NOTES ON THE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS

2 Cor.1:1,2

Here the apostle claims that he was an apostle of Christ Jesus (of Jesus Christ, in 1 Cor.1:1). See also Eph.1:1; 1 Tim.1:1; 2 Tim.1:1: He joins Timothy with himself in writing this letter. In writing the first epistle he associated Sosthenes with himself, one of the brethren of Corinth. The address of the second epistle is much more limited in scope than the first, for whereas the first is addressed to the church of God in Corinth, with all that in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the second is limited to the church of God in Corinth, with all the saints that were in the province of Achaia. The reason may be that the matters dealt with therein were more personal and applicable to that area, and also less doctrinal than in the first. The salutation of grace and peace is similar to that of the first. Peace was the salutation in the Old Testament, and this is joined with grace of the New.

2 Cor.1:3,4,5
The manner in which Paul addresses God is similar to that of Eph.1:3 and 1 Pet.1:3, but the subject of the thanksgiving is different. Here it is because God is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; in Eph.it is because God had blessed His saints with every spiritual blessing in Christ; and in 1 Pet.it was because God had begotten His saints again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In each case God is addressed as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, this implies the manhood of the Lord, when He became the Servant of Jehovah and a worshipper of God. As the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, this indicates the great fact of the Fatherhood of the eternal Father, and the Sonship of the eternal Son. God had comforted or encouraged (the Greek word paraklesis has both meanings) His suffering servants, that they in turn might be able to comfort or encourage others in their affliction, through the comfort they had known themselves. How fitting are these words in the experiences of life! Only such as have themselves suffered can truly comfort the suffering. Those who have never known sorrow cannot enter into what sorrow is, and in consequence their words are hollow and unreal. Paul shows the compensation of the sufferers, for as the sufferings of Christ abounded unto them, even so did their comfort abound through Christ. The Lord, the great Sufferer, whose sufferings at men’s hands are the portion of all who follow His steps (1 Pet.2:21), affords His comfort to those who suffer.

2 Cor.1:6,7
Paul says that if they were afflicted or oppressed, it was for (Gk. huper, on behalf of) the comfort or encouragement and salvation (day by day salvation) of the saints, for suffering saints (that is, such as suffered for the truth of God which was at issue in their time) and servants of Christ have ever been a great benefit to others. It has been said that the blood of martyrs is the seed-plot of the Church. It says of the sufferers in the time of the great Tribulation that is coming, “They that be wise among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil, many days. … And some of them that be wise shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for the time appointed” (Dan.11:33,35). Thus the sufferings and martyrdoms of some shall purify others. So Paul sees his sufferings having a somewhat like effect on the Corinthians. His sufferings were for their encouragement, which were to work in them the same patient endurance of like sufferings, sufferings which

Timothy endured as well as Paul. Indeed that was the common portion of the preachers of those days. Paul goes on to say that his hope for them was stedfast, that they too would bear with fortitude the shock of such sufferings, for they were partakers or partners of the sufferings and also of the comfort. Suffering and comfort are joint experiences, otherwise sufferers would succumb.

2 Cor.1:8,9
Here Paul alludes to the scenes of Acts 19:23-41, which he referred to in 1 Cor.15:32, when he fought with wild beasts (infuriated men) at Ephesus: not physically, of course. No wonder Paul speaks of being weighed down exceedingly, and despairing even of life. After so great a manifestation of the power of God in the lives of men who had been converted so soundly from the past practices of their lives, as is evident from the early part of Acts 19, it must have greatly depressed Paul. After seeing what the disciples he had made in Ephesus did, he looked upon a sea of rioters led by Demetrius, men ready to spill blood, determined to end the effects of the apostle’s powerful preaching, by which so many were affected to their eternal good in Ephesus and Asia. Diana of the Ephesians had lost many of her votaries. So hopeless did things seem during the rioting, that Paul, writing to the Corinthians from Macedonia (Acts 20:1,2), said, as here, that they had the answer of death within themselves. The lesson learned from this experience was, that they should not trust in themselves, as in men sentenced to death, but in God who raiseth the dead. Thus Paul was brought out of a seemingly hopeless situation by the God of resurrection, even as Abraham his forefather had been when he laid Isaac, the son of promise, upon the altar. Paul tells us that in such a seemingly hopeless situation, when the sentence of death was about to be executied upon Isaac, Abraham was “accounting that God is able to raise up, even from the dead; from whence he did also in a parable receive him back” (Heb.11:17-19).

2 Cor.1:10,11
Paul was delivered from “so great a death” in Ephesus. God does deliver, he assured the Corinthians, and when he wrote to Tim. his last epistle, he said, “At my first defence no one took my part, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their account … The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim.4:16-18). Of old, David sang, “God is unto us a God of deliverances; And unto JEHOVAH the Lord belong the issues from death” (Ps.68:20). Peter too says, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgement” (2 Pet.2:9). How sweet and assuring it is, that in whatever seemingly impossible circumstances we may be, God will deliver us in agreement with His perfect will! Such was the God in whom Daniel trusted when he was cast into the den of lions, and in whom his three companions also trusted and were delivered from Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. It was also this God who delivered Peter from the murderous Herod who killed James. He delivered Jas. through death and Pet.by an angel. Paul speaks of the Corinthian saints helping or labouring together by their supplication on behalf (Gk. huper) of Paul and his fellow-servants. This is a work which we may each do for one another in whatever difficulty we may be. The result of this supplication should be, that the gift of divine mercy in God’s delivering power would cause thanksgiving by the many on their behalf. If mercies are sought from God, then those who have laboured in joint intercession should return thanks for the bestowal of such.

2 Cor.1:12
Paul shows here why the Corinthians should pray for them, and also he begins to defend himself against the accusation of fickleness in altering his plans to come to them. His

defence before the Jewish Sanhedrin was, “Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day” (Acts 23:1; see also 2 Tim.1:3; Acts 24:16). He declares to the Corinthians his purity of conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, as emanating from God, not in fleshly wisdom, which is ever impure, but in God’s grace, they behaved in the world before men, and more abundantly towards the saints, and as here, toward the Corinthians. This is a course of conduct that we all do well to follow. Christian men should be holy and sincere men whose conduct will bear examination in sunlight, conduct in which there is nothing shady. Grace teaches us so to behave (Tit.2:11,12).

• Cor.1:13,14 Paul’s and Timothy’s behaviour had been such that he could write as he was now doing regarding their holiness and sincerity, which was in keeping with what they had previously read from his pen. He hoped that they would acknowledge this unto the end. This they had partly acknowledged, that these servants of Christ were their cause of glorying, and the Corinthians were their cause of glorying, and this glorying was in the day of the Lord Jesus, which is the present day, not the day of Christ, which is the day of His coming again. It was in the day of the Lord Jesus in which the spirit of the sinning brother, of 1 Cor.5, was to be saved. This salvation was accomplished, as we know from 2 Cor.2:1-11.

2 Cor.1:15,16
Here Paul explains to the Corinthians what had been his original plan, to come directly to them by sea from Ephesus. Perhaps the tumult in Ephesus (Acts 19) had some effect on his original plan of travel. But his real reason in altering his travel arrangements is stated in verse 23 and 2:1: On the one hand he wished to spare them, and on the other he did not wish to come again to them in sorrow. He knew the effect that his first letter would have produced. He was at the time of writing this letter passing through Macedonia on his way to them. He sends this letter on before him to remove their charge of fickleness. His original purpose was to come to them from Ephesus, and from them to go on to Macedonia, and to return to Corinth again from Macedonia, and then to go from Corinth to Jerusalem.

2 Cor.1:17,18,19
Paul questions them as to whether there had been fickleness (Gk. elaphria, lightness, levity) with him, or whether he had purposed according to the flesh. Were his actions contradictory, and that he was to be characterized by yea yea and nay nay? But as God is ever faithful to His word and purposes, so was Paul’s word to them; it was no compound of contradictory statements of yea and nay. Had they known all that he had suffered at Ephesus, and appreciated also the seriousness of their own disorders as revealed in his first epistle, they might have been saved from carping criticism of his actions. It is also true of the criticism of men as to the actions of God, for when men know more they will say less, less about God’s actions and those of His servants. Paul and his fellow-servants were followers of One, even the Son of God, who is not yea and nay, but in Him is an eternal yea, for He is “the Amen,” the Hebrew equivalent to “Yea” (Rev.3:14). Mere human religions are full of contradictory Yeas and Nays, but it is not so with Christ, and it should not be so with those who follow Him.
2 Cor.1:20
However many the promises of God are, the yea, or yes to us is in Christ; we can have the promises on the conditions attached thereto. God speaks down to us in Christ. It is ours to respond, and the Amen rises to God in Christ through us to the glory of God. God promises and His yea to us is in Christ, and we respond and the Amen to God is in Christ. Yea down and Amen up.

2 Cor.1:21,22
“Stablisheth” (Gk. bebaioo, to render constant and unwavering) is a present participle here, signifying that God is the establishing One in (Gk. eis, into) Christ, and that the work is continuous. In contrast to this, the anointing, the sealing and the giving of the earnest are all aorist participles showing that they are past acts by God. The anointing, the sealing and the giving of the earnest of the Spirit are acts of God, at the time of the regeneration of the believer, that are not repeated. Jn says, “Ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know (Gk. oida, to see, not ginosko, to learn; it shows the divinely given competence of the anointed believer to know) all things” (1 Jn 2:20, see also verse 27). The Lord was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism (Acts 10: 38), but we were anointed when we believed (Acts 10:43-45; Jn 7: 37-39; Gal.3:2). God also sealed us with the Spirit. “In whom (Christ) ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation – in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of His glory” (Eph.1:13,14). “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph.4:30). “God … gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit” (2 Cor.5:5). The earnest is like earnest money, a sum paid in advance as the ratification of a bargain.

2 Cor.1:23,24
Here Paul gives his reason for his altered plan of travel and his delay in coming to Corinth. (See note on verses 15 and 16:) He called God to be his witness, that the reason for his delay was his forbearance to spare them. In discipline he had authority to correct, but he claimed no lordship over their faith. By faith they stood, and by faith we all stand; faith is an intensely personal thing. Though he did not rule over their faith, he and his fellow-workers were helpers of their joy.

2 Cor.2:1,2
This coming again to Corinth, we learn from 2 Cor.12:14 and 2 Cor.13:1, was Paul’s third visit, and as far as we know, his last. His first coming to Corinth is recorded in Acts 18:1-17, when the church of God there was planted (1 Cor.3:6; 1 Cor.2:1-5). His second visit is not mentioned in Scripture, but it had been a humbling and sorrowful experience, for he had no desire to come to them in grief, and be faced with such sins as perchance were prevalent on his first visit. He says later in this epistle, “Lest, when I come again, my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for many of them that have sinned heretofore, and repented not of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they committed” (12:21). If the first epistle had caused them grief, he asks who would make him glad but he over whom Paul had grieved when he called upon the church to put him away, because he was guilty of the sin of fornication (1 Cor.5).

2 Cor.2:3,4
Paul refers to his having written his first epistle dealing with the wicked man of 1 Cor.5 and other disorders, not knowing what effect it would have upon them, lest when he came he would have sorrow from them in whom he ought to rejoice. With that magnanimous spirit characteristic of the apostle, he says, “Having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.” He tells them of the mental anguish the writing of the first epistle caused him: “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears.” It was not written with the object of causing them grief, but as a loving parent would correct his children, he wrote knowing that what he said to them in his letter was the requirement of God in the matters dealt with for the good of them all. His object was that they might know the love which he had more abundantly for them.

2 Cor.2:5,6
How delicately Paul touches on the case of the sinning brother of 1 Cor.5! If grief had been caused, of which there was no doubt, not to Paul, but in part to them all, he trusted he had not overburdened them in what he had written. As to the brother himself who had wronged the church (not to speak of the Lord) by his action, he says, “Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many,” or the more, or greater part. In 2 Cor.7:8-16 he alludes to the action they took in excommunicating this man, and how they had cleared themselves from complicity in the man’s sin.

2 Cor.2:7,8
Now that the brother had been brought to sorrow and repentance for the sin of which he had been guilty, the attitude of the church of God in Corinth had to be changed from one of punishment to one of forgiveness, comfort and love, lest he should be swallowed up in his more abundant (Gk. perisseuma, more than enough) grief. They were now to confirm, or assure him, of their love toward him.

2 Cor.2:9,10,11
Paul refers to what he wrote in his first epistle in which he put their obedience to the proof or test. And now if they forgave this brother, as he exhorts them to do, they were to know that their action was backed by his forgiveness also. If he had forgiven anything it was for their sakes. Forgiven is in the perfect tense, which shows that he had forgiven and his forgiveness still continued. His forgiveness was in the person (Gk. prosopon, the face or the front of anything, also used of a person) of Christ, in whom all forgiveness by God is given, and in whom all forgiveness by saints should also be given. The course of forgiving and restoring this brother to fellowship again was to be taken, that Satan should gain no advantage over God’s people, for in this matter, as well as others, in failing to forgive repentant erring ones, he is on the alert to destroy their lives by their overmuch sorrow. Well Paul could say from experience, “We are not ignorant of his devices,” for many a brush he had had with Satan.

2 Cor.2:12,13
When he left Ephesus, as in Acts 20:1,2, after the rioting there, on his way to Macedonia he came to Troas, as he says, “for the gospel of Christ,” and despite the fact that a door was opened to him in the Lord for the entrance of the word, he had no relief for his spirit. He explains the reason for this state of his lack of spiritual freedom, that it was because he did not find Tit. there. So he took leave of them, the disciples in the church of God in Troas, and went on his journey to Macedonia. He had been in Troas before, as recorded in Acts 16:8, where he saw the vision of the man of Macedonia beseeching him to come over into Macedonia and help them. It was in Troas also that Luke the beloved physician joined Paul and his fellow-workers (Acts 16:10; note the “they” of verse 8 in contrast to the “we” of verse 10). He visited Troas again, as in Acts 20:3-12, for seven days, his last recorded visit, on his journey from Corinth through Macedonia to Jerusalem.

2 Cor.2:14,15,16
Paul, once the inveterate enemy of Christ and of the gospel, was now part of the procession of Christ’s triumphal march. He was in full agreement with the victory which Christ had gained over him and was now as one who scattered incense as He passed along in the triumphal procession in the progress of the gospel. Indeed, he wrote to the Roman Christians, who no doubt had seen many triumphal processions to and through Rome by the

returning victorious Roman legions, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us” (Rom.8:37). The conquered, those whom Christ’s love had conquered, became more than conquerors. Paul made manifest the savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place to which he came. He told of Christ’s victory over him (Acts 22:1-21; 26:1-32) in the story of his conversion to Jew and Gentile, and many were the victories won in which he was the instrument used by Christ. He was a sweet savour of Christ unto God in the diffusion of the knowledge of Christ in (among) those who were being saved, and among the perishing. To enemies, the rejecters of Christ, the odour of Christ was one of death unto (Gk. eis) death, for it implied their death because of unbelief, and to the saved, those that believed, the odour of Christ was one of life unto (Gk. eis) life. “Who is sufficient for these things?” No one of himself. “Our sufficiency (or competency) is from God,” as he says in 3:5: 2 Cor.2:17 Alas, there were many who corrupted (Re Greek: “kapeleuo, to be ho kapelos, either an inn-keeper, or a retailer, huckster; and as these persons, in ancient as well as modern times, seem to have had the reputation of increasing their profits by adulteration, hence to corrupt, adulterate”) the word of God. This practice of corrupting and adulterating God’s word is as rife today as in Paul’s time; indeed, it is even more so now. Instead of God’s word being proclaimed in its purity, it is commercialized, and for money, position, salary, the word of God has become a matter of religious commerce by the religious hucksters. Souls are deceived and lost, and this awful burden of responsibility will largely rest with the blind leaders of the blind, and the end of both deceivers and deceived will be eternal woe. It is well for those who follow Paul’s course, “But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.”

2 Cor.3:1 No doubt Paul is referring to the reaction of the Cor.to what he wrote, in 1 Cor.9, regarding his apostleship and labours. Should he need to repeat himself? Did he need letters of commendation as he went about from church to church, as some lesser known persons than he required, either from the Cor. or to them?

2 Cor.3:2
Here he answers his question of the previous verse, that the Corinthians were their epistle or letter of commendation, written in the hearts of Paul and Timothy, not on papyrus, known and read of all men; the apostle bore his letter of commendation in his heart, not in his hand.

2 Cor.3:3,4 The Corinthian church was an epistle of Christ, as written by Christ; Paul and his companions were the ministers whom Christ used in the writing. The writing was not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. The material used in the writing was not tablets of stone, as were the tables of the law of Moses, which were written with the Finger or Spirit of God, but tablets which were hearts of flesh. This was the promise as contained in the terms of the New Covenant, “I will put My laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people” (Heb.8:10; 10:15,16). Writing on some kinds of stone is a very enduring form of writing, but it is much more enduring upon hearts of flesh, and hearts are tender to the touch, not so stone. Paul bore the Cor.about in his heart. Such was his confidence in the divine character of the work which had been accomplished by God through him in Corinth in the church of God there, that it was to him as divine a work as the giving of the law to Israel by Moses. Both writings, that of the law upon the tables of stone and that upon the hearts of God’s saints, were by the Spirit of God; they were the writings of two Covenants, the Old and the New.

2 Cor.3:5,6 Paul disclaims any personal competency to reckon anything of, as emanating from, himself, but his competence in the work which he had done and was then engaged in was of (Gk. ek, out of) God. God through Christ and in the power of the Spirit made the workers in the work in Corinth competent ministers of the New Covenant, not of the letter, in the legalistic exposition of the law, as the rabbis interpreted it, but in (the) Spirit, giving the spiritual meaning of types and shadows of the law, and giving the spiritual lessons to be derived from the Old Testament. If we may give one illustration of this; take the case of the brazen serpent. The brazen serpent was simply the brazen serpent to those who read the law legally and literally. It became an object of idolatry in Israel and until the days of Hezekiah Israel burned incense to it. But this great man put an end to this superstition and idolatry by breaking it to pieces and calling it what it was, Nehushtan, a Piece of brass. But think of the spiritual use the Lord made of the brazen serpent, in the spiritual application of that story, when He said, “and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth may in Him have eternal life” (Jn 3:14,15; Num.21:9; 2 Kgs.18:4). Many, many tear-filled eyes have been helped by the spiritual application of the brazen serpent to look upon the Lord lifted up upon the cross for them, and have found life in Him, as no doubt Nicodemus did on that memorable night long ago. Despite the fact that the RV and A. V. print spirit in verse 6 above with a small “s”, I believe that in both instances spirit refers to the blessed Holy Spirit and should be printed with capitals. The letter killeth, as we see from Rom.7:9-11, but it is the Spirit that quickens (Jn 6:63).

2 Cor.3:7,8
The ministration (Gk. diakonia, ministry, service) of death could not give life (Gal.3:21); by it came the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20), and its commandment slew the sinner. Though it was the ministration of death, yet it came (Gk. ginomai, came into existence or was introduced) in letters having been engraven on stones, with (En, in) glory. This glory which radiated from the face of Moses was such that the sons of Israel could not look steadfastly upon it, though it was a transient glory, a glory which was being annulled. How much rather shall the ministry of the Spirit (this also refers to the Holy Spirit) in the New Covenant subsist or abide in glory, a glory which shall not pass away, so also shall the Covenant abide, for it is an eternal Covenant (Heb.13:20).

2 Cor.3:9,10,11
The Old Covenant is the ministry both of death and of condemnation; the New Covenant is the ministry of righteousness; the one condemns and the other justifies the believing sinner. These form the complement of each other, the one reveals man to himself and shows him his sin and deep depravity, the other reveals Christ who is the glorious and full answer to man’s deep need. The glory of the Old Covenant disappeared, and, as Paul said, that Covenant was passing away (Heb.8:13), but the New Covenant abides and its glory is permanent and exceeds the Old Covenant in glory. The Old Covenant was made glorious or glorified by reason of the glory in Moses’ face, not by reason of the glory that surpasseth, that is, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (4:6). The Old Covenant was to reach its end in Christ: “for Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth” (Rom.10:4).

2 Cor.3:12,13
Nothing is veiled or secret in the New Covenant, all is open, bold and free, because our hope is in Another, not in ourselves. It is not in “This do and thou shalt live”, but in “It is finished”, the triumphant cry of victory which the Redeemer spoke with a loud voice on the Cross

when He had finished the work of salvation for men. Paul, the announcer of the dispensational change from the Old to the New Covenant, was not like Moses, who, when he came with the tables of the Old Covenant, put a veil upon his face that the sons of Israel should not see the end of the glory with which his face shone. The introduction of the law was like the glory of a sunset when the sun goes down behind a bank of clouds. The end of its glory cannot be seen. When God gave to Moses the law He said, “Thou shalt see My back: but My face shall not be seen” (Ex.33: 23). God had passed by as Moses was in the cleft of the rock in Sinai, and the glory which lit up Moses’ face was a receding glory, a glory which was passing away. As the glory of the Old Covenant was as the glory of the sunset, the glory of the New is as the sunrise; the one is the glory of the back, the other the glory of the face.

2 Cor.3:14,15,16
In Ex.34:33,34 we are told that when Moses had done speaking to the people he put a veil upon his face (and Paul tells us that he did this that they should not see the end of the glory which was passing away), but when he went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he took the veil off, until he came out. Owing to the hardened state of their hearts, Paul says that to this day (and this continues until now) at the reading of the Old Covenant the same veil (this statement must not be taken literally) which hid the end of the glory of God in Moses’ face remains unlifted. A veil lies upon the heart of the sons of Israel, the thick veil of unbelief. The veil is done away in Christ. When the veiled and dark heart of any son of Israel turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and the glory of the New Covenant shining from the glorious countenance of Jesus Christ shines upon him, then is he turned from darkness to light, and then he knows the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the Light of the world.

2 Cor.3:17,18
The Lord of verse 16, in “whensoever it (the veiled heart of the Jew) shall turn to the Lord,” is the same Lord of verse 17, “Now where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” The Spirit of the Lord is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of Jesus” (Acts 16:7), “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom.8:9), “the Spirit of Jesus Christ” (Phil.1:19), “The Spirit of His (God’s) Son” (Gal.4:6). Here the Spirit is called “the Spirit of the Lord. ” This verse (17) shows the essential unity which exists between the Lord and the Holy Spirit, though they are distinct as to personality. See Rev.2:1, where the Speaker is the Lord, yet in verse 7 it says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” The Lord is the Speaker to each of the churches in Asia, but it was as true that the Spirit was also the Speaker. Action by one Person of the Trinity apart from the other Persons of the Trinity is quite impossible. So here we see the blessed work of the Lord and the Spirit in delivering the Jewish believers from the bondage and darkness in which they were before they turned to the Lord. Theirs was the glorious liberty of the children of God for they were indwelt by God’s Spirit. The difficulty in interpreting the meaning of this verse (18) is in the introduction of “in” in “beholding as in a glass” in the AV/KJV and other versions. The RV gives “reflecting as a mirror.” The RV rendering is supported by Liddell and Scott, who say, “To look into a mirror, behold oneself in it … in 2 Cor.3:18, this sense is possible; but it suits the context better to take katoptrizomenoi ten doxan in the sense of reflecting the glory.” This view of reflecting the glory is supported by Luther, Bengel, and others. Against this we have the view of Alford, who says, “The meaning ‘reflecting the glory,’ etc., … is one which neither the word nor the context will bear.” Alford therefore supports the A. V. rendering. For myself, I think that both thoughts are contained in the present participle of the Greek verb katoptrizo used here. A mirror reflects what it sees and only what it sees. Has not Paul before his mind, as he writes, the thought of the face of Moses which was lit up by the glory of God, and when

he came from the presence of God his face was still shining with the glory of God? It had absorbed for a time that glory. May I use the illustration of luminous paint, which absorbs light which is shed upon it, and in the dark gives off the light it has absorbed till it is exhausted; then it requires to be charged by fresh light? The glory departed from Moses’ face, and the veil which he put upon his face hid the end of that glory which was passing away. Like Moses’ face, which was unveiled in the presence of God, we all with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord, and as we behold that glory we, like a mirror, reflect it, just as Moses who beheld the glory and, when he came from God’s presence, reflected the glory of God till at length it disappeared from sight behind the veil. As we behold the glory of the Lord we are transformed from one degree of glory to another, the glory ever increasing. This work is done by the Lord the Spirit. In the case of believers the glory has an abiding effect in their transformation; this is unlike the case of Moses in which the glory passed away.

2 Cor.4:1,2
This ministry of the New Covenant Paul obtained through God’s mercy (see 1 Tim.1:12-14) and in it he fainted not (Gk. ekkakeo, to flag, be indolent, slothful) in His service. He renounced the hidden things of shame (Gk. aischune, shame, disgrace), not walking in craftiness (Gk. panourgia, this word may have a good or a bad meaning, such as skill, shrewdness, and also craftiness, cunning), nor handling the word of God deceitfully (Gk. doloo, to deceive, adulterate, falsify). But in contrast, by the manifestation of the truth, by bringing the truth to light and allowing it to shine, he sought to commend himself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. Paul was a completely transparent man, both as to his message and as to his conduct.

2 Cor.4:3,4
Veiled (Gk. kalupto, to cover, hide, conceal) here is the opposite of what Paul says in his previous verse about the manifestation of the truth. The gospel is veiled in the perishing by the action of the god of this age (Satan) blinding the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the illumination (Gk. photismos, radiancy, illumination or splendour) of the gospel of the glory of Christ should not dawn upon (Gk. augazo, to shine upon, to illuminate) them. We have here the horror of the work of the evil one in blinding unbelieving, perishing souls and keeping them in the dark, whilst the gospel of the glory of Christ is sending forth its healing and living rays to such as believe. When faith opens the window of the soul the light of the glory of Christ pours in, bringing blessing untold. Christ is the Image of God, the true Image of the Infinite. Man is only the image and glory of God in a very relative sense (1 Cor. 11:7).

2 Cor.4:5,6
The subject of Paul’s preaching was not himself, but Christ Jesus as Lord. This is in agreement with his words, in Rom.10:9, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ” He whom Peter preached to Cornelius and his household is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36), and Paul told the Philippian jailor to believe on the Lord Jesus and he would be saved, both he and his house (Acts 16:31). We ought to keep the Lordship of our blessed Lord in the forefront of our preaching whether to saint or sinner (see Acts 2: 36). We should do our Lord the honour that is His due by speaking of Him to men as the Lord Jesus or the Lord Jesus Christ and not simply as Jesus. Let us think again of the words of Paul relative to the glorious universal message of the gospel: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon Him: for, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom.10:12,13). Paul said that he was the

bondservant of the Corinthians for Jesus sake, Jesus, the patient lowly Sufferer, the pattern for all servants who would serve others. We have in verse 6 a free rendering of what God said on the first day, in Gen.1: 3, “Let there be light: and there was light.” This is shown to mean that light shone out of darkness, not as in the case of the light of the sun, as placed in the heavens relative to the earth on the fourth day (Gen.1:14-19), to pour out its light upon the earth. The light shone out of darkness, produced by the spoken word of God, in Gen.1:3, “Who shined in (Gk. en, in, not eis, into) our hearts.” Such hearts as Paul’s and ours were in utter darkness, as was the earth in Gen.1:2: But by the blessed work of the Spirit and word of God, as in Gen.1, light shone out; the object of this shining was to give to others the light of illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Here we have another allusion to the glory of God in the face, (1) in the face of Moses, (2) in the unveiled faces of believers, and (3) in the face of Jesus Christ. What a blessed occupation on the part of those in whose hearts God has shined to give the illumination (Gk. photismos, see verse
4) of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ!

2 Cor.4:7,8,9,10
The treasure referred to here by Paul is the ministry of the New Covenant, which abides in glory, the glory in the face of Jesus Christ; yet, paradoxical as it may seem, it is contained in earthen vessels, such as Paul and his fellows. Angels with bodies celestial are not the chosen vessels of this ministry, but sinners saved by grace, illuminated by the gospel, with weak earthly bodies, weak as Paul’s was from his much suffering (as in the case of the thorn in his flesh – 2 Cor.12:7-9), and Timothy’s from his often infirmities (1 Tim.5:23). The reason for this was, that the exceeding greatness of the power might be of God, and not of the preachers. This is in line with what Paul wrote in 1 Cor.1: 26-31 regarding God’s calling of the foolish, the weak, the base, and the things that are despised, that no flesh should glory before God. God will not give His glory to another. The treasure has been put in earthen vessels, as the lighted torches were placed in earthen pitchers in Gideon’s time, but the pitchers had to be broken before the light of the torches shone out to the discomfiture of the enemy (Judges 7:16-21); even so Paul and his fellows were sorely battered and broken betimes. He says here, we are pressed on every side, yet not straitened (Gk. stenochoreo, to crush in a small space), not hopelessly crushed; perplexed, but not utterly at a loss; persecuted, but not deserted; thrown down, but not destroyed. Here, indeed, is the breaking of the earthen vessels, but how gloriously the light shone forth! This is again emphasized in what follows: “always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.” What Paul says here must not be confused with what he says in Rom.7:24, about “the body of this death,” or “this body of death.” That is the corrupt nature which is still existing in our flesh, of which he speaks earlier in that chapter when he says, “In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing” (verse 18). Paul is not here, when speaking of the dying of Jesus, referring to corrupt human nature, for in the dying of Jesus there was nothing of the corruption of original and inherited sin. The dying of Jesus was His dying at the hands of His persecutors who hated Him without a cause. The Lord brought to men salvation free and full and it was theirs for simply believing on Him, but instead, they slew Him, hanging Him on a tree. This persecution was what Paul also received from men who would not have his Lord, whom he presented to them in the ministry of the gospel of the New Covenant. It is by the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus is manifested in the body of the suffering minister of the gospel. It has been well said that the blood of martyrs is the seed-plot of the church. If there is no dying there will be no living. The principle is in this, as in Paul’s illustration in connexion with the resurrection, “that which thou thyself sowest is not quickened, except it die.” Dying and living is the way of God both in nature and in grace.

But, alas, with this poor world and those who are of it, it is living and dying. What Paul is saying is in regard to the dying or killing of Jesus in the body of His followers.

2 Cor.4:11,12
Here Paul explains what the bearing about in the body the dying or killing of Jesus means, in that he was alway delivered unto death on account of Jesus; his life was always in danger; in Jerusalem, Lystra, Phil.ippi, Thess.salonica, Beroea, Corinth, Ephesus, the story was the same; the man with the torch of the gospel was ever in deadly danger, and, it is sad to say, mainly from the Jews, the people who should have above all peoples welcomed the gospel and the gospel preachers. Paul’s work in preaching the gospel and the sufferings he endured connected with it resulted in the life, the eternal life which he proclaimed, working in and energizing the Corinthians and all others who were the subjects of grace through his ministry. How thankful they should have been to God for the man who endured so much for so many!

2 Cor.4:13,14
The spirit of faith is that believing attitude of heart which is produced in those who have received the word of God. Here Paul quotes from Ps.116:10: Faithful to his belief and having the courage of his convictions he spoke out what he believed and knew to be the word of God, despite the suffering it would entail for him. He knew and taught that suffering was the portion of the believer in this world (1 Thess.2:2,13-16; 3:3,4). Worldly wisdom would make us all hold our peace when we ought to speak, lest we should suffer some measure of reproach for Christ’s sake, and in consequence, live with a bad conscience. The end of the life of faith is not in doubt. Let men do their worst, the believer’s victory is assured, for as Paul says here, “Knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also with Jesus (the patient, lowly Sufferer, who was obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross), and shall present us with you.”

2 Cor.4:15
“All things are for your sakes,” all the wealth of gospel blessing in the New Covenant, that the grace (of God) being multiplied or abounding through the subjects of this grace, may cause thanksgiving to abound or overflow to the glory of God. Here we see the rich out-flow of divine grace to men returning again to Him whence it came in the form of thanksgiving, to His glory.

2 Cor.4:16
“Wherefore,” because God was being glorified in the thanksgiving of His saints for His abounding grace, Paul says, “we faint not.” For though his outward man, his mortal flesh which had known so much of physical suffering, was decaying, as the mortal body of us all does whether we suffer or not, yet his inward man, his true self to whom had been imparted eternal life through faith, was being renewed day by day. His new man was vigorous and active, though the house in which he lived was decaying and gave evidence that one day it would fall to pieces.

2 Cor.4:17,18
Paul calls his much affliction “light affliction,” and says that it was but for the moment. How little he considered himself! Why? What did he see in this light affliction? He saw that it was working for him more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory. What a contrast – light affliction – an eternal weight of glory! Who would not welcome affliction if they could see as Paul saw. Alas! we are too near-sighted, blind, seeing only what is near (2 Pet.1:9).

The passing show of worldly things was nothing to Paul; he looked not at the things that were seen, but, paradoxically, he looked at the things that were unseen, things that are seen only by the long-range sight of faith. The seen things are temporal, some very much so, but the unseen things (and there are infinitely more unseen things than those that are seen) are eternal. Only men of faith can speak this language of Paul and understand it.

2 Cor.5:1,2,3
“For” joins this chapter to the spiritual reasoning of the apostle in the previous chapter relative to the body of believers and the hope of resurrection in glory to an eternal order of things. He contrasts the earthly house of our tabernacle, this fragile, mortal body, which may be dissolved, with a building from (Gk. ek, out of) God, which is eternal. This tabernacle (Gk. skenos) is but a tent. Paul was well acquainted with tents, for he was by trade a tent-maker. But the building from God is not hand-made. The passage should be read as punctuated in the RV, “eternal, in the heavens.” Eternal is its quality and character, not “eternal in the heavens,” as in the AV/KJV, as though it was permanently in the heavens. In the present tabernacle, because of its frailty and weakness, we groan, and we long to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from (Gk. ek, out of) heaven. The ideas of clothing and a habitation or dwelling are joined in the apostle’s mind. This descent of the habitation from heaven, and the clothing upon, take place at the Lord’s coming again. It should be clearly seen that this clothing upon is upon the body or tabernacle of the believer, and not upon the soul or person. There is no thought that the tabernacle or present body in which the believer dwells will be discarded as useless and no longer necessary. If this were so, then it would cancel out all that Paul writes in 1 Cor.15 about the change that will take place at the Lord’s coming again, when the mortal body of living saints will put on immortality, and the corruptible body, a body which is sown in corruption, of the dead in Christ, will put on incorruption (verses 42, 51-54). Should the Lord not come while we are alive and we leave our present tabernacle, as the multitudes of the dead in Christ have done, then we shall be naked (Gk. gumnos, without clothing, in a state of nudity).

2 Cor.5:4
We groan (as in verse 4, Rom.8:23, etc.), being burdened, and the groan becomes longer and deeper the older and weaker we become, and while, at times, the burden increases. But though we groan, we, like Paul, do not wish to be unclothed by death, but rather that the Lord would come and we should be clothed upon (for death is an enemy and is repulsive) with our house which is from heaven, that what is mortal, this bodily frame, may be swallowed up of life. (See 1 Cor.15:54, “Death is swallowed up in victory”). “Mortal” and “immortal” ever apply to the body conditions and never to the soul or person. All mortality will disappear from the body of saints in the complete covering and permeation of the human body with life.

2 Cor.5:5,6,7
He who wrought or formed us for this very thing or purpose, that is, for this state of immortal life and glory, is God, by redeeming, saving, regenerating, sanctifying us, etc. He gave us the earnest of the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit, this pledge, by which we are assured that this state of glory in a body suited to that environment will be ours. So Paul said that he was of good courage, knowing (Gk. oida), by divine revelation, that, while we are at home (Gk. endemeo, from en, in, among, demos, people, among one’s own people) in the body, we are absent (Gk. ekdemeo, ek, out of, demos, people, to be absent from one’s own people who are with the Lord) from the Lord. In the body we are with our own people

here, absent from the body we are with our own people with the Lord. Truly in such matters, where natural sight sees nothing, we must walk by faith not by sight.

2 Cor.5:8,9
We are of good courage, or confident (this is the language of faith), and are well pleased rather to be absent (Gk. ekdemeo) from (ek, out of) the body, and at home (Gk. endemeo) with (pros, near to, by) the Lord (see Phil.1:23). Paul was ambitious (not for himself or his own honour) whether at home in the body or absent from it to be well-pleasing to the Lord.

2 Cor.5:10
We shall be manifested, for divine light proceeding from the Lord shall cause us to be seen as we are, and shall bring to light the hidden things of darkness (1 Cor.4:5), things which no one else knew about but the Lord and ourselves. Each shall receive, or carry off as a prize or recompense, the things done in (Gk. dia, through) the body (the body being the instrument by which all is done by us), whether good or bad. The bad will affect the reward of saints. Both bad and good will be weighed in the Lord’s just judgement. The bad, as we learn from 1 Cor.3:13-15, shall be burned up, in which case the saint will suffer loss. The judgement-seat, or (Greek) Bema, the seat of a judge, of Christ, is the same as the judgement-seat of God, of Rom.14:10,11; it is a judgement of rewards, not of punishments. Only saints of the Church which is Christ’s Body appear at this judgement-seat. This judgement will take place following the Lord’s coming to the air for the Church.

2 Cor.5:11
Paul’s actions were dictated by the fear of the Lord, which “is clean, enduring for ever” (Ps.19:9), and the life which is controlled by the fear of the Lord will be clean also. In the light of having to appear before the judgement-seat of Christ, he sought to persuade men. The fear of the Lord in the light of this judgement was not with him the slavish fear of terror, which has punishment (1 Jn 4:18), but fear which goes hand in hand with love lest our beloved Master should be offended by our conduct. Paul knew that the Lord had died for men and that it was His gracious will that they should be saved, hence he sought to persuade them. He knew that he was manifested (perfect tense, he had been and the effect remained), and he hoped that he was manifested (perfect tense also) in their consciences also.

2 Cor.5:12,13
Paul said that they were not commending themselves to the Corinthians, but were giving them occasion or opportunity to boast on their behalf, as the servants of Christ to whom they were indebted for so much. This was in order that the Corinthians might be able to answer those that boasted in appearance and not in heart. If, as some seemed to think, Paul was beside himself (even some of the Lord’s friends said, “He is beside Himself” – Mk.3: 21), that is, that he was mad, then his madness was a holy madness in his complete devotion to God and His things. Many a time the Lord’s devoted servants and disciples have been accounted mad. May the Lord strike us more and more with this kind of madness! But if Paul was of sober mind, then it was to the Corinthians, and well do his epistles testify to his sobriety of mind and judgement.

2 Cor.5:14,15
Christ’s immeasurable love toward men, which led to men concluding that Paul was beside himself in his devotedness in God’s service, was the constraining power in the life of Paul. The object in his life consequent upon his conversion was to live unto Him who for his sake

died and rose again. His judgement here relative to the Lord’s death and its effect may be somewhat obscure. Two views emerge from the renderings of the AV/KJV and the RV of verse 14: The AV/KJV reading is, “Because we thus judge; that if One died for all, then were all dead,” and the RV is, “Because we thus judge, that One died for all, therefore all died.” The Greek word rendered “then” and “therefore” is ara, which means therefore, then indeed, thence it follows that the two views are, (1) that all were dead because of the sinful Adamic nature which was in them and the death of Christ proved this, and (2) that because of the fact that Christ died for, on behalf of, all, therefore as a consequence of Christ’s death all died. There can be little doubt that the RV rendering is correct, “One died” (Gk. apethanen, aorist singular), and “all (plural) died” (Gk. apethanon, aorist plural). The note of Mr. Alford, in as far as I quote, shows, I judge, the truth of the matter; “Therefore, in the death of Christ, all, the all for whom He died, hoi pantes, died too.” Though all died, alas all do not live, they are not sharers of life in the living Christ who died and rose again, that is, they have not got the free gift of God which is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom.6:23). Those who have this life should have this obligation that the death and rising again of the Lord Jesus puts upon them, no longer to live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again.

2 Cor.5:16,17
“Wherefore we henceforth”, or from now, in this scene of death, refers to the whole scene being changed for the believer, or ought to be, through the death and resurrection of Christ. Now we know no man after the flesh. Even though some had known Christ after the flesh, as His unbelieving brothers did, after they believed in Him who for their sakes died and rose again, they knew Him so no more. They were found at the Jerusalem prayer meetings waiting for the promise of the Holy Spirit (Jn 7:5; Acts 1:14). Many said, “Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how doth He now say, I am come down out of heaven?” (Jn 6:42: The secret of Christ’s Being is revealed in His death and resurrection. “When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am He” (Jn 8:28). This change in the knowledge of Christ comes about in the change in the believer, as is indicated in the words, if anyone be in Christ (there is) a new creation. The believer who is created in Christ Jesus was once a creature of Adam’s ruined race (Eph.2:1,10). As the believer looks forth from the standpoint of being a new creation, the old things of the old creation are passed away, and behold they have become new (Perfect tense, they have become new and so remain).

2 Cor.5:18,19
All things are of God, who is the Source of all good, who reconciled us to Himself through (Gk. dia, by means of) Christ, and gave to us the service of reconciliation. To reconcile (Gk. katallasso) means to change thoroughly, to restore to favour. Reconciliation is not propitiation. The latter means to make expiation, that is to render to God satisfaction for sin. In consequence of God’s revealed will we see that only by the death of an acceptable sacrifice will God be satisfied, the punishment of sin being death. The two words are confused in the AV/KJV in Rom.5:11, where “atonement” is given instead of “reconciliation,” and in Heb.2:17 “reconciliation” appears instead of “propitiation.” Man is by nature an enemy of God and requires to have this attitude of hatred toward God changed. This can only be effected by the death of His Son: “While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.” No means save the death of the Lord could avail to change man’s stony, hard heart. The sight of the suffering Son of God can do what nothing else can do. Hence it was that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, that is, in the love of God for lost sinners shown at the cross God made it possible for the estranged

world of sinners to be reconciled to Him. Alas, it may be that many will push aside the outstretched hand of grace and mercy and die enemies of God, their best Friend. In the Cross, God is not reckoning sin to man; He was there reckoning sin to His Son the Sin- bearer. Through the Cross and its Sufferer He pleads with men to be reconciled to Him. The work of reconciliation is complete in the death of Christ. Now He has committed the ministry of reconciliation and the word of reconciliation to men, to announce the love of God for sinners as seen in the death of Christ.

2 Cor.5:20,21
“We are ambassadors” (Gk. presbus, “a man of advanced age, because such persons were usually selected for an embassy”), says Paul, “on behalf of Christ”, as acting for Him in this capacity. The word of reconciliation was that God was entreating by them and beseeching men on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God. Then Paul says that Christ knew no sin. It was not simply that He did no sin (1 Pet.2:22), but He did not know sin. This does not mean that He did not know about sin. He knew about it perfectly in its disastrous working and in its consequences in the person of the devil and his angels, and in mankind, but He knew no sin in His own Person. He was without sin, being “holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners” (Heb.7:26; 1 Jn 3:5). Yet He who knew no sin was made sin on our behalf, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Christ being made sin is a Hebrewism, for in the Hebrew sin and sin offering are the same word – chattaah or chattath. Christ could not be made the act of sin, but He bore the guilt and punishment of sin. We committed the act of sin, but Christ suffered the consequences of our act. Sin committed by sinners was imputed to Christ, and in that sense He bore our sins in His Body upon the tree (1 Pet.2:24), and suffered and died for them (1 Cor.15:3,4; 1 Pet.3:18); despite this He remained pure and holy as He ever was. The sin offering by which atonement was made for sin remained holy. “Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: it is most holy” (Lev.6:29). Sin was imputed to Christ on the Cross, but He did not bear sin during His lifetime prior to the Cross. We must be careful in the application of certain words in the Psalms lest we fall into the error of the following words written by a man of eminence many years ago. He said that “Christ became poor, was made sin for us – assumed, as it were, the character of a sinner.” This is very improper language to use of the Lord, that He assumed the character of a sinner, indeed it is quite untrue. He was numbered with transgressors, but that was man’s act and part of the shame He endured at their hands, but He was as truly separated from sinners when they crucified Him between two malefactors as He ever was. Never at any time did He bear the character of a sinner. As the Lord had sin imputed to Him, we, thank God, have had righteousness imputed to us.

2 Cor.6:1,2
“With Him,” that is, with God, are words which are in italics and are not in the Greek, nor are they implied; but Paul and Tim. were working together and also exhorting the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God in vain. The RV is correct in 1 Cor.3:9, where it says, “For we are God’s fellow-workers; ye are God’s husbandry, God’s building.” The AV/KJV says, “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.” In each of the uses of “God” in this verse the word is in the genitive case, and “of God” is correct, and is rendered twice in the possessive case in the English. It should not be “with God.” The workers, the husbandry and the building were all owned by God. The Corinthians had received the grace of God and had known reconciliation and justification, and this grace, which in Paul’s case was not found vain (1 Cor.15:10), was not to be vain in them. Then Paul quotes from Isa.49:8, a direct prophecy concerning Christ, who is given as a Covenant of the people, the acceptance of whom brings men into covenant relationship with God. The

Corinthians had known this acceptable time and had been saved in God’s ever-present day of salvation. But now the danger with them is lest they should receive in vain the grace of God which they had known, lest they should repeat the folly of Israel of old and turn from the God of the covenant.

2 Cor.6:3,4
Paul and his fellows were careful in their practice so that it would agree with their preaching and that they would not be a stumbling-block or offence (from Gk. proskopto, to strike against, to stumble), so that their ministry of the New Covenant might not be blamed. But contrariwise, in everything they commended themselves, in patience or endurance, afflictions, necessities, distresses or straits (4:8).

2 Cor.6:5,6
“In stripes,” of the Jews he received five times forty stripes save one (11:24). “In imprisonments,” we know of his painful experience in Philippi (Acts 16), but he had many others (11:23). “In tumults, ” we know what happened at Lystra (Acts 14:19,20), and at Ephesus (Acts 19:23-41), not to speak of his experiences in Thessalonica and Beroea (Acts 17). Paul toiled on in labours and watchings, in pureness, in chastity of body and mind, and in knowledge (his superlative knowledge of the divine will); in kindness, which is ever an estimable quality in any; in the Holy Spirit who empowered him in all his labours and sufferings; and in love, the governing emotion in all his actions.

2 Cor.6:7,8
“In the word of truth,” in teaching God’s truth in His revealed will to men; “in the power of God,” the power of 4:7; Eph.1:19,20, etc., which was abundantly manifest in all the apostle’s herculean labours for his Master. “By the armour (arms or weapons) of righteousness”, he was on guard against attack from right or left in his resistance of evil. On these servants of God went, through glory and dishonour; men may glorify you one moment and then shower dishonour on you the next. What matters? – “the Master praises! What are men?” On they went through evil report and good report, and though they were regarded by many as deceivers, yet they were true; their ministry was in accordance with truth.

2 Cor.6:9,10
The servants of God were remote and unknown as to their real lives, yet they were well known as men that turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). As dying (4:10,11), yet they lived, as chastened (Heb.12:4-11), yet not killed; as sorrowful, oftentimes even unto tears, yet alway rejoicing, as they thought of what was theirs, through grace, in Christ, of the eternal glory which lay ahead, and of the prospect of rewards for faithful service from their Master. All these were matters of great rejoicing. As poor, as to this world (Jas.2:5), yet making many rich with the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph.3:8); and as having nothing, comparatively, of this world’s goods, yet they were heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, and in addition, they were of those who laid up their treasure in heaven (Matt.6:19-21).

2 Cor.6:11,12,13
There was nothing secret in Paul’s dealings with the Corinthians; his mouth was open, his heart was enlarged toward them, despite the fact of their cold callousness toward him. They were straitened in their affection for him, but their place in his heart was not straitened for him. In 2:4, he spoke of writing to them in tears, and his words were, “that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.” As his spiritual children, he now writes to them asking for a recompense of like kind, that they should be enlarged toward him.

2 Cor.6:14,15,16
“Unequally yoked” means, not otherwise or differently yoked. The disciple of the Lord is already yoked, in terms of the Lord’s words, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of (Apo, from) Me … My yoke is easy” (Matt.11:29,30). All believers do not take the Lord’s yoke upon them. There are two rests in these verses; the first is a rest from labour: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This is a labour seeking to gratify the desires of the flesh and the mind in the energy of the prince of the power of the air (Eph.2:1-3). Self and Satan are two of the most tyrannical masters. This rest having been obtained through faith in the Lord Jesus, then the believer may find another rest as a disciple, a learner or follower of the Lord in whom he has believed. This rest is in learning the Lord’s will and being yoked with others in the work and in bearing the burden of the Lord. Our burden was heavy for Him who bore the burden of our sins, but in contrast, His burden is light. All believers are not so yoked. Many are well satisfied to be saved, to receive all that the Lord has done and borne for them, but they are not willing to learn the Lord’s will as to what they may do for Him. Or, again, they may run off to do some work, for which, and in association with which, the Lord has given no warrant in the Scriptures. This latter course is followed by many of those who want to be doing something, often with a sincere desire, but it is a misguided effort. First there must be the learning from the Lord as to what His will is, and then the zeal and purpose of heart to do it. May I further add that Matt.11:30 does not teach, nor does any other portion of the New Testament, that we are yoked with Christ, and that He and we work in double harness? We are yoked together as His team, but He is the Master or Driver. “The Lord working with them,” of Mk.16:20, means as an artisan works with tools; he works with his tools, but the tools do not work with him. What I here say applies to 1 Cor.3:9 (RV reading is correct), and to 2 Cor.6:1, in which verse “with Him” is not in the Greek. The disciple who is already yoked must not enter into any other yoke. It is actually both impossible according to the idea of the yoke to be in two yokes and it is prohibited by the Lord. Mr. William Kelly gives a helpful note on this scripture: “2 Cor.6:14: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers – often applied to marriage with unbelievers. But this is an error though it is true that marriage ought to be ‘only in the Lord,’ as is exhorted in 1 Cor.7: The subject is the ministry and service of Christ. In service and worship, fellowship is forbidden with unbelievers or unfaithful men. If I, as a servant of Christ, am among such, I am to come out. What confirms it is – 1st. That a yoke is a Scriptural badge of service, not of marriage. 2nd. That the believing wife is not to separate from the unbelieving husband (1 Cor.7:10-16). On the other hand, the true reference from 2 Cor.6 is that all communion between the Christian and the world, in the service and worship of God, is interdicted in every form and measure.” I believe with Mr. Kelly, that apistos applies not only to unbelievers, in 2 Cor.6:14, but also to unfaithful men. The question that immediately arises in the mind is, Who are indicated by the word “unbelievers”? Is this term limited in the New Testament to those who are unsaved persons, or does the word in itself involve others, who though they are saved by grace are unfaithful? In a word, Does the Greek word as used here ever apply to saved persons who are unfaithful? Mr. Kelly quite evidently thought so, as he states in the passage above. The Greek word used here for unbelievers is apistos, and is applied to unbelievers or unsaved persons in quite a number of scriptures. The word apistos is an adjective, the opposite of pistos. Pistos is rendered “faithful” some 53 times in the AV/KJV, about 9 times as “believe”, “believer” and “believing,” and once or twice as “sure” and “true”. If pistos means “faithful,” then it follows that apistos means “unfaithful”. Apistos is used as a substantive, “unbeliever, ” as we have said, in a number of places. But is apistos used of a saved person or persons? The answer is, yes. It is used of the Lord’s disciples who could not cast out the unclean spirit out of the boy, in Mk.9; “O faithless

(apistos, unfaithful) generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I bear with you? bring him unto Me” (verse 19). The lack in this case was of believing prayer. The word was used by the Lord of Thomas, when He said, “Be not faithless (apistos, unfaithful or unbelieving), but believing” (pistos) (Jn 20:27). It is also used in Tit.1:15 as to the possibility of a believer being defiled and unbelieving (apistos). The verb apisteo is used of the disciples who did not believe in the Lord’s resurrection (Mk.16:11; Lk.24:11,41). It is also used by Paul, in 2 Tim.2:13, which shows that it is possible for believers to be unbelieving ones. The RV reads, “If we are faithless (apisteo, unfaithful), He abideth faithful (pistos).” The AV/KJV reads here, “If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful.” Then as to the noun apistia (unbelief), we see, from Heb.3:12, that it is possible for those in the house of God to become such as have in them an evil heart of unbelief and to fall away from the living God, the God of the house of God, and in consequence to fail to enter into God’s rest. The entire context of this passage of Scripture shows that more than unsaved persons are contemplated. Such contrasts as righteousness and iniquity, and light and darkness show this. Righteousness here is not righteousness imputed to the believer on the ground of his faith in Christ, but is the quality of practical righteousness in contrast to iniquity or lawlessness. The same is true of light and darkness. We are light “in the Lord,” as those who are subject to the Lord’s word and will, as “in the Lord” means (Eph.5:8). May not the light which is in a believer become darkness? and how great is that darkness! (Matt.6:23). Are not the doctrines of certain communities of people where, alas, believers are found, darkness, and some of them midnight darkness? What concord hath Christ with Belial? Christ is the expression of the highest virtue (virtue is excellence of any kind), but Belial means worthlessness; and what portion hath a believer (pistos, a believing or faithful person) with an unbeliever (an unbelieving or unfaithful person)? The answer in both cases is, None at all! Then the last contrast drawn by the apostle is, “What agreement hath a temple of God with idols?” The answer again, as in every case before, is, None at all! God will deal with both idols and idolaters in due time, though in this day of grace He endures with much longsuffering the wickedness of men. The root cause of all idolatry is covetousness (Col.3:5), and this principle is at work in the hearts of men where no visible idol is to be seen; it exists in the imagination, and the idol enshrined there is that great idol GOLD, greater by far than Nebuchadnezzar’s image of gold which dazzled so many in Babylon of old, but had no effect upon the three Hebrew youths, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego (Dan.3). We now come to what the church of God in Corinth was. It was a temple of the living God, and in proof of this Paul quotes from what was true of Israel with the Tabernacle, the dwelling or sanctuary of God in their midst, in the wilderness. “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. ” See Lev.26:12: Let us ask ourselves the question, On what ground did God enter into an agreement with Israel to come into their midst and to dwell there? Was it simply on the ground that they were delivered out of Egypt or were there other conditions? The answer is, because they were a people saved by Jehovah and separated from Egypt, plus the fact that they accepted the conditions of the covenant which were read to them by Moses at Sinai. If Israel became the people of God in the midst of whom God dwelt, not simply on the ground of being saved from Egypt, does the New Testament contemplate a community of people as the people of God simply on the ground of all being saved by grace, or are other conditions involved? The answer must be that the New Testament people of God is not simply a community of believers together, who are together on the ground of simply being believers. The Brethren movement started on this ground, that believers should be together simply on the ground that they were believers, as the following quotation from “The Christian Witness”, the first magazine issued by the Brethren, shows:- “The only way then of deciding the question, what is schism? is to refer at once to that which is given in the Scriptures of the principles and

character of the Churches. And these, by the evidence of all the apostolic Scriptures, were each, as before said, simply a union of believers upon the ground of the common salvation.” Taking this at its face value, all believers were in the apostolic churches and all unbelievers outside. From these churches, according to this writer there could be no excommunication, seeing that an erring saint was, though guilty of wrong doing, still in possession of the common salvation, though he may have sinned in such a way, as the Scriptures show, that called for him to be put away. But, we ask, did the leaders of the Brethren movement adhere to this mode of communion in their practice? and do they hold to their early notion that the Scriptures teach that believers should be together on the ground of being simply believers? No, they did not! What of the separation in Plymouth, when thirty to forty believers separated themselves from the company of believers in the Brethren assembly there? They did not separate on the ground that the thirty or forty who left the others were believers and the rest that they left were unbelievers. When those who were afterwards called Exclusive Brethren separated from those who were afterwards called Open Brethren, did they separate from each other simply on the ground that one group were believers and the other unbelievers? Again, no, they did not. Thus the whole false idea which they had espoused at the beginning was blown away like chaff, but this chaff has blown about and has blinded the eyes of many to this day. We might further ask, Have the many divisions which have taken place amongst Exclusive and Open Brethren since those early separations been on the ground that the one lot were believers and the other unbelievers? No; separations between the Brethren have not taken place on the ground of some being believers and others unbelievers. The causes of schisms have ever been on other grounds altogether. The principles of discipleship and of being yoked together are clearly stated in the Lord’s words, in Matt.28: 18-20, and in the words of Acts 2:41,42, “And Jesus came to them and spake unto them saying, All authority hath been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” “They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. ” Unless these truths are adhered to, which are amplified throughout the New Testament, there can be no unity on earth according to God. The seven things of Acts 2, as quoted, have often been emphasized:- (1) they received the word, (2) they were baptized, (3) they were added together, (4) they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ teaching, (5) they continued in the fellowship, (6) they continued in the breaking of the bread, (7) they continued in the prayers. Let it be noted that the temple of God can be destroyed by men (see 1 Cor.3:16,17), whereas the Church which is His (Christ’s) Body can never be; the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it (Matt.16:18), and it will be presented by Christ to Himself glorious, and without spot or wrinkle or any such thing in the day of His coming again (Eph.5:27). If the mind of the reader is confused by the writings of men as to the difference between the Body of Christ and the temple of God, let him search the Scriptures sincerely under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and he will be guided into the truth about such matters. Besides unions in spiritual matters being forbidden by God between believing and faithful people and unbelieving and unfaithful people, a believer should not enter into a voluntary partnership with an unbeliever in any business enterprise, nor should he enter into a business partnership with a believer who does not hold the same faith (Jud.3) as himself.

2 Cor.6:17,18

The call of separation to Israel in the past dispensation is repeated by Paul as equally applicable in this dispensation. We get the truth of what Israel was in the inspired words of Balaam the soothsayer as he viewed the people of Israel from the rocks of the hills on which he stood, “Lo, it is a people that dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations” (Num.23:9). Any attempt of Israel to join with the nations in the land or outside thereof was fraught with disaster as their history clearly shows. Here in the verses quoted above we have a free rendering of Isa.52:11,12: The Hebrew and the LXX are almost identical in the wording. The Hebrew gives the following rendering, “Go ye out thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; for the LORD will go before you” (LXX, “for the LORD shall go first before you”). This call is similar to that of Abraham in his day, when he was commanded to get out from Ur of the Chaldees, from the land which saw the first phase of Babylon, in that men combined together under Nimrod with the object of building a city and a tower for man’s name; the object was to shut God outside, outside their city and outside of His own earth. This Babylonian cancer spread, as men, scattered by the division of languages, moved out to different parts of the earth. They carried the Babylonian idea dressed in various garbs of building and shutting God out. A notable man has well said, that men shut God out at Babel, and God chose Abraham and shut the world out. From the call of Abraham the main line of divine purpose and of Scripture history are connected with the chosen descendants of Abraham right through to this dispensation in which God is visiting the Gentiles in grace. If those who are saved by grace wish to please God they must respond to the call of God as Abraham did from the land of Babylon, and as is enjoined in the call of God in the above verses. What does Isa.52:11,12 say, from which Paul quotes? It says, “Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the LORD. For ye shall not go out in haste, neither shall ye go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward.” Where were they to go out from? Of old they had gone out from Egypt, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt” (Hos.11:1, Ex.4:22,23). Where, I ask, were they to go out from, as this call through Isaiah implies? The answer is, out of Babylon. It is said of Israel, “He shall not return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be his king” (Hos.11:5). Judah too was carried away to Babylon. The call of God through Zechariah was again sounded out, “Ho Zion, escape, thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon” (Zech.2:7). After seventy years of Babylonish captivity the captives released by Cyrus trudged back over the sands of the wilderness to the land of promise, with the high object in view of building the house of God which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. They carried with them the holy vessels of the sanctuary. In their going out they were not to touch any unclean thing; those especially who carried the holy vessels were particularly warned, “Be ye clean, ye that bear the vessels of the LORD.” What is the answer to this in our time, we who are surrounded with Babylonish sectarianism on all sides? Just this, that those who hold and bear the holy truths of Scripture relative to the house of God and to the holy service thereof should not in any way become unclean by any contact with sectarianism. We do not need to swallow the many evil doctrines of sectarianism to be unclean, we are to be separate from it and not to become unclean by touch. On the ground of separation and not touching the unclean thing, the thing wherein the will of man, man’s choice, has taken the place of God’s revealed will, God promises to receive us. If any one is in doubt of the filthiness of sectarianism (or heresies), please see Gal.5:19-21, especially the words, “factions, divisions, heresies,” some of the works of the flesh. “I will receive you” is not the reception of the believing sinner by the Lord Jesus, as in Lk.15:1,2: In defence of His action of receiving sinners He spoke to the Pharisees and the scribes the three parables, or the threefold parable, of the lost sheep, the lost piece of silver and the lost son, of this chapter. But the reception of 2 Cor.6 is the reception of the

separated disciple. “Receive” here is Gk. eisdechomai, from eis, into, and dechomai, to receive. If we come out He will receive us in, but if we do not come out at His call He will not receive us. If we come out and are received, His promise is, “I will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to Me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” This call to come out is a continuous one, for there is ever the danger of going back. It is not like the call in the gospel from which we can never go back, for once saved, always saved. Note that the promise is not, “I will be the Father of you, ” but “I will be to you a Father,” for the called one is already a child of God before this call to separation comes to him. Again, the relationship of sons and daughters is not that of God’s family, in which there are no males and females, all are children and sons, but in the house of God there are males and females; men and women have their own place in the house of God, as see 1 Tim.2:8-3:16; 1 Cor.11:2-16; 1 Cor.14:34,35. 2 Cor.6:14-18 is the basic scripture of the call of God out from the place where, and out from among those with whom, the faithful disciple cannot serve God.

2 Cor.7:1
Having such promises made to us by the Lord Almighty (God Almighty was the covenant- God of the separated Abraham – Gen.17:1), such as separate themselves from the Babylonish defilement of sectarianism are to cleanse themselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Lev.11 and Lev.20, etc., deal with bodily uncleanness, and there were diverse sacrifices and washings to cleanse from such defilements. God said, “Ye shall be holy unto Me: for I the LORD am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that ye should be Mine” (Lev.20:26). Indeed the words, “Ye shall be holy, for I am holy,” might be written over Lev.as characteristic of the book. Bodily cleanness of old has its counterpart in the cleansing of ourselves from every sinful pollution of flesh and spirit. Note how in our unregenerate state we were engaged in doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind (Eph.2:3). The flesh within our flesh with its manifold tendencies to evil opens the door to the entrance of all forms of evil, which leads to the spirit being brought into a state of defilement by evil thoughts. We need to cleanse ourselves by confession to God and by the water of the word, and in this way to be perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Though we are saints, that is, holy ones, having been called and sanctified in Christ Jesus (1 Cor.1:2), we are to be perfecting holiness by holy living. We should manifest that we are saints by a saintly life.

2 Cor.7:2,3,4
Paul asks the Corinthians to open their hearts to them or to receive them, for they wronged no one, they ruined or corrupted no one, they did not cheat or take the better of any one, when they were with them. He wrote thus not to blame them, for, as he said before, they were in their hearts to die together and to live together. The way of the world is to live together and to die together, and then to be separated from each other for ever. But with Christian people in the same Fellowship the order is, to die together, to self, to sin and to the world, and to live together, and the happiness of true living, which living is begun now on earth (at least it should be), and will continue for ever in the joy of the new life which is ours. Paul had great boldness in writing to them as he did, for they were his spiritual children (1 Cor.4: 15), and great was his boasting on their behalf. As he reflects on the past, he is filled with comfort in the news brought to him by Titus, referred to in the next verses, and abounds exceedingly with joy in all his tribulations, for he also knows, as in 2 Cor. 4:17, that his afflictions are working for him an eternal weight of glory.

2 Cor.7:5,6,7
Paul tells of their experience when they had come into Macedonia from Ephesus (Acts 20:1,2), that their flesh had no relief, for there was continual disturbance; they were

afflicted on every side, without were fightings, and these reacted upon their minds, and they had fears within. What a life of turbulence and uncertainty! Yet there was some compensation in their afflictions, and he says that God who comforteth the lowly comforted them by the arrival of Titus. But, Paul says that they were comforted not by the seeing of Titus only, but by the comfort that Titus had been comforted in the Corinthians, for he related to Paul of their longing, mourning and of their zeal for him, so he rejoiced yet the more.

2 Cor.7:8,9
Paul did not regret writing his first epistle, though he says that he did regret or rue it, but he could not repent doing so, that is, change his mind, for he was writing an inspired epistle administering necessary correction to the church in Corinth. Though his epistle made them sorry, it was only for a season, a brief time. Now with the coming of Titus and the tidings he brought, he rejoiced, not that they had been grieved, but that their grief had wrought repentance. Theirs was a sorrow according to God, and that through sorrow they might suffer no damage by Paul and his fellows.

2 Cor.7:10,11
Their grief according to God wrought repentance unto salvation never to be regretted, for the church was saved from disaster by their action toward the offender (1 Cor.5). Had they remained puffed up and taken sides with the sinning fornicator, a serious situation would have arisen. In contrast to sorrow which is according to God, the sorrow of the world worketh death, not repentance unto salvation. This sorrow according to God wrought diligence in them in contrast to their former carelessness; what defence or apology, as brought by Tit.to Paul; what indignation, when the seriousness of the sin was revealed to them; what fear, as to the consequences of what their toleration of the wrong might be; what zeal to carry out the judgement of God; yea, what avenging, in the infliction of divine justice upon the wrong-doer. Paul says that in everything they proved themselves to be pure in the matter!

2 Cor.7:12,13
The real purpose of Paul in writing was not because of the incestuous person of 1 Cor.5, nor because of his father who suffered the wrong, but that their earnest care for Paul might be made manifest to them in God’s sight. The question seems to be, whether they would align themselves with the teaching which he had given to them on his former visit, and which he again declares in his judgement in the case of the fornicator. The salvation of the church was of first importance with the apostle, and that salvation could only be effected by their adherence to and their carrying out the teaching which he had given to them. The case which had arisen was like a test case whether they cared for the apostle and his teaching or not. We can well understand how the apostle was comforted by the news from Corinth, and in his comfort he rejoiced the more abundantly for the joy of Titus, because that all had refreshed his spirit.

2 Cor.7:14,15,16
Paul had boasted to Titus on behalf of the Corinthians, and in this he had not been put to shame. What Paul had spoken to them in his ministry was truth, and also his boasting to Titus was found to be truth. The tender affection (bowels) of Titus was more abundantly toward them all, remembering, as he did, their obedience, and how they had received him with fear and trembling. Paul rejoiced and in everything he was confident in them.

2 Cor.8:1,2 Here the apostle returns to the matter of collections for the poor amongst the saints at Jerusalem (1 Cor.16:1-9; Rom.15: 25-27). He desires that the grace of God, manifest in the churches of Macedonia – Philippi, Thessalonica and Beroea, and perhaps other cities – in the matter of giving, should be manifest in the church in Corinth. Giving is one of the gifts of Rom.12:5-8, but whilst it is a gift to some, yet all should give as the Lord has prospered them. “He that giveth, let him do it with liberality.” Paul couples experiences which are opposites, yet they met in the same hearts – affliction and joy, poverty and riches. They were tested in their affliction, yet the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality (Gk. haplotes, simplicity, “liberality as arising from simplicity and frankness of character”).

2 Cor.8:3,4,5
Such was the sincerity of the Macedonian saints, that of their own accord they gave even beyond their power, intreating Paul and his fellows in regard to this evidence of God’s grace in them that they should show their fellowship in ministering to the poor of God’s people. It was not as the apostle had expected, for they went beyond what he had hoped, because that they first gave themselves to the Lord, owning that they and all that they had were His, and consequently they gave to Paul in such large measure by the will of God.

2 Cor.8:6,7
Paul exhorted Titus, who had made a beginning, in regard to this contribution to the Jerusalem saints, in the visit to Corinth from which he had just returned (7:6,7), that he would complete this grace in them on his return visit on which he had just set out (verses 16,17). The Corinthian saints were replete with gifts, as Paul wrote of them, in 1 Cor.1:5-7, in faith, utterance, knowledge, and, it would seem, though difficult to understand from other words which Paul wrote to them, in their love for Paul. These saints so highly gifted are exhorted by Paul, “See that ye abound in this grace also,” that is, in the grace of giving, in which, apparently, they were very deficient.

