2 Corinthians 13:1

In these verses observe,

I. The apostle threatens to be severe against obstinate sinners when he should come to Corinth, having now sent to them a first and second epistle, with proper admonitions and exhortations, in order to reform what was amiss among them. Concerning this we may notice, 1. The caution with which he proceeded in his censures: he was not hasty in using severity, but gave a first and second admonition. So some understand his words (Co2 13:1): This is the third time I am coming to you, referring to his first and second epistles, by which he admonished them, as if he were present with them, though in person he was absent, Co2 13:2. According to this interpretation, these two epistles are the witnesses he means in the first verse, referring rather to the direction of our Saviour (Mat 17:16) concerning the manner how Christians should deal with offenders before they proceed to extremity than to the law of Moses (Deu 17:6; Deu 19:15) for the behaviour of judges in criminal matters. We should go, or send, to our brother, once and again, to tell him of his fault. Thus the apostle had told these Corinthians before, in his former epistle, and now he tells them, or writes to those who heretofore had sinned, and to all others, giving warning unto all before he came in person the third time, to exercise severity against scandalous offenders. Others think that the apostle had designed and prepared for his journey to Corinth twice already, but was providentially hindered, and now informs them of his intentions a third time to come to them. However this be, it is observable that he kept an account how often he endeavoured, and what pains he took with these Corinthians for their good: and we may be sure that an account is kept in heaven, and we must be reckoned with another day for the helps we have had for our souls, and how we have improved them. 2. The threatening itself: That if (or when) he came again (in person) he would not spare obstinate sinners, and such as were impenitent, in their scandalous enormities. He had told them before, he feared God would humble him among them, because he should find some who had sinned and had not repented; and now he declares he would not spare such, but would inflict church-censures upon them, which are thought to have been accompanied in those early times with visible and extraordinary tokens of divine displeasure. Note, Though it is God's gracious method to bear long with sinners, yet he will not bear always; at length he will come, and will not spare those who remain obstinate and impenitent, notwithstanding all his methods to reclaim and reform them.

II. The apostle assigns a reason why he would be thus severe, namely, for a proof of Christ's speaking in him, which they sought after, Co2 13:3. The evidence of his apostleship was necessary for the credit, confirmation, and success, of the gospel he preached; and therefore such as denied this were justly and severely to be censured. It was the design of the false teachers to make the Corinthians call this matter into question, of which yet they had not weak, but strong and mighty proofs (Co2 13:3), notwithstanding the mean figure he made in the world and the contempt which by some was cast upon him. Even as Christ himself was crucified through weakness, or appeared in his crucifixion as a weak and contemptible person, but liveth by the power of God, or in his resurrection and life manifests his divine power (Co2 13:4), so the apostles, how mean and contemptible soever they appeared to the world, did yet, as instruments, manifest the power of God, and particularly the power of his grace, in converting the world to Christianity. And therefore, as a proof to those who among the Corinthians sought a proof of Christ's speaking in the apostle, he puts them upon proving their Christianity (Co2 13:5): Examine yourselves, etc. Hereby he intimates that, if they could prove their own Christianity, this would be a proof of his apostleship; for if they were in the faith, if Jesus Christ was in them, this was a proof that Christ spoke in him, because it was by his ministry that they did believe. He had been not only an instructor, but a father to them. He had begotten them again by the gospel of Christ. Now it could not be imagined that a divine power should go along with his ministrations if he had not his commission from on high. If therefore they could prove themselves not to be reprobates, not to be rejected of Christ, he trusted they would know that he was not a reprobate (Co2 13:6), not disowned by Christ. What the apostle here says of the duty of the Corinthians to examine themselves, etc., with the particular view already mentioned, is applicable to the great duty of all who call themselves Christians, to examine themselves concerning their spiritual state. We should examine whether we be in the faith, because it is a matter in which we may be easily deceived, and wherein a deceit is highly dangerous: we are therefore concerned to prove our own selves, to put the question to our own souls, whether Christ be in us, or not; and Christ is in us, except we be reprobates: so that either we are true Christians or we are great cheats; and what a reproachful thing is it for a man not to know himself, not to know his own mind!

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Ch. 2Co_13:1. This is the third time I am coming to you] See note on ch. 2Co_12:14. For the Greek present in the sense of an intention see 1Co_16:5.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established] This is a quotation from Deu_19:15, and is an intimation of St Paul’s intention to enter upon a full investigation of the condition of the Corinthian Church, if such a step be rendered necessary by their conduct. He will assume nothing, take nothing for granted of what he has heard, but will carry on his investigation on the principles alike of the Old Testament and of the New (Mat_18:16).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co_13:1-14

This is the third time I am coming to you.

Pauls epistolary farewell to the Corinthians

There is no evidence that Paul wrote a word to them after this. The letters had evidently been a task to a man of his tender nature. No doubt he felt a burden rolled from his heart, and a freer breath, when he dictated the last sentence.

I. Words of warning. He warns them of a chastisement which he was determined to inflict upon all offenders against the gospel of Christ.

1. The discipline would be righteous (2Co_13:1). He will not chastise any without proper evidence. Therefore the true need not fear; the false alone need apprehend.

2. The discipline would be rigorous (2Co_13:2). He had threatened this in his former letter (1Co_4:13-19). There is no more terrible chastisement than excommunication from the fellowship of the good.

3. The discipline would demonstrate the existence of Christ in him (2Co_13:3). He could have given this proof sooner, but he acted in this respect like Christ, and was content to appear weak amongst them, in order that his power might be more conspicuously displayed (2Co_13:3-4).

II. Words of exhortation (2Co_13:5). Self-scrutiny is at once a duty the most urgent and the most neglected. Observe--

1. The momentous point to be tested in self-scrutiny.

2. The momentous conclusion to be reached by self-scrutiny. Know ye not (emphatic), etc. If you are in the faith He is your life. Should you find you are not in the faith, ye are counterfeits, spurious, not genuine; tares, not wheat.

III. Words of prayer (2Co_13:7). Not for his own reputation or himself, but--

1. That they should be kept from the wrong. Do no evil, nothing inconsistent with the character and teaching of Christ.

2. That they should possess the right. Not that we should appear approved, etc.

IV. Words of comfort (2Co_13:8).

1. Truth is uninjurable. Man may quench all the gas lamps in the world, but he cannot dim one star. Men can destroy the forms of nature, level the mountains, dry up the rivers, burn the forests, but can do nothing against the imperishable elements of nature, and these elements will live, build up new mountains, open fresh rivers, and create new forests. You can do nothing against the truth.

2. Goodness is unpunishable (2Co_13:9).

(1) Because it is goodness. The best of men are too weak in authority to punish those who are strong in goodness. The way to paralyse all penal forces is to promote the growth of goodness.

(2) Because it is restorative. (2Co_13:10). Its destiny is edification, not destruction.

V. Words of benediction.

1. Be happy. Farewell, which means rejoice.

2. Be blest of God. The grace of our Lord, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 13:1. This is the third time I am coming to you — Or, as some understand it, am preparing to come: see on 2Co 12:14. For in the Acts of the Apostles no mention is made of his being at Corinth more than once before this second epistle was written. It must be observed, however, that that history by no means contains all the apostle’s transactions: and it is not improbable that, as Macknight supposes, during the eighteen months which passed from St. Paul’s first coming to Corinth, to the insurrection in the proconsulship of Gallio, the apostle left Corinth for a while, and travelled through Laconia, Arcadia, and the other countries of the province of Achaia, where he converted many, (2Co 1:1,) having preached the gospel to them gratis, as at Corinth, (2Co 11:10,) and founded several churches, referred to 2Co 9:2, and called Achaia, that is, churches of Achaia. If therefore the apostle made the excursion here supposed, and spent some months in it, his return to Corinth would be his second visit; consequently, the coming spoken of in this verse was his coming the third time to them. In the mouth of two or three witnesses — Agreeing in the attestation of any thing; shall every word be established — I will hold that to be true which shall be so proved.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

2Co_13:1-13.—[Good paraphrase, exhibiting connection of thought, from Stanley: “Once, twice, thrice, as in the Mosaic Law of the three witnesses; by my first visit—by this Epistle, as though I had accomplished my second visit—by the third visit, which I now hope to accomplish [this personifying the three (?) visits as three witnesses, somewhat forced and fantastic]—I warn you that I shall not spare my power when I come. You are always seeking for a proof of my Apostleship; you shall have it. For Christ who speaks in me, though in the weakness of humanity He died the shameful death of the cross, in the strength of God He lives and acts still; and in Him, weak and poor as I seem to be, I shall still live and act towards you. But why do I speak of myself? You yourselves, my converts, are the best witnesses of my Apostolical power; and long may you be so! If, indeed, you should have lost this best proof of my Apostleship in the reformation of your own lives, then indeed you shall have the proof of my severity. But my earnest prayer is that there may be no occasion for it. May my power and the proof of it perish if you prove that you do not need it. Against a true and blameless life the highest Apostolical power is powerless; and if you have this power of truth and goodness, I am well content to part with mine. It is to draw you to a sense of this that I write this whole Epistle, in the hopes that my Apostolical authority may be turned to its fitting purpose of building up, not of pulling down.”

2Co_13:1.—Strong presumption in this verse of two actual previous visits; second unrecorded in Acts; opportunity for it during the long stay at Ephesus (Act_20:31). Quotation from Deu_19:15. “Prepare for a calm, thorough, judicial inquiry when I come, into the facts of all these ugly reports about you which reach me.”

2Co_13:2. Before, foretell, heretofore; only by prefixes to the verbs. Note, as to first case, R.V. margin; a very possible rendering. Better: “Before my second visit I said; and now, before my third, I say.” Choice between: “As if I were,” etc., and “When I was,” depends on view taken as to two, or three, visits. (Best discussion of this is Conybeare and Howson, chap. xv. Also see Introduction.) Heretofore, repeated from 2Co_12:21; i.e. “up to now, and to the rest, if they be inclined to follow the bad lead of these first sinners.” Cf. “I spare you” (1Co_7:28). Omit, “I write.”

2Co_13:3. In me.—Emphatic in position; q.d. “My opponents say He speaks in them, and that He does not speak in me. You ask my proof that He does.” Observe the style of an ancient prophet. Paul is the mouthpiece of Christ, and, further, Christ is the Inspiring God (cf. 2Sa_23:2). (Observe “who,” not “which”) Similarly Ananias and Sapphira “sought a proof” of the Holy Ghost speaking in Peter. Notice “toward you” and “in you.”

2Co_13:4.—An unfaithful convert thought: “Not much to fear from this Christ; Himself He could not save (cf. Luk_23:35); us He cannot punish.” [Cf. διά, Gal_4:13; ἐξ here.] Weakness.—“As you call it, and His enemies esteemed it. As we know it, He was so crucified, under conditions of humanity and its physical limitations which He had chosen to assume and submit to; He died as part of the ‘emptying’ of Himself. He chose not to draw upon His Divine reserve of power.” We also.—2Co_4:10; 2Co_12:10. Paul’s familiar thought; shares with our Lord in His redemption history. We have our weakness, our crucifixion, our resurrection, our strength as of a heavenly, enthroned life.

2Co_13:5. Connect, “proof” (2Co_13:3); “examine” (here); “reprobate” (2Co_13:5-6); “approved”; all cognate in root; evidence during trial; act of trial; rejected after trial; approved and accredited, as result of standing the trial well. “Whether they had suggested this word, or the Apostle only attributed it to them, … it certainly had seized his mind, and he dwells upon the idea, after his manner, with all kinds of variations. This one word ‘proof’ is the key to the whole passage, and solves every difficulty.” (Pope, Prayers of St. Paul, 168.)] [Good illustration of “approved” in Rom_16:10 : “Apelles approved in Christ,” i.e. a man in Christ (= a Christian) who has been tried by trials, by labours, by persecutions, by time (hardest test of all, to some!), and who has come forth, not “reprobate silver” (Jer_6:30) or gold, but (to coin a parallel word) approbate, a vessel on which the Great Assay-master can set His hall-mark “Approved.”] Your (own) selves.—Not me (2Co_13:3). “If you want such a proof, the test will be that you should turn out able to stand examination.”

2Co_13:6. I trust.—“Hope.” Partly: “I should like to think that your self-examination will so end as to be the best proof that I am an apostle.” Partly, and more sternly: “I shall in any case, if you compel me, hope to show you that I have an apostle’s power and authority.”

2Co_13:7.—“The bearing of your self-examination upon me personally is, however, a small matter. Let me be ‘approved’ or ‘reprobate,’ I care not; what I do care about is, that you may really be such as need fear no scrutiny.” Self would say: “I hope they may be shown up badly; and may so vindicate me, and give me a chance of punishing.”

2Co_13:8. As Stanley above.

2Co_13:9. Perfecting.—Not the τέλειος word, but καταρτίζω word. Trace it from (literal) “Mending the nets” (Mar_1:19). “A body … prepared Me” (Heb_10:5; Heb_11:3); through, e.g., Gal_6:1 (“replace the dislocated member of Christ”) to 1Th_3:10; [a fearful use, in Rom_9:22] 1Co_1:10 = Restoration to corporate perfectness. “Perfect restoration to ecclesiastical order, and … perfect recovery of moral purity; the corporate or Church idea predominating in the word, as its etymology … indicates” (Pope, Prayers St. Paul, 169).

2Co_13:10.—Note R.V.; very clear. Repeated from 2Co_10:8.

HOMILETIC ANALYSIS.—2Co_13:1-10

Three antitheses:—

A. Present and absent (2Co_13:1-2; 2Co_13:10)

B. Strong and weak (2Co_13:3-4; 2Co_13:8-9).

C. Reprobate and approved (2Co_13:5-7).

A. I. How hard to get at truth! We may be intentionally deceived, or undesignedly misled. It is not enough to go upon what the “household of Chloe” reported. Very natural, in the (honourable) revolt against such sin as they described, to rush into an emphatic judgment, which may prove, when more facts are known, too strong or unwarranted altogether. Yet it is very hard to recant, especially if we have published our judgment to the world. No hasty, impulsive judgments; especially in apostles or persons responsible for the discipline and purity of a Church. Nor on mere hearsay evidence. Judge gives the presumption on the prisoner’s side, until he hears all. Weigh, wait, watch for new facts; inquire patiently. “Against an elder,” etc. (1Ti_5:19). Eliminate thus the personal, in regard to the testimony, and to the verdict. The “two or three witnesses” were rather jury, assessors to the judge, than witnesses in modern judicial sense. Good rule also for private conduct, as well as for official and disciplinary. “First, tell him his fault, between thee and him alone” (Mat_18:15). Get face to face with the man, and, as far as possible thus, with the facts. “Then take with thee one or two more,” etc. (ib.).

II. When truth is ascertained, then action must be decisive. Sin is in itself a grievous evil, and damaging to the Church; a cancer eating its inner life, a leprosy making it offensive to the outer world. Faithfulness to God—the Holy—and faithfulness to men, require prompt, decisive action; faithfulness to the faithful membership, to the unfaithful member (who may thus be made to see his sin, and be led to repentance; it is no kindness to the sinner to deal with his offence with unholy tenderness), and to the outside world (to which it is important that “the Salt” should have its full and unmixed “savour” of grace and holiness) requires it. Remedial measures, if it may be; excision (Gal_5:12) if nothing less severe will suffice. As of the magistrate, so of the Church discipline: “Wouldst thou have no fear of the power?” etc. (Rom_13:3). And all this in the presence of the offender, if possible. (The Apostle is a “Visitor” in the old Church and college sense; to inquire into abuses, or offences, and to remedy or punish.)

III. Note how all this reflects God’s method. “Swift to hear” [knowing everything that can be said for the wrong-doer; giving full, loving, gracious weight to it; perhaps, now and then, judging more leniently than even the awakened conscience itself does]. “Slow to wrath” [Paul’s “longsuffering”—his reluctance to hasten to Corinth until all wrong was put away—“leading them to repentance” (Rom_2:4)]; “waiting” if so be He, “may be gracious” (Isa_39:8). Paul did, God does, we should, “lay the axe at the root of the trees”; for use, if it must be; but also rather that the tree may take heed and make the axe needless. But in the “day of visitation” (as above) He too will “use sharpness.” “If He come again (in that day) He will not spare.” [I. Christ absent; II. Christ present.] The “wrath” of the tenderest natures; the indignation against wrong which is born of the deepest loyalty to, and love of, right (as in Paul); are the most “sharp” and terrible. [“Wrath of the Lamb” (Rev_6:16).] In all that Paul says, in the lines on which he acts and proposes to act, we see “Christ speaking in him.”

