In this case however, in their attempts to discredit Paul, people were being led astray from Jesus and Paul had to say something. Let's observe how he went about that. He asked a question in verse 7

Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?

Why did he say that? This is where the spin and deconstruction came in. In a spirit of sacrifice, Paul supported himself by tentmaking while he preached in Corinth. Why did the do that? Because he couldn't raise support? No. As a matter of fact he did receive some support from other congregations, but he took nothing from Corinth. He said in verse 9, "I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way." To any fair minded person, Paul's decision would appear noble, unselfish and Christ-like.

But these characters tried to make it appear that it meant Paul was inferior. In the Greek tradition, it was beneath a free man's dignity to work with his hands. The reaction to Paul seems to be, "If he were any good, you would be supporting him."

Now notice how Paul dealt with that kind of twisted rhetoric. For one thing he looked deeply within himself and evaluated his own motives.

As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

Paul said two things in those two verses to indicate that he had evaluated his motives (1) He said "the truth of Christ is in me." He knew that for sure. It wasn't even subject to debate (2) He loved the people at Corinth. He said, "God knows that I do." Paul entirely eliminated any possibility of self-doubt when he responded to his criticism. He did that by looking deep into his own heart. His was not a knee-jerk reaction. It was deeply thought out.

He exposed their inconsistencies.

Pay special attention to verse 15

It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Who were these servants masquerading as servants of righteousness? According to verse 13, they were "false apostles, deceitful workmen." He flat-out says they are servants of Satan.

How did he reach that conclusion?

Look at verses 19 and 20. He was talking about how the church reacted to these slick-talkers.

You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face.

In Paul's mind, their reaction was just totally unbelievable. The false apostles wanted to enslave, exploit, take advantage of, push and slap down the Christians in Corinth who were too weak to stand up to them. The folks in Corinth were willing to let them to do it. At the bottom of this whole struggle was the desire for control.

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