Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not bound to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? 16 But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. 17 Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? 18 I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps? ESVUK

Everything is in readiness now for this, my third visit to you. But don’t worry about it; you won’t have to put yourselves out. I’ll be no more of a bother to you this time than on the other visits. I have no interest in what you have—only in you. Children shouldn’t have to look out for their parents; parents look out for the children. I’d be most happy to empty my pockets, even mortgage my life, for your good. So how does it happen that the more I love you, the less I’m loved?

And why is it that I keep coming across these whiffs of gossip about how my self-support was a front behind which I worked an elaborate scam? Where’s the evidence? Did I cheat or trick you through anyone I sent? I asked Titus to visit, and sent some brothers along. Did they swindle you out of anything? And haven’t we always been just as aboveboard, just as honest? The Message

At the heart of Christian ministry there lies parental-type love. It must have been heart-rending for Paul, who loved them so much, to not have that love fully returned. But parental love seeks to give and not to get. Parental love suffers many wounds – and hurts and weeps – but goes on loving.

‘Any human father desires to be loved by his children. He hopes that just as he has loved his children, his children will return his love. But even if the children do not show any love to their father, he will nevertheless, with tears, keep on loving them all the more. Paul’s love for the Corinthians was like that.’ Tom Hale

When the apostle asks, ”Did I take advantage of you…Did Titus take advantage of you?” these are rhetorical questions. He knows the answer is a resounding ‘No!’

Paul did not take any money from the Corinthians for his own support, but it was being said that his collection for the poor Christians in Jerusalem was ‘trickery’; that he was being ”crafty”. It was really for him after all. This must have cut him deeply. Like his Master, Paul knew the anguish of false witness.

It wasn’t true. It wasn’t fair. But it happens to good Christian leaders even now.