B. Paul is “in Christ.—

1. He lives Christ’s life over again: “Crucified with Christ.” And his crucified life is modelled on the lines of his Lord’s; it was “weakness” to suffer Himself to be crucified; it seems to the wrong-doers at Corinth “weakness” in Paul, whom they may ignore or defy, that he does not come as in the First Epistle he had said he would, but holds his hand from executing the punishment he threatened. [So men think and speak of God and His Christ in this the day of forbearance. “Weakness!” “Sentence … not executed speedily” (Ecc_8:11). “Thoughtest … such a one as thyself” (Psa_50:21). He suffers them “to crucify Him afresh and put Him to an open shame”; yet generally “makes no sign.” Intellectual revolt against His Divine Authority, heart revolt against His holy Law; political refusal of recognition of Christian principle in legislation; He sits, above them all, “keeping silence.” World grows defiant; Church grows impatient and fearful. But no! Don’t misinterpret the weakness!]

2. Notwithstanding the seeming weakness, behind and beneath there is reserve strength in Paul. Comparable to His Who even now “lives” again—the day of His humiliation and “weakness” over—through the power of God [“through,” for this raised Him (e.g. Act_2:33; Act_5:31, “by” and “at”), and dwells in Him, inherent, native, His own] Comparable to, and also really derived from, connected with, it. “We shall live” (in the like strength) “with Him” (if we come to Corinth to punish). The executive hand is “strong” or “weak,” according as the whole body, the whole man, is “strong or “weak.” A twofold reserve in Christ: “wrath treasured up against day of wrath” (Rom_2:5) [as if in a huge reservoir, gathering behind the dam of His forbearing, longsuffering mercy in Christ; to burst some day in sweeping, overwhelming might, carrying all evil away before it]; and a fulness of “the power of God,” for the defence of His Church and His Truth, for the support of His servants in their conflicts, for the vindication of the needful authority of Church discipline, and for “bringing forth the judgment” between Him and “the world” “unto victory.” A very real “moral” support all this to the loyal, righteous party in Church and world. They may count on Him and His strength. The day of His “weakness” is really also a day of His Divine might.

3. This present-day “power” He would rather make remedial; “weak against you; strong in you, if you will”; would rather “edify” than “destroy.” The one supreme concern to Paul, to Christ, to all who are responsible for the government, the purity, of a Church, is “that ye do no evil,” but “do that which is honest”. No Jonah-like “anger,” if all the threatenings end in nothing, turned aside by reformation of Nineveh, or Corinth. “We are content to be ‘weak,’ helpless, on these conditions. Do you do ‘the truth,’ and then we can do nothing. In that way you can make us ‘powerless.’ ” The very heart and purpose of God are seen here! “Not willing that any should perish, but,” etc. (2Pe_3:9). “This we wish: Your perfection.” “Behold the Goodness and the Severity of God” (Rom_11:22).

C. Reprobate or approved.—(See Separate Homily on 2Co_13:5.)

1. Can the ministry stand its trial, and the challenge of friends or foes? Yes, if the people can! Does Christ speak in the ministry? Well, answer by another question,—Is Christ in the people! And are they in the faith? A living Church is the best credential of a real ministry.

2. A faithful minister will, laudably, desire to be evidently “approved”:

(1) Before God, Who knows his heart, and observes his conduct, and tries his work.

(2) In the knowledge and conscience of his brethren and his people,—by the power which accompanies his word, the immediate success which crowns his efforts, and the abiding fruitfulness which follows them.

3. He will not allow himself or his people to have their attention diverted to other so-called tests: “Good financier”; “Capital with young people”; “See the numerical increase”; “During his pastorate the Church has raised so much, has spent so many thousands over building”; “Great influence in the city”; “What an intellectual or wealthy and important congregation gather round him.” All good, in varying degree; every one in excellence which may be laid under contribution to do admirable service for Christ; all efficient equipments, if thoroughly consecrated, for a minister of Christ. Yet they may only be “proofs” of an “able” man. No true minister will be satisfied to gather round him a mere aggregation of hearers at a popular preaching centre, with hardly sufficient community of interest or life to make them a congregation; and still less to gather anything but a real Church, whose members are by his ministry being led to a life of which the secret is that they “are in the Faith,” and that “Christ is in them.” All other may be “proofs” of secular, “natural” success unsatisfying to a “spiritual” man, or to the “spiritual” judgment. Perish everything; even let him be accounted “reprobate” [“a poor preacher; ought never to have entered the ministry!”], if only, “strong” in Christ’s “strength,” he gather and train an “approved” people!

HOMILETIC SUGGESTIONS

2Co_13:5. The Faith.

I. “In the Faith” may come only to mean that men accept the Creed. (Fides quœ creditur.) Do not be satisfied unless you are in the bonds of the community whose unity rests on the Faith which saves into, and in, Christ. (Fides quâ creditur, and more.)

II. Test of this true faith is: “Is Christ in you?” Evidenced, to your own consciousness, and to the observation of others. All articles of the Creed centre finally in Him. Does an indwelling Christ make all the articles living truths, which you know and believe, because you have lived, and are living, your way into knowledge and faith. Are they each verified by your experience?

2Co_13:5. Self-examination.

I. Paul’s immediate point is self-examination.—[So, in Gal_6:4, we have:

1. Scrutiny of self;

2. Joy in self;

3. Responsibility for self.] Corinthians were ready to put him to “proof.” General rule: More ready to sit in judgment upon others than upon ourselves. [Look at 1Co_11:31; Mat_7:1.] This ministers to curiosity, love of gossip, tends to a subtle self-complacency after comparison of others with ourselves. Yet really the harder thing. We do know some, if not all, the facts about ourselves; are, or may be, cognisant of even our most secret motives, know all that would tell against, and all that would tell for, us, if others knew us so far “completely” as we ourselves do. We cannot know all the facts about others. Every man is a problem to himself; how much more to others who only know what he chooses to allow to come to the surface in character and life. Sometimes this scrutiny of others is merely one of many forms of occupation for a mind afraid to begin seriously to examine itself. How often does fuller, subsequent light show how useless our judgments of others were, and how wrong our conclusions; what waste of time over our inquiry, and what waste of words and of “heroic” display of virtuous indignation and condemnation! Utterly beside the mark, and a great sin against the Spirit of Christ. Cannot help knowing many facts about others; cannot help passing judgment upon, and drawing conclusions from, the facts. But we shall remember how incomplete our data, how imperfect our methods, how little we often are really concerned in the matter. Self-examination very profitable; mere curious examination of others very perilous to the soul.

II. What is self-examination?—Two words here found significantly together: “examine,” “prove” (πειράζω, δοκιμάζω). [Good article on them in Trench, Syn., lxxiv.] First is the common word for “tempt,” in the original, neutral sense (both in Greek and English; so in Mal_3:10; Mal_3:15 “prove” and “tempt” are same word), as well as with the evil associations which have gathered (accidentally) around it. Second is the technical word in classical Greek for putting money to the proof; the foundation idea being to prove whether a thing is worthy to be received or not. In New Testament use, latter generally implies a successful endurance of the proving, and, indeed, a desire and hope and purpose on the part of the person testing, that such should be the issue; the former predominantly (evidently not so here) suggests endeavour and hope to discover, awake, strengthen, existing evil. [Familiar illustrations of πειράζω are: boring to examine strata, or find water or minerals or gold; putting in the cheese-taster (“taste” and “test” are akin). Cf. δοκιμάζω, which suggests the fire and crucible of the goldsmith, “the refiner and purifier of silver” (Mal_3:3), to show purity, or to secure it by removal of dross or alloy; the periodical Trial of the Pyx at the Abbey, Westminster; the testing of chains or springs at the factory before sending out for use; not in order to discover or make flaws or weakness, but to vindicate soundness or strength.] Q.d. “Bore down into your life-strata; see what your foundation is, what store of worth and goodness grace has put within you. Try your quality and your gracious ‘flavour,’ ‘savour.’ See whether you be the genuine article, according to the name upon you ‘Christian’; by this time the fine metal, or at least getting purer by the sanctifying effect of the processes of Providence and Life. Try your strength for resistance and for weight-carrying, for the service of man and of Christ.”

III. Need of it.—

1. Same need, as in business, for going over stock, balancing moneys, watching wear and tear. Many (spiritually) trading long after insolvent. Going on, keeping up the business name: “A. B., a man in Christ”; dealt with by others, employed in the Church on that basis, long after original capital—the grace of acceptance into Christ and the Family, of regeneration after Christ—has been sinned away by the man himself, or has been, in his negligence, stolen away by the world, or by secret, heart sins which grieved the Spirit. Constant wear and tear, lass and gain, going on in the religious life. No headway is ever made without perpetual, unrelaxing effort. [All our progress is against stream; against all the current of tendencies within and of influences from without. Cease rowing vigorously; your boat slackens, stops, is borne backward and downward.

“Non aliter quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum

Remigiis subigit; si brachia forte remisit,

Atque illum in praeceps prono rapit alveus amni.”

—Virg., Georg., I., 201–203.

Status quo is not maintained without constantly new grace given, and constant, watchful, prayerful effort. Old impressions fade; old motives lose power; old vows are not felt with old obligation. Ever-wakeful Enemy, ready to “pounce,” or to enter by a long-disused, almost forgotten entrance of susceptibility or liability.

2. Easier, more natural, to lie, like lotus eaters, idly in our boat and drift, not even noticing the drift. “Drifting” the subtlest, commonest danger of the ordinary Christian life. To be holy or earnest, even to maintain one’s status in Christ, means taking trouble. No inherent grace; any implanted grace must be renewed unceasingly; no possibility of accumulating a capital stock of grace [and then “retiring from business,” “living on the dividends” of the accumulated grace and work of earlier Christian life. Many seem trying to do so]. Yet “deceitfulness of sin,” indolence, pride, fear to know the unwelcome, half-suspected truth, incline a man to slur over or to avoid altogether any examination of present position, the only one worth anything before God. Liability to ignorance and error, dangerous in their practical consequences, to be reckoned with. “Know ye not?” Forgotten? Not examined lately?

IV. Methods and tests—

1. Supreme one this: You prove me to see whether Christ speaks through me. Look within: Does Christ dwell in you? (cf. Rom_8:9-10), i.e. by His Spirit? Have you the “witness”? (Rom_8:15-16; Gal_4:6-7). Have you the “fruit”? [N. B. one and indivisible; not “fruits”; a cluster of grapes on a branch of the Vine; not so many independent figs or apples.] “The hope” (Col_1:27, = “Christ in you,” or in-separable from it).

2. The Word is an objective test; our memory and Consciousness supply facts on which Conscience sits as judge (2Co_1:12; you need the objective standard, unaffected by any “personal equation” of mood, or prejudice, or bias—1Co_4:4, “I know nothing against myself, yet,” etc.). Experience will often interpret Scripture to a man; Scripture will always interpret and value experience for him.

3. Should be done with prayer for Divine light upon Self and Scripture. Neither can be understood without the other. [Woollen manufacturer, examining cloth, wants a north window with clear, open, steady light; brings cloth to the window.]

4. Should be done in solitude, if possible; soul alone with God. The true and useful element in “retreats.” “As of God, in the sight of God speak” to ourselves in examining and judging ourselves (2Co_2:17). Humbling ourselves before Him; holding ourselves ready to hear all He has to tell us, and to act upon it, following it in any direction, to any length of consequence.

5. “Any time is no time.” Some need a fixed rule and fixed times. Some best avail themselves of (say) birthdays, times of sorrow, or of blessing; some of the quiet of the House of God.

V. There are dangers attending.—Unwilling heart, or worldly, exaggerates these as “reasons” for discontinuance. Real danger: lest it grow

(1) mechanical, as when done by “a Method,” with scheduled questions for self-examination, or, as to time, become a mere bit of routine, done without heart or earnestness; or

(2) morbid, a very common liability to the most sensitive souls, of tender, but not very enlightened, conscience; e.g. they set up an impossible standard, not found in Scripture, drawn from their (perhaps mistaken) interpretation of what they hear or read as the “experience” of others; forget (as their profoundly reasonable Lord never does) the differences of temperament, of training, and in the sense of value of words; scourge themselves needlessly because they do not exactly correspond with their self-imposed standard. Or they are distressed because they do not see distinct “progress” as between the examination of one evening and that of the next. [This like looking to see growth in child or plant after every few minutes. Rather measure the rising of the tide after some little interval, and by the test of some definite mark upon the shore—some definite habit or point of character; e.g. can they at a year’s end discover a manifest increase of self-control by grace of God?] Yet greater danger, and more ordinary, is not to examine at all. Also, the broad lines which mark and identify a Christian are recognisable at any moment. It is also to himself a matter of direct and immediate knowledge whether or not a man have “the love of God shed abroad in his heart.”

VI. If we will not.—

1. May wake up in eternity finding ourselves bankrupts; with no true foundation on the Rock. May be “reprobate” when God tests finally, “castaway” (same word) when we come before the Judge hoping for a crown.

2. Short of this extreme issue, the Adversary will do his “trying,” with his evil intention. Not to “tempt” ourselves (so literally) invites him to “tempt” us.

3. Also God must put us to proof, finally using “fire” (1Co_3:12, δοκιμάζω) upon work whose quality we would not ourselves test; sending, before that, many sharp providences which are the acids and other reagents of His Divine chemistry, to test or purify what, though sadly alloyed, is really gold. (As Apelles, Critical Notes.) [“Deus tentat, ut doceat; diabolus, ut decipiat” (Augustine). “Da, Domine, ut per tentationem probemur, non reprobemur” (Abelard, on Lord’s Prayer).]

2Co_13:8. Nothing against, Everything for, the Truth.

I.

1. Paul’s immediate meaning.—“Corinthians who can endure the self-applied, or God-applied, tests; who have ‘come forth as gold’ when tried, ‘true’ according to standard, have nothing to fear from me. My Apostolic power is for ‘building up’ (2Co_13:10). My work, my Master’s design, is constructive, not destructive. If I do ‘destroy’ (‘cast down,’ R.V.), it is only to prepare for construction. I am a helper of all good men; it is their fault if I seem against evil ones.” Every minister should so bear himself amongst his people that they feel this; he should plainly be to them a rallying-point and a support of “true” men and women, whoever may “bear hard upon” them. They should feel that he will never, at any rate in intention, frown upon, or discourage, persons, character, work, that are “true.” Will help it, sympathise with it, encourage it, guide it, train it, but never check it. God and Truth are on the same side. The Pastor and Truth should be on the same side, too.

2. Rise higher. “We are of the truth;” therefore even the Law of the True God will not condemn, but justify, us. [Justification is pardon in conformity to the requirements of the Christ-satisfied law.] “Law not made for—does not lie against—a righteous man” (1Ti_1:9). We were by nature false to God’s ideal of manhood, and in life a living negation of His righteous requirement. In Him Who is “the Truth” we are being brought into fuller and fuller accord with the Law of Righteousness—being made “true.” In the Day of Christ the very Law will say, “I can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.”

II. Principle so stated as to be of wide, general application.—

1. True of truth in art, natural science, every embodiment of the true. There are fashions in music or form; there is the music, the painting, the poetry of an age, and of that only. Author, painter, composer, each hits the fancy of his age, because he wears its “dress” and speaks its thought in its dialect. All this passes away with the age, or the country for there are localisms in all these fields of work. Out of every country, and every land, out of every true artist’s work, there emerges for permanent survival at least one thing that survives because it is of no one age or country or individual. It is universal, true. New fashions come and go, but they can “do nothing against” these slowly emerging, accumulating masterpieces, which command the allegiance and growing admiration of all qualified to judge, age after age. Time can do nothing against them. So in our knowledge of the natural world. Hypotheses and theories are exalted or hardened into the dogmas of a century (or of a decade). Hastily formed, too eagerly accepted; the acceptance itself being a fashion, or a “craze.” They are challenged in their turn, discredited (perhaps unduly, and without discrimination), succeeded by others as crudely true or altogether baseless. Or, more often, are modified substantially, as new facts reward close observation. (Hardly any entirely baseless hypothesis ever gets wide, even though temporary, acceptance; generally it is a stammering endeavour to speak out “truth”; a blunderingly tentative groping after truth, stretching blind hands into darkness, grasping mingled truth and error.) After, and out of, challenge, discussion, modification, rejection; out of too eager triumph of opponents, too hasty fears of supporters; whatever is truth emerges; a growing corpus of ascertained truth accumulates. Nothing that was really true perished in the process; the accidental, the experimental which did not stand verification, the temporary, the idiosyncrasy of the observer or the theory-maker, passed, and left Truth. Could do nothing against it; indeed, all worked for it. Christian should remember this, even when Science or some scientists may seem arrogantly, aggressively, perilously antagonistic to Revelation. Christian can do nothing against what is true in Science; Science also can do nothing against what is true in Religion.

