2 Corinthians.

Notes on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians with a New Translation

W. Kelly.

2 Corinthians 1.

Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will, and Timothy the brother, to the assembly that is in Corinth, with all the saints that are in the whole of Achaia; 2 grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 that comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those that are in any tribulation through the comfort with which we are comforted ourselves by God, 5 because as the sufferings of the Christ abound toward us, even so through the Christ aboundeth also our comfort. 6, But, whether we be in tribulation, [it is] for your comfort and salvation, that worketh in endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer (and our hope [is] stedfast for you); whether we be comforted, [it is] for your comfort and salvation, 7 knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also of the comfort.

8 For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, as to our tribulation that came to pass in Asia, that we were excessively pressed beyond power, so as for us to despair even of our living. 9 But we ourselves have had in ourselves the sentence of death, that we should not have our trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead, 10 who delivered us from so great a death, and doth [or, will] deliver, in whom we have hope that he will also yet deliver, 11 ye also labouring together by supplication for us that from many persons the gift toward us may by many be matter of thanksgiving for us. 12 For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience that in holiness and sincerity before God, not in carnal wisdom but in God's grace, we conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly towards you. 13 For no other thing we write unto you than what ye read, or even recognise, and I hope that ye will recognise unto the end, 14 even as also ye recognised us in part that we are your boast, just as ye also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.

15 And with this confidence I was intending previously to come unto you, that ye might have a second favour, 16 and through you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come unto you, and by you to be sent forward into Judea. 17 Having, then, this intention, did I, pray, use lightness? Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to flesh, that with me may be the yea yea and the nay nay? 18 Now God [is] faithful that our word that [was] unto you is not yea and nay. 19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, that was preached among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, became not yea and nay, but is become yea in him. 20 For as many as [be] God's promises, in him [is] the yea; wherefore also by him [is] the amen for glory to God by us. 21 Now he that establisheth us with you in Christ, and anointed us is God, 22 who also sealed us, and gave the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 23 But I call God as witness upon my soul, that to spare you I came not yet unto Corinth; 24 not that we rule over your faith, but are fellow-workers of your joy, for by faith ye stand.

2 Corinthians 2.

But I judged this for myself not to come again unto you in grief. 2 For if I grieve you, who then [is] he that gladdeneth me, if not he that is grieved by me? 3 And I wrote this very thing, that I might not on coming have grief from those from whom I ought to have joy, having trust in you all that my joy is [that] of you all. 4 For out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that ye should be grieved, but that ye may know the love that I have very [lit. more] abundantly unto you. 5 But if any one hath grieved, he hath grieved not me, but in part (that I may not press heavily), all of you. 6 Sufficient to such an one [is] this rebuke, which [is] by the many; 7 so that, on the contrary, ye should rather forgive and comfort, lest somehow such an one be swallowed up with excessive grief. 8 Wherefore I exhort you to ratify love toward him. 9 For I wrote also for this, and that I might know the proof of you, whether as to all things ye are obedient. 10 But to whom ye forgive anything, I also; for I too, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, [do so] for your sake in Christ's person, 11 that we might not be overreached by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his devices.

12 Now when I came unto the Troad for the gospel of Christ, a door being opened to me in [the] Lord, 13 I had no rest in my spirit at not finding Titus, my brother; but, having taken leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia. 14 But thanks [be] to God that always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the odour of his knowledge through us in every place. 15 Because we are a sweet odour of Christ to God in those to be saved, and in those that perish: 16 to the one an odour from death unto death, but to the others an odour from life unto life; and who [is] sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not as the many, corrupting [lit. retailing] the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, before God, we speak in Christ.

2 Corinthians 3.

Begin we again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some, recommendatory epistles unto you or from you? 2 Ye are our epistle inscribed in our hearts, known and read by all men, 3 being manifested that ye are Christ's epistle ministered by us, having been inscribed, not with ink, but [the] Spirit of [the] living God, not on tables of stone, but on fleshy tables of [the] heart [or, hearts]. 4 And such confidence have we through the Christ toward God; 5 not that we are competent from ourselves to reckon anything as of ourselves, but our competency [is] of God, 6 who also made us competent [as] servants of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit, for the letter killeth but the spirit quickeneth.

(7 But if the ministry of death in letter, graven on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently toward the face of Moses for the glory of his face, that was to be done away, 8 how shall not the ministry of the Spirit rather be in glory? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation [have] glory, much more doth the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. 10 For even that which hath been glorified hath not been glorified in this respect on account of the surpassing glory. 11 For if that to be done away [was] with glory, much more what abideth [is] in glory. 12 Having then such hope we use much openness of speech: 13 and not as Moses used to put a veil on his own face, that the sons of Israel should not look stedfastly unto the end of that to be done away. 14 But their thoughts were darkened [lit. hardened]; for until this very day the same veil at the reading of the old covenant abideth unlifted [lit. not unveiled], which in Christ is done away. 15 But unto this day, when Moses is being read, a veil lieth upon their heart. 16 But whenever it shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken off.)

17 Now the Lord is the spirit, but where the Spirit of the Lord [is, there is] liberty; "but we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from [the] Lord [the] Spirit.

2 Corinthians 4.

On this account, having this ministry, according as we obtained mercy, we faint not, 2 but refused the hidden things of shame, not walking in deceit, nor guilefully using the word of God, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men in the sight of God. 3 But if even our gospel is veiled, in those that perish it is veiled, 4 In whom the god of this age blinded the minds [or thoughts] of the faithless, that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is [the] image of God, should not shine forth. 5 For not ourselves do we preach, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves your bondmen for Jesus' sake, 6 because it is the God that bade light shine out of darkness, who shone in our hearts for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthenware vessels, that the surpassingness of the power may be God's, and not of us, 8 in everything being afflicted, yet not straitened, sorely yet not utterly perplexed, 9 persecuted yet not forsaken, cast down yet not destroyed, 10 always bearing about in the body the dying [or, putting to death] of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. 11 For we that live are ever being delivered up unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So that death worketh in us, but life in you. 13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, I believed wherefore [also] I spake we also believe, wherefore also we speak; 14 knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus, and shall present [us) with you. 15 For all things [are] for your sakes, that the grace having multiplied through the greater number might make the thanksgiving abound to the glory of God.

16 Wherefore we fail not; but even if our outer man is consuming, yet the inner is being renewed day by day. 17 For the momentary lightness of our affliction worketh out for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory: 18 while we have the eye not on the things that are seen, but on those not seen, for the things seen [are] temporary, but those not seen, eternal.

2 Corinthians 5.

For we know that if our earthly tabernacle-house be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, everlasting in the heavens. 2 For also in this we groan. longing to clothe ourselves with our dwelling which is from heaven, 3 if indeed also when clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For also we that are in the tabernacle groan, being burdened, because we desire not to be unclothed but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life. 5 Now he that wrought us for this very thing [is] God, that gave us the earnest of the Spirit. 6 Therefore being always confident, and knowing that, while present in the body, we are absent from the Lord (7 for we walk by faith, not by appearance [or, sight]), 8 we are confident and well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 9 Wherefore also we are zealous that, whether present or absent, we may be agreeable to him.

10 For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each may receive the things [done] in [literally, by] the body according to what he did, whether good or evil.11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men; but we have been manifested to God, and I hope also to have been manifested in your. consciences. 12 For we are not again commending ourselves to you, but giving you occasion to boast on our behalf, that ye may have [it] with those boasting in face and not in heart. 13 For whether we were beside ourselves, [it is] to God; or are sober, [it is] for you. 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us, having judged this, that if one died for all, then they all were dead [or, died] 15 and he died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for them died and rose.16 So that we henceforth know no one as to flesh: if we have even known Christ as to flesh, yet now are we no longer knowing [him]; 17 so that, if one [is] in Christ, [there is] a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, they [or, all things] are become new. 18 And they all [are] of God that reconciled us to himself by Christ and gave to us the ministry of the reconciliation: 19 how that it was God in Christ reconciling [the] world to himself, not reckoning to them their offences, and putting in us the word of the reconciliation. 20 For Christ then we are ambassadors, God as it were beseeching by us, we entreat for Christ, Be reconciled to God: 21 him that knew not sin he made sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in him.

2 Corinthians 6.

And working together we also beseech that ye receive not in vain the grace of God (2 for he saith, In an acceptable season I listened to thee, and in a day of salvation I helped thee: behold, now a right acceptable season, behold, now a day of salvation), 3 giving none offence in anything that the ministry be not blamed. 4 But in everything as ministers of God commending ourselves, in much patience, in affliction, in necessities, in straits, 5 in stripes, in prisons in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings, 6 in pureness, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in [the] Holy Ghost, in love unfeigned, 7 in [the] word of truth, in [the] power of God. Through [or, with] the arms of righteousness on the right and left, 8 through glory and dishonour, through ill report and good report, as deceivers and true, 9 as unknown and well known, as dying and, be hold, we live, as chastened and not put to death, 10 as grieved but always rejoicing, as poor but enriching many, as having nothing and possessing all things.

