VIII. (1) MOREOVER, BRETHREN, WE DO YOU TO WIT... — Better, _we declare,_ or _make known to you._ There is no adequate reason for retaining a phrase which is now obsolete. The topic on which the Epistle now touches, and which is carried on through this and the following chapter, was one very dear to... [ Continue Reading ]
IN A GREAT TRIAL OF AFFLICTION. — We do not know what is specially referred to, but a community of Christians in a heathen city was always exposed to trials of this kind, and the temper shown before by the rulers at Philippi and the Jews of Thessalonica (Acts 16:19; Acts 17:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:14)... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WERE WILLING OF THEMSELVES. — Literally, _spontaneously._ This was the point of excellence which he wished to indicate as an example to the Corinthians. Those of Macedonia needed no appeal or counsel such as he had given to the Corinthians and to others.... [ Continue Reading ]
PRAYING US WITH MUCH INTREATY... — The words “that we would receive” are not in the Greek, which literally runs: _asking of us the grace_ (or _favour_)_ and fellowship in the ministry of the saints, i.e.,_ asking to be allowed to share in it.... [ Continue Reading ]
NOT AS WE HOPED... — This means, of course, that they had done what was far beyond his hopes; and here the point lies in the fact that they gave, not their money only, but themselves, their time, thought, energy, primarily to Christ as their Lord, and then to the Apostle as His minister. And this th... [ Continue Reading ]
INSOMUCH THAT WE DESIRED TITUS... — The sequence of events seems to have been this: When Titus came to Corinth, he, among other things, after seeing the satisfactory results of the First Epistle in other respects, had begun to take measures for this collection for the poor of Jerusalem. He had been,... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE, AS YE ABOUND IN EVERY THING. — Literally, _But, as ye abound,_ marking the transition from narrative to exhortation. He opens, as was his manner, with words of praise, and dexterously combines the gifts of “utterance and knowledge,” which he had acknowledged before (1 Corinthians 1:5), wi... [ Continue Reading ]
I SPEAK NOT BY COMMANDMENT. — The English, and, indeed, the Greek also, is to some extent ambiguous, and leaves us uncertain whether he disclaims merely the tone of command or the sanction of a divine authority. The former seems the preferable meaning, but ultimately the one runs into the other. He... [ Continue Reading ]
YE KNOW THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. — The meaning of the word “grace” appears slightly modified by the context. The theological sense of the word, so to speak, falls into the background, and that of an act of liberality becomes prominent. THAT, THOUGH HE WAS RICH,... HE BECAME POOR. — Better... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HEREIN I GIVE MY ADVICE. — We note the same careful distinction between command and counsel which we have seen in 1 Corinthians 7:25. WHO HAVE BEGUN BEFORE... — Better, _who got the start, last year, not only as to the doing, but also as to the willing._ At first, the words seem like an anti-cli... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEREFORE PERFORM THE DOING. — Better, _complete the doing:_ to “perform the doing” being open, in the modern use of the word, to the charge of tautology. All the English versions, however, have “perform.” The three stages are distinctly marked out in St. Paul’s mind: — (1) Willing the purpose t... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF THERE BE FIRST A WILLING MIND. — This grows “out of that which ye have” in the previous verse. He is expecting a sum large relatively, and not absolutely. The history of the widow’s mite, found in the Gospel of his friend St. Luke (Luke 21:1), was probably not unknown to him as belonging to “... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I MEAN NOT THAT OTHER MEN BE EASED. — The disclaimer is obviously an answer to something that had been said. The “charity begins at home” argument, with which the workers in the cause of missions and other distant works of charity are but too familiar, would seem not to have been unknown in the... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT BY AN EQUALITY. — The meaning of the word is obvious. The Church of Jerusalem was at this time suffering from poverty, and, therefore, St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to come to its assistance. A time might come in which their relative position would be inverted, and then he would plead not les... [ Continue Reading ]
HE THAT HAD GATHERED MUCH. — The quotation is from one of the readings of the LXX. version of Exodus 16:18. The work of love was, in the Apostle’s thoughts, like the manna in the wilderness. In the long-run all would be filled, each according to his several necessities.... [ Continue Reading ]
THANKS BE TO GOD, WHICH PUT... — Better, _which putteth,_ the verb being in the present tense, and referring to what was then passing after Titus’s return from Corinth. THE SAME EARNEST CARE. — There is no direct comparison, but what he means is the same care as his own. Titus had shown himself a t... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR INDEED HE ACCEPTED THE EXHORTATION... — The words have a two-fold purpose: — (1) To show that Titus was authorised by the Apostle, and acting at his request; (2) that he was so eager to go that he did not even need to be requested. The tense, “he went,” is what is known as the epistolary aorist.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE BROTHER, WHOSE PRAISE IS IN THE GOSPEL. — We cannot get beyond probable conjecture in determining who this was. The general current of patristic interpretation (represented, we may add, in the Collect for St. Luke’s Day in the Prayer Book of the Church of England, though not in that of the Brevi... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO WAS ALSO CHOSEN OF THE CHURCHES. — The word, as in Acts 14:23, implies a definite appointment, in this case, obviously, by popular election — on the part of the Macedonian churches. This falls in, it need hardly be said, with the facts of the case as indicated by the use of the first person plur... [ Continue Reading ]
AVOIDING THIS, THAT NO MAN SHOULD BLAME US. — He gives this as the reason why he wished men thus appointed to travel with him. He desired to guard against the suspicion of those who were too ready to suspect. His companions were to bear witness that the sums which he took up with him from the severa... [ Continue Reading ]
PROVIDING FOR HONEST THINGS... — Many of the best MSS. give: “For we provide for honest things,” as though he gave the general principle on which he was now acting in this particular instance. The rule of life is repeated, a few months afterwards, in Romans 12:17. The English reader does not recogni... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WE HAVE SENT WITH THEM OUR BROTHER. — Who this second unnamed brother was is again simply matter of conjecture. Of the names connected with St. Paul at this period, that of Tychicus seems to have the greatest balance of probabilities in its favour. He went up with St. Paul to Jerusalem on this v... [ Continue Reading ]
WHETHER ANY DO ENQUIRE OF TITUS. — There is no verb in the Greek, and its insertion is not required for the English. Our common phrase, _As to Titus_... _as to our brethren,_ exactly expresses St. Paul’s meaning. In the “messengers” of the churches we find in the Greek the word “Apostles” used, as i... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE SHEW YE TO THEM. — In adding “before the churches” (literally, _in the face of the churches_)_,_ St. Paul appeals, as he has done throughout the chapter, to that natural love of praise which takes its place as a legitimate, though it may be, and ought to be, a subordinate, motive for the a... [ Continue Reading ]