2 Corinthians 2:14

2Co_2:14-16

Now thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ.

Gods triumph and Pauls

The authorised translation at first sight strikes us as most suitable. Practically Paul had been engaged in a conflict with the Corinthians, and for a time it seemed not improbable that he might be beaten; but God caused him to triumph in Christ--i.e., acting in Christs interests, in matters in which Christs name and honour were at stake, the victory, as always, had remained with him. But there can be little doubt that the Revisers were right in translating leadeth us in triumph. The triumph is Gods, not the apostles. Paul is not the soldier who wins the battle and shouts for victory as he marches in the triumphal procession; he is the captive who is led in the conquerors train, and in whom men see the trophy of the conquerors power. When he says that God always leads him in triumph in Christ, the meaning is not perfectly obvious. He may intend to define, as it were, the area over which Gods victory extends. In everything which is covered by the name and authority of Christ, God triumphantly asserts His power over the apostle. Or he may mean that it is through Christ that Gods victorious power is put forth. These two meanings, of course, are not inconsistent, and practically they coincide. It cannot be denied, I think, if this is taken rigorously, that there is a certain air of irrelevance about it. It does not seem to be the purpose of the passage to say that God always triumphs over Paul and those for whom he speaks, or even that He always leads them in triumph. It is this feeling which mainly influences those who keep to A.V., and regard Paul as the victor. But the meaning of the original is not really open to doubt, and the semblance of the irrelevance disappears if we remember that we are dealing with a figure, and a figure which the apostle himself does not press. Of course, in an ordinary triumph, such as that of Claudius over Caractacus, of which Paul may easily have heard, the captives had no share in the victory; it was not only a victory over them, but against them. But when God wins a victory over man, and leads his captive in triumph, the captive too has an interest in what happens; it is the beginning of all triumphs, in any true sense, for him. If we apply this to the case before us, we shall see that the true meaning is not irrelevant. Paul had once been the enemy of God in Christ; he had fought against Him in his own soul, and in the Church which he persecuted and wasted. The battle had been long and strong, but not far from Damascus it had terminated in a mighty victory for God. There the mighty man fell, and the weapons of his warfare perished. His pride, his self-righteousness, his sense of superiority to others and of competence to attain to the righteousness of God, collapsed for ever, and he rose from the earth to be the slave of Jesus Christ. That was the beginning of Gods triumph over him; from that hour God led him in triumph in Christ. But it was the beginning also of all that made the apostles life itself a triumph--not a career of hopeless internal strife, such as it had been, but of unbroken Christian victory. So the only triumphs we can ever have, deserving the name, must begin with Christs triumph over us. This is the one possible source of joy untroubled. We may be as selfish as we please, and as successful in our selfishness; we may distance all our rivals in the race for the worlds prizes; we may appropriate and engross pleasure, wealth, knowledge, influence; and after all there will be one thing we must do without--the power and happiness of thanking God. No one will ever be able to thank God because he has succeeded in pleasing himself, be the mode of his self-pleasing as respectable as you will; and he who has not thanked God with a whole heart, without misgiving or reserve, does not know what joy is. Such thanksgiving and its joy have one condition: they rise up spontaneously in the soul when it allows God to triumph over it. When God appears in Christ, when, in the omnipotence of His love and purity and truth, He makes war on our pride and falsehood and lusts, and prevails against them, and brings us low, then we are admitted to the secret of this apparently perplexing passage; we know how natural it is to cry, Thanks be unto God, who in His victory over us giveth us the victory! Thanks be to Him who always leadeth us in triumph! It is out of an experience like this that Paul speaks; it is the key to his whole life, and it has been illustrated anew by what has just happened at Corinth. (J. Denney, B. D.)

The triumph of the Christian minister

The immediate occasion of St. Pauls expressing this sentiment was the glad tidings which he had received of the Church at Corinth, together with the door opened to him of the Lord at Troas.

I. The Christian ministers triumph.

1. The idea of a triumph implies that there has been a conquest achieved; surely the success of the gospel of Christ has now, as well as in the days of St. Paul, the best title to this distinction. We have not now, indeed, like the apostles, to resist the authority of learning and rank, but we have still the ignorant and obdurate heart of man to conquer; we have still to cope with the love of the world, the dominion of passion, and the force of evil customs; we have still to subdue the pride and presumption of men, and to induce them to be saved by faith in the death and sacrifice of Christ. The drunkard is to be made sober, the unjust righteous. And is there no triumph in accomplishing this?

2. We admit, indeed, that to the eye of sense there appears no splendour in achieving these victories.

3. But still, to the eye of piety and faith, there was, amidst all, a triumph. The very external ignominy, sufferings, and infirmities of the apostle, contrasted with the effects of his preaching on the hearts and lives of men, would only the more illustrate the surprising victory of the grace of God.

