This was the claim that mattered most. Paul had already called these men "false apostles" who were only "transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:13). Here, as Gill puts it, "he chose not to litigate this point with them." He grants their claim for the sake of argument and then answers, "I am more." Barnes sums up Paul's point: "He had higher claims to the office than they had." Paul adds "(I speak as a fool)" because boasting of himself is speaking "as it were foolishly" (2 Corinthians 11:17), yet he says of the Corinthians, "ye have compelled me" (2 Corinthians 12:11).

Paul answers immediately: "I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft." Then he fills in the list. "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one" (2 Corinthians 11:24). "Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck" (2 Corinthians 11:25), with dangers on every side (2 Corinthians 11:26-27). On top of all this came "the care of all the churches" (2 Corinthians 11:28).

"Stripes" were lashes. The Law of Moses limited a beating to forty: "Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed" (Deuteronomy 25:3). Barnes explains that in practice thirty-nine were given so the limit would not be broken by mistake, which is why Paul says "forty stripes save one" (2 Corinthians 11:24). For "in deaths oft," Barnes says: "Exposed to death; or suffering pain equal to death." He points to 2 Corinthians 1:9, where Paul had "the sentence of death in ourselves." Acts records one such imprisonment at Philippi, where his feet were made "fast in the stocks" (Acts 16:24).

Paul's answer to "Are they ministers of Christ?" is not a list of successes. It is a list of wounds. Barnes observes that the ministry may be almost alone in this: being whipped and scorned counts as proof of fitness for the office. Matthew Henry says Paul tells all this "not out of pride or vain-glory," but to honor God, who enabled him to do and suffer so much for Christ.

The list leads somewhere. Paul ends by glorying in his "infirmities" (2 Corinthians 11:30), and in the next chapter he tells how the Lord said to him, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). God's power is shown in a servant who is weak, not in one who looks impressive.