Corinthian saints, to defame the Apostle and exalt themselves. They dared to say that if the Apostle did not burden them directly, he all the more craftily reaped what he could through Titus and others. None fall into such depths of baseness as self-seeking Christian professors. In short, then, this expression is the language not of the Apostle, but of his adversaries, whom he exposes for our admonition; and he calls speaking about himself, "folly," because it was not about Christ, but himself; but for the brethren's sake he was compelled to.