14 Be not diversely yoked with unbelievers: for what partnership [is there] for righteousness and lawlessness? or what fellowship [hath] light with darkness? 15 and what consent of Christ with Beliar? or what part for a believer with an unbeliever? 16 and what agreement for God's temple with idols? For ye are [the] living God's temple, even as God said, I will dwell and walk among them, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from the midst of them and be separated, saith [the] Lord, and touch no unclean thing; and I will receive you 18 and will be to you for Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith [the] Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 7. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God's fear.

2 Receive us; we wronged none, we corrupted none, we overreached none. 3 For condemnation I do not speak; for I have said before that ye are in our hearts to die with and to live with. 4 Great [is! my openness toward you, great my boasting in respect of you: I am filled with encouragement, I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. 5 For also when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but [we were] afflicted in every way; without fightings, within fears. 6 But he that encourageth the lowly, God, encouraged us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not by his coming only but also by the encouragement with which he was encouraged in your case, declaring to us your longing desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I the more rejoiced. 8 Because if even I grieved you in the letter, I do not regret, if even I did regret; for I see that that letter if even for a time grieved you. 9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were grieved but that ye were grieved unto repentance, for ye were grieved according to God that in nothing ye might suffer damage from us. 10 For grief according to God worketh repentance to salvation not to be regretted: but the grief of the world worketh out death. 11 For, behold, this very thing that ye were grieved according to God, how much diligence it wrought out in you, nay self-clearing, nay indignation, nay fear, nay longing desire, nay zeal, nay avenging! In everything did ye prove yourselves to be pure in the matter. 12 Wherefore, if also I wrote, [it was] not for the sake of him that wronged, nor for his sake that was wronged, but for the sake of your diligence for us (or, ours for you) being manifested unto you before God. 13 On this account we have been encouraged; but in our comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly over the joy of Titus, because his spirit Lath been refreshed by you all. 14 Because if I have boasted to him anything of you, I was not put to shame; but as we speak all things to you in truth, so also our boasting of you to Titus was truth. 15 And his affections are more exceedingly toward you, calling to mind the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. 16 I rejoice that in everything I am confident in you.

2 Corinthians 8.

Now we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God that is given in [or, among the assemblies of Macedonia; 2 that in much trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality; 3 because according to power [I bear witness] and beyond power [they gave] of their own accord, 4 asking of us with much entreaty the grace and the fellowship of the ministering unto the saints; 5 and this not as we hoped, but their own selves they gave first to the Lord and to us by the will of God; 6 so that we exhorted Titus, that, even as he before began, so he would also complete as to you this grace also; 7 but as ye abound in everything. faith and word and knowledge and all diligence and love from you to us, [see] that ye abound in this grace also. 8 I speak not by way of commandment, but through the diligence of others proving the genuineness of your love also.

9For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he being rich became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might become rich. 10 And I give an opinion in this, for this is profitable for you who began before not only the doing, but also to be willing a year ago. 11 But now also complete the doing, that even as the readiness of the willing [was there], so also the completing [may be] out of what ye have. 12 For if the readiness be there, [one is] accepted according to what he may have, not according to what he hath not. 13 For [it is] not that others [should have] ease and you distress,14 but on equality: at the present time your abundance for their lack, that their abundance also should be for your lack, so that there should be equality; 15 as it is written, He that [gathered] much had nothing over, and he that [gathered] little had no lack.

16 But thanks to God that giveth the same zeal for you in the heart of Titus, 17 in that he received indeed the exhortation, but being very zealous of his own accord he set out unto you. 18 But we sent together with him the brother whose praise in the gospel [is] through all the assemblies, 19 and not only [so] but also chosen by the assemblies our fellow-traveller with this grace that is being administered by us unto the glory of the Lord [himself] and our readiness; 20 guarding against this, lest any should blame us in this abundance that is being administered by us, 21 for we provide things honourable not only before [the] Lord but also before men. 22 And we have sent with them our brother whom we proved to be zealous many times in many things, but now much more zealous by great confidence that [he hath] in you. 23 Whether as regards Titus, [he is] my partner and fellow-labourer toward you; whether our brethren, [they are] messengers of assemblies, Christ's glory. The showing forth then of your love and of our boasting for you show forth unto them in the face of the assemblies.

2 Corinthians 9.

For about the ministration of the saints it is superfluous for me to write to you. 2 For I know your readiness unto which I boast of you to Macedonians that Achaia hath been prepared a year ago, and your zeal stimulated the many. 3 Yet I sent the brethren in order that our boasting of you may not be made vain in this respect, that (as I said) ye may be prepared; 4 lest haply, if Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we may be ashamed, that we say not ye, in this confidence. 5 I thought it necessary therefore to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto you and complete beforehand your blessing promised before, that it be ready thus as blessing, not as covetousness. 6 But this [I say], he that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth in blessings shall reap also in blessings; 7 each as he hath purposed in his heart, not of sorrow or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make every grace abound unto you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in every [thing], may abound unto every good work; 9 as it is written, He scattered, he gave to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. 10 But he that supplieth seed to the sower and bread for eating, will supply and multiply your sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness 11 ye being enriched in everything unto all liberality which worketh out through us thanksgiving to God.12 Because the ministration of the service is not only filling up the wants of the saints, but also abounding through many thanksgivings to God; 13 through the proof of this service glorifying God for the subjection of your confession unto the gospel of Christ and liberality of fellowship toward them and toward all; 14 and in their supplication for you, while longing for you, on account of the surpassing grace of God [bestowed] on you. 15 Thanks to God for his unspeakable gift.

2 Corinthians 10.

But I myself Paul entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ, [1] who face to face [am] mean among you but absent am bold toward you — 2 but I beseech that I present may not be bold with the confidence with which I think to be daring against some that think of us as walking according to flesh. 3 For walking in flesh we do not war according to flesh. 4 For the arms of our warfare [are] not fleshly but powerful with God to the pulling down of strongholds, 5 pulling down reasonings and every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and leading captive every thought unto the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to avenge every disobedience when your obedience shall have been fulfilled.

7 Do ye look on things according to appearance? If any one hath trust in himself that he is of Christ, let him of himself consider this again, that even as he [is] of Christ, so also we. 8 For even if I should boast somewhat more abundantly of our authority which the Lord gave for building up and not for your overthrowing, I shall not be ashamed; 9 that I seem not as it were to terrify you by letters: 10 because his letters, saith one, [are] weighty and strong, but the presence of the body weak and the speech contemptible.11 Let such an one consider this, that such as we are in word by letters when absent, such also in deed when present. 12 For we dare not class or compare ourselves with some of those that commend themselves; but they, measuring themselves among themselves and comparing themselves with themselves, are unintelligent [or, misunderstand].

13 We however will not boast as to things unmeasured, but according to the measure of the rule which God distributed to us, a measure to reach as far even as you. 14 For we do not, as though not reaching unto you, overstretch ourselves, for even as far as you we advanced in the gospel of Christ, 15 not boasting as to things unmeasured in another's toils, but having hope while your faith increaseth, to be enlarged among you according to our rule unto abundance, 16 to preach the gospel unto the [quarters] beyond you, not to boast in another's rule as to things made ready. 17  But he that boasteth, in the Lord let him boast; 18 for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

2 Corinthians 11.

Would that ye might bear with me in some little folly; but even bear with me. 2 For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one husband to present a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, your thoughts should be corrupted from the simplicity that is toward Christ. 4 For if indeed he that cometh preacheth another Jesus whom ye preached not, or ye receive a different Spirit whom ye received not, or a different gospel which ye accepted not, ye might well bear with [it]. 5 For I reckon that I am in nothing come short of those surpassing apostles; 6 but if * even ordinary in speech, yet not in knowledge, but in every [way we were] made manifest [or, manifested it] in all things towards you. 7 What! did I commit sin in humbling myself that ye might be exalted, because I gratuitously announced the gospel of God to you? 8 Other assemblies I spoiled, receiving hire for service toward you. 9 And when present with you and in want, I have not been a burden to any one (for my want the brethren on coming from Macedonia supplied); and in everything unburdensome to you I kept and will keep myself. 10 There is Christ's truth in me that this boasting shall not be stopped unto me in the quarters of Achaia. 11 Wherefore? Because I love you not? God knoweth. 12 But what I do I will also do that I may cut off the occasion of those desiring an occasion, that wherein they boast they may be found even as we. 13 For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ: 14 and no wonder, for Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light: 15 [it is] no great thing then if his servants also transform themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.

16 Again I say, let not one think me to be a fool; but if otherwise, even as a fool receive me, that I also may boast some little. 17 What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord but as in folly, in this confidence of boasting. 18 Since many boast according to flesh, I also will boast. 19 For ye bear fools pleasantly, being wise. 20 For ye bear if one bring you into bondage, if one devour you, if one receive, if one exalt himself, if one beat you on the face. 21 By way of dishonour I speak, as though we had been weak; but wherein any one is bold (I speak in folly) I also am bold.

