V. (1) FOR WE KNOW THAT IF OUR EARTHLY HOUSE OF THIS TABERNACLE WERE DISSOLVED. — Better, _be broken up,_ as more in harmony with the image of the tent. The words that follow give the secret of his calmness and courage in the midst of sufferings. He looks beyond them. A new train of imagery begins t... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IN THIS WE GROAN. — The “groaning” here, and in 2 Corinthians 5:4, may, of course, be a strong way of expressing the burden and the weariness of life, but taken in connection with what we have already seen in the Epistle, as pointing to the pressure of disease, we can scarcely fail to find in it... [ Continue Reading ]
IF SO BE THAT BEING CLOTHED... — The Greek particles express rather more than the English phrase does, the truth of what follows. “If, as I believe...,” though not a translation, would be a fair paraphrase. The confident expectation thus expressed is that in the resurrection state the spirit will no... [ Continue Reading ]
BEING BURDENED. — The whole passage is strikingly parallel to Wis. 9:15. “The corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things.” The _Wisdom of Solomon,_ which no writer quotes before Clement of Rome, had probably been but recent... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT HATH WROUGHT US FOR THE SELFSAME THING. — Better, _he that wrought us for this very thing._ The “very thing” is the consummation, by whatever stages it may be reached, in which mortality is swallowed up of life. The whole work of God in the past — redemption, the new birth, the gifts and gra... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE WE ARE ALWAYS CONFIDENT. — The Greek construction is participial: _being therefore always confident;_ the sentence not being completed, but begun again with the same verb in 2 Corinthians 5:8. The two verbs for being “at home” and “absent” are not found elsewhere in the New Testament. The... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT — Better, _and not by what we see_ (or, _by appearance_). It seems almost sad to alter the wording of a familiar and favourite text, but it must be admitted that the word translated “sight” never means the faculty of seeing, but always the form and fashion of the t... [ Continue Reading ]
WE ARE CONFIDENT, I SAY. — The sentence begun in 2 Corinthians 5:6 and half broken off is resumed. The apparent sense is that he prefers death to life, because it brings him to the presence of his Lord. At first, this seems at variance with what he had said in 2 Corinthians 5:4, as to his not wishin... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE WE LABOUR. — Better, _we strive earnestly after._ The English “labour” is quite inadequate, the Greek expressing the thought of striving, as after some honour or prize. _Our ambition is that_... _we may be accepted_ would be, perhaps, the best equivalent. For “accepted of him” read _accept... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE MUST ALL APPEAR. — Better, _must all be made manifest._ The word is the same as that in 1 Corinthians 4:5 (“shall _make manifest_ the counsels of the heart”), and is obviously used with reference to it. It may be noted that it is specially characteristic of this Epistle, in which it occurs ni... [ Continue Reading ]
KNOWING THEREFORE THE TERROR OF THE LORD. — Better, _the fear of the Lord._ The English word “terror” is unduly strong, and hinders the reader from seeing that what St. Paul speaks of is identical with “the fear of the Lord” — the temper not of slavish dread, but reverential awe, which had been desc... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE COMMEND NOT OURSELVES AGAIN UNTO YOU. — The better MSS. omit “For,” which may have been inserted for the sake of an apparent sequence of thought. In reality, however, what follows is more intelligible without it. He has scarcely uttered the words that precede this sentence when the poison of... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHETHER WE BE BESIDE OURSELVES. — The recollection of one sneer leads on to another. This also had been said of him, and the intense sensitiveness of his nature made him wince under it. Some there were at Corinth who spoke of his visions and revelations, his speaking with tongues as in ecstasy,... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINETH US. — The Greek, like the English, admits of two interpretations — Christ’s love for us, or our love for Christ. St. Paul’s uniform use of this and like phrases, however, elsewhere (Romans 5:5; Romans 8:35; 1 Corinthians 16:24; 2 Corinthians 13:14), is decisive in... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOULD NOT HENCEFORTH LIVE UNTO THEMSELVES. — St. Paul was not writing a theological treatise, and the statement was accordingly not meant to be an exhaustive presentment of all the purposes of God in the death of Christ. It was sufficient to give prominence to the thought that one purpose was that... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE HENCEFORTH KNOW WE NO MAN AFTER THE FLESH. — The logical dependence of this sentence on the foregoing lies in the suppressed premise, that in living not to ourselves, but to Christ, we gain new standards of judgment, new ways of looking at things. To know a man “after the flesh” is to know... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST. — To be in Christ, in St. Paul’s language, is for a man to be united with him by faith and by baptism (Romans 6:3), to claim personally what had been secured to him as a member of the race for whom Christ died. In such a case the man is born again (Titus 3:5) — the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD. — The presence of the article in the Greek indicates that he is speaking, not of the universe at large, but of the new things belonging to the new creation of which he had spoken in the previous verse. The line of thought on which he has now entered raises him for the time... [ Continue Reading ]
TO WIT, THAT GOD WAS IN CHRIST, RECONCILING THE WORLD. — Better, perhaps, _How that it was God who was reconciling in Christ a world unto Himself._ Both “God” and “world” are, in the Greek, without the article. The English rendering is tenable grammatically, but the position of the words in the orig... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEN WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST — The preposition “for” implies the same representative character as in 2 Corinthians 5:14. The preachers of the Word were acting _on behalf of_ Christ; they were acting also _in His stead._ The thought or word meets us again in Ephesians 6:20. “I am an ambassa... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE HATH MADE HIM TO BE SIN FOR US, WHO KNEW NO SIN. — The “for” is omitted in many of the best MSS., but there is clearly a sequence of thought such as it expresses. The Greek order of the words is more emphatic: _Him that knew no sin He made sin for us._ The words are, in the first instance, an... [ Continue Reading ]