Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 10:13

"But we will not glory beyond [our] measure, but according to the measure of the province which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even unto you." — 2 Corinthians 10:13 (ASV)

But we will not boast of things without our measure.—The words imply, of course, that his opponents were doing this. He refers in it to the concordat established between himself and Barnabas on the one hand, and Peter, James, and John on the other, to which he refers in Galatians 2:9.

He had not transgressed the terms of that concordat by thrusting himself upon a Church which had been founded by one of the Apostles of the circumcision.

He had gone, step by step, seeking “fresh fields and pastures new,” until he had reached Corinth as, currently, the farthest limit of his work. In that apportionment of work, though it was a compact with human teachers, he saw the guidance of God; his opponents, on the other hand, had systematically violated it.

They had come to the Church of Antioch, which had been founded by Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:1). They had followed in his footsteps in Galatia (see Introduction to Epistle to the Galatians) and were now stirring up strife and disloyalty at Corinth.

We note as an undesigned coincidence that a few weeks or months later, as in Romans 15:19, he had preached the gospel as far as Illyricum. This was during the time immediately following the sending of this Epistle, during which, on his way to Corinth (from where he wrote to Rome), he had “gone over those parts, and given them much exhortation” (Acts 20:2).