2. Note this last. The lesson of the experience of the ages. The Bible emerges from the special attack of each century with undiminished, increased authority and acceptance. Whatever is Truth in its statements about God or man, or the relations between them, emerges age after age, with a new claim to acceptance in the very fact of its newest survival. In any new challenge of even the historicity of the record, the presumption derived from the past is that “as the last time, only more so,” will again be the end of the battle. Each new century sees it win the allegiance of a new set of hearts. Human hearts say, “That book is true; it finds me; it is a key whose correspondence with my heart and the facts of my life, argues that it was made to unlock me.” Repeatedly has attack upon historical details only ended in new verification, perhaps at that very point. Unfair treatment; unwise, untenable defence of it by too hasty friends; open attack of enemies; subtle or traitorous assault; have—as matter of fact—never done anything against the Truth as embodied in Bible; have all worked for the Truth. So the great doctrines of Christianity emerge time after time unharmed from the fiery testing of inquiry and assault. They take temporary fashions of statement, adapted to the need or to the assault of their time or age; now one, now another, aspect of them needs emphasis; always with the peril of undue emphasis, and of discrediting, or decrying the complementary aspects, seen and needed by other Churches or ages or men. Every Church creed or confession gains something, loses something, after every controversy. Truth, as God sees and knows it, loses nothing, always gains. God is taking care of the Truth. All truth of every kind is of Him. [With deep significance, worth expanding, one may borrow, and say:] “God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved.” Often we can do nothing but “stand still and know that He is God,” as we see Him taking the defence of Truth out of the hand of the Church, or of a (sectional) Church, and Himself vindicating it. Enemies and friends may say: “We can do nothing against,” etc. [May borrow again, with no remote connection,] “All things work together for good to” the Truth of God, as a whole, and for every partial embodiment of it. Pre-eminently true of Him Who is The Truth. “Whosoever shall fall upon this Stone” (by way of assault) “shall be broken.” Psalms 2. shows dramatically God and His Anointed sitting above the tumult of revolt, and “laughing.” “Yet—yet—I have set My King, “etc.

This shall be the issue of the last and most daring endeavour against Him (2Th_2:8-9). “Magna est Veritas—artistic, scientific, Biblical, dogmatic, Christ—et prævalebit.” [

(1) This conviction always is a strong presumption, fairly based on the past.

(2) It is also rooted in the reason of the thing. Whatever is part of God’s Truth, in any special aspect, may be overlaid, disfigured, by temporary accretions, or erroneous additions, by the mistake, or the enmity, or the misjudged, misdirected support of an Age, a Church, a Man; but it is there, and will survive, to stand clear when all of temporary has disappeared. [Cf. Egyptian temples surviving, and standing clear of, the less permanent domestic edifices once built around them. Man goes, cities go; they stand.]

3. Whatever meets the perennial need of man’s intellect, conscience, heart—especially those of sinful men—vindicates itself anew perennially, as having Truth in it. E.g. freedom of will; sense of Sin (no mere passing or personal access of emotion); existence of a Creator and Moral Governor; the objective value of Prayer; an objective efficiency in the death of Christ to procure pardon; Vicarious Sacrifice; possibility of falling finally; all these, and others, may have their temporary, local, ecclesiastical, imperfect way of being stated. They may be unwisely defended. But they meet, under all the varying fashions of statement, the need of the universal heart in man. They have their root deep in the instincts and conscience of universal man. They “are of God,” and cannot be overthrown (Act_5:38-39). They are Truth.] [Renan avows: “Quant au vrai Dieu de la conscience humaine, celui-là est inattaquable. Il a sa raison d’être dans une foi invincible et non dans les raisonnements plus ou moins ingénieux.” Similarly he does not consider religion “une duperie subjective de notre nature,” but believes “qu’elle répond à une réalité extérieure.” Therefore Religion also is really un-assailable. (Les Apôtres, Introd.) So Emerson, in his dialect, says: “The World-spirit is a good swimmer, and storms and waves cannot drown him.”]

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. Still Absent - Yet Coming. The Conclusion.

CHAPTER 13

1. Being Absent; Expecting to Come. (2Co 13:1-10.)

2. The Conclusion. (2Co 13:11-14.)

He speaks in conclusion of his coming to them. “This third time I am coming to you.” And when he comes again he will not spare them. He reminds them once more of their doubtings about Christ speaking in him and using him as an apostle. They themselves were proof of this. If it were that Christ had not spoken to them through him (by preaching the Gospel), then Christ also did not dwell in them. But if Christ really was in them then it was an evidence that Christ had spoken by him. Notice that part of the third verse and the fourth verse are parenthetical. Leaving out the parenthetical words gives us the correct argument. “Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me--examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your ownselves. Do ye not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” What he wished was their perfecting. Why had he written this second epistle? “I write these things being absent, but being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.”

“Finally, brethren, rejoice.” (Not farewell, but rejoice.) And the believers joy as well as glorying is in the Lord. “Be perfected; be of good comfort; be of one mind; be at peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.”

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 13:1

The Gospel Witnesses.

Consider some points of agreement between St. Paul and St. James.

I. Take the New Testament as we have received it. Admitting that there were two principles at work in the development of the Christian Church, they are inextricably united as regards the documents of faith. Consider the Epistle to the Hebrews, which would be sufficient evidence, if there were no other, of the identity of St. Paul’s doctrine with St. James’s. Be as disputatious as you like about its author; still it comes at least from the school of St. Paul, if not from that Apostle himself. Now look through it from beginning to end, observe well its exhortations to obedience, its warnings against apostasy, its solemn announcement of the terrors of the Gospel, and further its honourable treatment of the Jewish law, which it sets forth as fulfilled, not disrespectfully superseded, by the Gospel, and then say whether this Epistle alone be not a wonderful monument of the essential unity of the Gospel creed among all its original disseminators.

II. In the case of the original Apostles the intention of delivering and explaining their Divine Master’s teaching cannot be mistaken. Now of course St. Paul, professing to preach Christ’s Gospel, could not but avow such an intention also; but it should be noticed, considering that he was not with our Lord on earth, how he devotes himself to the sole thought of Him; that is, it would be remarkable were not St. Paul Divinely chosen and called, as we believe him to have been. The thought of Christ is the one thought in which he lives; it is the fervent love, the devoted attachment, the zeal and reverence, of one who had heard, and seen, and looked upon, and handled the word of life.

III. The doctrine of the Incarnation, or the Gospel economy, as embracing the two great truths of the Divinity of Christ and the Atonement, was not (as far as we know) clearly revealed during our Lord’s ministry. Yet how close is St. Paul’s agreement with St. John. I consider the exact accordance between these two men (to all appearance as unlike each other by nature as men could be) to be little short of a demonstration of the reality of the Divine doctrines to which they witness. "The testimony of two men is true," and still more clearly so in this case supposing (what unbelievers may maintain, but they alone) that any rivalry of schools existed between these holy Apostles.

IV. St. John and St. Paul both put forward—(1)the doctrine of regeneration; (2) the praise of charity as the fulfilling of the law and the characteristic precept of the Gospel; (3) the duty of almsgiving; (4) self-denial; (5) the Holy Eucharist. Beyond controversy the agreement is in essentials: the nature and office of the Mediator, the gifts which He vouchsafes to us, and the temper of mind and the duties required of a Christian; whereas the difference of doctrine between them, even admitting there is a difference, relates only at the utmost to the Divine counsels, the sense in which the Jewish law is abolished, and the condition of justification, whether faith or good works. A difference of opinion as to the latter subjects cannot detract from that real and substantial agreement of system visible in the course of doctrine which the two witnesses respectively deliver.

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. ii., p. 175.

References: 2Co 13:1-10.—C. Short, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 235. 2Co 13:3-5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1788.

2Co 13:5

I. All Jewish history, the Apostle had told the Corinthians, was an ensample to them, upon whom the ends of the world had come. They were as liable to forget the new and better covenant as their forefathers were to forget the inferior one. They were as likely to think that they were not the children of God as those who were under the Law that they were not His servants. The consequences would be the same in kind, worse in degree: heartlessness, idolatry, division, self-exaltation, alternating with despondency. It was most needful for them to examine themselves, whether they were getting into this state of indifference and forgetfulness, to see whether outward as well as inward tokens did not show that it was creeping upon them, whether they were not conscious of a continual and growing degeneracy, whether the loss of brotherly feelings towards men did not accompany the loss of filial feeling towards God.

II. St. Paul goes on, "Know ye not your own selves, that Christ is in you?" The Apostle has been speaking of self-examination; now he speaks of the self-knowledge which justifies that examination, which makes it a reasonable, a possible, exercise. He speaks out the name of the invisible Lord and Teacher of his own spirit; he says to each man, "He is the Lord and Teacher of my spirit." He says that He has come into the world, and taken the nature of men upon Him, and died the death of men, and risen from the dead as man, and ascended on high as man, and is ever living as man at the right hand of God.

III. Self-examination involves no wretched poring over our own motives. It leads us at once to turn from the accusing spirit, which tells us that we are yielding to some vile motive that will lead to some vile act, and to ask for the inspiration of Him in whom are the springs of all right action. This examination involves no neglect of plain work for the sake of morbid contemplation. It is in work we learn what we are liable to become if we have no helper, if we are left to ourselves. The temptation to be fretful and cowardly, to utter keen and bitter words, to feed upon flattery, to feed upon thoughts of malice or lust, to palter with dishonesty in common acts, to lie for the sake of a worldly end or of a godly end, the temptations of each particular craft and calling, the temptations of domestic life, of national life, of ecclesiastical life—these are the schools in which men have learnt to examine themselves, in which they have learnt the feebleness of mere rule, the necessity of a present living Teacher, in which they have found what this old nature is, which has to be mortified and crucified, what that new and true man whom Christ would renew in us day by day.

F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iii., p. 207.

The Necessity and Right Method of Self-examination.

I. Consider the necessity of self-examination. Every one stands placed against a standard unseen, but real, that by which God judges and marks the spiritual state of every one, the eternal law, the rule of Christian character. Every one stands in some certain, precise, discriminated relation to this grand rule of judgment. That is his true and exact condition. There is a manifestation of the Divine rule, and there is himself to bring, with all his consciousness, into comparison with it. And the state he is in, by the decision of that rule, is the state of his relations with all that is the most solemn in heaven and earth, in time and eternity. Therefore "know your own selves."

II. Notice the objects of self-examination. The earnest force of this examination should fix on the points named by the Apostle: "whether ye be in the faith, whether Jesus Christ be in you." It should not expend itself on the mere external conduct, for if that alone, in its simple gross sense, were to be taken account of, a well-regulated formalist or Pharisee, nay, possibly a hypocrite, might go off to considerable self-complacency. And you can imagine how often man has been frightened out of his soul to take refuge in the apparently better quality of his conduct. Any impulse the examiner feels to do so should warn him to stay a while longer there, in the interior. Doubt and uncertainty ought to be a powerful incentive to self-examination. For surely the chief questions in the concern cannot be decided too soon. Indeed, to be content to remain in doubt would itself be one of the most ominous signs. If the true state of the case be unhappy and unsafe, it should be distinctly seen, that the soul may be instantly in action. If the state be, on the whole, such as the supreme Judge approves, and safe for time and eternity, who would not in this evil world desire to possess the joy of knowing it to be so?

J. Foster, Lectures, 1st series, p. 337.

References: 2Co 13:5.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 409; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 253; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 218. 2Co 13:7.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 253.

2Co 13:8

The Sceptic’s Unconscious Ministry to the Truth.

I. Two things are terribly fruitful of scepticism, nay, are its chief parents in all ages: (1) the folly, vice, and passion which are mixed up with the life of all the Churches; (2) the narrowness and selfishness of their dogmatic conceptions of Divine truth. Scepticism of a very bitter kind is always generated when the Churches are very worldly. Men take the truth and the error, the good and the evil, together; and if the error and the evil seem to predominate, they say, and set themselves to prove, that the root must be bad which bears such fruits. Christ bears in all ages, as of old, the shame of the sins of His servants, and the sceptics arm themselves with scourges to chastise the vices and follies of the Church. But the main point of importance is the other. Scepticism is generated when Churches grow arrogant and oppressive, and frown on all attempts otherwise than by preaching their dogmas to widen the realm of truth.

II. It seems as if just now a rebellion had risen in every direction against the authority of the Church, not against truth, but against truth on Church authority. The Christ of authority, as the Church believes in Him, men will not have. They say, No; we will build up a new, more natural, more human, image of Christ for ourselves and for the world. Let them build. It is with an honest heart in the main that they make the effort; they have only to search deeply enough and to see far enough to discover for themselves that the only simple Christ, the only natural Christ, the only human Christ, the only Christ who can supply man’s need and satisfy man’s longings, and fill the throne which is waiting the advent of Emmanuel in every human breast, is the Christ whom prophets foretold, whom Evangelists portrayed, whom Apostles proclaimed, whom the Church of God in every age adores.

J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 145.

References: 2Co 13:8.—Homilist, 3rd series, vol. ii., pp. 121, 181; J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 138.

2Co 13:10

The Christian View of the Perfectibility of Man.

I. One of the general ideas naturally arising at the repetition of such words would be that in futurity is the greatness of man, and that hereafter is the grand scene for the attainment of the fulness of his existence.

II. Another thing we may observe upon the words is that it is most gratifying to see the Divine revelation concerning the attribute, the condition, of perfection on any terms, in any sense, at any future period, with human nature. It would be gratifying if this were but intimated as a mere possibility; it is most emphatically so to see it expressed as an assurance, a promise. Looking at man, we seem to see a vast collection of little beginnings, attempts, failures, like a plantation on a bleak and blasted heath; and the progress in whatever is valuable and noble, whether in individuals or communities, is so miserably difficult and slow. Then how delightful it is to see revelation itself pronouncing as possible and predicting as to come something perfect in the condition of man.

III. Next, observe that this prediction of something perfect to come relates to knowledge. This is somewhat surprising. It seems more easy to conceive of perfection in another state attained or conferred in any of what may be called the moral attributes than in knowledge, even in any moderate and comparative sense. Such knowledge would imply (1) the exclusion of error, or, in other words, that all opinion will be truth. (2) It will be perfectly adequate to the infallible direction of all the activities of the superior state. (3) Those who have it will possess as much as is indispensable to their happiness, and will be sensible that they do so.

IV. Lastly, if there will be, as none can doubt, in the heavenly state, different degrees in the felicity of the redeemed spirits, and if knowledge will be one great means of felicity there, who may be expected to possess the highest attainments of it? Not necessarily those, even good men, who possessed the most of it here, but rather those who have excelled the most in piety, in devotion to God and Christ and the cause of Heaven in this world. God can, by one great act of His rewarding power, make them the highest in intelligence, and it is reasonable to believe He will.

J. Foster, Lectures, 1st series, p. 402.

References: 2Co 13:11.—J. Morgan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 353; M. G. Pearse, Ibid., vol. xxx., p. 401; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 206; F. W. Farrar, In the Days of thy Youth, p. 389; J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox, p. 338.

2Co 13:14

The Covenant of Redemption.

I. Consider the character of this covenant, for this is a point of the highest importance as regards our thoughts, and our hopes, and our actions. The character of God’s covenant of redemption is love. The will of the Father is to gather the Christian into Christ with an everlasting salvation. All adverse appearances, all interruptions to the consciousness of this, arising from himself or from the world, must not for a moment outweigh the great central truth that God loveth him. In holding this fact in full acknowledgment of his position in Christ, consist his safety and his life. "Thy will be done" is the expression of a soul which knows and feels this. We must be tried: we must be purified; the dethronement of self and the setting up of God in our hearts cannot take place without a struggle, a war, within. This conflict may be fierce and long-continued; it may seem like the rending asunder of soul and spirit; it may bring us down into the depths of dispiritedness, and almost extinguish our hope; but let not any intensity of conflict, or any self-loathing, or any forebodings for the future ever cause us to forget that the mind of God to us is love.

