“But you’re the minister!” That’s what one of my church members said, pointing out an issue that was very important to her. She just didn’t understand why I needed to take the situation to the session, but instead expected me to put my foot down and solve the problem right then and there.

The Corinthians seem to have had a similar frustration with Paul: “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible” (10:10). Instead of simply sending them letters urging them to practice discipline against one of their members, perhaps they expected him, as organizing pastor, to come back to Corinth and take care of the problem himself (see 2:5-9; 7:8-9).

But in today’s passage, Paul points out both the strengths and the limitations of pastoral leadership. For it certainly is the case that teaching elders must boldly proclaim everything that the Bible teaches: after all, that’s why Paul wrote so many straightforward letters, and why his preaching was so powerful.

And sometimes, this means standing up against firmly entrenched cultural errors, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many other pastors from different denominations did during the Civil Rights Movement. As Paul says, every pastor is called to destroy strongholds and arguments that are inconsistent with Biblical truth, urging all Christians to bring every one of our thoughts into obedience to Christ (vv. 4-5).

But Dr. King’s insistence on nonviolence points to the reason for the Corinthians’ frustration with Paul and my church member’s frustration with me: pastors are called to lead only through humble service. Paul pointed out this stark contrast between bold speech and humble action in verse 1. It is only in such a way that the truth of God’s Word can truly build up those who hear it (v. 8).

For when you get right down to it, the only way anyone will ever come to trust in Christ is to trust in the good news about Him. And the only way they’ll believe that good news is to trust the people who proclaim it. And since when did anyone ever trust a bully?

No, if we want our pastors to be able to do their job of preaching and teaching and encouraging us to follow Christ, we shouldn’t expect them to play the tough guy as well. Instead, Christian discipline can only take place if genuine disciples humble themselves before one another, loving each other enough to speak and listen to hard truths in a context of real and faithful love. May God grant us those kinds of leaders and those kinds of relationships.

II Corinthians 10:1-18 (ESV)

Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ– I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!
2 I ask that when I am present I may not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,
4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
7 You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we.
8 For even if I should boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame,
9 for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.
10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible.”
11 Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present.
12 For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.
13 But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you.
14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we did not reach to you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ;
15 not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we shall be, within our sphere, enlarged even more by you,
16 so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another.
17 But he who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.
18 For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends.