soever any is bold."

18. That is, in whatever the false apostles can boast, I can likewise
glory. Here we are shown what is the ground of the false apostles'
boasting: their outward respectability--being of Abraham's seed,
children of Israel, Christ's preachers. Therein they think to far
excel the Corinthians, claiming their doctrine and works to be of
greater weight because they have Moses and the prophets for their
teachers. But they failed to perceive that their boast is of mere
externals, that render no one righteous or better before God. The
majority of the Hebrews, of the Israelites, of the seed of Abraham,
and of the preachers of Christ are lost. Names are of no consequence;
they only make a fine show and serve to seduce the simple-minded. Paul
boasts of his origin and yet derides his boasting, calling it fool's
work. His object is to destroy the boasting of the false prophets,
that the people might not be deceived.

19. Note how, even in Paul's time, great men erred concerning the true
sense of the Gospel, and many noble preachers would have estimated
Christian life by a merely external appearance and name. The true
spiritual preachers must have been few. Should it be strange, then,
that in our time sincere preachers are not numerous, and that the
majority of ministers riot in what they themselves seem and do? It
cannot and shall not be otherwise. The thievish drones, which are
prone to riot, let them riot! We will resist to the utmost of our
power, commending the matter to God, who doubtless will grant us
sufficient honor and profit, both temporally and eternally, though we
must labor gratuitously, accepting injury and derision as our reward.
Our adversaries will not long continue their persecutions, for, as
Paul says just preceding our lesson, they will eventually receive
their deserts.

20. Again, Paul boasts of certain temporal afflictions wherein he
excels the false apostles, who suffer nothing, for the sake of either
the word or of souls, but only boast of name and person. Among the
afflictions he mentions, he names having been a night and a day in the
deep. Some refer this allusion to the voyage of which Luke writes
(Acts 27, 20-21), when for fourteen days Paul and his companions ate
nothing and saw never a star, being day and night continually covered
by the surges and waves of the sea. Others think Paul was, like Jonah,
personally sunk into the deep sea, though but for a day and a night.
Such is th