II. Other points to be considered regard the covenant itself. And one is that Holy Scripture uniformly sets it forth to us as a covenant made and ratified before the foundation of the world. Another important thing for us to regard who receive and acknowledge the glory of the Eternal Trinity is the intelligent and clear appreciation in our spiritual life of the parts and offices of the Divine Persons in our redemption. In the purpose of the Father, it had its ground, and has its continuance. It is His will that we should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. In the finished work of the Son on earth and His high-priesthood in heaven, it had, and has, its actuality as it now exists. And God the Holy Spirit begets and carries on in our souls this spiritual life, dwelling in us, purifying our hearts and motives, making us holy and gradually more and more like God. Let this important fact be ever borne in mind: that our recognition of the wonderful love of God in redemption may be no barren acquiescence in an orthodox doctrine, but a quickening reality in our own hearts and lives, full of seeds of love, and peace, and joy, and increase in holiness.

H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iv., p. 290.

References: 2Co 13:14.—Church of England Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 285; R. Maguire, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 465; J. T. Stannard, Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 260; E. Hatch, Ibid., vol. xxxiii., p. 353; J. Hall, Ibid., vol. xxxiv., p. 56; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 294; J. Edmunds, Sermons in a Village Church, p. 243; T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons, p. 318; T. T. Lynch, Three Months’ Ministry, p. 313.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 28

CONCLUSION.- 2Co_13:1-14 (R.V)

THE first part of this chapter is in close connection with what precedes; it is, so to speak, the explanation of St. Pauls fear {2Co_12:20} that when he came to Corinth he would be found of the Corinthians "not such as they would." He expresses himself with great severity; and the abruptness of the first three sentences, which are not linked to each other by any conjunctions, contributes to the general sense of rigor. "This is the third time I am coming to you" is a resumption of 2Co_12:14, "This is the third time I am ready to come to you," and labors under the same ambiguity; it is perhaps more natural to suppose that Paul had actually been twice in Corinth (and there are independent reasons for this opinion), but the words here used are quite consistent with the idea that this was the third time he had definitely purposed and tried to visit them, whether his purpose had been carried out or not. When he arrives, he will proceed at once to hold a judicial investigation into the condition of the Church, and will carry it through with legal stringency. "At the mouth of two and (where available) three witnesses shall every question be brought to decision." This principle of the Jewish law, {Deu_19:15} to which reference is made in other New Testament passages connected with Church discipline, {Mat_18:16; 1Ti_5:19} is announced as that on which he will act. There will be no informality and no injustice, but neither will there be any more forbearance. All cases requiring disciplinary treatment will be brought to an issue at once, and the decision will be given rigorously as the matter of fact, attested by evidence, requires. He feels justified in proceeding thus after the reiterated warnings he has given them. To these reference is made in the solemn words of 2Co_13:2. English readers can see, by comparing the Revised Version with the Authorized, the difficulties of translation which still divide scholars. The words which the Authorized Version renders "as if I were present" (ως παρων) are rendered by the Revisers "as when I was present." All scholars connect this ambiguous clause with τὸ δεύτερον: "the second time." Hence there are two main ways in which the whole passage can be rendered. The one is that which stands in the Revised Version, and which is defended by scholars like Meyer, Lightfoot, and Schmiedel: it is in effect this-"I have already forewarned, and do now forewarn, as I did. on the occasion of my second visit, so also now m my absence, those who have sinned heretofore, and all the rest, that if I come again I will not Spare "this is certainly rather cumbrous; but assuming that 2Co_2:1 gives strong ground for believing in a second visit already paid to Corinth-a visit in which Paul had been grieved and humbled by disorders in the Church, but had not been in a position to do more than warn against their continuance-it seems the only available interpretation. Those who evade the force of 2Co_11:1-33. I render here in the line of the Authorized Version: "I have forewarned" (viz., in the first letter, e.g., 1Co_4:21), "and do now forewarn, as though I were present the second time, although I am now absent, those who have sinned," etc. So Heinrici. This, on grammatical grounds, seems quite legitimate; but the contrast between presence and absence, which is real and effective in the other rendering, is here quite inept. We can understand a man saying, "I tell you in my absence, just as I did when I was with you that second time": but who would ever say, "I tell you as if I were present with you a second time, although in point of fact I am absent?" The absence here comes in with a grotesque effect, and there seems hardly room to doubt that the rendering in our Revised Version is correct. Paul had, when he visited Corinth a second time, warned those who had sinned before that visit, he now warns them again, and all others with them who anticipated his coming with an evil conscience, that the hour of decision is at hand. It is not easy to say what he means by the threat not to spare. Many point to judgments like that on Ananias and Sapphira, or on Elymas the sorcerer; others to the delivering of the incestuous person to Satan, "for the destruction of the flesh"; the supposition being that Paul came to Corinth armed with a supernatural power of inflicting physical sufferings on the disobedient. This uncanny idea has really no support in the New Testament, in spite of the passages quoted; and probably what his words aim at is an exercise of spiritual authority which might go so far as totally to exclude an offender from the Christian community.

The third verse {2Co_13:3} is to be taken closely with the second {2Co_13:2}: "I will not spare, since ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me, who to you-ward is not weak, but is powerful in you." The friction between the Corinthians and the Apostle involved a higher interest than his. In putting Paul to the proof, they were really putting to the proof the Christ who spoke in him. In challenging Paul to come and exert his authority, in defying him to come with a rod, in presuming on what they called his weakness, they were really challenging Christ. The description of Christ in the last clause-"who towards you is not weak, but is powerful in you, or among you"-must be interpreted by the context. It can hardly mean that in their conversion, and in their experience as Christian people, they had evidence that Christ was not weak, but strong: such a reference, though supported by Calvin, is surely beside the mark. The meaning must rather be that for the purpose in hand-the restoration of order and discipline in the Corinthian Church-the Christ who spoke in Paul was not weak, but mighty. Certainly any one who looked at Christ in Himself might see proofs, in abundance, of weakness: going directly to the crowning one, "He was crucified," the Apostle says, "in virtue of weakness." Sin was so much stronger than He, in the days of His flesh, that it did what it liked with Him. Sin mocked Him, buffeted Him, scourged Him, spit upon Him, nailed Him to the tree-so utter was His weakness, so complete the triumph of sin over Him. But that is not the whole story: "He liveth in virtue of the power of God." He has been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father; sin cannot touch Him any more: He has all power in heaven and on earth, and all things are under His feet. This double relation of Christ to sin is exemplified in His Apostle. "For we also are weak in Him; but we shall live with Him, in virtue of Gods power, toward you." The sin of the Corinthians had had its victory over Paul on the occasion of his second visit; God had humbled him then, even as Christ was humbled on the cross; he had seen the evil, but it had been too strong for him; in spite of his warnings, it had rolled over his head. That "weakness," as the Corinthians called it, remained; to them he was still as weak as ever-hence the present ασθενουμεν: but to the Apostle it was no discreditable thing; it was a weakness "in Christ," or perhaps, as some authorities read, "with Christ." In being overpowered by sin for the moment, he entered into the fellowship of his Lords sufferings; he drank out of the cup his Master drank upon the cross. But the cross does not represent Christs whole attitude to sin, nor does that incapacity to deal with the turbulence, disloyalty, and immorality of the Corinthians represent the whole attitude of the Apostle to these disorders. Paul is not only crucified with Christ, he has been made to sit with Him in the heavenly places; and when he comes to Corinth this time, it will not be in the weakness of Christ, but in the victorious strength of His new life. He will come clothed with power from on high to execute the Lords sentence on the disobedient.

This passage has great practical interest. There are many whose whole conception of the Christian attitude toward evil is summed up in the words: "He was crucified through weakness." They seem to think that the whole function of love in presence of evil, its whole experience, its whole method and all its resources, are comprehended in bearing what evil chooses, or is able, to inflict. There are even bad people, like the Corinthians, who imagine that this exhausts the Christian ideal, and that they are wronged if they are not allowed by Christians to do what they like to them with impunity. And if it is not so easy to act on this principle in our dealings with one another-though there are people mean enough to try it-there are plenty of hypocrites who presume on it in their dealings with God. "He was crucified through weakness," they say in their hearts; the cross exhausts His relation to sin; that infinite patience can never pass. over to severity. But the assumption is false: the cross does not exhaust Christs relation to sin; He passed from the cross to the throne, and when He comes again it is as Judge. It is the sin of sins to presume upon the cross; it is a mistake that cannot be remedied to persist in that presumption to the end. When Christ comes again, He will not spare. The two things go together in Him: the infinite patience of the cross, the inexorable righteousness of the throne. The same two things go together in men: the depth with which they feel evil, the completeness with which they suffer it to work its will against them, and the power with which they vindicate the good. It is the worst blindness, as well as the basest guilt, which, because it has seen the one, refuses to believe in the other.

The Corinthians, by their rebellious spirit, were putting Paul to the proof; in 2Co_13:5 he re-reminds them sharply that it is their own standing as Christians which is in question, and not his. "Try yourselves," he says, with abrupt emphasis, "not me; try yourselves, if ye are m the faith; put yourselves to the proof; or know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-unless, indeed, ye be reprobate." The meaning here is hardly open to doubt: the Apostle urges his readers individually to examine their Christian standing. "Let each," he virtually says, "put himself to the proof, and see whether he is in the faith." There is, indeed, a difficulty in the clause, "Or know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-unless, indeed, ye be reprobate." This may be read either as a test, put into their hands to direct them in their self-scrutiny; or as an appeal to them after-or even before-the scrutiny has been made. The manner in which the alternative is introduced-"unless, indeed, ye are reprobates"-a manner plainly suggesting that the alternative in question is not to be assumed, is in favor of taking it in the sense of an appeal. After all, they are a Christian Church with Christ among them, and they cannot but know it. Paul, again, on his side cannot think that they are reprobate, and he hopes they will recognize that he is not, but on the contrary a genuine Apostle, attested by God, and to be acknowledged and obeyed by the Church. Very often that temper which judges others, and calls legitimate spiritual authority in question, is due, as in part it was among the Corinthians, to inward misgivings. It is-when people ought to be putting themselves to the proof, and are with cause afraid to begin, that they are most ready to challenge others. It was a kind of self-defense-the self-defense of a bad conscience-when the Corinthians required Paul to demonstrate his apostolic claims before he meddled with their affairs. It was a plea, the sole purpose of which was to enable them to live on as they were, immoral and impenitent. It is properly retorted when he says, "Try yourselves if ye are in the faith; it is in every sense of the word an impertinence to drag in anybody else."

In both cases Paul hopes the result of the trial will be satisfactory. He would not like to think the Corinthians αδοκιμοι ("reprobate"), and no more would he like them to regard him in that light. Still, the two things are not on exactly the same footing in his mind; their character is much dearer to him than his own reputation; provided they are what they ought to be, he does not care what is thought of himself. This is the general sense of 2Co_13:7-9, and except in 2Co_13:8 the details are clear enough.

He prays to God that the Corinthians may do no evil. His object in this is not that he himself may appear reproved; indeed, if his prayer is granted, he will have no opportunity of exercising the disciplinary authority of which he has said so much. It will be open to any one then to say that he is αδοκιμος, reprobate, a person to be rejected because he has not demonstrated his claim to apostolic authority by apostolic action. But as long as they act well, which is the real object of his prayer, he does not care, though he lugs to pass as αδοκιμος. He can bear evil report as well as good report, and rejoice to fulfill his vocation under the one condition as well as the other. This is only one aspect of that sacrifice of self to the interest of the flock which is indispensable in the good shepherd. As compared with any single member of his congregation, a minister may be more in the eye of the world, more still in the eye of the Church; and it is natural for him to think that some self-assertion, some recognition and reputation, are due to his position. It is a mistake: no man who understands the position at all will dream of asserting his own importance against that of the community. The Church, the congregation even, no matter how much it may be indebted to him, no matter if it owes to him, as the Corinthian Church to Paul, its very existence in Christ, is always greater than he; it will outlive him; and however tender he may naturally be of his own position and reputation, if the Church prosper in Christian character, he must be as willing to let these dear possessions go, and to count them worthless, as to part with money or any material thing.

The real difficulty here lies in the eighth verse, where the Apostle explains, apparently, why he acts on the principle just stated. "I pray this prayer for you," he seems to say, "and I am content to pass as a reprobate, while you do that which is honorable; for I can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." What is the connection of ideas alluded to by this "for?" Some of the commentators give up the question in despair: others only remind one of the French pastor who said to some one who preached on Romans: "Saint Paul est deja fort difficile et vous veniez apres." As far as one can make out, he seems to say: "I act on this principle because it is the one which furthers the truth, and therefore is obligatory upon me; I am not able to act on one which would injure or prejudice the truth." The truth, in this interpretation, would be synonymous, as it often is in the New Testament, with the Gospel Paul is incapable of acting in a way that would check the Gospel, and its influence over men; he has no choice but to act in its interest; and therefore he is content to let the Corinthians think what they please of him, provided his prayer is answered, and they do no evil, but rather that which is good before God. For this is what the Gospel requires. "Content," indeed, is not a Strong enough word. "We rejoice," he says in 2Co_13:9 "when we are weak, and you are strong: this we also pray for, even your perfecting." "Perfecting" is perhaps as good a word as can be got for καταρτισις: it denotes the putting right of all that is defective or amiss.

It is in favor of this interpretation of the eighth verse that the reason seems at first out of proportion to the conclusion. With an idealist like Paul it is always so. He appeals to the loftiest motives to influence the lowliest actions, -to faith in the Incarnation as a motive to generosity-to faith in the Resurrection Life, as a motive to patient continuance in well-doing - to faith in the heavenly citizenship of believers, as a motive to separation from the licentious. In the same way he appeals here to a Universal moral rule to explain his conduct in a particular case. His principle everywhere is not to act in prejudice of (κατά) the Gospel, but in furtherance of it (ὑπέρ); he has strength available for this last purpose, but none at all for the former. It is the rule on which every minister of Christ should always act; and if the line of conduct which it pointed out sometimes led men to disregard their own reputation, provided the Gospel was having free course, the very strangeness of such a result might turn to the furtherance of the truth. It is by-ends that explain nine-tenths of spiritual inefficiency; singleness of mind like this would save us our perplexities and our failures alike.

It is because he has an interest like this in the Corinthians that Paul writes as he has done while absent from Corinth. He does not wish, when he comes among them, to proceed with severity. The power the Lord gave him would entitle him to do so; yet he remembers that this power was given him, as he has remarked already, {2Co_10:8} for building up, and not for casting down. Even casting down with a view to building up on a better basis was a less natural, if sometimes a necessary, exercise of it; and he hopes that the severity of his words will lead, even before his coming, to such voluntary action on the part of the Church as will spare him severity in deed.

This is practically the end of the letter, and the mind involuntarily goes back to the beginning. We see now the three great divisions of it plainly before our eyes. In the first seven chapters Paul writes under the general impression of the good news Titus has brought from Corinth. It has made him glad, and he writes gladly. The one case that he had been concerned about has been disposed of in a way that he can consider satisfactory; the Church, in the majority of its members, has acted well in the matter. The eighth and ninth chapters are a digression: they are concerned solely with the collection for the poor at Jerusalem, and Paul inserts them where they stand perhaps because the transition was easy from his joy over the change at Corinth to his joy over the liberality of the Macedonians. In 2Co_10:1-18; 2Co_11:1-33; 2Co_12:1-21; 2Co_13:1-10, he evidently writes in a very different strain. The Church, as a whole, has returned to its allegiance, especially on the moral question at issue; but there are Jewish interlopers in it, subverting the Gospel, and reconverting Pauls converts to their own illiberal faith; and there are also, as it would appear, numbers of sensual people who have not yet renounced the vilest sins. It is these two sets of persons who are in view in the last four chapters; and it is the utter inconsistency of Judaic nationalism on the one hand, and Corinthian license on the other, with the spiritual Gospel of the Son of God, that explains the severity of his tone. "The truth" is at stake-the truth for which he has suffered all that he recounts in 2Co_11:1-33 -and no vehemence is too passionate for the occasion. Yet love controls it all, and he speaks severely that he may not have to act severely; he writes these things that, if possible, he may be spared the pain of saying them.

