VI. (1) WE THEN, AS WORKERS TOGETHER WITH HIM, BESEECH YOU... — The thought of the marvel of the atoning love fills the heart of St. Paul with an almost passionate desire to see its purpose realised in those whom he has taught; and so, “as a fellow-worker with Him” — the pronoun may be referred gram... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE HEARD THEE IN A TIME ACCEPTED... — Better, perhaps, _acceptable._ The meaning of the pronoun “He,” as referring to God, is determined by the preceding verse. The tense of the Greek is better expressed by, _I heard thee... I succoured thee._ As with other citations, it is a natural inference t... [ Continue Reading ]
GIVING NO OFFENCE... — The participial construction is resumed from 2 Corinthians 6:1; 2 Corinthians 6:2 being treated as parenthetical. A subtle distinction in the two forms of the Greek negative suggests the thought that he is here giving, as it were, his own estimate of his aim and endeavour in h... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IN ALL THINGS APPROVING OURSELVES AS THE MINISTERS OF GOD. — Better, as keeping up the connection with 2 Corinthians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 5:12, _as ministers of God commending ourselves._ He harps, as it were, upon that phrase. Yes, he does commend himself; but how? He looks back on his life of la... [ Continue Reading ]
IN STRIPES... — The list becomes more specific. “Stripes” we have seen at Philippi (Acts 16:23), and 2 Corinthians 11:23 show that there were other instances. Of “imprisonment?,” that at Philippi is, so far, the only recorded instance (Acts 16:24); but there may well have been others, as in 2 Corint... [ Continue Reading ]
BY PURENESS... — The word may possibly mean “purity of motive” in its widest sense, but the use of the corresponding adjective in 2 Corinthians 11:2; 1 Timothy 5:22; Titus 2:3; 1 Peter 3:2, and, indeed, its general sense elsewhere, is decisive in favour of “purity from sensual sin” — personal chasti... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THE WORD OF TRUTH. — Both words are, in the Greek, without the article, and this throws a slight shade of doubt upon their meaning. With the article, the same combination occurs in Ephesians 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:15; and there can be no doubt that there the sense is objective — “the word which convey... [ Continue Reading ]
BY HONOUR AND DISHONOUR. — The enumeration of the elements in and by which his ministry is carried on begins to take a more personal character. We trace once more in the words that follow the sensitiveness of a recent experience. He has to do his work, at one time, as through a _glory_ which he has... [ Continue Reading ]
AS UNKNOWN, AND YET WELL KNOWN. — In the absence of fuller information as to what disparaging language had been used in reference to St. Paul, it is not easy to appreciate the precise force of the words thus used. Possibly, he had been spoken of as a man of “unknown” or obscure antecedents, and his... [ Continue Reading ]
AS SORROWFUL, YET ALWAY REJOICING. — Are we still in the region of the taunts and sneers of which we have found such distinct traces in the previous verses? Did men say of him, as others had said of the saints of God before him, that he was “smitten of God, and afflicted”? Was it with him, as with D... [ Continue Reading ]
O YE CORINTHIANS. — There was manifestly a pause here as the letter was dictated. The rush of thoughts had reached its highest point. He rests, and feels almost as if some apology were needed for so vehement an outpouring of emotion. And now he writes as if personally pleading with them. Nowhere els... [ Continue Reading ]
YE ARE NOT STRAITENED IN US. — The word presents a natural contrast to the expansion, the dilatation, of heart of the previous verse. There was no narrowness in him. In that large heart of his there was room for them and for a thousand others. It had, as it were, an infinite elasticity in its sympat... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW FOR A RECOMPENCE IN THE SAME. — Better, perhaps, as a _return,_ as expressing the idea of reciprocity. Children should requite the care and love of parents. (Comp. 2 Corinthians 12:14.) They, the Corinthians, are his spiritual children. (Comp. 1 Corinthians 4:15.) What does he demand of them, bu... [ Continue Reading ]
BE YE NOT UNEQUALLY YOKED TOGETHER WITH UNBELIEVERS. — We seem at first to enter, by an abrupt transition, upon a new line of exhortation. The under-current of thought is, however, not difficult to trace. There was a false latitude as well as a true. The baser party at Corinth might think it a matte... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT CONCORD HATH CHRIST WITH BELIAL? — The passage is remarkable as being the only occurrence of the name in the New Testament, all the more so because it does not appear in the Greek version of the Old. The Hebrew word signifies “vileness, worthlessness;” and the “sons of Belial” (as in Deuteronom... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHAT AGREEMENT HATH THE TEMPLE OF GOD WITH IDOLS? — Here we see clearly the drift of the Apostle’s thoughts. His mind travels back to the controversy about things sacrificed to idols. Was there not a risk that what he had said about “width” and “expansion” of feeling would be perverted by those... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE COME OUT FROM AMONG THEM. — Another composite quotation follows, beginning with Isaiah 52:11. In their primary historical sense, the words were addressed as to the priests and Levites who were to return from Babylon. They were not to bring back with them any symbol of that “unclean” ritual... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WILL BE A FATHER UNTO YOU... — Again we have, as it were, a mosaic of citations: “I will be a Father....” from 2 Samuel 7:14; “Sons and daughters” from Isaiah 43:6; “Saith the Lord Almighty” from the Greek of 2 Samuel 7:8. It may be noted as not without interest that the Greek word rendered “Alm... [ Continue Reading ]