22 Are they Hebrews? I too. Are they Israelites? I too. Are they Abraham's seed? I too. 23 Are they ministers of Christ? (Beside myself I speak) I above measure; in labours very abundantly, in prisons very abundantly, in stripes exceedingly, in deaths often. 24 From Jews five times I received forty [stripes] save one; 25 thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 by wayfarings often, by dangers of rivers, by dangers of robbers, by dangers from countrymen, by dangers from Gentiles, by dangers in town, by dangers in desert, by dangers at sea, by dangers among false brethren, by toil and trouble; 27 in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28 Apart from things without [or, besides], my pressing care day by day, the concern for all the assemblies. 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I burn not? 30 If I must boast, I will boast in the matters of my infirmity. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he that is blessed for over, knoweth that I lie not. 32 In Damascus the ethnarch [or, prefect] of Aretas the king garrisoned the Damascenes' city to seize me; 33 and through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall and escaped his hands.

2 Corinthians 12.

I must needs boast; though it be not profitable, yet I will come unto visions and revelations of [the] Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not; or whether out of the body, I know not: God knoweth), such an one caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know such a man (whether in the body or without [or, apart from] the body, I know not: God knoweth), 4 how that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words which [it is] not lawful for a man to utter. 5 On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on mine own behalf I will not boast save in [my] weaknesses. 6 For if I should desire to boast, I shall not be foolish, for I shall speak truth; but I forbear, lest any should account as to me above that which he seeth me or heareth of me. 7 And that I should not be uplifted by the exceeding greatness of the revelations, there was given to me thorn [or, stake] for the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I might not be uplifted overmuch. 8 For this I thrice besought the Lord that it might depart from me; 9 and he hath said to me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for [my] power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest on me. 10 Wherefore. I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in necessities, in persecutions, in straits for Christ; for when I am weak, then am I strong.

11 I am become foolish, ye compelled me; for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I behind those surpassing apostles if also I am nothing. 12 The signs indeed of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, by both signs and wonders and powers. 13 For what is there wherein ye were made inferior to the other assemblies, unless that I myself pressed not heavily on you? Forgive me this wrong.

14 Behold, this third time I am ready to come unto you, and I will not press heavily, for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. 15 And I most gladly will spend and be spent for your souls, if even more abundantly loving you I am less loved. 16 But be it so: I did not myself burden you, but crafty as I am I caught you with guile. 17 Did I make a gain of any of them whom I sent unto you? 18 I exhorted Titus and sent the brother with [him]: did Titus make any gain of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? [did we] not in the same steps?

19 Ye long ago think that we excuse ourselves to you. Before God in Christ we speak, but all things, beloved, for your building up. 20 For I fear lest by any means on coming I find you not such as I wish, and I be found by [or, for] you such as ye wish not; lest by any means [there be] strife, jealousy, wraths, feuds, slanderings, whisperings, swellings, confusions; 21 lest on my coming again my God humble me among [or, before] you, and, bewail many of those that have sinned heretofore and not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and indecency which they committed.

2 Corinthians 13.

This third [time] I am coming unto you. At [the] mouth of two witnesses and three shall every word [or, matter] be established. 2 I have foretold and foretell, as if present the second [ time] and now absent, to them that have sinned before and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare. 3 Since ye seek a proof of the Christ speaking in me (who toward you is not weak, but is powerful in you, 4 for although he was crucified in weakness, yet he liveth by God's power; for indeed we are weak in him, but shall live with him by God's power toward you), 5 try your own selves whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves. Or recognise ye not as to your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed ye be reprobate? 6 But I hope ye shall know that we are not reprobate. 7 But we pray unto God that ye may do nothing evil, not that we may appear approved, but that ye may do the right though we be as reprobate. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. 9 For we rejoice when we are weak and ye are strong: this also we pray for, your perfecting. 10 For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not when present deal severely according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for casting down.

11 For the rest, brethren, rejoice [or, farewell], be perfected, be encouraged, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you. 12 Salute one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the Saints salute you. 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, [be] with you all.

Notes on the Second Epistle to the Corinthians

INTRODUCTION.

Very different in tone from the first Epistle, yet not less distinctly from the same mind and heart, is the second Epistle to the Corinthians. No writing of the apostle bears more unequivocally the marks of all which characterised him; none more corresponding with the state of those whom he addressed; but this in rich restorative grace and deep triumphant feeling before God. Of all the epistles none abounds in more rapid transitions; as indeed it flowed from profound exercises of soul. The circumstances through which he had passed evidently fitted him for the work in hand, which forbids any division of orderly treatment of subjects. This however is just what should be; nor does any epistle afford a finer example of what is suitable to the case in every point of view.

Personal experience, and this used for the help of others in their trials; the work of the Lord in all its varieties, with the action of the Holy Ghost answering to it; the truth of God in its distinctive shape and highest forms, or the glory of Christ contrasted with the spirit, in former days hidden under the letter; the walk and service which befit such revelations of grace; the affections called into action by all this in the midst of sorrow and suffering, with evil abounding and grace much more abounding; the trials and wants of saints, calling out the loving remembrance of others; the opposition of self-seeking men, employed of the enemy to hinder the blessing of saints and to lower the glory of Christ, to distract the weak and give scope for unscrupulous activity; but on the other hand the energy of the Holy Ghost working not only to vouchsafe heavenly visions, and so give faith its. object, but to manifest Christ in weakness and suffering where the power of Christ may rest, are all brought out with remarkable force and fulness.

Hence the expression of feeling is far more frequent and pronounced in the second Epistle than the first. Not that the first fails in showing that the apostle loved the Corinthians, and still hoped all things. But the second brings out still more manifestly how he bore all, believed all, endured all. Here therefore he speaks with far more confidence of his sure reward, in a love which sought not his own things but theirs. Here he explains his motives with much greater openness. Their subjection to the rebukes of his first epistle, their obedience to the word of the Lord which he had charged on their consciences, left him free now to explain himself. But even so he speaks with the greatest delicacy, lest he might seem careful to vindicate himself instead of cherishing jealousy for the Lord alone. Their edification was the nearest object of his heart, next to the glory of the Lord, if indeed we may even thus far sever what faith knows to be inseparable. More than once he takes up the case of the soul under discipline (as in the first epistle he had urged them to act in holy jealousy for Christ), first to show grace in restoring him who was surcharged with grief; and secondly to own how they in every way had proved themselves pure in the matter.

We may in a general way regard the epistle as consisting of the following divisions. The first seven chapters present a sketch of his ministry in its trials and dangers and the conflicts of soul which the state of the saints, of the Corinthian saints themselves above all, occasioned, in the mighty power, glorious character and blessed result of the service of Christ, triumphing over all opposition, up to death itself, in love to its objects; and this not only in those ministering but also in those ministered to, as being the working of the Holy Ghost in the life of Christ; and hence superior to all that could oppose, even to death and judgment; but exercised in suffering and in holiness; yet having to do with the judgment of unholiness which grace turns to a deeper repentance on the part, not only of the guilty, but of all who have to do with them, so as to bring glory to the Lord in Satan's defeat, as well as in quickened and strengthened divine affections.

Next, in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 we have an admirable exposition of the divine principle in giving and receiving among Christians, combined with his call to the Corinthian saints, whom he could now freely exhort, as brought back by grace, to abound in grace towards the poor saints in Judea: a constant and most grave duty, and a blessed privilege of the church towards the poor saints at all times, when they take it up in faith of the Lord's grace, and in love towards His own, as the apostle bore lays down.

Lastly, from 2 Corinthians 10 we have an apologetic discourse, in which the truest humility goes hand in hand with burning indignation against those whom Satan employs to oppose the glory of Christ and destroy the blessing of the saints under cover of exposing the imaginary faults of His servants. Nothing can exceed the propriety, as well as profound feeling with which the apostle handles this difficult and delicate theme; nothing more withering to the adversaries of grace, whatever their pretension to light and righteousness. To a spirit so disinterested, loving, and lowly as Paul's it was a very great pain to speak of himself; and he calls it his folly, as he calls on them to bear with it. Vanity loves to speak of itself and its little doings; true greatness, while it delights in that which is its own source — the all-surpassing One in whom it loses thoughts of self, can for the sake of others afford to speak of labours and sufferings for that loved object and for all that He loves, so as to refute these heartless detractions and calumnies. And as the unworthy insinuation of levity of purpose was dispelled by the first chapter, so in the last those who had undermined his apostleship he warns of the just severity which must befall them if they persevere in a course as dishonouring to the Lord as it was destructive of their own souls.