And then the letter, like almost every letter, hastens in disconnected sentences to its close. "Finally, brethren, farewell." He cannot but address them affectionately at parting; when the heart recovers from the heat of indignation, its unchanging love speaks again as before. Some would render χαιρετε "rejoice," instead of "farewell"; to Pauls readers, no doubt, it had a friendly sound, but "rejoice" is far too strong. In all the imperatives that follow there is a reminiscence of their faults as well as a desire for their good: "be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace." There was much among them to rectify, much that was inevitably disheartening to overcome, much dissension to compose, much friction to allay; but as he prays them to face these duties he can assure them that the God of love and peace will be with them. God can be characterized by love and peace; they are His essential attributes, and He is an inexhaustible source of them, so that all who make peace and love their aim can count confidently to be helped by Him. It is, as it were, the first step of obedience to these precepts-the first condition of obtaining the presence of God which has just been promised-when the Apostle writes, "Greet one another with a holy kiss." The kiss was the symbol of Christian brotherhood; in exchanging it Christians recognized each other as members of one family. To do this even in form, to do it with solemnity in a public assembly of the whole Church, was to commit themselves to the obligations of peace and love which had been so set at naught in their religious contentions. It is a generous encouragement to them to recognize each other as children of God when he adds that all the Christians about him recognize them in that character. "All the saints salute you." They do so because they are Christians and because you are; acknowledge each other, as you are all acknowledged from without.

The letter is closed, like all that the Apostle wrote, with a brief prayer. "The grace of the Lord Jesus [Christ], and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all." Of all such prayers it is the fullest in expression, and this has gained for it preeminently the name of the apostolic benediction. It would be too much to say that the doctrine of the Trinity, as it has been defined in the creeds, is explicitly to be found here; there is no statement at all in this place of the relations of Christ, God, and the Holy Spirit. Still, it is on passages like this that the Trinitarian doctrine of God is based; or rather it is in passages like this that we see it beginning to take shape: it is based on the historical fact of the revelation of God in Christ, and on the experience of the new divine life which the Church possesses through the Spirit. It is extraordinary to find men with the New Testament in their hands giving explanations, speculative or popular, of this doctrine, which stand in no relation either to the historical Christ or to the experience of the Church. But these things hang together; and whatever the worth may be of a Trinitarian doctrine which is not essentially dependent on the Person of Christ and on the life of His Church, it is certainly not Christian. The historical original of the doctrine, and the impulse of experience under which Paul wrote, are suggested even by the order of the words. A speculative theologian may try to deduce the Triune nature of God from the borrowed assumption that God is love, or knowledge, or spirit; but the Apostle has only come to know God as love through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this which reveals Gods love and assures us of it; it is this by which God commends his own love to us. "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me," Jesus said; and this truth, pre-announced by the Lord, is certified here by the very order in which the Apostle instinctively puts the sacred names. "The communion of the Holy Spirit" stands last; it is in this that "the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God" become the realized possessions of Christian men. The precise force of "the communion" is open to doubt. If we take the genitive in the same sense as it bears in the previous clauses, the word will mean "the fellowship or unity of feeling which is produced by the Spirit." This is a good sense, but not the only one: what Paul wishes may rather be the joint participation of them all in the Spirit, and in the gifts which it confers. But practically the two meanings coincide, and our minds rest on the comprehensiveness of the blessing invoked on a Church so mixed, and in many of its members so unworthy. Surely "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost" were with the man who rises so easily, so unconstrainedly, after all the tempest and passion of this letter, to such a height of love and peace. Heaven is open over his head; he is conscious, as he writes, of the immensities of that love whose breadth and length and depth and height pass knowledge. In the Son who revealed it-in God who is its eternal source-in the Spirit through whom it lives in men-he is conscious of that love and of its workings; and he prays that in all its aspects, and in all its virtues, it may be with them all.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

13:1-2 Announcing his intention to return to Corinth the third time (see study note on 12:14-15), Paul found confirmation of his plan in the Scriptures. The reason for this quotation is not clear, but perhaps, given the context of Deut 19:15, Paul wanted to warn them that every transgression (listed in 2 Cor 12:20-21) would be judged on his arrival. The two or three witnesses against the Corinthian offenders were Paul’s letters or visits and the promise of his coming the third time.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Co 13:1. Τρίτον) The decisive number, the third time. So the LXX. τρίτον τοῦτο, Num 22:28.—ἔρχομαι, I am coming) I am now in readiness to come.—μαρτύρων, of witnesses) Therefore in this matter the apostle thought of depending not on an immediate revelation, but on the testimony of men; and he does not command the culprits to be cast out of the Church before his arrival.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co_13:1. As Paul has expressed himself by μήπως ἔρις κ.τ.λ. in 2Co_12:20, and in 2Co_12:21 has explained himself more precisely merely as regards that μήπως ἐλθὼν οὐχ οἵους θέλω εὕρω ὑμᾶς (see on 2Co_12:20), he still owes to his readers a more precise explanation regarding the κἀγὼ εὑρεθῶ ὑμῖν οἷον οὐ θέλετε, and this he now gives to them. Observe the asyndetic, sternly-measured form of his sentences in 2Co_13:1-2.

τρίτον τοῦτο ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς] The elaborate shifts of the expositors, who do not understand this of a third actual coming thither, inasmuch as they assume that Paul had been but once in Corinth,[390] may be seen in Pooles Synopsis and Wolfs Curae. According to Lange, apost. Zeitalt. I. p. 202 f. (comp. also Märcker, Stellung der Pastoralbr. p. 14), τρίτον τοῦτο is intended to apply to the third project of a journey, and ἔρχομαι to its decided execution: This third time in the series of projects laid before you above I come. Linguistically incorrect, since τρίτον τοῦτο ἔρχ. cannot mean anything else than: for the third time I come this time, so that it does not refer to previous projects, but to two journeys that had taken place before. On τρίτον τοῦτο, this third time (accusative absolute), that is, this time for a third time, comp. Herod. v. 76: τέταρτον δὴ τοῦτο … ἀπικόμενοι, LXX. Jdg_16:15 : τοῦτο τρίτον ἐπλάνησάς με, Num_22:28; Joh_21:14. Bengel correctly remarks on the present: jam sum in procinctu.

ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μαρτύρων κ.τ.λ.] On this my third arrival there is to be no further sparing (as at my second visit), but summary procedure. Comp. Mat_18:16, where, however, the words of the law are used with another turn to the meaning. Paul announces with the words of the law well known to his readers, Deu_19:15, which he adopts as his own, that he, arrived for this third time, will, without further indulgence, institute a legal hearing of witnesses (comp. 1Ti_5:19), and that on the basis of the affirmation of two and three witnesses every point of complaint will be decided. Not as if he wished to set himself up as disciplinary judge (this power was vested ordinarily in the church, Mat_18:16, 1Co_5:12-13, and was, even in extraordinary cases of punishment, not exercised alone on the part of the apostle, 1Co_5:3-5), but he would set agoing and arrange the summary procedure in the way of discipline, which he had threatened. Nor did the notoriety of the transgressions render the latter unnecessary, seeing that, on the one hand, they might not all be notorious, and, on the other, even those that were so needed a definite form of treatment. Following Chrysostom and Ambrosiaster, Calvin, Estius, and others, including recently Neander, Olshausen, Raebiger, Ewald, Osiander, Maier, have understood the two or three witnesses of Paul himself, who takes the various occasions of his presence among the Corinthians as testimonies, by which the truth of the matters is made good,[391] or the execution of his threats (Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others, comp. Bleek, Billroth, Ewald, Hofmann) is to be decided (Theophylact: ἐπὶ τῶν τριῶν μου παρουσιῶν πᾶν ῥῆμα ἀπειλητικὸν κατασταθήσεται καθʼ ἱμῶν καὶ κυρωθήσεται, ἐὰν μὴ μετανοήσατε· ἀντὶ μαρτύρων γὰρ τὰς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ τίθησι). But if Paul regarded himself, under the point of view of his different visits to Corinth respectively, as the witnesses, he could make himself pass for three witnesses only in respect of those evils which he had already perceived at his first visit (and then again on his second and third), and for two witnesses only in respect of those evils which he had lighted upon in his second visit for the first time, and would on his third visit encounter a second time. But in this view precisely all those evils and sins would be left out of account, which had only come into prominence after his second visit; for as regards these, because he was only to become acquainted with them for the first time at his third visit, he would only pass as one witness. Consequently this explanation, Pauline though it looks, is inappropriate; nor is the difficulty got over by the admission that the relations in question are not to be dealt with too exactly (Osiander), as, indeed, the objection, that the threat is directed against the προημαρτηκότες, avails nothing on the correct view of 2Co_12:21, and the continued validity of the legal ordinance itself (it holds, in fact, even at the present day in the common law) should not after 1Ti_5:10 have been doubted. Nor does the refining of Hofmann dispose of the matter. He thinks, forsooth, that besides the προημαρτηκότες, all the rest also, whom such a threat may concern, are now twice warned, orally (at the second visit of the apostle) and in writing (by this letter), and his arrival will be to them the third and last admonition to reflect. This is not appropriate either to the words (see on 2Co_13:2) or to the necessary unity and equality of the idea of witnesses, with which, in fact, Pauland, moreover, in application of so solemn a passage of the lawwould have dealt very oddly, if not only he himself was to represent the three witnesses, but one of them was even to be his letter.

καί] not in the sense of ἤ, as, following the Vulgate, many earlier and modern expositors (including Flatt and Emmerling) would take it, but: and, if, namely, there are so many.[392] Paul might have put ἤ, as in Mat_18:16, but, following the LXX., he has thought on and, and therefore put i.

πᾶν ῥῆμα] everything that comes to be spoken of, to be discussed. Comp. on Mat_4:4.

σταθήσεται] will be established (יַקוּם), namely, for judicial decision. This is more in keeping with the original text than (comp. on Mat_26:25): will be weighed (Ewald).

[390] Most of them, like Grotius, Estius, Wolf, Wetstein, Zachariae, Flatt, were of opinion that Paul expresses here, too, simply a third readiness to come, from which view also has arisen the reading ἑτοίμως ἔχω ἐλθεῖν instead of ἔρχομαι in A, Syr. Erp. Copt. To this also Baur reverts, who explains ἔρχομαι: I am on the point of coming. But this would, in fact, be just a third actual coming, which Paul was on the point of, and would presuppose his having come already twice. Beza and others suggest: Binas suas epistolas (!) pro totidem ad illos profectionibus recenset.

[391] Grotius, in consistency with the view that Paul had been only once there, quite at variance with the words of the passage pares down the meaning to this: cum bis terve id dixerim, tandem ratum erit. Compare also Clericus. The explanation of Emmerling: Titum ejusque comites certissimum edituros esse testimonium de animo suo Corinthios invisendi, is purely fanciful. The simple and correct view is given already by Erasmus in his Paraphr.: Hic erit tertius meus ad vos adventus; in hunc se quisque praeparet. Neque enim amplius connivebo, sed juxta jus strictum atque exactum res agetur. Quisquis delatus fuerit, is duorum aut trium hominum testimonio vel absolvetur vel damnabitur.

[392] It corresponds quite to the German expression zwei bis drei. Comp. Xen. Anab. iv. 7. 10 : δύο καὶ τρία βήματα. See Krüger and Kühner in loc. In this case καί is atque, not also (Hofmann).

CHAPTER 13

2Co_13:2. After νῦν Elz. has γράφω, in opposition to decisive evidence. A supplementary addition. Comp. 2Co_13:10.2Co_13:4. εἰ] is wanting in B D* F G K א* min. Copt. Aeth. It. Eus. Dem. Theoph. Bracketed by Lachm. and Rück. Looking to the total inappropriateness of the sense of καὶ εἰ, those authorities of considerable importance sufficiently warrant the condemnation of εἰ, although Tisch. (comp. Hofm.) holds the omission to be manifesta correctio. Offence was easily taken at the idea that Christ was crucified ἐξ ἀσθενείας, and it was made problematical by the addition of an εἰ, which in several cases also was assigned a position before καί (Or.: εἰ γὰρ καί).

καὶ γὰρ ἡμεῖς] Elz. has καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς, in opposition to far preponderating evidence. The second καί is an addition, which arose out of καὶ γάρ being taken as a mere for, namque.

ἐν αὐτῷ] A F G א, Syr. Erp. Copt. Boern. have σὺν αὐτῷ. So Lachm. on the margin. An explanation in accordance with what follow.

ζησόμεθα] Lachm. Rück. Tisch. read ζήσομεν, in favour of which the evidence is decisiv.

εἰς ὑμᾶς] is wanting only in B D*** E*** Arm. Clar. Germ. Chrys. Sedul., and is condemned by Mill, who derived it from 2Co_13:3. But how natural was the omission, seeing that the first half of the verse contains no parallel element! And the erroneous reference of ζήσομεν to eternal life might make εἰς ὑμᾶς appear simply as irrelevant.2Co_13:7. εὔχομαι] Lachm. Tisch. and Rück., following greatly preponderant evidence, have εὐχόμεθα, which Griesb. also approved. And rightly; the singular was introduced in accordance with the previous ἐλπίζω.2Co_13:9. τοῦτο δέ] This δέ is omitted in preponderant witnesses, is suspected by Griesb., and deleted by Lachm. Tisch. and Rück. Addition for the sake of connection, instead of which 73 has δή and Chrys. γάρ.

In 2Co_13:10, the position of ὁ κύριος before ἐδωκ. μοι is assured by decided attestation.

CONTENTS.

Continuation of the close of the section as begun at 2Co_12:19. At his impending third coming he will decide with judicial severity and not spare, seeing that they wished to have for once a proof of the Christ speaking in him (2Co_13:1-4). They ought to prove themselves; he hopes, however, that they will recognise his proved character, and asks God that he may not need to show them its verification (2Co_13:5-9). Therefore he writes this when absent, in order that he may not be under the necessity of being stern when present (2Co_13:10). Concluding exhortation with promise (2Co_13:11); concluding salutation (2Co_13:12); concluding benediction (2Co_13:13).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 13:1-10 .

IF HE COMES AGAIN, HE WILL NOT SPARE: CHRIST IS HIS STRENGTH: LET THE CORINTHIANS SEE TO IT THAT HE BE THEIRS ALSO.

2Co 13:1 . τρίτον τοῦτο κ . τ . λ .: this is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every word be established.” That is, he will hold a formal enquiry in the strict legal way (see reff.) when he arrives. No evasions will be possible.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1–10. The letter hastens to a conclusion. He reminds them, 1. what they have to expect from him in this third visit (1–4); 2. what they owe to themselves, seeing that their estimate of him and his treatment of them depend on their attitude (5–9); 3. why he sends this letter (10).

1–4. The abrupt opening sentences, without connecting particles, mark the sternness of the tone.

1. Τρίτον (אBDFG &c., Syrr. Copt. Arm.) rather than ἰδοὺ τρίτον (א3A, Latt. Aeth., Aug.). The ἰδού comes from 2Co 12:14. From the same source A substitutes ἑτοίμως ἔχω ἐλθεῖν for ἔρχομαι. καί (ABDFG &c.) rather than ἤ (א, Vulg., Aug.).

1. Τρίτον τοῦτο ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς. See critical note. This is the third time I am coming to you (comp. 2Co 12:14), or For the third time I am now coming to you. All suggestions about intentions to come, or being willing to come, or letters being counted as visits, may be safely set aside. The plain meaning is, that he has paid two visits, the long one, when he converted them, and the short one, when he rebuked them with so little effect (2Co 1:23), and that he is preparing to come again: jam sum in procinctu (Bengel). These passages (2Co 12:14, 2Co 13:1-2) “seem inexplicable under any other hypothesis, except that of a second visit” (Lightfoot). Hitherto they have found him so forbearing that he has been accused of weakness. This time he will be severe.

ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μ. He will proceed in strictly legal form (Deu 19:15) against offenders; at the mouth of two witnesses and of three shall every word be established. Those charged with offences will have to meet the charges; those who make charges will have to prove them; and the evidence required will be that which would suffice in a court of law. There had been ἔρις, ζῆλος, θυμοί, ἐριθίαι: but no mere slanders and insinuations (καταλαλιαί, ψιθυρισμοί) will be listened to, unless supported by legal evidence. He perhaps has specially in mind the tactics of the Judaizers. Comp. Mat 18:16.

καὶ τριῶν. The καὶ in the LXX. is very marked; ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μ. καὶ ἐπὶ στ. τριῶν μ. στήσεται πᾶν ῥῆμα. See critical note: in 1Ti 5:19 ἤ is unquestioned. Here the Vulgate has vel and in Deu 19:15 aut. The καί and ἤ are almost equivalent in such cases; ‘two witnesses and (if they are to be had) three.’ Calvin, following Chrysostom and Theodoret (ἀντὶ μαρτύρων γὰρ τὰς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ τίθησι), makes the ‘two and three witnesses’ to refer to the two visits already paid and the third which he is about to pay; triplex enim labor tres homines non immerito valebat. But this is strained and unnatural. It is more to the point when Bengel remarks that the Apostle means to rely upon human testimony, and not appeal to a special revelation. If he appealed to his three visits as three witnesses, that would be circumventing the law by a quibble, making the testimony of the same man given three times equal to the testimony of three different persons. The use of the O.T. in 2Co 3:16 and 2Co 8:15 is not parallel to such a quibble.

