John Calvin Commentary 2 Corinthians 11:7

"Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God for nought?" — 2 Corinthians 11:7 (ASV)

Have I committed an offense? His humility was used against him as a reproach, even though it was an excellence deserving of extraordinary commendation. Humility here means—voluntary abasement; for by conducting himself modestly, as if he had nothing particularly excellent about him, so that many regarded him as an ordinary person, he had done this for the benefit of the Corinthians.

For the man was so inflamed with desire and anxiety for their salvation that he made concern for himself a secondary consideration. Therefore, he says that he had voluntarily surrendered his own greatness so that they might become great through his abasement.

For his purpose was to promote their salvation. He now indirectly charges them with ingratitude for attributing to him as a fault such a pious disposition—not, indeed, to reproach them, but with the aim of more effectively restoring them to a sound mind.

And certainly, he wounded them more severely by speaking ironically, than if he had spoken in a simple way and without a figure of speech. He might have said, “What is this? Am I despised by you, because I have lowered myself for your advantage?” The questioning he used, however, was more effective in shaming them.

Because I preached freely—this is a part of his abasement. For he had given up his own right, as if his condition were inferior to that of others. But such was the unreasonableness of some of them that they esteemed him less on that account, as if he were undeserving of remuneration. The reason he had given his services to the Corinthians gratuitously is explained next: for he did not act in this manner everywhere, but, as we have seen in the former Epistle, there was a danger of his giving the false apostles a pretext against him.