INTRODUCTION TO 2 CORINTHIANS 5 The apostle, in this chapter, enlarges upon the saints' comfortable assurance, expectation, and desire of the heavenly glory; discourses of the diligence and industry of himself and other Gospel ministers in preaching the word, with the reasons that induced them to i... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE KNOW, THAT IF OUR EARTHLY HOUSE,.... By this house is meant the body, so called from its being like a well built house, a curious piece of architecture; as an house consists of a variety of parts fitly framed and put together in just symmetry and proportion, and with an entire usefulness in a... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IN THIS WE GROAN EARNESTLY,.... Meaning either for this happiness we groan, or rather in this tabernacle we groan. These words are a reason of the former, proving that the saints have a building of God; and they know they have it, because they groan after it here; for the groanings of the saints... [ Continue Reading ]
IF SO BE THAT BEING CLOTHED,.... This supposition is made with respect to the saints who shall be alive at Christ's second coming, who will not be stripped of their bodies, and so will "not be found naked", or disembodied, and shall have a glory at once put upon them, both soul and body; or these wo... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE THAT ARE IN THIS TABERNACLE DO GROAN,.... There are some of the saints who are not in the tabernacle, the body. They were in it, but now are not; their bodies are in the grave, the house appointed for all living; and their souls are in the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, in... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW HE THAT HATH WROUGHT US FOR THE SELFSAME THING,.... By "the selfsame thing" is meant, either the cross, the burden of sorrows and afflictions, under which the saints groan whilst here, which God has appointed them unto, and therefore to be bore patiently by them; or that glory and immortality, w... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE WE ARE ALWAYS CONFIDENT,.... Because God has formed us for immortality and glory, and given us his Spirit as the earnest of it, we take heart, are of good courage, do not sink under our burdens, or despair of happiness, but are fully assured of enjoying what we are desirous of: KNOWING TH... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE WALK BY FAITH, AND NOT BY SIGHT. Faith is a grace which answers many useful purposes; it is the eye of the soul, by which it looks to Christ for righteousness, peace, pardon, life, and salvation; the hand by which it receives him, and the foot by which it goes to him, and walks in him as it h... [ Continue Reading ]
WE ARE CONFIDENT, I SAY, AND WILLING RATHER,.... We are cheerful in our present state, being assured of future happiness; though we choose rather TO BE ABSENT FROM THE BODY; that is, to die, to depart out of this world. The interval between death, and the resurrection, is a state of absence from th... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE WE LABOUR, THAT WHETHER PRESENT OR ABSENT,.... This may be understood either of the ministers of the Gospel in particular, who labour in the word and doctrine, are ambitious, as the word here used signifies, and strive to preach the Gospel, not to please men, but their Lord and master; or... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE MUST ALL APPEAR,.... This is a reason why the saints are so diligent and laborious, so earnest and intent upon it, to be accepted of the Lord, because they must stand BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST; who is appointed Judge of the whole earth, who is every way qualified for it, being God o... [ Continue Reading ]
KNOWING THEREFORE THE TERROR OF THE LORD,.... Or the fear of the Lord; by which is meant either the grace of the fear of the Lord, implanted in the hearts of the apostles, and in which they acted in their ministry, faithfully dispensing to men the mysteries of grace; from which they could by no mean... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE COMMEND NOT OURSELVES AGAIN TO YOU,.... We have no need to do so, being well known to you; nor do we intend it when we thus speak of ourselves, and of our ministrations: BUT GIVE YOU OCCASION TO GLORY ON OUR BEHALF; suggest some things to you which you may make use of in our favour, for the... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHETHER WE BE BESIDES OURSELVES,.... As some took them to be, and as Festus thought the Apostle Paul was, because of the doctrines they preached, and the self-commendation they were obliged to enter into through the calumnies of their adversaries; in which they did not so much seek their own rep... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINETH US,.... Or "containeth us"; holds and keeps us in our station and duty, as soldiers are held and kept together under a banner, or ensign displayed; to which the church refers, when she says, "his banner over me was love", Song of Solomon 2:4. Nothing more effectua... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THAT HE DIED FOR ALL, THAT THEY WHICH LIVE,.... The end of Christ's dying for men was that they might live; live, in a legal sense, live a life of justification; and that they which live in such a sense, SHOULD NOT HENCEFORTH LIVE UNTO THEMSELVES: to their own lusts, and after their own wills,... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE HENCEFORTH KNOW WE NO MAN AFTER THE FLESH..... Since the death and resurrection of Christ, which has broken down the middle wall of partition, and has took away all distinction of men, we know, we esteem, we value no man on account of his carnal descent, and fleshy privileges, as being of... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST,.... There's a secret being in Christ from everlasting; so all that are loved by him, espoused unto him, chosen and preserved in him, to whom he was a covenant head, surety, and representative, are in him, united to him, and one with him; not in such sense as the Fa... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD,.... A man's being brought into a Gospel church state is of God; the causing all old things to pass away, whether in the Jewish or Gentile world, is of God; the shaking of the heavens and the earth, and the removing of those things that are shaken, the abrogation of the cer... [ Continue Reading ]
TO WIT, THAT GOD WAS IN CHRIST RECONCILING THE WORLD UNTO HIMSELF,.... This expresses and explains the subject matter of the ministration of the Gospel, especially that part of it which concerns our reconciliation with God; and declares the scheme, the author, the subjects, the way, and means, and c... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THEN WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST,.... Since God has made reconciliation by Christ, and the ministry of it is committed to us, we are ambassadors for him; we come with full powers from him, not to propose terms of peace, to treat with men about it, to offer it to them, but to publish and procla... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE HATH MADE HIM TO BE SIN FOR US,.... Christ was made of a woman, took flesh of a sinful woman; though the flesh he took of her was not sinful, being sanctified by the Spirit of God, the former of Christ's human nature: however, he appeared "in the likeness of sinful flesh"; being attended with... [ Continue Reading ]