πᾶν ῥῆμα. To be understood literally; every word; not (according to the Hebraistic use) ‘every thing’: comp. Luk 1:37; also Luk 2:19; Luk 2:51, where the R.V. has ‘sayings’ in the text and ‘things’ in the margin; and Act 5:32, where it has ‘things’ in the text and ‘sayings’ in the margin. Mat 18:16 is sufficiently decisive for the meaning in this phrase.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chap.

13:1-10.] He warns them of the severity which on his arrival, if such be the case, he will surely exercise, and prove his apostolic authority. To this proof, however, he exhorts them not to put him.

1.] This third time I am coming to you: i.e. ‘this is the third visit, which I am now about to pay you.’ Had not chronological theories intervened, no one would ever have thought of any other rendering. The usual one, ‘This is the third time that I have been intending to come to you,’ introduces here, as also in ch. 12:14, an element not only foreign to, but detrimental to, the purpose. The Apostle wishes to impress on them the certainty of this coming, and to prepare them for it by solemn self-examination; and in order to this, he (on this interpretation) uses an expression which would only remind them of the charge of ἐλαφρία which had been brought against him, and tend to diminish the solemnity of the warning. As another chronological refuge, Beza, al., suppose his two Epistles to be meant by the two former ‘profectiones ad illos.’ In answer to all attempts to give here any but the obvious sense, we may safely maintain that had any other been meant, we should certainly have had more indication of it, than we have now. On τρίτον τοῦτο, Meyer compares Herod. v. 76, τέταρτον δὴ τοῦτο … ἀπικόμενοι: see also reff.: and on Paul’s visit to Corinth, the Prolegomena to 1 Cor. § v.

ἐπὶ στόμ.] i.e. ‘I will not now, as before, be with you ἐν πάσῃ ὑπομονῇ as regards the offenders: but will come to a regular process, and establish the truth in a legal manner,’see reff.

This explanation, however, has not been the usual, one: Chrys., Calvin, Estius, al., and recently Neander and Olsh. and Stanley, understanding the two or three witnesses, of Paul’s two or three visits, as establishing, either (1) the truth of the facts, or (2) the reality of his threats: so Chrys., Hom. xxix. p. 639 f.: ἅπαξ εἶπον κ. δεύτερον, ὅτε παρεγενόμην· λέγω καὶ νῦν διὰ γραμμάτων. καὶ μὴν ἐὰν ἀκούσητέ μου (al. ἐὰν μὲν ἀκούσητε), ὅπερ ἐπεθύμουν γέγονεν. ἐὰν δὲ παρακούσητε, ἀνάγκη λοιπὸν στῆσαι τὰ εἰρημένα, καὶ ἐπαγαγεῖν τὴν τιμωρίαν,—and Theophyl., πᾶν ῥῆμα ἀπειλητικὸν κατασταθήσεται. But it is decisive against the whole interpretation, as Meyer remarks, that thus the sins committed since the Apostle’s last visit would remain altogether unnoticed. Another view, connected with the rendering of ἔρχομαι ‘am intending to come,’ is given by Wetstein: “Spero jam denique mihi successurum, ut vobis demonstrem, serio me desiderasse ad vos venire: sicut ea quæ trium hominum testimonio probantur, in judicio fidem faciunt.” Similarly Grotius and Le Clerc. But it is fatal to this, that according to it, the δύο μάρτυρες had failed to establish it.

καὶ τρ., not for ἢ τρ.,—two (where only two can be had), and three (where so many can be obtained): ‘two and three respectively.’ μαρτύρων, the dual number not occurring in the N. T.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13:1-10. The warnings connected with his approaching visit are continued, but there is not much more to be said, and he says it concisely. His concluding charges are given with Apostolic firmness and decision. He explains to them what they may expect from him (1-4), what they must do themselves (5-9), and why he writes before coming (10).

1. Τρίτον τοῦτο ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς. ‘For the third time I am now coming to you,’ or, ‘This is the third time I am coming to you’; cf. 12:14. It is possible to understand the words otherwise, for some eminent scholars do so, but the only natural meaning is that he has already paid two visits to Corinth (the long one, when he founded the Church, and the short one, when its members treated him so badly), and that he is about to pay a third. Lightfooot finds 12:14 and 13:1, 2 “inexplicable under any other hypothesis.” Alford says that “had not chronological theories intervened, no one would ever have thought of any other rendering.” See on 12:14.

ἐπὶ στόματος δύο μαρτύρων καὶ τριῶν. The citation is slightly abbreviated; in Deu 19:15 the words after καί run ἐπὶ στόματος τριῶν μαρτύρων στήσεται πᾶν π̔ῆμα. In 1Ti 5:19 we have ἤ for καί, and some texts have ἤ here, but the sense is much the same whichever reading we adopt.* Logically ‘three’ should come first; ‘three witnesses, and (or) two, if three are not to be had’; but it is natural to put ‘two’ before ‘three.’

It is more important, and less easy, to decide why St Paul introduces this quotation. He may mean that he is going to hold a formal investigation, in which everything will be conducted according to the law which he quotes.† The accused will not be condemned unless the accusation is proved to be true on adequate testimony. He may also mean that he is not going to claim to have received revelations about the Corinthians’ conduct; he will act upon human testimony, which can be sifted.

But is it likely that he was about to hold a court in which charges of misconduct could be made by one Corinthian Christian against another?‡ Would he give facilities for any such proceedings? The sins with which he is about to deal are flagrant sins, which those who committed them did not conceal, because (as they claimed) they were not sins, but acts which the emancipated Christian was free to commit, if they pleased him. There was no need of witnesses; Corinthians who gloried in their shame would be condemned out of their own mouth, and there would be no room for an Inquisition.

Again, καὶ τριῶν appears to have a definite relation to τρίτον τοῦτο, and the hypothesis of an Inquisition gives no link between the two.

To avoid these difficulties, Chrysostom and Theodoret, with Calvin and some moderns, suggest that the visits to Corinth, two paid and one about to be paid, are the three witnesses. On the previous occasions he has found much that he was obliged to condemn, and he fears that during the third visit he may find a great deal of the same kind. That will amount to threefold testimony against them. True that it is the testimony of only one witness, but it is not mere repetition of the same evidence, for he bears witness to three different groups of fact. This is not a very attractive interpretation, but St Paul’s manner of using Scripture is sometimes so free that we can hardly reject this interpretation as unworthy of him. Nevertheless, if we accept it, we need not suppose with Bousset that St Paul makes the suggestion that three visits are equivalent to three witnesses ‘humorously.’ The Apostle is speaking with the utmost seriousness and gravity. Hence the impressive asyndeton of the opening sentences. But with regard to the rival interpretations of the Apostle’s meaning we must be content to remain in doubt.

πᾶν ῥῆμα. In the original text (Deu 19:15) either rendering may be right, ‘shall a matter be established’ or ‘shall a word be confirmed,’ i.e. regarded as valid (Num 30:5). In the quotation in Mat 18:16, ‘every word may be established’ (AV, RV), is douthetless correct, and it may be correct here (AV, RV); but ‘matter’ or ‘thing’ makes equally good sense, although there is no alternative rendering in either margin. It is better to avoid a translation which implies that the Apostle is about to hold a tribunal in which Corinthians will bring charges against their fellow-Christians. He is going to pronounce sentence on those whose conduct is notorious and is not denied.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER XIII.

The apostle again says that this is the third time he has

purposed to come and see them; and threatens that he will, by

the power of Christ, punish every incorrigible sinner, 1-4.

Exhorts them to examine themselves, whether they be in the

faith, 5, 6.

Prays that they may do no evil, 7.

And shows how ardently he wished their complete restoration to

unity and purity, 8, 9.

Tells them for what reason he writes to them, 10.

Bids them farewell, 11,

Gives them some directions, and concludes with his apostolical

benediction, 12-14.

NOTES ON CHAP. XIII.

Verse 1. This is the third time I am coming to you.] These words are nearly the same with those 2Co 12:14; and probably refer to the purpose which he had twice before formed of seeing them. But the latter clause seems to attach a different meaning to the passage; at least so it has been understood by some learned men.

Schoettgen thus interprets the whole: the first coming of the apostle to Corinth was when he personally visited them, and there founded the Christian Church. By his second coming we are to understand his first epistle to them; and, by his being now ready to come to them the third time, we are to understand this second epistle, which he was then going to send them. These were the two witnesses, and the apostle the third, which he gave to the Corinthians concerning the truth of his own ministry, or the falsity of the ministry of the pretended apostle.

Calmet contends that the apostle had been twice before at Corinth, and that he now purposed to go a third time; and that these visits were the two or three witnesses to which the apostle appeals.

Dr. Lightfoot thinks that the two or three witnesses were Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, sent to assure them of his coming. But this opinion cannot be supported.

With respect to the two or three witnesses establishing the subject, Dr. Whitby says. "Though these words seem to be cited from De 19:15, rather than from Mt 18:16, it being rare to find this apostle citing any thing from the New Testament, without calling it an ordinance of the Lord, yet it is probable that he here alludes to the practice there prescribed for the reclaiming of offenders. And then his first epistle being written with this introduction: Paul an apostle, and Sosthenes; his second thus: Paul and Timotheus; may pass for two or three witnesses; and his presence the third time in person, to exercise his censures on those offenders, before the body of the Church, may bear a fair resemblance to our Lord's prescription in the above case: If thy brother offend," &c.-So far Whitby. See Clarke on Mt 18:16.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1. This will be the third. He goes on to reprove still farther the insolence of those of whom he had been speaking, some of whom living in profligacy and licentiousness, and others, carrying on contentions and strifes among themselves, cared nothing for his reproof. For his discourse did not apply to the entire body of the Church, but to certain diseased and half-rotten members of it. Hence he now, with greater freedom, uses sharpness, because he has to do with particular individuals, not with the whole body of the people, and besides this, it was with persons of such a stamp, that he perceived, that he would do them no good by kindness, and mild remedies. After having spent a year and a half among them, (Acts 18:11,) he had visited them a second time. Now he forewarns them, that he will come to them a third time, and he says, that his three comings to them will be in the place of three witnesses. He quotes the law as to the authority of witnesses; not in the natural and literal sense, as it is termed, but by accommodation, or similitude, applying it to his particular purpose.

“The declaration of the law,” says he, “is, that we must rest on the testimony of two or three witnesses for putting an end to disputes.” (Deuteronomy 19:15.)

For the word established means that a decision is pronounced respecting a matter, that the strife may cease. “I, indeed, am but one individual, but coming a third time I shall have the authority of three witnesses, or, my three comings will be in the place of three testimonies.” For the threefold effort that was made for their welfare, and perseverance, as made trial of on three different occasions, might, with good reason, be held equivalent to three persons.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

XIII.

(1) This is the third time I am coming to you.—The words may point either to three actual visits—(1) that of Act_18:1; (2) an unrecorded visit (of which, however, there is no trace), during St. Paul’s stay at Ephesus; and (3) that now in contemplation—or (1) to one actual visit, as before; (2) the purposed visit which had been abandoned (see Notes on 2Co_1:16); and (3) that which he now has in view. The latter interpretation falls in best with the known facts of the case, and is in entire accordance both with his language in 2Co_12:14, and with his mode of expressing his intentions, as in 1Co_16:5.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.—There seems no adequate reason for not taking these words in their simple and natural meaning. The rule, quoted from Num_35:30, Deu_17:6; Deu_19:15, was of the nature of an axiom of Jewish, one might almost say of natural, law. And it had received a fresh prominence from our Lord’s reproduction of it in giving directions as for the discipline of the society which He came to found. (See Note on Mat_18:16.) What more natural than that St. Paul should say, “When I come, there will be no more surmises and vague suspicions, but every offence will be dealt with in a vigorous and full inquiry”? There seems something strained, almost fantastic, in the interpretation which, catching at the accidental juxtaposition of “the third time” and the “three witnesses,” assumes that the Apostle personifies his actual or intended visits, and treats them as the witnesses whose testimony was to be decisive. It is a fatal objection to this view that it turns the judge into a prosecutor, and makes him appeal to his own reiteration of his charges as evidence of their truth.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is the third time I am coming to you,.... Or "am ready to come to you", as the Alexandrian copy reads, as in Co2 12:14. Though he had been as yet but once at Corinth, and is to be reckoned and accounted for, either after this manner; he had been "once" with them when he first preached the Gospel to them, and was the means of their conversion, and laid, the foundation of their church state, of which there is some account in Act 18:1 he came to them a "second" time, by writing his first epistle, when he desired to be considered by them, as though he was present with them, Co1 5:3 and now a "third" time by this second epistle, in which he also speaks as if he was among them, see the following verse; or else in this way, he had been actually in person with them one time, and had been about to come in purpose and preparation a "second" time, but was prevented, and now was just ready a "third" time to set forward in his journey to them; see Co2 12:14 and so the Syriac version reads it here, "this is the third time that I am ready to come to you", and which our version also favours. The Alexandrian copy and some others, the Complutension edition, the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions, read, "behold, this third time", &c. in order to raise and fix their attention to what he was saying, or about to say:

in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established; referring to Deu 19:15 which he applies much in the same manner Christ does in Mat 18:16 and which it is probable he had in view; signifying hereby, that he proceeded in a judicial way, according to due form of law, and in such a manner as Christ had directed; and that they were to look upon his several comings in the sense now explained, to be as so many witnesses, whereby the several charges exhibited against them were fully attested and confirmed, so that things were now ripe for judgment, and for a final sentence to pass upon them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1 This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

Ver. 1. Of two or three witnesses] So he calleth his threefold admonition. God’s word neglected will one day be a swift witness against the contemners. Moses shall accuse men, Joh 5:46. God’s word lay hold on them, Zec 1:6, and stick in their hearts and flesh, as fire, throughout all eternity, Jer 5:14.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is the third time ... - see the note on 2Co 12:14. For an interesting view of this passage, see Paley’s Horae Paulinae on this Epistle, No. 11: It is evident that Paul had been to Corinth but once before this, but he had resolved to go before a second time, but had been disappointed.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses ... - This was what the Law of Moses required; Deu 20:16; see the note on Joh 8:17; compare Mat 18:16. But in regard to its application here, commentators are not agreed. Some suppose that Paul refers to his own epistles which he had sent to them as the two or three witnesses by which his promise to them would be made certain; that he had purposed it and promised it two or three times, and that as this was all that was required by the Law, it would certainly be established. This is the opinion of Bloomfield, Rosenmuller, Grotius, Hammond, Locke, and some others. But, with all the respect due to such great names, it seems to me that this would be trifling and childish in the extreme. Lightfoot supposes that he refers to Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, who would be witnesses to them of his purpose; see 1Co 16:17. But the more probable opinion, it seems to me, is that of Doddridge, Macknight, and others, that he anticipated that there wound be necessity for the administration of discipline there, but that he would feel himself under obligation in administering it to adhere to the reasonable maxim of the Jewish Law. No one should be condemned or punished where there was not at least two or three witnesses to prove the offence. But where there were, discipline would be administered according to the nature of the crime.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The third time he had made preparations to visit the Corinthians, (see chap. xii. 14.) when every delinquent shall be tried as the law directs. (Deuteronomy xix. 15.; Matthew xviii. 16.; Hebrews x. 28.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Chapter Introduction

Not

the third time when he was upon his journey, (for he was not now travelling), but the third time that he had taken up thoughts of, and was preparing for, such a journey: which, it may be, he hinteth to them, that they might be the more afraid to continue in those sinful courses which he had blamed them for. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established: he alludeth to the law of God, Deu 19:15, concerning witnesses in any case. God ordered, that the testimony of two or three persons should determine all questions in their law; and that should be taken for certain and established, which such a number of persons asserted. The apostle would from hence have them conclude, that he would certainly come, because this was the third time that he had resolved upon it, and was preparing for it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Apostle announces a third visit, and exhorts them to repentance. He expresses his desire for their growth in grace.

