<p>5:13 <i>If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you- </i>Paul is presumably quoting from accusations made about his mental stability. Festus made the same accusation (Acts 26:24). We note that Paul doesn't accuse the slanderers of slander; he reasons from the assumption, for a moment, that what they said was true. The Lord did likewise in His teaching. But the idea of appearing mad or in fact being 'right minded' are clearly in the spirit of Paul's opening position to the Corinthians which we find in 1 Cor. 1. It is the mind devoid of the Spirit which would consider a spiritual person to be &quot;foolish&quot;. By considering Paul to be 'a fool', the Corinthians indicated how they were simply &quot;not Spiritual&quot; (1 Cor. 3:1) despite having been given the Spirit. &quot;If we are out of our mind&quot; would be more strictly translated &quot;when we were out of our mind&quot;, with reference to a specific past incident; compared to &quot;we are in our right mind&quot; which is a more continuous tense. The being 'out of our mind' and perceived as mad could refer to a single incident of ecstatic in-Spirit behaviour which the Corinthians had observed in Paul whilst he was amongst them. Plato (<i>Phaedrus </i>244) describes the supposedly spirit-filled priestesses at Delphi near to Corinth as &quot;mad&quot; when they were supposedly filled by a spirit, and &quot;in their right mind&quot; s.w. as here in 2 Cor. 5:13 when they were not possessed by a spirit. This apparent madness was 'to God'; but Paul related to the Corinthians in his right mind (Gk. 'soberly'). They had as it were eavesdropped on Paul's personal relationship with God in some Spirit ecstasy, and were mocking him for it. But his interactions with the Corinthians had, Paul says, been of an utterly sober nature.</p>