2 Corinthians 1.

Restorative grace, according to the character and power of life in Christ, is the key-note of this epistle, and that accompanied by the deepest exercise of the heart under the disciplinary ways of God. If the Corinthians must learn it in a manner suited to their state, the apostle had to do so far more profoundly, that he might be enabled fittingly to carry on and complete the gracious work of humbling and self-judgment begun in them by his first epistle. The Lord called him to pass through the severest personal trial and suffering in order the more effectively to serve and sympathise with them, now that their state interpreted by love admitted of unreserved affection and its free expression to them. The influence of all this, as we may see, is very considerable on the style of his second letter, which abounds in the most rapid transitions and abrupt allusions, as he tells out for their profit his own affliction, and the faithfulness of God, intermingling experience, doctrine, comfort, and warning, most intimately; yet so far from confusion that all helps on the great aim of bringing home the lessons of grace to the annihilation of self-confidence or glorying in man.

"Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ* by God's will, and Timothy the brother to the assembly that is in Corinth, with all the saints that are in the whole of Achaia; grace to you and peace from God our Father and [our] Lord Jesus Christ."

* Χ.  Ἰ., B M P, etc.  Ἰ Χ., as in Text. Rec., A D B G K L, the mass of cursives, and most ancient versions, etc.

The opening words of the second epistle naturally resemble those of the first, yet with well defined marks of difference. There is no repetition here of his calling to the apostolate, nor does he qualify the assembly at Corinth as sanctified in Christ Jesus, and saints by the analogous calling of God, which one cannot but judge intrinsically calculated and intended by grace to exercise their consciences in the then state of things in that city. Sosthenes was there graciously associated with the apostle, as one known to and probably of themselves, whom he could honour if they did not; as here we find Timothy from elsewhere, as to whose worthy reception by them the first epistle shows him solicitous. But in the first the apostle had joined the Corinthian church "with all that call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours," here "with all the saints that are in the whole of Achaia." It is clear that the first gives a far wider extension than the second, and leaves room for a profession which might not be real, as indeed the apostle evidently feared for the Corinthians themselves in both epistles, especially the first. But the direct force seems to be to embrace, in the express address, saints here or there in Achaia who might not be gathered into assemblies, or such as called on the Lord's name everywhere. As it was of moment that all these should know their heritage in the privileges given and revealed, and be kept from the snare of unbelief which denies their catholicity and continuance, so it was of moment that all the saints throughout Achaia should know and rejoice in the grace that had wrought restoratively in the Corinthian assembly, whatever might remain to be desired from the Lord. It was their common interest and profit for others as well as those immediately concerned. If one member suffer, all the members with it; and if one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it. In both Epistles he could not but wish them characterised by "grace" the spring and by "peace" the effect of love above evil and need, flowing richly and freely "from God our Father and [our] Lord Jesus Christ," the source and the channel of every blessing, but here again associated with the desired grace and peace.

"Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, that comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those that are in any tribulation through the comfort into which we are comforted ourselves by God, because even as the sufferings of the Christ abound toward us, so through the Christ* aboundeth also our comfort. But, whether we are in tribulation, [it is] for your comfort and salvation, that worketh in endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer (and our hope [is] stedfast for you);† or whether we are comforted, [it is] for your comfort and salvation, knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also of the comfort." (Vers. 3-7.)

* Text. Rec. on very slight authority omits τοῦ.

† Verse 6 is in a varied order in the MSS and edd. Text. Rec. puts καὶ ἡ ἐλπὶς β. ὑπ. ὑμ. at the end, and τῆς ἐν κ. τ. λ. after σωτηρίας, which seems an unauthorised conjecture. Tisch. follows A C M, etc., in reading εἴτε δὲ θλ., ὑπὲρ τῆς ὑπῶν π. κ. σ.· εἴτε π., ὑπὲρτ. ἡμ. π. (omitting καὶ σ.) τῆσ ἐνεργ. I follow B D F K L, etc., except that B. omits the first καὶ σωτηρίας.

How striking the difference as compared with the opening of the first epistle! There he thanked his God, not indeed for the spiritual state of the Corinthian saints — very far from it, whatever some might but most unintelligently have inferred — but for their rich endowments. Now he can bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the grace which turns to account all our tribulation, designating Him the Father of compassions, and the God of all comfort. And surely if one adore such a God, that adoration is enhanced when one thus comes in contact with a heart (once how far from it till purified by faith!) which could thus welcome any and every trouble, be it the sorest, comforted by God so as to comfort those that were in any conceivable trouble through the comfort with which itself had been already comforted. It is well to look at the operation of grace in a man of like passions, and not only in the fulness and perfection of all, even in Christ Himself. And certainly, if Paul was remarkable for an energy of loving labour beyond every other, he was yet more so for the variety and greatness of what he suffered for Christ's name. So here he can speak of what he had just proved afresh. The sufferings of the Christ abounded towards us, as he says; so through Him did our comfort, he adds. His faith laid hold of the Lord's way and end, and applied it to his own circumstances, and the working of grace in the face of all. As love never fails, so all things work together for good. And whether we are in tribulation, it is for your comfort and salvation. Love interprets boldly and liberally. He had heard enough to cheer his spirit: "whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort and salvation, that worketh in endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer." Far other were the sufferings of the Corinthian saints from his own. But grace delights in sharing all it can; and faith gives the highest character to whatever it can discern to be of God. In this spirit the apostle seems here to regard the sufferings of the saints at Corinth, and to hope the best results, "Knowing that as ye are partakers of the suffering, so also of the comfort."

The apostle now refers to the afflicting circumstances into which God had been pleased to bring him, in order the more deeply to teach, not merely him, but the Corinthians, and indeed all saints, His ways. The process is painful, no doubt, the profit immense to others as well as the soul itself, and this to God's glory. How good is the God we adore!

"For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, as to* our tribulation that came to pass† in Asia, that we were excessively pressed beyond power, so as to despair even of our living. But we ourselves have had in ourselves the sentence of death, that we should not have our trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth [or will]‡ deliver, in whom we have hope that he will also yet deliver, ye also labouring together by supplication for us that from many persons** the gift toward us may by many be matter of thanksgiving for us. For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience that in holiness†† and sincerity before God, not in carnal wisdom but in God's grace, we conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly towards you. For no other thing we write to you than what ye read, or even recognise, and I hope that ye will recognise unto the end, even as also ye recognised us in part that we are your boast, just as ye also are ours in the day of our‡‡ Lord Jesus." (Vers. 8-14.)

* περί A C D E F G P many cursives, etc., ὑπέρ, Text. Rec. with B and most uncials and cursives.

† ἡμῖν Text. Rec. with most MSS, but the oldest and best authorities do not read "to us."

‡ ῥύσεται B C P, etc., with some of the best versions, ῥύεται, Text. Rec. and most others, save A D, etc., which omit either.

** The Elz. ed. of 1633 without sense inserts τὸ before εὐχ. The MSS and even edd. strangely interchange  and ὑμῶν.

†† ἁπλότητι is the reading of Text. Rec. with the mass, ἁγιότητι of the oldest.

‡‡ Text. Rec. with most omits ἡμῶν.

Thus does God prove Himself rich in mercy, and this, not in conferring objective favour only in Christ, but in rendering His tried ones superior to all trouble, not by exempting those He loves from suffering and sorrow, but by giving the faith that accepts all at His hands with confidence in His love. Here we see, not the Holy One of God, who suffered as He was tempted to the uttermost, sin apart, and on the cross knew not sin indeed, but what it was for God to make Him sin; here we see a man of like passions with ourselves, strengthened with might in the inner man, and the outer crushed in every way, yet out of the eater meat coming forth, and out of the strong sweetness. Nor is this all. But he had to do, as we too, with One who knows how to order the tribulation so that its fruit, in divine consolation, should come out just at the right moment for the saints that needed succour and comfort. The apostle's mouth is opened to the Corinthians; his heart, which had been rebelled by their evil and hardness, has expanded. He can now speak freely of deliverance, that they too, humbled, if not humble, may hear and be glad, with him magnify the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, and exalt His name together. By the trouble that happened in proconsular Asia he had been pressed excessively beyond his power, so as to despair, as he says, even of living, but grace, as suits God always, wrought unfailingly. It was not by a providential intervention to screen the apostle from suffering, still less by a miracle which might confound the adversaries, but because he had abidingly the sentence of death in himself. This Job had not, and so his long struggle, as he writhed under his sorrows from without and within; to it, as far as could be, he was brought at the last before his deliverance and blessing came. The apostle bowed to it all along, and hence was above all that Satan could do, for he has no power beyond death, and was utterly baffled by the faith which accepted such a sentence,* and this "in ourselves, that we should not have our trust in ourselves, but in God that raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth, or will, deliver, in whom we have our hope that he will deliver." It is the power of the resurrection brought into the present, so as not to shrink from, but to retain, the sentence of death in himself. If Abraham learnt this in his last lesson of faith in Isaac (Heb. 11: 17-19), the apostle declares that he had it in himself. Such was to him the power of life in Christ, not ascetically, so as to exalt self after all, but finding strength in faith, giving glory to God, the perfect and unlimited deliverer. But his unburdened heart brings them in also as labouring together by supplication on his behalf that the gift of grace towards him by many persons may be matters of thanksgiving from many on his behalf. Thus would he by grace bind together, at whatever cost to self, the hearts of saints in thanksgiving for him, once in danger of wanton and utter alienation through the levity which exposed them to Satan's wiles. How far from Christ is independence, whether personal or ecclesiastical!