2 Cor.8:8,9
Paul did not command them to give. Giving should be on the voluntary principle; it should be out of God’s grace in the heart in consequence of what God has done for, and given to us. The flesh is ever covetous and niggardly. Paul writes to prove the sincerity of their love and he shows them the earnestness of others, the Macedonian saints in particular. Then, as giving weight to what he is saying, he refers to the action of the Lord in which His infinite grace is so abundantly seen, that though He was rich, infinitely so, He became poor of His own voluntary will for our sakes, that we, poor mortals, who are dependent on Him for all things, might become rich. Who can resist giving in the light of such infinite and abounding grace? What riches and poverty were His! and what poverty and riches are ours!

2 Cor.8:10,11,12
Paul gives his opinion that it was fitting for them, who had made a beginning a year ago (before the Macedonians), to lay by them, as in 1 Cor.16:2,3, not only to do, but to have the will to act, “Now,” he says, “complete the doing also,” that as there had been the readiness to will, they were to make a completion out of what they had. For if the readiness is present, it is accepted according to what one may have, not according to what one has not got. This is sound common sense.

2 Cor.8:13,14,15
What the apostle argues for is equality in the matter of supplying need. It is not that he pleads that all should be in equal possession of the world’s goods or riches, but that there should be the giving of those who have abundance to meet the need of those who are in want. He was not out to bring pressure on the Cor. or on any others so that they in their giving would be distressed while the recipients of the gifts were eased. Rather he was pleading that the deficiency or want of the needy would be met from the abundance of others, so that by fellowship, that is, a sharing together, there would be equality. In proof of what he had in mind, he refers to the gathering and measuring of the Manna in the wilderness. God gave sufficient for all the people of Israel day by day. They were to receive an omer a head. Some gathered more than this, being more diligent and perhaps more able, but when it was measured out and each got an omer, “he that gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no lack.” This was truly a miracle of supply and distribution day by day. There are the mutual obligations of labouring, that is of gathering, and of fellowship, that is of sharing. Paul is deliberate in his teaching on the matter of people working for their livelihood and not living on the product of the labours of others. He says on this matter, “If any will not work, neither let him eat” (2 Thess.3:10). He did not encourage feeding of the drones.

2 Cor.8:16,17
Titus, who as we have seen, had come from Corinth bringing the apostle news of the state of the church, accepts the apostle’s exhortation to return to Corinth. Paul thanks God that he had put the same earnest care which was in his heart for them into the heart of Titus, so that of his own accord he left Paul and proceeded to Corinth.

2 Cor.8:18,19
Who is the brother whose praise was in the gospel? Conjecture has suggested, Barnabas, also Silas, Mark, Trophimus, and so forth. Who he was no one knows, but he was well known in Paul’s time throughout all the churches. He was appointed (Gk. cheirotoneo, to choose by holding up the hand, see Acts 14:23) by the churches to travel with Paul to Jerusalem with the gift, which was ministered by Paul to the glory of the Lord, and was a witness of his readiness.

2 Cor.8:20,21
Paul was careful in sending this brother with Titus, that no one should be able to blame him in the matter of this bounty which was being collected for the poor in Jerusalem, and which was ministered by him. This was in order that others could testify to his honour in handling the gift, that all his conduct regarding it was beyond reproach. He took thought for things honourable both in the sight of God and of men.

2 Cor.8:22,23,24
Besides sending Titus and the brother whose praise was in the gospel to Corinth, Paul sends with them a brother who is commended, not for his preaching, but for his earnestness, a high quality also. This brother was always diligent, but now much more by reason of the confidence he had in the Corinthians. We seem to see them leaving Paul to go on their mission, truly a trio of faithful men. Should the Corinthians inquire about Titus, he was Paul’s partner and fellow-worker, and the two brethren were the messengers or apostles of the churches, men sent by the churches, and they were also the glory of Christ, men who lived and wrought for the glory of Christ, in whom Christ was glorified. They were to show

to them the proof of their love in the face of the churches and of Paul’s glorying or boasting on the behalf of the Corinthians.

2 Cor.9:1,2
In this chapter Paul continues the subject of collecting for the need of the poor in Jerusalem. He had boasted on behalf of the churches of Achaia, of which Corinth was one, that Achaia had been prepared for a year past (8:10), and their zeal had stirred up very many in the churches of Macedonia to contribute to this good cause.

2 Cor.9:3,4
Paul sent the three brethren (8:16-18,22) that their glorying on behalf of those of Achaia should not be found to be empty boasting, and that they might be prepared with their bounty. Paul was on his way through Macedonia to Corinth, and lest any of the brethren from Macedonia should accompany him, and if, when they arrived, they should find them unprepared, he would be put to shame in the confidence he had shown in the Corinthians while in Macedonia, not to speak of the shame to the Corinthians themselves.

2 Cor.9:5
The apostle in the light of his boasting in Macedonia, and lest the saints in Achaia should be unprepared, intreated the three brethren to go before him to Corinth, so that the aforepromised bounty (blessing, for it would indeed prove a blessing to many who were in need) might be ready on his arrival, but it was to be a matter of blessing and not of extortion or covetousness. The blessing was on the principle – “Freely ye received, freely give” (Matt.10:8).

2 Cor.9:6,7
“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal.6:7), both in kind and in quantity. What is true in nature, is true also in grace. No sowing, no reaping; little sowing, little reaping; bountiful sowing, bountiful reaping! God is not mocked, but men will be who hope to reap their barren patch where they have sown little or nothing. Each man was to do as he had purposed in his heart, not grievingly or of necessity. God loves a cheerful (Gk. hilaros, cheerful, joyous) giver.

2 Cor.9:8,9
God in His gracious dealing will give to those who wish to give to others. They will have a sufficiency in everything, so that they may abound unto every good work. Let us remember concerning those who kept the manna more than a day (save on the sixth day), that it was of no use the next day for it bred worms and stank. Pharaoh built great storehouses for his grain, but grain does not multiply in storehouses, it only multiplies as it is scattered. James was very forthright in his address to the rich of his time when he said, “Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire” (Jas.5:2,3). The righteousness of the giver shall abide for ever.

2 Cor.9:10,11
Paul makes an allusion to Isa.55:10, and says that God who supplies seed to the sower would supply and multiply their seed for sowing. Sowing seed in the ground seems to be a loss, but faith in the God of nature, though, alas! many do not know Him, assures the sower that He who made the seed will quicken it when it dies. Seed in the barn does not multiply, but seed scattered in the field does. Money in the bank, or left behind at death, will yield no

heavenly reward, no righteousness that will abide for ever. As we sow, the fruits of our righteousness will increase. Thus it was to be with the saints in Achaia, that being enriched unto all liberality (8:2), which wrought through them (Paul and his fellows) thanksgiving to God, God was told in their thanksgiving and it was recorded in the bank of heaven what the Corinthians had done.

2 Cor.9:12,13
The ministration of this service filled the measure of the wants of the saints, and also abounded in many thanksgivings to God. Thus the saints were blessed, both givers and receivers, and God was glorified in the many thanksgivings which rose from the hearts of the needy and those that ministered to them. Those whose need was met by the giving of the givers would see the proof of their confession unto the gospel of Christ and for this they would glorify God, and for the liberality of their contribution.

2 Cor.9:14,15
The apostle here anticipates the effect of the gift when it reached the needy saints in Jerusalem, that supplication would be made by them on behalf of their brethren far off in Gentile lands who had given with such liberality to meet their need, and how they would long after them on account of the surpassing grace of God which was in them. Paul closes this chapter in a high note of thanksgiving; as he thinks of the matter of giving he cannot forget God the great Giver and the greatness of his Gift – His beloved Son. He is the unspeakable Gift of God, and with Him He has given us all things (Rom.8:32).

2 Cor.10:1,2
Paul emphasizes that he himself intreated or exhorted (Gk. parakaleo, literally, to call to one’s side) them by the meekness and gentleness of Christ (a powerful lever to move all but hard hearts), he who was according to appearance (Gk. prosopon, face) mean among them (his bodily presence was weak – verse 10), but because he was absent he was bold toward them. He besought (Gk. deomai, to pray, request) them that when he was present with them he might not need to be bold with the confidence which he reckoned to be needed against some who reckoned that Paul and his fellows were walking according to the flesh.

2 Cor.10:3,4
Though they walked in the flesh, that is, as men in mortal bodies, they did not war a fleshly or carnal warfare; consequently their weapons were not carnal. These weapons were mighty before God to the casting down or pulling down of strong holds. This is evident in Paul’s triumphal march from city to city. Many were the captives which were freed by the pulling down of Satan’s strong holds. Paul was well known in the kingdom of Satan, as we learn from the words of the evil spirit which indwelt one of Sceva’a sons, who were exorcists, in Ephesus. The evil spirit said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” (Acts 19:15).

2 Cor.10:5,6
Paul was ready to pull down all reasonings and every elevation of pride that lifted itself up against the knowledge of God. All erroneous teaching and false imagination finds its base in the pride of man who thinks to draw a better plan than that which is found in the Scriptures, wherein is the knowledge of God. His work among the saints was to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ, the perfect obedience of Christ to the words of Scripture being the pattern which he followed in his instruction of the Lord’s disciples. As was the Master so should be His servants. The human mind, unless it is guided by the word of God, will be ever

sailing in thought where it should not be; it should be kept within the confines of God’s word, the one and only guide for God’s saints in this world. The apostle was ready to avenge or inflict punishment on every disobedience when the obedience of the church in Corinth was fulfilled. How necessary it was for the church to be obedient, if they were to carry out discipline according to the apostle’s instructions, as in 1 Cor.5! But how impossible would be the situation in dealing with disobedience, if the church were disobedient and also refused to listen to the apostle!

2 Cor.10:7
Did the Corinthians look at things that were before their face? The apostle would show that what claims they made, these were true also of the apostle and his fellows. If any man was persuaded in himself that he was Christ’s, then, reasons the apostle, let him consider as he was Christ’s so also were they.

2 Cor.10:8,9,10
Though the apostle should boast somewhat more abundantly about his apostolic authority, which, as he says, was for building up or edifying, and not for pulling them down, he would not be put to shame, for his authority had been given to him by the Lord. Even his corrections were for their edification (and for ours also). It might seem as though he were terrifying them with his letters, for it had been said that his letters were weighty and strong. (Some seem to think that strong letters should never be written, only letters in which a great deal is said about love, but he who reads Paul’s letters can see how strong some of them are in the correction of wrongs.) In contrast to his strong letters they thought that his bodily appearance was weak and his speech was naught or of no account. Paul may not have been an Absalom in appearance, nor a Demosthenes in oratory, but we cannot accept the criticism of certain, when we remember his abundant labours and how his words moved multitudes of people to repentance and devotion to the Lord’s cause. It is the judgement of thinking men, that no man in this dispensation of grace has altered the course of human history like he has done, and few have altered the course of human lives as he did and has done by his preaching and by the writings which he has left. When we remember that it was the words of Habakkuk, quoted in Rom.1:17, and that fell upon the ears of Tertius from Paul’s lips, that reached and converted Luther, and, that it was the reading of Luther’s commentary on the epistle to the Romans that wrought in John Wesley to his conversion, two major events in the world, we cannot consent to the assessment of certain of the speech of this very great man. Of course, he himself disclaimed, in 1 Cor.15:10, that it was himself that wrought anything. He gave the credit of all to the grace of God which was with him, which favoured him with the mighty energizing power of the Holy Spirit. At the same time we cannot overlook the fact of the great natural gifts with which he was endowed from birth and which were sanctified by the Spirit to the service of God. He laid his unrelenting zeal and his mental and physical powers on the altar of sacrifice. We bow our hearts in thankfulness before the God who gave to His great servant such gifts, which he so successfully used for the good of men in his time and for all time.

2 Cor.10:11,12
Here the apostle rebukes such as he refers to in the previous verses about his bodily presence. There can be no doubt that Paul, like the Lord and like Moses, was a very meek man, and some then, no doubt, took meekness for weakness, as some do still. This is, of course, a great mistake. What Paul was in his letters, such would he be in deed when he was with them. But he was not going to enter into competition to class or rank himself among or compare himself with certain who were commending themselves to and ingratiating

themselves among the Corinthians. Such measuring of themselves by themselves, as though any of them were the standard measurement, and comparing themselves with themselves, in so doing they were without understanding. How can any one draw a comparison between things that differ, as all the servants of Christ are different? Variety is the law of the universe. When God moulds a man he casts away the mould and never makes another the same. Similarly with His servants, each is different from the other. But men will ever be measuring up one man with another.

2 Cor.10:13,14
The province was the rule (Gk. kanon, rule, measuring-rod, standard, from which the English word “canon” is derived) by which God measured or apportioned to Paul and others their service. Paul’s province was to reach unto the Corinthians and others. It is a man’s work that is his measure, and will be in the coming day of Christ, not himself. To measure ourselves with ourselves is the old evil which cropped up among the twelve apostles time and again. “There arose also a contention among them, which of them is accounted to be greatest” (Lk.22:24). The measuring ourselves by ourselves can only lead to pride and jealousy. Verse 14 is somewhat difficult and there have been various translations of the verse. Perhaps Dr. Young comes as near to the meaning of it as any when he says, “For we do not overstretch ourselves, as not reaching over to you, for unto you even we came up in the good tidings of the Christ.

2 Cor.10:15,16
Paul did not glory in other men’s labours, which were beyond his measure, but having hope, through their increasing faith, to be enlarged or magnified among them according to his province (rule, measuring-rod) unto abundance, which abundance was to evangelize to other parts beyond Achaia. He did not glory in another’s province (rule) as to things ready to his hand.

2 Cor.10:17,18
Here we have the same words as are given in 1 Cor.1:31; there they are quoted as to God’s salvation in which no man can glory as to himself. The glory of that work is the Lord’s. Here it is in the matter of service in the gospel. In this the work is the Lord’s although He uses human instruments in His work. No glory is due to the instrument. Moreover it is not the commender of himself that is approved; such as are approved after testing are those whom the Lord commends. One is reminded of the high commendation of the LORD, in regard to Moses, to Aaron and Miriam in a distressing situation. It showed how the LORD viewed Moses. See Num.12.

