The Apostle Paul was steamed. He may have been a minister—gentle and kind—but don’t kid yourself, Paul got steamed. You can only take so much nitpicking, so much scratching around in your past, so much of people trying to find fault with everything you do. After a while, one’s patience begins to run a little thin.

A lot of us would like to think that Christian churches are just full of perfect people who do everything right all the time, who are very kind, and who never speak evil of one another. All I can say is: dream on. Wherever there are people, there are politics. And from the time you start to the time you are put under the ground, it is going to be a struggle.

To Paul’s credit, he knew that and was prepared to do it. But that doesn’t mean that, once and a while, you don’t go ahead and say what’s on your mind. Toward the end of this letter to the Corinthian church, it finally got to the place where Paul had to say something. We’ll find his tough conclusion beginning in chapter 11.