Paraphrase. '(1) This is the third visit I am about to pay you. On this occasion I shall proceed to punish these gross sinners after hearing all the evidence. (2) I repeat now what I said on my second visit, that those who persist in sin will find me stern in punishment. (3) And why am I thus severe? Because you demand proof that I possess Christ's authority, though that proof should be found in your own experience. (4) Christ indeed as a helpless man submitted to the death of the Cross, but in the power of God He still lives; and in the same way, in the Spirit of Christ, we have shown a forbearance which you mistook for weakness; but in the power of God we shall exhibit our strength when we come.'

1. The third time] see on 2Co_12:14. Two or three witnesses] Quoted from Deu_19:5. It seems to mean 'in accordance with the principles of justice I will act.' But some think the three witnesses mean the Apostle's three visits, and that he is interpreting the quotation allegorically, in accordance with his custom elsewhere: cp. Deu_3:12-18; Gal_4:22-31. Thus Prof. Stevens paraphrases: I shall visit you a third time, and thus I shall have concerning you a threefold testimony, such as the Law requires to establish a cause.'

2. Which heretofore have sinned] i.e. old offenders still impenitent. All other] RV 'all the rest.'

3. Which to you-ward is not weak] Christ's power had already been made manifest among them: cp. 1Co_1:5-8.

4. Through weakness] i.e. in the human weakness he assumed of his own accord: cp. Php_2:6-8.

5. Paraphrase. 'Do not be so anxious to test me. Test yourselves. Do you not know that Christ's Spirit is in you, guiding your life, unless you are false disciples? I hope, at any rate, that you will learn that I am no false Apostle.'

5. Examine yourselves] i.e. not me. Reprobates] counterfeits.

7-10. Paraphrase. 'We pray to God that you may lead a pure and holy life, not to do us credit, but because it is right, even though we be like false apostles. (8) For our authority is given us to advance what is right, and not to hinder it. (9) We rejoice when we have no need to reprove you, for then your Christian life is healthy; and this is what we most earnestly wish, that you become more and more perfect in all Christian graces. (10) It is, believe me, for this reason that I have written to you these earnest remonstrances, because I do not wish to visit you in anger and severity. I have no desire to use the authority that Christ has given me in degrading and punishing you; for its true purpose is to strengthen my hands in helping you to become increasingly pure and holy in spirit and character.'

7. As reprobates] i.e. as if we had no authority, because we shall not need to show it.

8. Against the truth] He has no pleasure in their evil-doing, although it gives him opportunity to exercise his authority.

9. When we are weak] i.e. when our authority is in abeyance: cp. 2Co_13:4.

10. To edification, and not to destruction] RV 'for building up, and not for casting down.'

(e) 13:11-14. Conclusion and Benediction

The Apostle gives them his parting greeting, and bids them try to live a pure and holy life. He sends greetings from their Christian brethren, and invokes the blessing of God upon them.

11. Farewell] RM 'rejoice.' A cheerful parting message.

12. An holy kiss] the token of brotherhood in the early Church: cp. Rom_16:16; 1Co_16:20; 1Th_5:26; 1Pe_5:14.

14. The grace, etc.] the fullest of St. Paul's benedictions. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ] see 2Co_8:9. The love of God] Perhaps including both the sense of His love for us and the love which He inspires in us. The communion of the Holy Ghost] the sense of His presence and guidance. Be with you all] The prayer is for all, those who rebelled as well as those who continued faithful.

The subscription in AV, 'The second Epistle.. was written from Philippi,' etc., is of no authority whatever. For the places where the two parts were written see Intro.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. This—Literal Greek, A third this I am coming to you. The obvious meaning is, This is a third intentional coming. The contingency of its becoming a real coming is repeated next verse in the phrase if I come again. The word time is not in the Greek, and the word this can, we think, have strictly no proper reference but to the present writing. St. Paul does not affirm, therefore, three actual comings, or that the completion of his present purpose would make a third coming. That it is only as yet an intentional coming is evinced not only by the present words, but by the parallel passage, 2Co_12:14, where see note. That there had not been a second actual coming, so as to make the next one a third, is plain from 2Co_1:15. Then 1Co_16:5 is quite to the point, where the same Greek word, I do pass, or, I am coming through, expresses an intentional coming only, whether fulfilled or not.

Kling, in Lange, maintains three actual visits, and pronounces the other view “not plausible.” Albert Barnes calls it “trifling and childish in the extreme.” But such peremptory expressions will weigh little against such authorities as Grotius, Wetstein, Bloomfield, Stanley, and Wordsworth.

Two or three witnesses—It is impossible for us to imagine that St. Paul was blind to a parallelism between his two or three comings and this two or three witnesses. And if he were not blind to it, he would have avoided it had he not intended it. The parallelism is: Let my three warnings be to you like the three witnesses of the Mosaic law, establishing every word.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is the third time I am coming to you. I have thrice formed the intention, though the second time I had to forego my plan. (2Co_1:15-17) In the mouth of two or three witnesses. The quotation is from Deu_19:15. It has been explained as a reference to examinations which he intended to hold on his arrival at Corinth. It is much more probable that St. Paul is representing his separate visits as separate attestations to the truths which he preaches.

HOMILETICS Vers. 1-14

Paul"s epistolary farewell to the Corinthians.

is the third time I am coming to you, etc. This chapter concludes Paul"s letters to the Corinthians. There is no evidence that he wrote a word to them after this. The letters had evidently been a task to him. To a man of his tender nature no duty could be more painful than that of censure and reproach. Nothing but a sense of loyalty to the holiness of Christianity could have urged him to it. no doubt he felt a burden rolled from his heart, and a freer breath, when he dictated the last sentence. He was now to visit them for the third time, determined to execute the discipline that might be required, earnestly hoping at the same time that, when he was once more amongst them, the necessity for such discipline would not appear. In this concluding chapter we find words of warning, exhortation, prayer, comfort, and benediction.

I WORDS OF WARNING. He warns them of a chastisement which he determined to inflict upon all offenders, both in doctrine and conduct, against the gospel of Christ. Four things are suggested here concerning the discipline he intended to prosecute.

1. The discipline would be righteous. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word he established." Here is a rule quoted and endorsed by Christ, (Mat_18:16) an axiom of the Jewish Law and a natural dictate of judicial policy. What he probably means to say, is, "I will not chastise any without proper evidence. I will not trust to rumours or surmises; I will test every case myself, so that justice shall be done. Therefore the true need not fear, the false alone need apprehend.

2. The discipline would be rigorous. "I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare." He had threatened this in his former letter, (1Co_4:13-19) in which he had also indicated severity, (1Co_5:5) and spoken of "delivering them to Satan an expression which probably means not only excommunication, but the infliction of corporal suffering. The blindness of Elymas and the death of Ananias and Sapphira are instances of the power of the apostles over the body of men. This chastisement would be dealt, not only to the notorious incestuous person often referred to, but to "all other;" he would "spare" none. "I will not spare." A more terrible chastisement know I not than entire excommunication from the fellowship of the good.

3. The discipline would demonstrate the existence of Christ in him. "Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me. "They had called in question his apostolic authority, they had demanded the evidence of his Divine commission. He says he would now furnish such evidence by inflicting just punishment on all offenders, and they should have abundant proof that Christ spoke by him." He could have given this proof sooner, but he acted in this respect like Christ, and was content to appear "weak" amongst them, in order that his power might be more conspicuously displayed. "For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you." "The thought," says Dean Plumptre, "that underlies the apparently hard saying is that the disciples of Christ share at once in their Lord"s weakness and in his strength. We, too, are weak, says the apostle, we have our share in infirmities and sufferings, which are ennobled by the thought that they are ours because we are his, but we know that we shall live in the highest sense in the activities of the spiritual life, which also we shall share with him, and which comes to us by the power of God. This life will be manifested in the exercise of our spiritual power towards you and for your good." In the case of the truly good, in all weakness there is strength, and the weakness one day will disappear and the strength be manifest.

II WORDS OF EXHORTATION. "Examine yourselves." Self-scrutiny is at once a duty the most urgent and the most neglected. Hence the universal prevalence of self-ignorance. Even men who know a very great deal of the world without are ignorant of the world within, the world of worlds.

1. The momentous point to be tested in self scrutiny. "Whether ye be in the faith? Not whether you have faith in you, for all men are more or less credulous, and have some kind of faith in them; but whether you are "in the faith." The faith here is the gospel, or rather the Christ of the gospel; whether you are in Christ, in the character of Christ. Intellectually and morally, all men are living in the characters of others. The grand thing is to be in the character of Christ, in his principles, sympathies, aims, etc.

2. The momentous conclusion to be reached by self-scrutiny. "Know ye not emphatic your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" If you are in the faith, you are in his character, and he is in your. life; nay, your life itself. Should you find you are not in the faith, ye are "reprobates," counterfeits, spurious, not genuine; tares, not wheat; hypocrites. Here, then, is a work forevery man to do himself, introspect scrutinize, decide, and thus know his real moral condition,

III WORDS OF PRAYER. "Now I pray to God," etc. For what does he pray? Not for his own reputation or himself. As if he had said, "I am not anxious about my own standing amongst you. He prays for two things.

1. That they should be kept from the wrong. "Now I pray to God that ye do no evil." "Do no evil," nothing inconsistent with the character and teaching of Christ. "Cease to do evil, learn to do well.

2. That they should possess the right. "Not that we should appear approved but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates." We pay not that we may gain a reputation as successful workers in your eyes or those of others, but that you may do that which is nobly good (may advance from a negative to a positive form of holiness), even though the result of that may be that we no longer put our apostolic supernatural powers into play, and so seem to fail in the trial to which you challenge us.

IV WORDS OF COMFORT. "We can do nothing against the truth." There are two comforting ideas here.

1. That truth is uninjurable. "We can do nothing against the truth." Let the "truth" here stand for Jesus, who is the "Truth," the great moral Reality incarnated, all that is real in doctrine and duty embodied in him; who can injure such? Man can do much against theories of truth, conventional manifestations of truth, ecclesiastical representations of truth, verbal revelations of truth. The more he does against these, perhaps, the better;

2. but he can do nothing against "the truth," its essence. Man may quench all the gas lamps in the world, but he cannot dim one star. The great ethical and doctrinal truths embodied in the life and teaching of Christ are imperishable, they live in all religions. Men can destroy the forms of nature, level the mountains, dry up the rivers, burn the forests, but can do nothing against the imperishable elements of nature, and these elements will live, build up new mountains, open fresh rivers, and create new forests. You can do nothing against the truth. That goodness is unpunishable. "For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection." It is unpunishable:

(1) Because it is goodness. The best of men are too "weak" in authority to punish those who are "strong" in goodness. And in truth there is no authority in the universe, even God himself, to punish goodness. The stronger a man is in goodness, the weaker the power to chastise him. Hence Paul wishes to find them "strong" in goodness when he comes amongst them. He wishes this because goodness is their "perfection," or restoration. The way to paralyze all penal forces is to promote the growth of goodness.

(2) Because it is restorative. "Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction." Its destiny is "edification," not "destruction;" building up, not pulling down. Moral goodness is the restorative power in the universe.

V WORDS OF BENEDICTION. "Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you." His becedictory words imply:

1. Be Happy. "Farewell," which means rejoice. To be happy they must be "perfect," "of good comfort," etc.

2. Be blest of God. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.

HOMILIES BY C. LIPSCOMB

Vers. 1-4.

Announcement of his purpose; Christ"s power in him and in his apostleship.

About to visit the Corinthians "the third time." he informs them very distinctly what they had to expect. In the words of the Old Testament Law, he says, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." The strength of his resolution to punish impenitent offenders is declared will not spare." A crisis was at hand, and he was fully prepared to meet the issue. He refers to the main source of all the trouble, viz. the disparagement of his office as Christ"s apostle. Everything had been done by the Judaizers to put contempt on him and his official position The forbearance he had shown, the patience under repeated and aggravated provocation, his deeds of self-denial, Christ"s testimony to the greatness of the work alone among them, had all been misconstrued and turned to his injury. Even his infirmities, the defects of personal appearance, his conscientious avoidance of the least worldly art in his ministry, had been used to his disadvantage. Craft, falsehood, malignity, had followed him with persistent steps. Neither his private nor public life had escaped prying eyes and slanderous tongues. A man in feeble health, his strength constantly over taxed, infirmities growing beyond his years as well as with his years, labouring to support himself, and thus making heavy drafts on his bodily powers, he had these ills daily augmented by annoyances and vexations from those who sought to come between him and his Churches. To undo his work was their aim and ambition. They hated him officially, they despised him personally, nor could they rest while he had friends to cheer him on in his labours. What is most noticeable is the utter blindness of these persecutors to the wonderful tokens of God"s presence with him. It is to this fact he alludes in the words, "Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me." Remember, it was in this Corinth, where these turbulent spirits were most industrious to overthrow him, that Christ had given the most numerous and remarkable evidences of the favour bestowed on his apostle as the apostle of the Gentiles. "Seek a proof," to our ears sounds most strangely. "Signs and wonders and mighty deeds," and yet "seek a proof of Christ speaking in me"! It is well that there was an antecedent history, a fourfold history but one biography, and that this biography of the Lord Jesus opens to us a full view of man"s capacity to disbelieve where Divine manifestations are concerned. "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." So the Lord Jesus had foretold; so St. Paul had realized. And now, in the closing hour of writing this Epistle, the apostle identifies his condition with that of Christ in the days of the flesh. Years before, the great fact had occurred of which these recent facts were no more than exemplifications. Taking upon himself the lowly form of a servant and submitting to every kind of privation and sorrow, putting himself as to his circumstances in extreme contrast with his power and never exercising this power except; under the agency of the Holy Ghost, men treated him, Son of God, Son of man, as one in their hands, over whom and his earthly destiny they had entire control. "He was crucified through weakness." He could have been crucified in no other way. The sole condition under which this event was possible is here stated, viz. weakness. The weakness was assumed voluntarily by him because it was necessary to the work of redemption. "Yet he liveth by the power of God." Even in the grave his body was treated as though men had it under mastery. Roman procurator and Jewish Sanhedrim held it as their own, and stationed a military guard at the sepulchre where his corpse, still their prisoner, lay till the third day ended the mystery of his weakness. Then came the triumph "of the power of God." Authority felt it and was abased. To its degradation it added the infamy of a lie, and to the lie the infamy of a money bribe. Guilt felt it and acknowledged its impending curse in the return of innocent blood as vengeance on its head. Sad as this hour was to St. Paul, his faith was never firmer. Had he not said just before, that if he should have to "bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented," he should accept the humiliation as a holy discipline? "My God will humble me among you." One had gone before him in weakness. But his Leader in trial would be his Leader in triumph. "For we also are weak in him." It is not our weakness. It wears a human look, speaks human words, trembles with human sensibility, sighs with human pathos, yearns for relief with human desires. Nevertheless it is a fact, "we also are weak in him. " The weakness we share is that of the God-Man, the weakness of the Divine incarnation, so that we walk according to our small measure in the footsteps of him who "himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." "But we shall live," not in the resurrection, but in the day when we come to Corinth and vindicate our authority, "we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. " Then, indeed, you who have taunted us as "weak and contemptible," shall see and know that this risen and exalted Christ is Christ in us," the power of God toward you." Do you then "seek a proof of Christ speaking in me"? 1 shall come with "the power of God" and the "proof" shall be given. L.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I am coming this third time - He had been coming twice before, though he did not actually come.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

sinned

Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A Concluding Admonition and Greetings.

Paul announces his determination to use all severity, if necessary:

v. 1. This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

v. 2. I told you before and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time, and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare,

v. 3. since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.

v. 4. For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.

Paul here follows his usual method of making the end of his letters as impressive as possible. In a very formal manner he announces: This is the third time that I am coming to you. This is, in a way. a reminder of Mat 18:15-17; for two apostolic visits had gone before, in the course of which Paul had used every form of instruction, of persuasion, of admonition. For his third visit, therefore, he deliberately chooses as his motto: At the mouth of two witnesses or three every statement shall be established. The disciplinary proceedings which he intended to institute would be rigid and precise. He does not quote this word as a command of Moses which is valid for the New Testament, but because this order of establishing the truth by a sufficient number of witnesses was found good by Christ, Mat 18:16. See 1Ti 5:19.

Very solemnly and emphatically he again states: I have said beforehand and now do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now in my absence, to those that have sinned before and to all the rest: If I come again, I will not spare. With great forbearance Paul had suffered the incorrigible transgressors in Corinth. He had warned them upon the occasion of his visit to them, the very presence of his representatives had been tantamount to a warning; he had rebuked their proneness to sins of immorality, chap. 12:21; he had warned them on account of their tendency to form factions and parties. His present admonition, therefore, is the last one, for the time comes when forbearance and long-suffering ceases to be a virtue. He can no longer be satisfied with mere appeals that are ignored; he cannot permit his apostolic authority to be challenged and questioned.