2 Cor.11:1,2
In 2 Cor.12:11 Paul says, “I am become foolish: ye compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you.” In the above verses he asked them to bear with him in a little foolishness as he defended himself against some whom he calls, “false apostles, deceitful workers,” for a person is foolish who speaks about himself. His object in writing thus was to save the Corinthians from being beguiled and corrupted. He was jealous over them with a jealousy of God. Jealousy need not be sin. If jealousy in itself were sin, then what of God, who says of Himself, “I the LORD thy God am a jealous God”? (Ex.20:5). Indeed He says, “For the LORD, whose name is JEALOUS, is a jealous God” (Ex.34,14). Wherever there is love there is jealousy. In Songs 8:6,7 we read, “For love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the flashes thereof are flashes of fire, a very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” Paul was jealous over his spiritual children and he

had espoused the church of God to one Husband, that he might present that church as a pure virgin to Christ. This statement regarding this work of Paul’s must not be confused with what is said in Eph.5:25-27, though certain have unfortunately done so. “Christ also loved the Church (which is His Body – verse 23, see also Eph.1:22,23), and gave Himself up for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” The presenting of the church of God in Corinth to Christ was done by Paul, whereas the presenting of the Church which is His Body is by Christ to Himself. The espousing of the church of God in Corinth is in the Greek the aorist tense, and describes a past single act. This is also the case with the word “present”. This is equivalent to his words as to the church of God in Corinth coming into being, when he said, “I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (1 Cor.3:6). Paul’s planting of the church in Corinth is, as we have said, equivalent to his espousing and presenting them collectively as a pure virgin to Christ. The presenting of the Church which is His Body by Christ to Himself, is yet future, for the Church is not yet complete, but will be complete at His coming again. These churches are quite distinct in the New Testament; the Church which is His Body is dispensational, universal and continues for ever, whereas a church of God is local to a place, belongs to time, and sometimes continues for a very brief time, as some of the New Testament churches did, alas.

2 Cor.11:3
As the old serpent, the devil, used the serpent of the field in the deception of Eve, the same old serpent was using the false apostles who were fashioning themselves as apostles of Christ, and were seeking to corrupt the minds of the saints in the church in Corinth from the simplicity and purity which is toward Christ. Had Eve maintained her simplicity toward her husband and adhered to the instructions of her husband, for he it was who received his instructions from the LORD God, then, humanly speaking, the Fall would not have taken place, certainly not as it did. But the serpent in his craftiness worked his way in between Eve and her husband, and hearkening to the serpent rather than to her husband, her deception was the result, and the Fall took place. There seemed the likelihood of a similar disaster taking place in Corinth, for the Old Serpent was at work to ruin the lives of the saints, and in so doing to bring to an end God’s husbandry or garden in Corinth (1 Cor.3:6- 9). What happened in Eden seemed likely to happen in Corinth, unless the Corinthian saints maintained their simplicity and purity toward Christ. We can see clearly from these verses that the words about a pure virgin do not refer to the Church which is Christ’s Body, for it will be presented by Christ to Himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Though all who were in the church of God in Corinth were in the Church which is Christ’s Body, that does not mean that the two churches refer to the same thing. These saints were in the Church which is Christ’s Body from the moment that they believed in Christ, but they were not in the church of God in Corinth until they had been baptized in water and were added together in that church in fellowship with the churches of God elsewhere, forming one Fellowship of God’s Son Jesus Christ our Lord (Acts 2:41,42; 1 Cor.1:9). The church of God in Corinth has long since ceased to exist, and there is no church of God there now, but the saints who were therein are in the Church which is His Body and are now in heaven. The church of God in Corinth was temple of God and could be corrupted and so destroyed: see 1 Cor.3:16,17.

2 Cor.11:4,5,6
Here again is the running sore, which appears in many epistles, of apostolic days: the false teachers, especially those of the circumcision who preached a Judaizing gospel, a

combination of law and grace, of faith and works. The decision of the council of apostles and elders in Jerusalem (Acts 15) did not silence them, nor yet did the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. Their business was to discredit Paul as an apostle of the Lord, and to discredit his teaching before the saints. Another Jesus! The Jesus whom Paul preached was One whose finished work on the cross was all-sufficient to save every believing sinner, but the Jesus that the Judaizers preached was a weak and ineffective saviour who needed to be helped to save a sinner by the sinner’s own works. What a poor saviour! Yet, alas, this is the kind of saviour that many preach, but he is not the saviour of the Scriptures. Did they receive a different spirit, one that was given on the ground of their works, or was this spirit given through labouring in prayer, as, alas, others teach? The Spirit of the message which Paul preached was given on the ground of faith in Christ and faith alone (Jn 7:39; Eph.1:13,14; Gal.3:1-3). Did they receive a different gospel, a gospel of faith and works? This kind of gospel, as we know from Gal.1:6-9, is a gospel which will bring a curse upon the preacher, whether he should be angel or man. If these things were so in Corinth, then, says Paul ironically, “Ye do well to bear with him.” Paul reckoned that he was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles, yet he said, in 12:11, “though I am nothing.” Who can doubt this who reads the historical part of his life in the Acts, and also reads the epistles which he wrote, that it was a true estimate of himself? He was quite content and humble enough to accept the view of certain, that he was rude of speech. This, of course, is doubtful. He was forthright, no sophist who spoke in platitudes. In knowledge, his understanding was deep and profound, beyond any writer in the New Testament. Even such a leader as Peter found in the writings of Paul things which were hard to be understood (2 Pet.3:15,16). In what we say we do not include the Lord’s teachings as recorded in the Gospels. These are the most profound, we think, of the teaching found in the New Testament. In everything Paul made this knowledge manifest to the Corinthians. “In all things,” of the AV/KJV, seems a more natural reading than “among all men,” of the RV There is no original word for men, and the dative “all”, Gk. pasin, is similar in the plural masculine and neuter.

2 Cor.11:7,8,9
The apostle asks the Corinthians if he had sinned in abasing himself that they might be exalted, because he gratuitously preached the gospel to them, for in so doing he had robbed (Gk. sulao, to seize property, to rob or plunder) other churches, received wages (a word used for the pay of soldiers) from them. Even when he was in want in Corinth he did not burden any one, for we know that he abode with, and wrought at tent-making with, Aquila (Acts 18:1-3), and, besides, as we read here, the brethren from Macedonia (perhaps from the church in Philippi; see Phil.4:15) supplied the measure of his want. It might be that these brethren came with Silas and Timothy when they came from Macedonia to Corinth (Acts 18:5). As he had kept himself from being a burden, so he intended to continue not being burdensome to them.

2 Cor.11:10,11,12
The truth of Christ was in Paul, that is, the truth which Christ taught, and of which the Lord was the perfect Example. The apostle says that no one would stop his boasting in the regions of Achaia, for they were his work in the Lord (1 Cor.9:1). Why? He puts the matter of his love for those who were the fruit of his work in the form of a question: “Because I love you not?” and he refers to God knowing that he did love them who were his spiritual children. He assures them that his actions now would be his actions in the future. He would have no one say that he had taken money from the Corinthians, and that his ministry among them was dictated by a covetous motive. Men said of the Lord, that He was a gluttonous man and a winebibber (Matt.11:19). It may be that the false teachers gloried in the fact that they

taught without recompense. Paul and his fellow-workers would cut off any occasion for this glorying, for they would be even as the false teachers and take nothing from the Corinthians. 2 Cor.11:13,14,15 Paul describes those who troubled the Cor.as false apostles and deceitful workers. There seemed to be a breed of such persons in the Fellowship in the days of the apostles, and they continued until the time of the writing of the book of the Revelation, for the Lord said that the saints in the church in Ephesus had tried certain who called themselves apostles and found them false (Rev.2:2). It may be that when the apostles passed from the scene such false apostles also passed into oblivion and their name perished. Men do not make counterfeit four pound notes for there are no genuine notes of that denomination, neither do the counterfeiters make counterfeits of currency notes which are no longer valid tender. There have been, from time to time, attempts to revive the teaching that apostles should continue in different apostolic churches, but such apostles as men recognized in that office were not even the shadow of the apostles of the Lord. The apostles of the Lord were men of unique gift and when they passed away they were not repeated. These deceitful workers sought to fashion themselves into apostles of Christ. The RV is correct in giving “fashioning”; the AV/KJV gives “transforming”, which is wrong. The same word is used of Satan, and here again the RV gives “fashioning,” and the AV/KJV “transforming.” The Greek words are forms of the verb metaschematizo, from Meta, with, and schematizo, to fashion. There is a wide distinction between morphe, form, and schema, fashion, as Trench, Lightfoot and other scholars have shown in their writings. Satan can only fashion himself as to what is outward; he is void of that inward light which is characteristic of an angel of light. Within Satan is nothing but darkness. Paul adds that it is therefore no great thing if his ministers should fashion (not transform) themselves as ministers of righteousness. They appeared to be outwardly what they were not, consequently their end shall be according to their works. A destroyer will come to destruction. “His mischief shall return upon his own head” (Ps.7: 16).

2 Cor.11:16,17,18
The apostle asks that no one should think him a fool if he boasted, but if they did think of him as a fool, he asked them to receive him that he might boast a little. What he would speak he would speak not according to the Lord, but as in folly, in the confidence of boasting. Since there were many that boasted according to the flesh, he also would boast.

2 Cor.11:19,20,21
The apostle is ironical in what he says here, that they bore with fools gladly, being intelligent or prudent themselves. He said that they bore with anyone who offered them all manner of indignities, if he brought them into bondage, devoured them, exalted himself, smote them on the face. He spoke by way of disparagement (dishonour), as though he was weak. But wherein anyone was bold or daring, he would be daring also. In so saying, he said that it was foolishness, yet they had compelled him so to speak in self-defence, his object being to save them from the evil work of the false apostles.

2 Cor.11:22,23
Are they Hebrews, descendants of Abraham the Hebrew (Gen.14:13), the man who crossed the river (Euphrates) and entered the land of promise, called out and separated from all men, even from his father’s house? Are they Israelites, sons of the man (Jacob) who wrestled with God and with men, and was made a prince of God, and of the nation that sprang from him? Are they the seed of Abraham, the man to whom the promises were made? In each case Paul could say, “So am I,” “Are they ministers of Christ?” (he spoke as one mentally

deranged, for they had forced him to speak thus) I more: in labour and prisons more abundantly, in stripes to excess, in deaths oft.

2 Cor.11:24,25,26
The Jews in their sufferings have reaped what they sowed in their attitude to the Lord, and the sufferings they caused Him, and Paul and many others. Alas, that it should have been so! “By their fall (trespass) salvation is come unto the Gentiles” (Rom.11:11). Paul suffered sorely at their hands, as is indicated here, and in 1 Thess.2:14,16, and elsewhere, but his attitude of love for them did not change, as is seen in Rom.9:1-5; 10:1: His poor body bore the marks which they inflicted upon him, which he called “the marks of Jesus” (Gal.6:17), as also does the body of the Lord bear their marks. Besides receiving five times forty stripes save one (see Deut.25:3, they were scrupulously careful religiously not to exceed the legal amount, so they dropped one), he was thrice beaten with rods, at Philippi (Acts 16:22) and elsewhere. He was shipwrecked three times, which does not include the shipwreck off Malta on his way to Rome, for that took place some time after he wrote this epistle (Acts 27:41). He had, perhaps in one of his shipwrecks, been a night and day in the sea. In his many and frequent journeyings he enumerates a number of perils to which he was exposed, of rivers, robbers, of his own race (the Jews), of the Gentiles, in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, and, perhaps worst of all, which threatened to wreck his work, in perils among false brethren, of whom he wrote in Gal.2:4, who were wolves in sheep’s clothing (Acts 20:29).

2 Cor.11:27,28
Onward this faithful minister of Christ went, in labour and toil, in hunger and thirst, and in fastings often (Phil.4:12), in cold and nakedness (2 Tim.4:13). Besides these outward things, there was that which pressed or crowded (Gk. episustasis, a concourse, rushing together, a tumult) upon him daily, anxiety for all the churches. Nothing but divine grace, a love which never grew cold, a faithful indomitable spirit, and above all the power of the Holy Spirit, enabled him to pursue the course he followed and to overcome all difficulties and to win the crown which will yet be his.

2 Cor.11:29,30,31 Who is weak? Paul said, in 1 Cor.9:22, “To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak”; he became even as the weak one was, to give assistance to him and to win him. To such as were made to stumble by some offence or stumbling block in his way, and by which he was upset, the apostle was made to burn with holy zeal to remove the offence and to save him. He said that if it was needful for him to boast, he would boast in the things that concerned his weakness (2 Cor.12:9). As to the things which he recounted in the former verses, he said that the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed for evermore, knew that he lied not.

2 Cor.11:32,33
In a list of his trials and sufferings last of all Paul refers to his escape from Damascus after his return to that city from Arabia (Acts 9:23-25; Gal.1:17). As a result of a plot of the Jews they went about to kill him. His was a somewhat humbling exit from Damascus. In the darkness of the night, his (note the force of “his” which shows that his work in Damascus had been fruitful) disciples let him down through a window over the wall in a basket (Gk. sargane, a network of cords like a basket or basket of rope). There has been some difficulty about this Arabian king Aretas, king of Petra, being king of Damascus, but the truth of Paul’s statement cannot be impugned by the turbulencies of secular history.

2 Cor.12:1,2,3
The apostle refers to the inexpediency of boasting although their attitude to him caused him to do it. He comes now to visions and revelations of the Lord. He says that he knew a man in Christ, who, fourteen years before the writing of this epistle, was caught up to the third heaven. Gen.1:1,6-8,14-19 indicates two heavens, (1) the heaven which was created with the earth in the beginning, and (2) the firmament which God called heaven, which was made on the second day of Gen.1, in which the sun and the moon were set to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and the night. Beyond these heavens is “the heaven of heavens” (2 Chron.6:18), which is shown to us in Rev.4: Paul knew not whether he was in the body when he was caught up to the third heaven, or whether he was in a state of rapture, or dead. If fourteen years prior to the time of writing of this epistle takes us back to the time of his being stoned by the Jews and the pagans in Lystra, and this seems to be the case, then Paul could never be certain whether he actually died as the result of the stoning or not. The multitudes that stoned him as they dragged him out of the city supposed that he was dead (Acts 14:19,20).

