Weakness and the Mozambique Church

What’s the circumstance or situation Paul is facing in 2 Corinthians? There are other preachers in Corinth, preachers that the church has believed are more powerful, anointed, or have new revelations. They are preaching that because they are close to God they never have issues - they are blessed and victorious every
hour. They end up giving sermons on themselves and how amazing they are. PS, oh, and God.

I am seeing this so clearly now because that’s exactly where the church in Mozambique is and what is going on. The TV evangelist message is 1000% worse in Mozambique than in the US. Why? Because most Americans have been to a church that’s not like that and they at least know not all churches are all health-wealth-1000s-of-people. Here they don’t know any better - they think the rest of the world is full of powerful, successful churches and that the bigger the church the more powerful the preacher. They end up thinking their own church is messed up and weak because it’s not a mega-church.

The Corinthians thought the same thing. Because Paul had issues and was weak, they thought he wasn’t as anointed or close to God as the other preachers. They wanted a powerful leader like Saul, not a “weak-in-words” leader who is open about his pain and suffering like Paul. They wanted strong leaders of metal.

But Paul is saying that’s not how it works: the weaker I am, the stronger Christ can be seen in me. If I was powerful, then people could think that the power was from me, but God chooses the weak and the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and strong (1 Cor 1). So we should have absolutely no shame in our weakness and issues because they are a better vessel for Christ in His power.