4. And in cases of remarkable revivals of religion, when the Word of God runs more rapidly and is glorified, may not the language of the text be applied in a still more full and appropriate sense? Is not this a magnificent triumph?

5. This triumph is described in the text to be in Christ, and that because it is gained entirely by His grace. It is not natural reason or the power or skill of the minister which can change a single heart.

6. It is also in Him because it is gained by His doctrine, and by that only. It is not by enticing words of mans wisdom, but by plainly exhibiting the simple truths of redemption, that men are converted unto God.

7. It is likewise a triumph in Christ because it is effected by the means of Gods appointment; not by force or persecution, but by a holy example and continual efforts and affectionate warnings and invitations addressed to the heart.

8. How superior is this triumph to every other!

II. The special blessings which the Christian minister communicates. And maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place. There is always a proportion in the Holy Scripture between the description and the importance of the thing described. No triumph, no glorying is spoken of, except the occasion justly demands it. Thus, wherever the spiritual triumph of the apostle advanced, the knowledge of Christ, like a reviving odour, was diffused around, and men were refreshed and invigorated.

1. The knowledge of Christ is the leading blessing which the gospel confers. Other truths may be necessary as introductory to it or consequent upon it, but Christ, as the Saviour of sinners, is the basis and the substance of Christian doctrine.

2. The knowledge of Christ, strictly taken, more immediately regards the Divine person and grace of Jesus Christ, His glory as the eternal, incommunicable Word, His incarnation for our redemption, His obedience, sufferings, and death.

3. But who can describe fitly the savour of this knowledge? The mystery of redemption is not a cold abstract truth, like a subtle question in metaphysics, an obscure point in chronology, or a probable fact in history. It is something infinitely greater and more interesting than all these. There is, therefore, a savour, a fragrance, an unction, so to speak, in the knowledge of Christ. These expressions imply something of delight and refreshment in the doctrine of the Saviour which it is difficult adequately to describe. As a proof of this, ask only the guilty and self-condemned penitent. He will tell you there was a savour in the knowledge of Christ which no words can express. Inquire, again, of the afflicted, tempted, and perplexed Christian. He will rejoice to acknowledge, because he will have deeply felt, its unspeakable blessedness. Or ask the expiring Christian, as he lies on the bed of death. The name of Christ is to such persons as a reviving fragrance to the faint. This language may be regarded as tinctured with enthusiasm. We admit that the corrupt moral taste of men who have never so repented of sin as to abhor it, and therefore have never comprehended this doctrine aright, can find no sweetness or refreshment in it; but the holy and enlightened mind is not to be measured by the low, defective standard which is adapted to the sensual and immoral. Thus, in natural things, disease, it is true, may vitiate the organs, and the most exquisite perfumes may become in such cases offensive.

III. The gratitude which the apostle offers to God for this triumph. The language of the text is that of impassioned transport--Now thanks be unto God, etc. God, in the dispensation of His grace, uses such instruments as may best illustrate His own glory. And, indeed, if the Roman conqueror in his triumph is said to have deposited his golden crown in the lap of Jupiter when he arrived at the Capitol, and to have dedicated to him a part of the spoils which he had won, much more should the apostle of Christ cast his crown at the feet of his gracious Saviour, and devote all his acquisitions to His honour. The moment the minister of Christ, unfaithful to his trust, begins to glory in himself, and to ascribe his success to the might of his own power, he may expect to be deserted by his Lord. In comparison with such a triumph he will think nothing of his labours and anxieties.

1. Let us inquire, in the first place, whether we have indeed for ourselves obeyed the gospel of Christ. Have we considered the gospel in the manner in which the text represents it? Have we understood the triumph connected with it? Have we received the knowledge of Christ which it exhibits?

2. But, further, if, as I trust is the case with many of us, we have obeyed the gospel, let us inquire whether we are habitually acting agreeably to it. Are the effects of the victory evident? (D. Wilson, M. A.)

Gratitude presented

Now thanks be to God. These thanksgivings should be--

1. Ardent.

2. Constant.

3. Practical.

4. Indispensable to our happiness.

5. These thanksgivings will be eternal.

Hence these thanksgivings are--

1. Spiritual.

2. Public.

3. Private.

4. Costly.

5. Fiducial.

6. And Scriptural and holy. (T. B. Baker.)

The triumphal procession of the Christ

The Revised Version correctly alters the translation into Thanks be unto God, which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ. Paul thinks of himself and of his coadjutors in Christian work as being conquered captives, made to follow their Conqueror and to swell His triumph. He is thankful to be so overcome. What was deepest degradation is to him supreme honour. He maketh manifest--that is, visible--the savour of His knowledge. From a heart kindled by the flame of the Divine love there will go up the odour of a holy life.

