_We then, as workers together with Him._ We, as workers together with God, beseech you to accept this proffered reconciliation, spoken of in vers. 18, 19, and 20, of the preceding chapter. _Beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain_. He receives grace into a vacuum, says Anselm,... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 6 SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER i. He exhorts them not to neglect the proffered grace of reconciliation spoken of at the end of the last chapter. II. He points out (ver. 4) the qualities required in ministers, especially in Apostles and preachers of the Gospel. III. He declares (ver. 11) how h... [ Continue Reading ]
_For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted_ (Isa. xlix. 8). The Apostle proves that now is the time of grace and reconciliation, in order that we way not receive this grace in vain, from the fact that Isaiah had foretold that this would be the time of grace. He is anticipating an objection... [ Continue Reading ]
_Approving ourselves._ "Commending ourselves" (Erasmus), "declaring ourselves," as others render it; but "showing ourselves" (Syriac) is the best. The Latin version, however, takes it in the Optative, "let us show ourselves." Paul is here again defending himself and praising himself because of his r... [ Continue Reading ]
_In tumults_. Being constantly hunted from one city to another, so that I have no place to abide in, but am forced to be always going hither and thither. The word may, however, also denote popular outbreaks or tumults, as in S. Luke 21:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
_By pureness._ Being pure in all things, not only inasmuch as Paul was guiltless of bribery, and forbade his disciples to yield to it, but also because he preached not at others' expense, as Theophylact says. The Latin version gives the word a narrower meaning, as denoting pure and perfect chastity,... [ Continue Reading ]
_By the word of truth._ By purely and sincerely preaching Gospel truth, let us show ourselves ministers of God. _By the power of God._ By working miracles, or rather, with Chrysostom, by Christian constancy and fortitude displaying itself in so many adversities, so many labours, such vehemence of w... [ Continue Reading ]
_By honour and dishonour._ Whether we are honoured and praised, or dishonoured and abused, as, _e.g_., when the Lycaonians wished to worship Paul as God, and directly afterwards to stone him as an impostor. The preposition _by_ is here equivalent to _in._ See note to 1 Timothy 2:15. _By evil repor... [ Continue Reading ]
_As dying._ We may seem to be always dying through our daily dangers, persecutions, and trials, but God preserves us alive and unharmed. _As chastened and not killed._ Let us show ourselves as ministers of God (ver. 4), by being chastened and not killed. VER. 10. _As poor, yet making many rich._ By... [ Continue Reading ]
_0 ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you._ My mouth is open, it longs to say more to you, and to express all my affection for you, and it cannot. No matter what and how much I may say, it is less than my affection. The Apostle says this to show that what he had said of his patience, tribulation... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye are the temple of the living God._ By faith, grace, and holiness. S. Cyprian (_de Orat. Domin_.) says beautifully: " _Let us show ourselves in our lives as the temples of God, that all may see that God indwells within us, so that we who have begun to be heavenly and spiritual, may think and do n... [ Continue Reading ]
_Come out from among them. Isaiah 52:11_, which is here quoted, taken literally ordered the Apostles and the faithful generally to come out, not from the unbelieving and unclean city of Babylon, but from Jerusalem, to be laid waste by Titus. But the Apostle, either tropologically or by parity of rea... [ Continue Reading ]