12 I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong. 13 As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you, 14 and even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself. 15 Where, then, is your blessing of me now? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. 16 Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?
The words in 12b, 'ye have not injured me at all' have been interpreted in different ways. Cole (Tyndale) suggests it may be taken as a question: 'Never wronged me, did you?' with Paul speaking indignantly to them, indicating his sense of hurt. But it is perhaps better to take it as the RSV renders it, 'You did me no wrong' - that is, formerly, in the past, when their relationship was good, and before it had deteriorated. He had indeed no complaint about their former treatment of him, as the following verses show, for in spite of the fact that he had been among them in great weakness (13, 14), they had received him 'as an angel of God', and 'would have plucked out' their very eyes for him. The reference in these verses is clearly to some physical disability he was then suffering from. 'My temptation' in 14 is better rendered as in RSV, 'Though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me'. The bodily ailment, whatever it was, must have had some unpleasant and unsightly symptoms, which might, in some circumstances, have caused them to belittle or despise him. But not only did they not do so then, but on the contrary they received him as a messenger from God. They got behind and beyond the embarrassment of bodily symptoms to the message that he was speaking to them. But now it was so different (15): they were disaffected, and therefore disenchanted - and critical. This was the supreme sadness of the situation.