The reason why he would not spare them on the coming visit he tells them: Since you seek a proof of the fact that Christ speaks in me (and by your conduct challenge this). Not all the members of the Corinthian congregation had become so rebellious, but neither had they taken the proper steps to quell the disturbance which threatened to undermine the apostle’s authority. Rightly, therefore, Paul includes the rest as well as the positively guilty ones in his rebuke. They were challenging his call, his mission from Christ to speak in His name. And this in spite of the fact, as Paul writes: Who toward you is not weak, but strong in you. Was not the very existence of their congregation a testimony to the power of Christ in His servant? Had the signs of an apostle done in their midst not been sufficient to convince them? Christ was indeed not weak, but His grace had proved itself powerful in their midst. Christ, having come in the apostolic word and spirit to the Corinthians and now living in their midst, was now again standing at the door and knocking, and nothing would be more foolish on their part than evasion or open hostility.

Two evidences for the presence and for the power of Christ in their midst Paul adduces: For He also was crucified from weakness, but He lives through the power of God. That is the first reason: the resurrection of Christ, by which He proved Himself to be the Victor over death. Christ indeed, having taken upon Himself the form of a servant, Php 2:7, was nailed to the cross as a consequence of that weakness which He voluntarily assumed for the sake of mankind. He yielded to the weakness of suffering and dying out of that wonderful love which caused Him to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows, Isa 53:4. But by His resurrection He entered into His glory by the divine power of Him who raised His Son from the dead, as well as by the power of Him who conquered death and brought life and immortality to light. And as a result of this manifestation of Christ’s power the second reason holds good: For we also are weak in Him but we live with Him by the power of God toward you. So the strength which Christ, the risen King, imparts, gives power to Paul in the discharge of his duty toward the Corinthians. As Christ indeed was weak in the eyes of the world, so Paul might seem weak before them. But as a matter of fact, he is a partaker of that wonderful divine life and energy which is characteristic of the risen and glorified Christ. Note: Paul here insists that the almighty, infallible Christ lived in him and worked through him, and that his office was to be esteemed accordingly.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The apostle having throughout both his epistles blamed the Corinthians for several gross enormities found amongst them, and hearing there were some who had not repented of them, he gives them plainly to understand, that he had a full purpose to come unto them with his rod of ecclesiastical discipline and church censures, and would not spare a man of them, but execute that power on the impenitent, which Christ had given him, by excluding such unreclaimable offenders from church communion.

Note here, With what wisdom and caution the holy apostle proceeds in the executing and inflicting the severe censures of the church; he uses admonition a first, a second, and third time, before he proceeds to the awful sentence of excommunication, I told you before, I foretell you now, and being absent, I write to you, that when I come I will not spare.

He tells them farther, that they had tempted him hereunto, in that they had required a proof from him whether Christ had owned him as an apostle or not, and would ratify his censures by judgments following them. He shows that Christ had owned him, and manifested his power in his ministry among them, by converting many of them to the Christian faith, by bestowing the gifts of his Spirit upon them, and by many signs and miracles which he enabled him to do in the midst of them.

When God calls his servants to the work of the ministry, he leaves not either himself or them without witness; he bears testimony to their sincerity, by giving them, in some degree, the seal of their ministry, in the conversion or edification of those they are sent unto: Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, to you ward he is not weak, but is mighty in and amongst you.

Next, the holy apostle draws a parallel, and makes a comparison between his blessed Lord and Master and himself. As Christ, in his state of humiliation, appeared to be a weak and frail man, by being crucified; but was evidenced to be the great and mighty God, by his rising from the dead: so the apostle, considered in himself, and in respect of his afflictions, appears a weak and contemptible man; but yet they had found, and should farther find, a resemblance of the power and strength of Christ in his life and ministry; and particularly, they should find him armed with authority from Christ, to execute censures upon the contumacious and impenitent.

Though the ministers of Christ, like their Master, when here on earth, are in a state of weakness, poverty, and contempt, yet they are clothed with divine power in the execution of their office, and their ministry is a living, powerful, and efficacious ministry, in the vigorous effects of it upon the hearts of their people; We are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1. “This third time I come unto you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” This has reference to the statements which follow. He had sent Timothy in the first place, who had labored faithfully to correct all of those troubles. Afterward he had sent Titus, who had done the same; both of them having held protracted meetings of reasonable prolixity, making all due and faithful effort to accomplish the end in view. Of course now when he goes down, he himself will be the third witness on the stand in favor of the prosecution of the guilty.

2. “I have forewarned you, and I now forewarn you as being present a second time; even now absent, to those who have sinned hitherto, and to all the rest, that if I come unto you again I will not spare.” He has done his utmost to save them all, and now he is going to enforce the law of the New Testament and excommunicate all offending parties.

3. “Since you seek the approval of Christ who speaketh in me, who unto you is not weak, but mighty among you. For indeed He was crucified from weakness, but He liveth by the power of God, who raised from the dead. For indeed we are weak in him.” i.e., we are weak physically and influential because in Him we have surrendered all temporal power, resources and availability, and hence in respect to these things we are weak and destined so to be. “But we shall live along with Him by the power of God with respect to you.” Though we have forfeited all temporal power by our identity with Christ, who Himself permitted the world-powers to overcome Him and take His life, yet because we live in Him we participate the very power of God, so far as they are concerned. Hence, he wants them to understand that the disciplinary power he is going to bring into availability is none other than the power of God in Christ. We should all learn a valuable lesson here:

(a) Temporal power in church discipline is a misnomer, and of the devil. Hence, in this way the by-gone ages were deluged with martyrs’ blood.

(b) In the second place, we must make the fact that all disciplinary power in the Church of God is purely spiritual pursuant to the revealed Word, the only code of rules and regulations really authoritative in any matter of ecclesiastical discipline. here we see while he utterly disclaims all temporal power, he assures them that the discipline shall be summary and decisive in every case.

5. “Examine yourselves if you are in the faith; prove yourselves; know you not yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless you are reprobates?” This verse is clear and unmistakable in the great problem of experimental Christianity, setting forth the fact that all are reprobates, i. e., mere counterfeits and pretenders, who have not Jesus Christ in them. While the Christ life is imparted in regeneration, the personal enthronement of Christ in the heart only takes place in entire sanctification. Paul in the highway saw Jesus without, shining into him, when lie was converted. Down in Arabia in his second experience (Gal 1:15), God revealed His Son in Him, i. e., sitting upon the throne of his heart. The great work of the Holy Ghost is to reveal and honor Christ hence, when you receive the personal Holy Ghost as an indwelling Sanctifier and Comforter, He invariably reveals the glorified Savior and enthrones him in the heart. Hence, we see from this clear admonition that the only alternative is Christ within or reprobate.

6. “I hope that you will know that we are not reprobates.” The better translation of adokimoi in this verse is “disapproved”; arising from the different attitudes occupied by the Corinthians and the apostles. In case of the former, disapproval or reprobate meant ejectment from Christ and the forfeiture of salvation, because their attitude was simply that of Christians. The case is quite different with the apostles, their Christianity not being in controversy, but simply their apostleship. Hence disapproval from the apostolic attitude still left them bona fide citizens of the kingdom, while disapproval from the attitude of saintship means ejectment from the kingdom of Christ and forfeiture of all hope.

7. “But we pray unto God that you may do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but in order that you may do good and that we may appear as it were disapproved.” His chief desideratum is that the Corinthian saints may turn out all right, showing up and sustaining an irreproachable Christian character in the clear light of God’s Word, even though it may turn out that they “may be as it were disapproved.” Of course, he knows that he is all right with God spiritually and apostolically. Hence he is resting perfectly easy with reference to himself. All his solicitude focalizes in the interest of the Corinthians.

8. “We are not able to do anything against the truth, but in behalf of the truth.” Here is a grand case of church trial, clearly elucidatory of every problem and final in the settlement of every difficulty along that line. Shall we not profit by it? God help us. You see here the truth, i. e., the Word of God revealed in the New Testament is the only umpire in the case. Hence you see the solution of every question that has vexed the church through the ages. Every possible issue is here brought to a focus. The New Testament is a plain book, easily understood. It is plainer, more simple and perspicuous than any of the creeds, rules or regulations. Hence we have nothing to do but bring everything to the law of the Lord as we read it in His precious Word. Away with all human authority. It is all Divine, human agency simply recognizing and enforcing it. What a pity that church courts are not content to walk in the footprints of Paul, try their members according to God’s Word alone, making it the ineffaceable finale in every case. It would play sad havoc with the frolicking, worldly churches of the present day, turning out about nine out of every ten. But the angels would come down from Heaven to supply their places.

9. “For we rejoice when we may be weak and you may be strong: truly we pray for this, your perfection.” You see Paul and his comrades were all a unit in Christian perfection, praying and working for it incessantly. This was the grand ultimatum in all the apostolic ministry. How any person can read the Bible and not see Christian perfection flashing and glowing from Alpha to Omega, radiating out in the prayers, and flaming in the sermons, and flashing in the exhortations and testimonies, we can not comprehend.

10. “Therefore, being absent, I write the same things, in order that, being present, I may not use the severity which God gave me for edification, and not for destruction.” All true preachers of the gospel are successors to the apostles, so far as proclaiming the living Word and enforcing church discipline are concerned. Hence it is our imperative duty to declare all the counsel of God and to enforce New Testament law and discipline to the letter, fearlessly of men and devils. We are no better than Paul, and he here declares that he will use severity and not spare the guilty. Alas for the woeful delinquency in the discharge of duty, and the appalling maladministration in the churches at the present day! Where can you find a membership verifying the New Testament standard of Christian morality? Why do not the preachers dare to walk in the footprints of Paul in this matter? While the Word is plain and unmistakable, and we see millions flagrantly violating it, therefore disciplinary duty involving excommunication becomes the inalienable obligation of every pastor, yet we see from this Scripture that this power is given to us for “edification, and not for destruction.” Therefore we should learn wisdom from the prudential procedure of Paul, firing on them at long range and doing his utmost to wheel them all into line before his arrival. In this he gloriously succeeded. I used to come to my circuit responsive to the appointment of my Conference, and find the majority of my members living beyond the dead- line, where it became my painful duty to excommunicate them. I always made it a rule to run a protracted meeting from the hour my feet rested on my territory till the expiration of the Conference year, by the help of God rolling the revival flame from shore to shore. The result was my unworthy members would get convicted and converted and go for holiness, and great hosts of outsiders would be gloriously converted. And, instead of reducing my membership by expulsion, I would go back to Conference with three times as many as I began with, seldom ever turning any one out of the church. Why? Because I turned on them the Pauline maneuver, doing everything in my power to get them saved before I proceeded to enforce the law in their excommunication. God wonderfully came to my relief in every case. But, mark it down, if they had not repented and got religion, I would have made a clean sweep like Paul said he would at Corinth. But, after all of these protracted meetings held by Timothy and Titus, and these powerful letters written, and the awful warnings given, we have no reason to believe that a single one became the victim of the preannounced severity; from the simple fact that they all heeded the warning, repented and got right before his arrival. So he came on late in the fall of 57, staying with them three months and writing that wonderful Book of Romans, and we have not an intimation of a single one expelled. On the contrary, they had a glorious hallelujah time and much edification.

11. “Finally, brethren, rejoice.” This is the literal meaning of the Greek chairete. “Farewell” (E.V.) is neither literal nor suitable here, as he was not bidding them adieu, but saluting them on his speedily anticipated arrival. The idea, of course, is all rejoice in the Lord, which is quite a hackneyed phrase in Pauline parlance. “Be perfected.” This verb is in the imperative mood, thus positively and explicitly commanding them all along the line of Christian perfection, the favorite theme of every apostle, and should be of every gospel minister. John Wesley exhorted his preachers: “Preach Christian perfection constantly, urgently and explicitly.” “Be comforted,” i. e., be sure that you all receive the blessed Holy Comforter, that He may come into your heart and abide forever. “Be of the same mind,” literally, “mind the same thing.” All sinners have the carnal mind only. All wholly sanctified people have the mind of Christ only. The unsanctified are intermediate between these two classes and double-minded (Jas 1:4; Jas 4:8); i. e., having the mind of Christ imparted by the Holy Ghost in regeneration, but still the carnal mind in a subjugated state dominated by the mind of Christ, but, like a prisoner in jail fearing the hangman’s rope, ready at any time to slay his keeper and make his escape. Hence this is simply another commandment on the same line on entire sanctification along with the preceding, thus adding more and more emphasis to the Divine requirement of Christian perfection. “Live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you.” Jesus is recognized throughout the Bible as the Prince of Peace, and at the same time portrayed by the inspired writers as a mighty warrior, fighting and conquering sin, death and Hell. In conversion we receive peace with God, but in sanctification, the peace of God which passeth all understanding, and is competent to keep our minds and hearts in harmony with our great Captain. Jesus is Prince of that peace which follows an exterminating war upon sin, without whose literal destruction there is no such thing as permanent and abiding peace.

12. “Salute one another with a holy kiss.” This commandment is so frequent in the apostolic letters, and so positive, that I do not wonder the Holiness people in some localities are giving it the prominence it enjoyed in the apostolic age. Let us not be wise above what is written, and be very careful lest we criticize the Word of the Lord. The Greek word, phileema, here used, not only means a kiss with the lips, but a love-token manifested in a diversity of ways. Yet we must give Scripture its full force and not depreciate its literal signification.

13. “All the saints salute you.” The facts favor the conclusion that this letter was written in Berea in Macedonia, where they enjoyed an exceedingly bright and beautiful Christianity, evinced by their ardent and enthusiastic appreciation of the Holy Scriptures. We do not wonder that they all send their loving salutations of Christian affection to the dear saints of Achaia.

14. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.” While we find benedictions at the conclusion of every apostolic letter, some quite brief and unique, and others rather prolix, no one has ever attained the notoriety of the above, from the accidental fact of the prominence given it in the creeds of Christendom. The English language is rapidly spreading over the earth under the wonderful aggressive conquests of the British Empire, planting the national church of England in many heathen lands and opening the way for missionary enterprises generally. Consequently the Episcopalian ritual and formula have been extensively adopted by the Protestant churches generally in all the earth, carrying with them this soiled apostolic benediction, which multitudes recognize by that name, though it is no more apostolic than any of the balance. While we have no criticism for the free use of this benediction, to avoid monotony we would advise you to not use it constantly, but avail yourself of the variety furnished by all the apostolic officials. This is the great argument for the leadership of the Holy Ghost; He will never have you run in the same old rut till you lose the freshness and power, which is the objection to the constant use of the above benediction, or any other set and definite form in the worship of God. This is the great reason why the ordinary church services lose their power. Hence it is exceedingly unwise and grievous to the Holy Spirit to tie ourselves to any forms and routines, which will ere long assert their claims and actually become your idols, running you into the awful sin of idolatry before you are aware. The Holy Ghost is the founder, organizer, perpetuator and glorifier of the Church. Whenever you get away from His personal leadership you are already derailed and going fast into the devil’s mud, where you will stick and rot, while the New Jerusalem trains move by you at lightning speed. This benediction is a beautiful and significant exhibition, not only of the personal Trinity, but the reciprocal work of the Trinity in the gracious economy. The world is saved by the free grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, that grace super induced by the matchless and unutterable love of the Father, all culminating in the fellowship of the Holy Ghost indicated by the Greek koinoonai, which really indicates the matrimonial alliance. The Holy Ghost becomes our constant Companion, waking and talking with us, our loving Companion in holy wedlock.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every word be established . [ Deu_19:15 ]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

1–4. This is the third time I am coming. See notes on 12:14. In the mouth of two or three witnesses. Every case of disorderly conduct will be taken cognizance of, but the trials will be strictly legal. Two or three witnesses will establish a charge.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul establishes that Christ is speaking through him and that Paul is wanting to restore them, encourage them, and unify them.

Every accusation must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses

This can be stated as active. AT: "Believe that someone has done something wrong only after two or three people have said the same thing" (See: Active or Passive)

all the rest

"all you other people"

translationWords

testimony

sin

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

The third time. The great mass of modern expositors hold that Paul made three visits to Corinth, of the second of which there is no record. 162 I am coming. The third visit which I am about to pay. Alford observes that had not chronological theories intervened, no one would ever have thought of any other rendering. Those who deny the second visit explain : this is the third time that I have been intending to come.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.