* I see no reason to doubt that not "answer" but "sentence," as Hesychius says, is the true meaning.

Yet is there nothing good, loving, or holy without God, to whom conscience, as well as the heart, purified by faith, and free, ever refers. Therefore does the apostle next turn to the ground and proof of spiritual integrity, though he writes for their sakes rather than his own. "For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience that in (simplicity, or rather) holiness and sincerity (literally of God, but in sense) before God, not in carnal wisdom, but in God's grace, we conducted ourselves in the world, and more abundantly toward you." He could the more boldly ask and count on their prayers from the persuasion that he had a good conscience as to his general conversation in the world, as before God, and especially as toward themselves. (See Heb. 13) He did not seek to conciliate men to and for himself, but as bent on pleasing God, he did not doubt that a conscience cleared in them would acknowledge a conscience void of offence in himself. Activity of self blinds the person, and genders bitter thoughts, especially of the one whose course morally condemns others; if the eye be single, on the contrary, the whole body is full of light, and love flows freely. "For no other things we write to you than what ye (well know, or) read, or even recognise, and I hope that ye will recognise unto the end, even as also ye recognised us in part that we are your boast, as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus."

Now that self-judgment had begun to work in the saints at Corinth, they would not fail to see the folly of taxing him with inconstancy, whose life as a saint and servant of God had been one of immovable firmness and unbending truth. There is much difference as to the force here of ἀναγινώσκετε. Elsewhere in the New Testament the meaning, beyond controversy, is to "read," which very many hold to, like the Authorised translation; others, like Calvin, contend for "well know," which is rarely if over found save in poets. It is a question between what they might gather from his presence in their midst, or from his epistle. But he writes with the calm confidence of one before God, which fails not to tell on the conscience of saints wherever they feel freely, apart from the heat and bias of party; and as he had ground to trust that they had thus recognised him in part at least, so also he hoped that they would to the end own that he was their boast, even as they were his in the day of our Lord Jesus. It was good for all to anticipate that day.

The apostle now explains circumstances which some in Corinth were as quick to misunderstand as ready to turn to his advantage. He is free to explain now as things are, but he is more anxious to turn all to the account of Christ and the truth, and this in the truest interests of the saints.

"And with this confidence I was intending previously to come unto you, that ye might have a second favour,* and through you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come unto you, and by you to be sent forward into Judea. Having then this intention, did I, pray, use lightness? Or what I purpose,† do I purpose according to flesh, that with me may be the yea yea and the nay nay? Now God [is] faithful that our word that [was] unto you is‡ not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, that was preached among you by us, by me, and Silvanus, and Timothy, became not yea and nay, but is become yea in him. For as many as [are] God's promises, in him [is] the yea; wherefore also by him|| [is] the amen for glory to God by us." (Vers. 15-20.)

* χαράν the reading of B L etc., is not entitled to shake the common χάριν. There is more question between the received ἔξητε or σχῆτε, which last is supported by B C etc.

† For the vulgar βουλευόμενος, the best MSS, etc., give βουλόμένος.

‡ ἐγένετο Text. Rec. with later witnesses, but the earlier show ἔστιν.

|| καὶ ἐν αὐτῳ Text. Rec. with some later authorities, but διὸ καὶ δἰ αὐτοῦ A B C F, etc.

The injurious impression, and even charge, of some at Corinth against the apostle was based on the slenderest appearances, and these severed from the action in him of power and love and a sound mind. How opposed to the Spirit were not such thoughts in them! The modification of his plans in not going before to visit them was as distinctly in subjection to the Lord, as his actual desire to see and help them. It was not dread of any there, still less was it from lack of moral purpose in himself. His heart was toward them in the large and holy activity of divine love. Blessed before to them, he sought that they might be favoured of the Lord again on his way to and from Macedonia for Judea; and their affectionate care in sending him on to the East he valued and counted on, His true motives he let them know afterwards. Those who yielded to such surmisings proved both their own bad state, and their ignorance of the apostle; for character and state are according to the object before the man. If it be Christ in love to His own, and even to man generally, the result follows in a walk according to God. This is to imitate God, and serve the Lord. If there be an absence of purpose on the one hand, or on the other a planning according to flesh, in either way self governs, and there could be for others no just ground of confidence. The man is as he loves, or loves not. He that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. He that lacks an object lacks character, and can only be frivolous and inconstant; he that seeks personal influence, power, honour, money, etc., is degraded according to what his heart is set on. What is of the flesh is worthless, and its purpose untrustworthy. In God only is continuance, and His Spirit alone works it in the heart and ways, where Christ displaces self as the object. For man otherwise is incapable of walking or serving according to God. He is either and evidently fickle, or his planning, however positive, is without God's guidance and strength.

Beautifully does he turn, in a spirit of grace, from their insinuations against himself to the doctrine he preached. "Now God [is] faithful, that our word that [was] unto you is not yea and nay." There is no shift of purpose, no uncertainty, in the gospel, whatever may be thought of the man. God Himself is pledged to it and concerned in it. His glory and His grace are not more bound up with it than His truth and righteousness. In the mighty work of redemption, all that God is shone out as nowhere else in past or future. There He vindicated His own nature in everlasting hatred of sin; there He demonstrated His love, rising above the worst evil of the creature. Did He compromise His word? He accomplished it, letter and spirit, to the full. Did He abandon His holiness? Never was His absolute separation from evil so manifested, nor His righteous judgment of it over so seen as then; yet then it was that every obstacle to the outflow of allovercoming grace toward sinners, whatever and wherever they might be, fell before the efficacy of the one offering and sacrifice of Christ. And as in the work which is its ground, so in the preaching, there is no inconsistency. On the contrary, every fact and thought, otherwise irreconcilable, are there brought into harmony. Our only absolute consistency is in Christ and His cross.

Here it will be observed that the apostle associates others with himself. For the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ ever enlarges the heart, and gives enduring fellowship; and this appears still more clearly in what follows. "For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, that was preached among you by us, by me, and Silvanus, and Timothy, became not yea and nay, but is become yea in him." The glory of the person proclaimed answers to the certainty guaranteed. Doubt, difficulty, hesitation, or inconsistency can have no place in the Son of God, now the glorified Man, who suffered on the cross for the annulling of sin; and the apostle and his companions know and preached no other doctrine. As the truth is one, and they believed, so is the doctrine the same which they preached. Others might seek novelties; and it is natural to the active, restless, spirit of man. They could not so deal with such a person, such a work, or such a message. That divine person, in His infinite grace, governed their minds and filled their hearts; and out of the abundance of their hearts they preached the word of truth, the gospel of their salvation, and this as consistently each with himself, as all with each other.

Thus he declares most unequivocally that the preaching of him and his companions had none of the vacillation or conflict common to the schools of human opinion, and this because all truth is verified in Christ's person. It is become yea in Him. It abode the same. Perfection is come in Him, and also as available for others. This is far more than the witnesses' agreement with themselves and one another, which is eclipsed by Christ, who is personally the truth, and all is become verified in Him. Nothing more distant from the subdued, hesitating, style of Greek thought and expression, where even what was not doubted they put as opinion. Here all is sure, and unclouded, and peremptory. The gospel, as Paul preached it, admits of no doubtful answer, any more than double dealing; and this, because it is revealed in the Second man, who has set aside the first, with his darkness and doubt, no loss than with his guilt and corruption.

More than this: "For how many soever [are] God's promises, in him is the yea; wherefore* also through him [its] the amen to God for glory by us." Hence it is not only that there is the affirmation of all promised of God in Christ, and therefore in the highest way, before the fulfilment in others, as the effect, and the outward display before every eye in the universe, but there is a present application of the surest character, through apostolic ministration, to God's glory. God is glorified in the Son of man, as the Son of man is glorified; but there are results of the deepest sort which God vouchsafes now to faith, in the administration of which (not of the kingdom merely, as Peter) our apostle had the chief place, and the Christian is entitled to reap the blessing, as heartily and in the Holy Spirit assenting to the truth. So Bengel, long ago, said tersely enough, "Nae respectu Dei promittentis, Amen respectu credentium." But to bring the believer into the enjoyment of what God has wrought in Christ more has to be said, and immediately follows. Here it is the firm foundation, not God's promises as of old, still less the law which proved that man could not make them good, yet all accomplished in Christ, but also as surely verified through Him, for glory to God by us.

* καὶ ἐν αὐτῳ Text. Rec. with some later authorities, but διὸ καὶ δἰ αὐτοῦ A B C F, etc.

The apostle refutes yet more the insinuation of uncertainty in his preaching, by the drawing out, not merely of the verification of the truth, and accomplishment of all God's promises in Christ, but of our firm association with it all in Him.