2 Cor.12:4,5
Who is this man in Christ? Clearly, as we have indicated, it is Paul himself, for he is not writing of visions and revelations made to another apostle. What is Paradise? Clearly it is the third heaven. Paradise is mentioned thrice in the New Testament, and in each case it refers to a different place. (1) In Lk.23:43 it is used by the Lord to indicate that part of Hades (Acts 2:25-28; Eph.4:8,9; Ps.16:8-11) to which He and the repentant robber went in a disembodied state after death. (2) It is used here by Paul to describe the third heaven. Thus whilst Paradise, in Lk.23: 43, is down, the Paradise to which Paul went was up, “he was caught up into Paradise.” (3) Then the Paradise of Rev.2:7 is in the new earth, as is shown in Rev.22:1,2: In this state and place in which Paul was, he heard unspeakable words, words which could not be spoken by him or any man on earth, and even if he could have spoken them, it was not lawful for a man to utter them on earth. He said, therefore, that on behalf of this man who had such an experience of divine revelations, which was himself, he would boast, but he would not boast on behalf of himself, save that he would boast in his weaknesses. Here is a state of mind to be emulated!

2 Cor.12:6,7
Though boasting is a course not to be adopted lightly, and should only be resorted to, as in Paul’s case, when it is done with a good object, even the good of others, he had the salvation of the Corinthians from false teachers in view. If boasting is resorted to for personal aggrandisement, then it is an effusion of pride. In boasting, Paul would not be a fool, but would tell the truth. He would forbear, lest anyone should estimate him above his value as to what he saw in him or heard from him. If we were in doubt who was the man in Christ Paul knew fourteen years before, there need be no doubt now. His thorn in the flesh marks him out as the man. The revelations which were made were to himself and to no other; and lest he should be exalted overmuch, for with every mere man pride is always lurking round the corner in order to enter the door of the heart at an opportune moment, there was given to him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. The Giver of this thorn was God (the thorn means a sharp pointed stake), but the person who stuck the thorn in was Satan, the opposer of God and His saints and of the work of God. Satan does to God’s servants and saints only what he is permitted to do. Were he permitted to do according to his will, our troubles would be greatly multiplied, and, no doubt, we think that they are hard enough betimes. We have only to reflect on what he did of old to Job. When he was allowed by God, we see what sorrow and tribulation he could bring to the best of men. The thorn in

Paul’s flesh was his safeguard against pride. A thorn in the flesh is the cause oftentimes of great pain until it is extracted. Satan’s thorns have barbs on them; when they are in they stick fast. Paul’s thorn may have been the result of the battering with stones he received at Lystra from which he never recovered. Paul knew well what it was, though he has not revealed what it was to us. It is interesting to note that Luke – the beloved physician, was his companion in travel, and it may be that he needed a doctor’s attention after the Lystra stoning.

2 Cor.12:8,9,10
Paul besought the Lord thrice in regard to the thorn in his flesh that it might depart from him, but the answer to his prayer was, not in the removal of the thorn, but in divine grace to overcome this disability. The Lord’s words were, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in weakness.” The Greek word used here for “weakness” (Gk. astheneia) is rendered, in Rom.5:6, A. V. “without strength”; it is given as “weak” in the RV We know that to be weak is a relative word, a weak person may not be bereft of strength altogether. But we know that a sinner is bereft of strength entirely; he can by no means save himself. Even so it is in the work of God; the Lord’s servant has no strength in himself for such a service. This is demonstrated in the case of this great apostle. He was a man absolutely without strength in Himself, and to show him that God could accomplish by his weak means what he did accomplish, Satan was allowed to stick this thorn into him to teach him this utter dependence upon divine strength. Thus it was that he wrote of himself in relation to the other apostles, “I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor.15:10). The Lord’s power is perfected in weakness, that is, in those who have no strength. In consequence of this the apostle said, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me”. His thought is of the power of Christ dwelling (Gk. episkenoo, to dwell in a tent) upon him, as though it was his tent or tabernacle. The Lord’s grace is sufficient, that is, all-sufficient, or for helping sufficiently. This must be so, for His grace is infinite, and man’s need is finite. Naturally we shrink from the list of sufferings that Paul gives, but he had a unique appreciation of divine grace and power; he says, “Wherefore I take pleasure in (not simply that he endured) weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.” He was prepared to endure anything for His sake. This is love of the highest kind returning to its Source. Such was the paradox of his life, that when he was weak, then he was strong. The order seems to be, strong in the flesh, weak in the spirit; and weak in the flesh, strong in the spirit.

2 Cor.12:11,12,13
The apostle says, “I am become foolish,” but the blame for this lay with the Corinthians in their attitude to him. He says, “Ye compelled me.” Instead of dishonouring this man to whom they were indebted for so much, they ought to have commended him, for indeed it was an honour to have been the fruit of his work. He was nothing behind the very chiefest of the apostles, though he said that he was nothing (1 Cor.15:9,10). He says, in Eph. 3:8, that to him who was less than the least of all saints was this grace given. Here is a contrast, nothing behind the very chiefest of the apostles, yet less than the least of all saints, but there is a proper balance of assessment as to what he was through divine grace. The signs of an apostle were wrought among them. In 1 Cor.9:1 he says, “Am I not an apostle? … are not ye my work in the Lord?” His work among them was wrought in patience, signs, wonders and powers. As the result of his great work among them they were not inferior to the rest of the churches of God, except in one thing, he had not been a burden to them, for they had not supported him in his work. See 11:7-9, etc. In this he asked their forgiveness.

2 Cor.12:14,15
This epistle was written from Macedonia as he was visiting the Macedonian churches, but from what particular place is quite unknown. The apostle was on his way to Corinth to pay a third visit to that church, and had made such preparation for his visit so that he would not be a burden to the Corinthians. We know of two visits which Paul paid to Corinth, that described in Acts 18:1-21, when he planted the church of God there. On that visit he dwelt there a year and six months. At the close of his visit he sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila accompanied him as far as Ephesus. When his second visit took place we do not know. His third visit was the one which he anticipated as he wrote, and which took place, as recorded in Acts 20:1-3: He abode in Greece three months and returned again through Macedonia on his way to Jerusalem with the bounty for the poor there. Paul did not seek to be enriched by what the Corinthians had, but by what they themselves were to him. What the saints were to him he describes in his letter to the Thessalonians, “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glorying? Are not even ye, before our Lord Jesus at His coming?” (1 Thess.2:19). He wrote similarly to the Philippians (Phil.4:1). In his parental care for the Corinthians, he says that parents should lay up for their children and not children for their parents, which is perhaps an allusion to Prov.19:14: Most gladly would he spend and be spent for their souls. This is similar to what he wrote to the Philippians, “If I am offered (poured out as a drink-offering, RV marg.) upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all” (Phil. 2:17). Paul put it to the Corinthians, that if he loved them more abundantly, should he be loved the less? Surely not! though, alas, it happens this way betimes.

2 Cor.12:16,17,18
If it was that they loved him the less for his abundant love, then, let it be so, he could not alter it. He states again that he did not burden them. In this matter he was not using his right, that such as proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel (1 Cor. 9:14). He says that being crafty, he caught them with guile, in that he abstained from his right: what he did he did of intention, and thus their parsimoniousness was revealed. They were caught, and alas for them, their actions could not be reversed. This is true of all actions! He asks if he had taken any advantage of them in any of the brethren whom he had sent, or whether Titus whom he had sent with the unnamed brother had taken any advantage of them. He and Titus walked by the same Spirit and in the same steps, which means that Titus had been no more a burden to them than Paul himself had been. How strongly and repeatedly Paul emphasizes to the Corinthians their neglect of the need of the preachers!

2 Cor.12:19,20
The Corinthians were not to think that Paul was excusing or defending himself, as though they were his judges. In the sight of God he spoke in Christ, as one who would give account of his actions and words to God the Jud.ge of all. What he said to the beloved saints in Corinth was for their edifying, for reproof is one of the forms of edification (2 Tim.3:16,17). He was afraid that when he came he should find them otherwise than he would, and instead of their meeting with Paul as a loving father of his spiritual children, he should be found by them such as they would not, even as he wrote in his previous epistle, “Shall I come unto you with a rod?” (1 Cor.4:21). Again he says, in 2 Cor.13:2, “If I come again, I will not spare.” He feared that when he came he should be confronted with a mass of evils, strife, jealousy, wraths, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults, truly a group of furies which would rend any church of God apart.

2 Cor.12:21
Paul seemed to anticipate a like experience to that of Moses and Aaron when Israel sinned, when they fell on their faces before the assembly of the congregation (Num.14:5; see also Num.16:4,22,45; Num.20:6). Paul writes of their uncleanness, fornication and lasciviousness. This does not seem to refer to their habits prior to their conversion as in 1 Cor.6:9-11, but to lapses into old habits in many since. No doubt they had been dealt with and disciplined for their wrongdoing, but a real change of mind (repentance) had not been wrought in them.

2 Cor.13:1,2
Paul intimates that this coming is his third visit to them (see note on 12:14,15). These visits, and the testimony which he had borne and would bear, he views as two or three witnesses by which his word would be established, particularly the word relative to moral behaviour, which, in the light of 2 Cor.12:20,21, had become exceedingly lax. Paul was determined to clean up the things in the church with a firm hand. It is false love to show grace and lenity where sin is being committed, and to smother and smooth over wrongs which should be judged. He had told them beforehand and he now tells them beforehand, that is, before he comes on this the third occasion, that, in regard to them that have sinned, and to all the rest who had connived at their sins, if he came again he would not spare.

2 Cor.13:3,4
It would appear that the Corinthians challenged Paul’s authority to act in discipline as he proposed to do, so they sought proof that Christ was speaking in him. Christ toward them was not weak, but was powerful in (En, in collectively, meaning among) them. Note what he says in 1 Cor.4:19,20, that when he came (presumably on his second visit), he would not know the word of them that were puffed up, but the power; “For,” he says, “the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” Where the kingdom of God exists, there must be power to deal with evil. Hence he says, in the verses under consideration, that Christ is powerful among them. He was crucified through weakness, yet, in resurrection, He liveth through the power of God. As suffering in the flesh at the hands of sinners, Christ was weak and in His weakness was slain by men, but in His resurrection in dealing with sinners and sin He is almighty in power. Similarly Paul in his weakness was a great sufferer, as we see in 2 Cor.11:23-33, but in dealing with evil among God’s people he lived with Christ in the power of God toward them, as he intended to do towards the Corinthians when he arrived.

2 Cor.13:5,6,7
Instead of seeking proof from the apostle that Christ was speaking in him, he exhorts them to try themselves as to whether they are in the Faith. “Prove your own selves,” he says. He asks them if they did not know that Jesus Christ was in them, that is, I judge, in them collectively, unless indeed they were reprobate (Gk. adokimos, rejected, disapproved; it is the same word as is rendered “rejected” in 1 Cor.9:27). Paul is not speaking of salvation here, but of service, of being in and continuing in “the Faith”. The behaviour of certain in Corinth and the negligence of the rest might well mean that they no longer stood in the Faith which had been delivered to them by the apostle (see Jud.3). He hoped that they would know that he and his fellow-servants were not reprobate, or rejected, or disapproved by the Lord. Paul prayed that they would do no evil. This was not that credit might redound to him because of the righteous character of his ministry among them, as Paul says, “that we may appear approved,” but that they might do what was honourable, which would be a credit to themselves, though it might be that he appeared as reprobate to them.

2 Cor.13:8,9,10
The apostle had no power against the truth, but for (Gk. huper, on behalf of) the truth. This is ever a proper and blessed stand to take, to be for truth and not against it. The truth is like a great rock on the seashore against which the waves may ceaselessly break, but cannot move or destroy it. Who can, though they may vainly try to act contrary to it for the present, do anything against the truth? No one! Truth will be victorious in the end. He rejoiced when he was weak and they were strong. He prayed for their perfecting. Such was the prayer of Epaphras on behalf of the Colossian saints, that they might stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God (Col.4:12). This epistle which Paul sent on before him with its corrective teaching was sent in order that he might not need to deal sharply with the Cor.on his arrival. Paul was a builder, not a demolisher. He spoke of the authority that the Lord had given to him for building up (edifying) and not for casting down. Alas, the demolishers of his work followed quickly at his heels (Acts 20:29,30, etc).

2 Cor.13:11,12,13 Finally, or for the rest, farewell (Gk. chaireo, rejoice – Phil.3:1,4:4, a word of salutation); be fully perfected (1 Cor.1:10); be comforted or encouraged in one another; be of the same mind, that is, of the same feeling toward each other; live in peace; and things being thus with them, then the God of love and peace would be with them. They were to salute one another with a holy kiss, which has its answer today in a warm handshake. All the saints in the churches of Macedonia where Paul was saluted them.

2 Cor.13:14 This verse which contains the apostle’s closing salutation clearly indicates the three Persons of the Godhead: three Persons, but one God. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is, like that of God (1 Pet.4:10), manifold, various, suiting every need of saints on earth. The love of God is the fountain whence springs every good gift and every phase of mercy and grace. The communion or fellowship of the Holy Spirit (similar to Phil.2:1) is that which He effects between the redeemed soul and God the Father and God the Son, and also between those of God’s children who walk in the light (1 Jn 1:3,5-7). This experimental fellowship should be distinguished from that of Acts 2:42 and 1 Cor.1:9, which describes a community of persons sharing together, as were the churches of God in apostolic times.