_AGAINST THE FALSE APOSTLES, WHO HAD REVILED THE WEAKNESS OF HIS PERSON AND BODILY PRESENCE, THE APOSTLE SETTETH OUT THE SPIRITUAL MIGHT AND AUTHORITY WITH WHICH HE IS ARMED AGAINST ALL ADVERSE POWERS; ASSURING THEM, THAT AT HIS COMING HE WILL BE FOUND AS MIGHTY IN WORD AS HE IS NOW IN WRITING, BEIN... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW I PAUL, &C.— St. Paul having finished his exhortation to liberality in the collection for the Christians at Jerusalem, he resumes his former argument, and prosecutes the main purpose of this epistle; which was, totally to reduce and put a final end to the adverse faction,—which seems not yet to... [ Continue Reading ]
AS IF WE WALKED ACCORDING TO THE FLESH— "As if in my conduct and ministry I regulated myself by carnal considerations, by low and mercenary views.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THOUGH WE WALK, &C.— "For though we inhabit mortal bodies, and are obliged, in some respects, to stoop to the care of them; yet we do not manage that important war in which we are engaged _according to the flesh,_ by carnal methods, or with worldly or interested views." Mr. Cradock explains this... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE, &C.— What are the _carnal weapons,_ and those opposed to them, which he calls _mighty through God,_ may be seen, if we read and compare 1 Corinthians 1:23 with the 2nd. chap. 1-13 and 2 Corinthians 4:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND BRINGING INTO CAPTIVITY EVERY THOUGHT,— The believing soul, when its carnal fortificationsaredemolished,submitsto the conqueror; and then every thought, every reasoning takes law from him. Nothing is admitted which contradicts the gospel, Christ being acknowledged as absolute master. The former... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HAVING IN A READINESS, &C.— Those whom the Apostle here addresses are the Corinthian converts, who had been too much influenced by the false apostle. Of _him_ the Apostle seems to have no hopes, ch. 2 Corinthians 11:13 and therefore he every where threatens, and here particularly in the present... [ Continue Reading ]
SOMEWHAT MORE— See ch. 2 Corinthians 11:23. The next clause contains another reason insinuated by the Apostle for his forbearing any severity for the present towards them. _I should not be ashamed,_ infers, "Because the truth would justify me in it.... [ Continue Reading ]
HIS BODILY PRESENCE IS WEAK, &C.— Chrysostome, Nicephorus, and Lucian, relate of St. Paul, that his stature was low, his body crooked, and his head bald; which seem to be the infirmities here referred to. See on ch. 2 Corinthians 12:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THEY, MEASURING THEMSELVES BY THEMSELVES,— Dr. Whitby would render it _measuring themselves by one another;_ as if they compared themselves with their false apostles, and grew proud in the degree in which they resembled them in accurateness and eloquence, or other things on which those deceitful... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHOUT OUR MEASURE,— The original word Αμετρα, here and in 2 Corinthians 10:15 does not signify _immense,_ or _immoderate,_ but something which had not been measured out and allotted to him; something which is not committed to him,nor within his province.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE ARE COME AS FAR, &C.— This seems to charge the false Apostle, the grand leader of the faction, who had caused all this disturbance in the church of Corinth, that without being appointed to it, without preaching the gospel in his way thither, as became an apostle, he had unlawfully crept into... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT BOASTING, &C.— That is, "Not intermeddling, or assuming to myself an authority to meddle, or any honour for doing so." St. Paul here visibly taxes the false Apostle for coming into a church converted and gathered by another, and there pretending to be somebody, and to rule all. This, among sever... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WHOM THE LORD COMMENDETH.— Particularly by the gifts of the Holy Ghost. It is of these weapons of his warfare that St. Paul speaks in this chapter; and it is by them that he intends to try which is the true Apostle, when he comes to them. _INFERENCES.—_With what meekness and condescension, in im... [ Continue Reading ]