"Now he that establisheth us with you* in Christ, and anointed us is [God], who† also sealed us, and gave the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." (Ver. 21.) It is not man's own will or effort that is able to secure us Christward, nor, consequently, is it a mere question of his fickleness, feebleness, or failure in anyway. He that binds us fast to Christ is God; and the emphasis is all the greater, because God is expressed, not objectively, but as a predicate. It is truly surprising, then, that a professed commentator, and a distinguished scholar, should have said that ὁ δὲ βεβ . . . . . ἡμᾶς is the (prefixed) predicate, and θεός the subject; for this is to reverse all that is certain in the language, and to lose the true force of what is here insisted on. Had ὁ δὲ β. . . . . ἡμᾶς been affixed to θεός, instead of prefixed, the sense had been the same, the order of the words in a sentence affecting it only as a matter of emphasis, and in no way disturbing the relation of the subject to the predicate, which it is the chief function of the article to distinguish. Compare chapter 5: 5, where a precisely similar construction occurs. Nor is this a casual mistake, for it re-appears no less distinctly in the comment on Hebrews 3: 4, where θεός is said to be the subject, and ὁ πάντα κατασκευάσας the predicate, though it is allowed that the ancient expositors, almost without exception, take q. as predicate, and ὁ π. κ. as a designation of Christ, thus making the passage a proof of His deity. It ought not to be disputed that in all these, or the like, instances, the object before the mind, or subject of each proposition, designated as operating in the way described, as to either the saints or the universe, is declared to be God. Man is excluded by the nature of the case, as in Hebrews; or He that is said so to act is affirmed to be God, for the confirmation of the saints, as here. Had it been ὁ θ. in these cases, the propositions would have been reciprocal, and either might have been viewed as subject or as predicate. But the effect of the absence of the article is to characterise Him who works as is described in each instance. He is divine, is God: a very different statement from saying that God so works.

* So A D B F G K L O P, most cursives, and Text. Rec. C, etc., ὑμᾶς σὺν ἡμῖν, B and another the absurdity of ὑμᾶς σὺν ὑμῖν.

† So corr. B Ccorr. D E L O, etc., Text. Rec.; F G, etc., καὶ ὁ, but p.m. A Cp.m. K P, etc., omit the article.

Here, then, it is laid down that He who firmly attaches us to Christ is God, as elsewhere we are declared to be in Him. Man is weak and vacillating, and yet more in deed than in word; but He who binds fast unto Christ is God, and this, not the strong only, but the weakest, as needing most such securing grace and power. Hence, in a love that rises above all that wounds the spirit, the apostle adds, as coupling the saints in Corinth with himself and Timothy, "He that establisheth us with you." Christ for both was the impregnable fortress, the rock that never can be moved.

But more than this follows we are "anointed" as believers, we receive the unction from the Holy One, whereby, as John says, we know all things. God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power the Lord Jesus, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil. (See Luke 4: 18; Acts 10: 38) To us who believe it is rather energy of communion with His revealed mind; still the Spirit given is of power, and love, and a sound mind; and He that anointed us is not man, but God. Hence, as the apostle with the last hour before his eyes says, the unction as surely abides as it teaches us of all things. It is no transient display of power over Satan outwardly, no qualification of apostles only, as some have thought. It is the permanent privilege of the Christian for his own soul's entrance into the revealed mind of God; and "the babes" (τὰ παιδία) have it as truly, if not so manifestly, as the most mature. The apostles and prophets of the New Testament received, of course, gift or energy for their work; but they are never said to be "anointed" as such.

But our apostle tells us that God also sealed us, and gave the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." Not as if the Spirit were given at so many distinct epochs according to the difference of His operation. The gift of the Spirit to us, as believing in Christ and resting on His redemption, is really the powerful source of all. He that establishes us in Christ, and anointed us, as we have seen, also sealed us, and gave us the earnest. The Father, even God, sealed the Son of man. This, we can easily understand, was only meet, for He was not only from eternity but as man His Son, the constant and perfect object of His delight. But how could we be sealed who were in sin and wretchedness, the marked contrast of the Lord Jesus? His redemption completely delivers us from Satan's thraldom, and we are not only born of God and His sons, but washed from our sins in His blood, and sin in the flesh is condemned in His death as a sacrifice, as truly as ourselves forgiven. Hence, in virtue of that work, God also sealed us, and gave the "earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." The Holy Spirit is not only the seal of redemption, but the pledge of the inheritance. The meaning is in no way the Spirit given in measure as the earnest of more. He is the witness of what has been done and accepted on our behalf; He is also the foretaste of the glory that is assuredly to follow. And all things are of God, who sent first His Son, that every promise should be verified, and then His Spirit, that we who believe should be brought into the security, knowledge, and enjoyment of all this blessedness, past, present, or to come, in Christ our Lord.

Having thus turned in grace the Corinthian disparagement of his own word to the praise of the gospel, the apostle next passes, with great solemnity, to explain his real motive for not coming before to their city. "But I call God as witness upon my soul, that to spare you I did not yet come unto Corinth; not that we rule over your faith, but are fellow-workers of your joy, for by faith ye stand." (Vers. 23, 24.) Had he come before, it must have been with a rod. (Cf. 1 Cor. 4: 21.) Desirous of uniting them in love, and in a spirit of meekness, he had deferred his coming till grace had wrought self-judgment among them. The delay, and turning elsewhere meanwhile, furnished the occasion for unworthy insinuations, already touched on. It was really as sparing them he did not come; but he carefully guards against the charge of assuming undue authority; "not that we rule over your faith, but are fellow-workers of your joy." Nothing is truly done that is not in the soul before God. Even an apostle like Paul or John sought not for a moment to step between the faithful and God. The apostles communicated His mind, that the saints might have the same assurance of it as themselves, and so their joy be full. "For by faith ye stand." So it must be in order to please God. Without faith it is impossible. It is not by the fear or favour of men, however blessed, that the saints stand, but by faith. A fellow-helper of their joy, he would rather expose himself to the charge of changing his mind, if any were low enough so to think and speak of him, than to deal harshly with them, as he in faithfulness must, had he come as he first purposed. He waited, that the word of God might work its salutary aim, mixed with faith in those who heard it. He wished to do his work with joy, and not groaning, for this would be unprofitable for them. Was this to lord it over them, as proud men might allege? It was to farther their joy of faith, as their servant for Jesus' sake.

2 Corinthians 2

The apostle now explains more fully his motive for not going before to Corinth. They ought, from 1 Corinthians 4, to have gathered plainly enough why it was. But the flesh never appreciates motives of the Spirit; and the enemy takes pleasure in embroiling the saints, if he fail with those that serve them for Jesus' sake. Now, however, that grace had begun to work in the Corinthians, the language is modified accordingly. The apostle had then asked if he was to come with a rod, or in love and a spirit of meekness. Here, as he had already stated that it was to spare them he had not as yet come to Corinth, he follows up with words that show how far from him it was to lord it over their faith, as some might have drawn from his threat of a rod.

"But I judged this for myself not to come again [or back] unto you in grief.* For if I grieve you, who then [is] he that gladdeneth me, if not he that is grieved by me? And I wrote† this very thing, that I might not on coming have grief from those from whom I ought to have joy, having trust in you all that my joy is [that] of you all. For out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that ye should be grieved, but that ye may know the love that I have very [lit. more] abundantly unto you." (Vers. 1-4.)

* The true order is πάλιν ἐν λύπῃ πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἐλθεῖν with the

best and most MSS.

† There is no ὑμῖν ιν p.m. A, B, Cp.m. O, P, etc.

It is a mistake that these words imply a former visit in grief, and therefore a second intermediate and unrecorded one, distinct from the first. The work began, as described in Acts 18. The next visit of which scripture speaks was in Acts 20: 2, 3, after both epistles were written — the first from Ephesus (1 Cor. 16: 8), the second from Macedonia — but whether from Philippi (as is the traditional idea), or from some other place, as Thessalonica, does not appear. Tradition is certainly wrong in asserting that the first also issued from Philippi, as it may be about the second. 2 Corinthians 12: 14, 21; 2 Corinthians 13: 1, in no way indicate the fact, but the intention of a second visit, put off because of their state, and in the hope that the delay might give occasion to the intervention of grace, and thus the need of judicial severity be spared, on the apostle's part, toward many in the assembly. Indeed 2 Corinthians 13: 2 seems plainly to indicate that he had not really been a second time: "I have declared beforehand, and say beforehand, as present the second time, and now absent," etc.

There is no evidence, in my judgment, that he had gone once to correct abuses, and to exercise discipline. He was anxious to avoid any such necessity, and therefore, instead of going as intended, he went to meet Titus, spite of work most attractive to him, that he might know how his first letter had fared at Corinth.

