In this and the next couple of chapters, St. Paul is preparing them for his next visit. That is why in this chapter we see him responding to several charges and suspicions which they have raised against him, and warns that he will exercise strict discipline if it is necessary when he arrives. We know that there were many detractors who came to Corinth and were casting doubt on his Apostleship. This is why he returns to his own defense in this chapter to defend his conduct and his authority. Regarding his conduct they accuse him of writing harsh letters and then being weak when he visited them in person. He explains that, in part, he does not want to use harshness in front of them. Regarding his authority, he says it is the same, in word, when absent, and when with them. When he is gentle in front of them it is a choice he is making and he pleads with them to not put him in a position to use his authority to discipline them to bring them back to Christ. When the false teachers evaluate themselves they do 2 things: 1) they set the measure, in other words they decide their standard by comparing themselves to themselves and 2) they compare themselves by themselves not by those who are superior to them. The result of these 2 things is that they are unwise because a person should evaluate themselves according to the measure of God and not a measure they set for themselves.

Chapter 8 is about the principles of giving. To ensure that he was not misunderstood in the last chapter of accusing the church in Corinth of being mean in giving, St. Paul presents an apology for his zeal in exhorting them to practice that grace (1-5). Then he goes on to give some instructions concerning the well-received gift, and how to practice it. While St. Paul writes about the collection for the Church in Jerusalem, he writes that he doesn’t need to bring it up because he knows of their willingness to send these contributions. He writes to them to ensure their gift is ready, while explaining their gift should be one of generosity and not one of compulsion. He did not want to show up and talk to them about contributions because if he did they might give them in front of him out of embarrassment and he did not want to put them in that position. Another reason is if they were not ready when he arrived it would be embarrassing for them (Corinth) and for St. Paul - imagine if some people from Macedonia came with him and saw the Corinthians were not ready. This would be embarrassing for them when they began the collection a year earlier. He also discussed the idea of sowing and reaping. We reap what we sow. So if we sow scarcely or abundantly that is what we will reap.

In the previous chapter, St. Paul continued a discussion about how we perfect our holiness, his joy at the Corinthians repenting, returning to God and the Church. He discussed Godly vs worldly sorrow and he shares his joy regarding their interactions with Titus.

St. Paul begins a new topic in this chapter. He discusses collecting donations for the Jerusalem church.

We previously discussed how collecting donations for that church accomplished many things including, helping those who were in need in Jerusalem, assists believers in living out their faith, and helps to grow relations between Churches who were mostly made up of Jewish followers of Christ with those who were mostly Gentile followers such as in Corinth.

The Corinthians had already agreed to help the Jerusalem church as he asked them in 1 Corinthians 16. However, the money had not been collected so with great care he brings it up again in this chapter offering them an opportunity to fulfill their commitment.