According to verses 2 through 5, Paul regards himself as two persons. In verse 2 he says, “I know a man in Christ.” Referring to this man in Christ, he says in verse 5, “On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on behalf of myself I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.” The man in Christ in verse 2 is the apostle (v. 7), not as the old creation but as the new creation (5:17). In this section the apostle desires to boast of the new creation in Christ by boasting of his weaknesses in the flesh, the old creation (vv. 5, 9)…When Paul speaks of a man in Christ, he is referring to his second man, to his second person. He would boast of this man, but he would not boast of the old self. (Life-study of 2 Corinthians, msg. 55, section 2)

The man in Christ has a particular characteristic in that he always shows his weakness... In this respect he takes the Lord Jesus as his pattern. We know that the Lord Jesus was not weak; rather, He was powerful. However, when He was arrested, brought to the cross, and nailed there, Christ appeared to be weak. When Judas brought the officers from the temple to arrest Christ, Christ did not struggle. In the eyes of the arresting ones Christ was very weak…When He was brought the long distance from Gethsemane to Golgotha, He did not resist. That was a sign of His weakness.

Paul, as a man in Christ, was just like Christ. In the preceding chapters Paul reminds the Corinthians of the many ways in which they had wronged him. However, Paul never reacted to them. He always showed them his weakness. Even when they accused him of manipulating them for the sake of money, he did not fight back or react (vv. 16-19). Instead, he displayed his weakness…We may consider that the sign of a man in Christ would be his power and his strength. It seems that such a man should be very great. But Paul, as a man in Christ, appeared to be so small. (Elders’ Training, Book 6: The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles, ch. 4, section 4)

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