Actually he had not been; this was the third time he had the purpose of going; and it was the putting off the visit when intended which gave rise to the charge of light-mindedness. The change was due to their failure, and in no sense to his. On the contrary, he preferred in love to them to be grossly misconstrued, and so, instead of explaining to others, he decided this for or with himself, not to come back to them in grief.

At that time his visit would have been sorrow all round — to him certainly — at the sight of the saints, divided by party zeal, entangled by fleshly lusts, dabbling with the world, tampering with idolatry, unworthily communicating, disorderly in the assembly, and denying — implicitly at least — fundamental doctrine, and not less surely to them, if he convicted their consciences, and dealt with their state as it deserved. Graciously, therefore, had he deferred his visit till the issue of his first letter appeared, wherein he had brought the light of God to bear on all these evils and more, of which report mainly, not a fresh visit, had apprised him. The good news he had received of the effect produced by his letters opened his heart, and let out the deep affection he had for them, spite of their grievous faults. For he is convinced that their grief was his, as also that his joy was theirs. What a wondrous power there is in Christ to produce communion in grief over evil, in the joy of grace, above self and its divisive character and consequences! His desire was the happiness of the saints. No wonder, then, he shrank from going where and when his visit must be one of grief. For if I grieve you, who then is it that is to gladden me, if not he that is grieved by me?" That is, none but they could satisfy his heart. What love, and delicacy too! He individualises the saints in this phrase: And I wrote this very thing, that I might not on coming have grief from those from whom I ought to have joy: having trust in you all that my joy is [that] of you all."

It is clear thence that it is not only inflicting, but receiving, grief of which the apostle speaks, as indeed it is always according to God in His church, whatever it be in the world. His motive in writing was the removal of what ought to pain them as it did him, that he and they might at his coming rejoice together, Christ being the spring, who can tolerate nothing offensive to God in His temple, which the saints are. And the circumstances, as well as inward feelings of the apostle, were eminently adapted to bring about the result. "For out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that ye should be grieved, but that ye may know the love which I have very abundantly unto you." It was very abundant love, but hardly more than to others, as some conceive.

There is, perhaps, no place where the delicacy, as well as faithfulness, of the apostle appears more than in dealing with the case which had so deeply pained his heart, in view of the dishonour done to the Lord at Corinth. For if it betrayed how low the unjudged flesh of a Christian might carry him, it had also discovered the low state of the assembly, and made it a special trial to him who loved them, and a special danger for those who were otherwise alienated. Nevertheless, the grace and truth which came in Christ wrought so mightily by the Holy Spirit in this blessed servant, that even the light-minded Corinthians were roused to repentance quite as decidedly as to activity in discipline; and so far communion was restored between them and the apostle. It ought to be doubted that, as he commanded them to put away the wicked person from among themselves, they could not but bow, purging out the old leaven, that they might be a new lump, as they were unleavened. The paschal sacrifice of Christ is inseparable from the feast of unleavened bread we have to celebrate here below. We cannot shirk the responsibility, if we enjoy the privilege. Siincerity and truth must characterise the believer.

But if the saints in Corinth were only of late awakened to feel and act with honour and holy resentment at such an outrage in God's temple, there was danger now of a strong reaction. Severity is as little according to Christ as laxity or indifference; and those who needed such a powerful appeal to arouse them to vindicate the injured name of the Lord, were now disposed to an extreme of judicial sternness, as far from the grace of the apostle, as before from his care for holiness. Thus fellowship of heart was imperilled from the opposite side.

The apostle, however, seizes on what was good, through the action of the Spirit in them, to labour for still more and better. Recovery from a low state is rarely immediate. Correction is needed there, as well as here; and the very fact that the call to righteousness is again heard, may, for the time, so pre-occupy the soul, that love cannot yet act freely. So it was at Corinth, till he who so blessedly represented the Master laid his hands again upon their eyes, which as yet saw men like trees walking, that, restored fully, they might look on all clearly. He had written out of much tribulation and distress of heart to them, with many tears, which refuted the charge of either levity or self-exaltation; not that they might be grieved, but that they might know his very abundant love toward them. Now he turns to the one in question, who had grieved him from the first tidings of the sin, since the first epistle had been used to put his and their sin in the light of God before their consciences.

"But if any one hath grieved, he hath grieved not me, but in part (that I may not press heavily) all of you. Sufficient to such an one [is] this rebuke, which [is] by the many; so that, on the contrary, ye should rather forgive and comfort, lest somehow such an one be swallowed up with excessive grief. Wherefore I exhort you to ratify love toward him. For I wrote also for this, and that I might know the proof of you, whether as to all things ye are obedient. But to whom ye forgive anything, I also; for I too, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, [do so] for your sake, in Christ's person, that we might not be overreached by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his devices." (Vers. 5-11.)

The sorrow which had filled the apostle's heart had, more or less, overspread the assembly; and such is the feeling which becomes it. If the godly Israelite so took up and confessed the sins of the people, how much more those in a far nearer relation to the Lord? Yet we see it deeply in Moses and Joshua, in Hezekiah and Josiah, in Daniel and Ezra. So now grace had communicated to the saints, in measure, the apostle's grief at the Corinthian scandal: not that they, if any, felt so deeply as he, but that he could speak of them all as affected similarly with himself. Thus the hearts of all would be conciliated, and even he that had caused the grief would feel that there was in the apostle anything but the wish to overwhelm him. He adds that the rebuke or punishment already inflicted of the many was enough. This would not have been so if the sentence of excision had not been carried out. Not a word intimates that a. mere reproof short of it had arrested the evil, and brought the evil-doer to repentance. The notion, therefore, of the French Reformers (Calvin, Beza, etc.), or others, to this effect is not only unfounded but unworthy also; for as the first epistle had peremptorily insisted on putting away the offender, the second is equally plain that mutual confidence was in measure restored by their decision and self-judgment in this very case. Verse 9, in particular, is inconsistent with anything less, not to speak of verses 7, 8, and indeed others elsewhere. Nor does verse 6 fairly bear the meaning that he is distinguishing another sort of censure which the Corinthians had administered from the excommunication he had himself enjoined; but that what was already done in accordance with inspired injunctions had effected its purpose, and should not last longer. This is entirely confirmed by the call that follows, rather to forgive and comfort, lest perhaps if he continued under so terrible a sentence, broken down as he was, he should be swallowed up with excessive grief. Wherefore he beseeches the saints to ratify love, as they had already testified abhorrence of the sin, by a formal act of the assembly. Thus too would the saints prove their obedience in all respects, in gracious restoration of the penitent, as before in solemn judgment of his heinous sin; and the apostle also had all this in view when he wrote both epistles.

But it is of deep moment to mark and learn that, though he has to awaken the assembly both to judge and to restore, for they had failed in both respects, he will have them to feel and act aright, joining them in their acts, and in no way acting for them. Hence he does not at all speak as a spiritual dictator, however real and great the authority given him of the Lord, as he takes pains to allege in both doctrine and discipline. "But to whom ye forgive anything, I also [forgive]; for also I, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, [do so] for your sake in Christ's person, that we should not be overreached by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts." It would have been no adequate healing of the assembly to have forgiven the Corinthian offender because the apostle had done so, and commanded it. When the flagrant evil was not judged, he did command excommunication; but when grace had wrought all round in estimating as well as dealing with what was so humbling, he will have them to forgive, and go with them in it. It is not, therefore, "whom I forgive, ye also," but "to whom ye forgive anything, I also." He is most careful to press their own place of ratifying love, even when apostolically laying down their duty, that he might have fellowship with them throughout. In the prerogative of mercy he would follow, and what he had forgiven, if he had forgiven aught, do it on their account in Christ's person. How blessed the seal of authority, and how gracious the sanction! May we cherish such a scene of divine affections in presence of good and of evil. Our weakness is immense, the difficulty as various as humanly insuperable, the danger from Satan's wiles constant; but greater is He that is in the saints than he that is in the world; and we know that the enemy's thoughts and designs are levelled pre-eminently at God's assembly, the only divine society on earth.

The apostle resumes for a moment the account of his course, but the aim is to testify his affectionate concern for the Corinthian saints who misjudged him, and, failing in love themselves, saw not his love which spared them, as much as it sought their blessing to the Lord's glory.

"Now when I came unto the Troad for the gospel of Christ, a door being opened to me in [the] Lord, I had no rest in my spirit at not finding Titus, my brother; but having taken leave of them, I went forth unto Macedonia. But thanks [be] to God that always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the odour of his knowledge through us in every place. Because we are a sweet odour of Christ to God in those to be saved, and in those that perish: to the one an odour from* death unto death, but to the others an odour from* life unto life; and who [is] sufficient for these things? For we are not as the many, retailing the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, before God, we speak in Christ." (Vers. 12-17.)

* ἐκ twice ( A B C, etc.), with the genitive.

