2 Corinthians 11:8

‘I robbed other churches, taking wages of them that I might minister to you.’

Indeed he had done more. He had accepted money from other churches so as not to have to rely on them. ‘Robbed.’ Perhaps there is a sarcastic suggestion in the use of this word that his opponents were ‘robbing’ the Corinthians. They robbed the Corinthians, while he ‘robbed’ other churches. It may however signify that he is suggesting that he had taken as ‘wages’ what was not his due from other churches, because he did nothing for it, and it should have been paid by the church to which he was preaching. He is not really suggesting that he has robbed them, only describing it from the Corinthian viewpoint. The other churches had given quite willingly. Or it may include the thought that he found it hard to accept gifts from the Macedonians because he knew how poor they were, and felt that he was robbing them.