We see two things here: the apostle's deep value for the gospel; his still deeper value for the saints as in danger of compromising Christ. Hence, whatever his purpose in coming into a new region, and in the face of a distinct opening for the work of reaching souls outside, he could not rest without hearing of those souls, so dear to him for the Lord's sake, and so exposed to Satan's wiles. He had hoped to have heard news of Corinth through Titus; but Titus he did not find; and so, turning his back on those on the eastern side where he then was, he repairs to Macedonia. His heart was on the saints. Anxiety for the assembly decided him to abandon for the time even so promising a field for the gospel. The church has the nearest claim, and the apostle acts on it. It was not only that the letter he had written bore witness of his love for them, and grief over the grave circumstances of the Corinthian assembly, but also his relinquishment of the gospel work he so valued, and this spite of the opening of a door in the Lord. His heart was tried greatly, as he thought of the saints and of his own letter. Would they accept it as of God, and judge themselves by the light? Would they resent his plain and searching, however affectionate, appeals? The situation was most critical. Taking leave, then, of the saints in Troas, he goes forth where he hoped to hear the most speedy and authentic tidings of their state, and the effect of his own letter.

But, instead of stopping to describe the intelligence conveyed by Titus, the apostle breaks forth into a burst of praise and thanksgiving. It was, no doubt, characteristic of his deep feeling and immediate appreciation that he should thus turn from the human instrument to His grace who had wrought such a happy result, where things were so painful and perilous; but no means can be conceived more admirably adapted to express at once what grace had effected in the Corinthian saints, nor any more becoming a servant of Christ. There is thus the complete absence of self-vindication, and there is no credit taken for superior wisdom.

The gracious power of God is celebrated immediately as His victory. Not merely is every means attributed to Him, and the blessing, from Him, which piety would always feel and utter gladly, but he speaks in the most forcible way of God always leading us in triumph in the Christ. The best proof of its peculiarity is that so many commentators, Protestant and Catholic alike, pare down and alter the meaning. Among the rest, our own Authorised translation was so affected by this impression, that they rendered θριαμβεύειν, "to cause to triumph," instead of lead in triumph, as they should. The other has been attempted to be sustained by the Hellenistic causative usage of μαθητεύειν, βασιλεύειν, κατηλεύειν, and χορεύειν, even in classical Greek. But the usage of the apostle in Colossians 2: 5 is adverse, nor am I aware of a single instance in which it can be proved to be ever thus employed. Besides, it really weakens, if it does not destroy, the beauty of the apostle's image, and makes it to be his triumph rather than God's. The one would be a rather unseasonable, and perhaps galling, reminder to the Corinthians that he was as right as they were wrong; the other, a singularly beautiful, though bold, prediction of a divine victory, in which he has part as a willing captive, or part of the train.

There is no over-colouring of the figure, no representation of himself as humbled and conquered, still less any reference to their fighting against God or His servant. But he turns his joy over their being brought to repentance, and a recognition of his apostolic authority, as well as of his loving services, into a thanksgiving to God, who, instead of letting him feel his abandonment of evangelistic work, always loads us in triumph in the Christ, and makes manifest the odour of His knowledge through us in every place. The allusion is to a Roman triumph, where aromatics were burnt profusely; and on this, too, he seizes to illustrate the going forth everywhere around of his testimony to Christ in the gospel. But the sweet perfumes in a triumphal procession were accompanied by life to some of the captives, and by death to others; and this is as naturally as powerfully turned to point the twofold issues of the gospel.

The unbelieving Jew or Gentile saw no more in Jesus crucified than a dead man; how could the message founded on Him be of power to such? They might not deny the gracious words of it, any more than of Christ in the synagogue of Nazareth, where He announced His mission in the wondrous citation from Isaiah 61; yet they saw not, heard not, God in either. But as God delighted in His Son, a Saviour, so He pronounced beautiful the feet of those that announced glad tidings of peace, of those that announce glad tidings of good things; and so, too, He smells a savour of rest sweeter than that of Noah's offering, or any other. "Because," says the apostle, "we are a sweet odour of Christ to God in those to be saved, and in those that perish;" and this he explains carefully: "to the one an odour from death unto death," which we have seen; "but to the other an odour from life unto life." Such is the message where it is mixed with faith; for faith sees and hears Him as the Son of God, yet Son of man, who died for man, for sins, but rose in the power of an endless life, that we might live also, and live of His life, where sin can never enter, nor death have dominion more.

No wonder, as the apostle weighs the responsibility of a service so blessed on the one side, so tremendous on the other, that he exclaims, "And who [is] sufficient for these things?" For if the gospel is a word of delivering grace, it causes the truth to shine out so as to intensify the servant's estimate of responsibility. This is just what should be — full liberty imparted, instead of bondage; but solemn responsibility, realised as it never was before, and could not be in any other way. But here the mass of the Corinthians sadly fell short, not the apostle, whom they had slighted in their self-sufficient folly. "For we are not, as the many, retailing (or, adulterating) the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, before God, we speak in Christ." He did not, like the many, traffic in the word of God; but as of transparency, nor this only, but as of God, and this too with a present sense of having to do with Him, as all must later, "before God," "we speak in Christ," which is far more intimate and forcible than merely of Him. Yet even such solemn words did not hinder men, and even saints, too soon and down to our day, to make the ministry of the gospel a stepping-stone to earthly gain and worldly honour, in manifest discord with the cross of Christ, and to the utter eclipse of His heavenly glory, not to speak of the grievous loss of all concerned.

2 Corinthians 3

From this the apostle turns in a peculiarly touching way to the saints at Corinth. His spirit felt that his last allusions to a triumph, in contrast with those who trafficked in truth (never then given out with genuine purity), might expose to unkind personality. He therefore, in disclaiming the need of human commendation in any form, lets out what grace forms in the heart before contrasting the law with the gospel.

11 Begin we again to commend ourselves? or* need we, as some, recommendatory epistles unto you or† from you? Ye are our epistle inscribed in our‡ hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that ye are Christ's epistle ministered by us, having been inscribed, not with ink, but [the] Spirit of [the] living God, not on tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of [the] heart (or, hearts) §. And such confidence have we through the Christ toward God; not that we are competent from ourselves to reckon anything as of ourselves, but our competency [is] of God, who also made us competent [as] servants of [the] new covenant, not of letter but of spirit, for the letter killeth but the spirit quickeneth." (Vers. 1-6.)

* (not εἰ as A K L P, etc., which follows) μή B C D E F G etc. The Auth. V. here rejects Er. Compl. St. Be. for the reading of Colinaeus and the Vulg.

† The second συστατικῶν added in Text. Rec. following most MSS is rejected by the best witnesses.

‡ , half a dozen cursives, and versions too, exhibit the strange blunder of ὑμῶν for ἡμ. "in your hearts."

§ καρδίαις "hearts" in apposition with pl., "tablets," is read by high authority ( AB C D E G L P, five and twenty cursives, etc.); the common reading καρδίας "of the heart," by F K, most cursives, and almost all ancient versions; etc.

It is plain that there was then, as now, the practice of giving and receiving letters in commending stranger brethren to the assemblies. And a valuable means of introduction as well as guard it is, provided we hold it in spirit, not in letter: otherwise we might fail doubly, in refusing those who ought to be received, where circumstances have hindered the requisite voucher, and in receiving those who, being deceivers, can supply themselves with any letter which may the more effectually mislead. The aim of all such provisions is to afford adequate testimony to the assembly of God, which is in no way bound to a form however excellent, if wanting, provided perchance other means of godly satisfaction leave no reasonable hesitation to those who judge fairly and in love. It is mischievous when that which God uses for our mutual comfort is perverted by legalism into an instrument of spiritual torture, as may be sometimes the lack of a commendatory note, or some kindred informality.

But the apostle turns, from the supposed imputation of seeking to commend himself, to foster in the Corinthian saints somewhat of the love which burned so warmly in his own bosom. If he, if an apostle, could be supposed to need a commendatory epistle, surely not Paul to or from the assembly in Corinth! As he adds, with as much beauty as affection, "Ye are our epistle," not in process of being "written," but this already done and abidingly (ἐγγεγραμμένη) "in our hearts," whereas it was but becoming "known and read by all men," as was also their manifestation that they were Christ's epistle, "ministered" as a past fact (διακονηθεῖσα) by us, "written" as it has been and was (ἐγγεγραμμένη) "not with ink, but the living God's Spirit," not on tablets of stone, but on fleshy tablets — hearts, or of the heart.

It was a wonderful thing to call any company of saints in this world Paul's epistle, that which set forth his mind and heart, the fruit of his testimony in the Spirit to the world. Such he declares the Corinthian assembly to be, no mere tongue-work this, but "written in our hearts," yet without doubt intended for men generally to learn by, as he says, "known and read by all men." Such is the church, not a thing of creedism, or a subscription to paper-and-ink articles, however pure in their place, but an epistle to set forth livingly what the apostle taught and felt. Here he goes farther still; for even of those saints, who had caused him such shame and pain, but now consolation and joy, he does not hesitate to say that they were manifestly showing themselves to be Christ's epistle ministered by him. Paul might be the means, but Christ was the end; and just as God wrote the law on stone for Isra