I. First, then, let us look at that thought of all Christians being in the truest sense conquered captives, bound to the chariot wheels of one who has overcome them. The image implies prior state of hostility and alienation. Paul is speaking about himself here; he says, I was an enemy, and I have been conquered. What sort of an enemy was he? Well, he says that before he became a Christian he lived a pure, virtuous, respectable life. He was a man, as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. His conscience acquitted him of wrong, and yet he says, Notwithstanding all that, I was an enemy. Why? Because the retrospect let him see that his life was barren of the deepest faith and the purest love. That is the basis of the representation of my text. It suggests the wonderful struggle and victory of weaponless love. As was said about the first Christian emperor, so it may be said about the great Emperor in the heavens, In hoc signo vinces (By this sign thou shalt conquer!). For His only weapon is the Cross of His Son, and He fights only by the manifestation of infinite love, sacrifice, suffering, and pity. He conquers as the sun conquers the thick-ribbed ice by raying down its heat upon it, and melting it into sweet water. And what more does this first part of my text say to us? It tells us, too, of the true submission of the conquered captive. This picture of the triumph comes with a solemn appeal to every professing Christian. Think of these men, dragged at the conquerors chariot-wheels, abject, with their weapons broken, with their resistance quelled, chained, haled away from their own land, dependent for life or death on the caprice of the general that rode before them there. It is a picture of what you Christian men and women are bound to be if you believe that God in Christ has loved you. If we are thus won by infinite love, and not our own, but bought with a price, no conquered king, dragged at an emperors chariot-wheels, was ever half as absolutely bound to be his slave, and to live or die by his breath, as you are bound to your Master.

II. Now we have here, as part of the ideal of the Christian life, the conquered captives partaking in the triumph of their general. Two groups made up the triumphal procession--the one that of the soldiers who had fought for, the other that of the prisoners who had fought against, the leader. And some commentators are inclined to believe that the apostle is here thinking of himself and his fellows as belonging to the conquering army, and not to the conquered enemy. But be that as it may, it suggests to us this thought--that they who are conquered foes become conquering allies. Or, to put it into other words, to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with Christ. We may illustrate that thought--that to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with Christ--by such considerations as these. This submission, abject and unconditional, extending to life and death, is but another name for liberty. The man who is absolutely dependent upon Jesus Christ is absolutely independent of everything and everybody besides, himself included. If you give yourselves up to Jesus Christ, in the measure in which you give yourselves up to Him you will be set at liberty from the worst of all slaveries--that is, the slavery of your own will and your own weakness, and your own tastes and fancies. You will be set at liberty from the dependence upon men, from thinking about their opinion. You will be set at liberty from your dependence upon externals, from feeling as if you could not live unless you had this, that, or the other person or thing. If you have Christ for your Master you will be the masters of the world, and of time and sense and men and all besides; and so, being triumphed over by Him, you will share in His triumph. And, again, we may illustrate the same principle in yet another way. Such absolute submission of will and love is the highest honour of a man. It was a degradation to be dragged at the chariot-wheels of conquering general. But it is the highest ennobling of humanity that it shall lay itself down at Christs feet, and let Him put His foot upon its neck. And the same thought may be yet further illustrated. That submission so unites us to our Lord that we share in all that belongs to Him, and thus partake in His triumph.

III. Lastly, a further picture of the ideal of the Christian life is set before us here in the thought of these conquered captives being led as the trophies and the witnesses of his overcoming power. That idea is suggested by both halves of our verse. Both the emblem of the apostle as marching in the triumphal procession, and the emblem of the apostle as yielding from his burning heart the fragrant visible odour of the ascending incense, convey the same idea--viz., that one great purpose which Jesus Christ has in conquering men for Himself is that from them may go forth the witness of His power and the knowledge of His name. First, the fact that Jesus Christ, by His Cross and Passion, is able to conquer mens will, and to bind mens hearts to Him, is the highest proof of His power. It is an entirely unique thing in the history of the world. It stands as an unique fact in the history of the world that from Christ of Nazareth there rays out through all the ages the spiritual power which absolutely takes possession of men, dominates them, and turns them into His organs and instruments. Christ leads through the world the train of His captives, the evidence of His conquests. And then, further, let me remind you that out of this representation there comes a very solemn suggestion of duty for us Christian people. We are bound to live, setting forth whose we are, and what He has done for us. Still further, Pauls thanksgiving teaches us that we should be thankful for all opportunities of doing such work. So it comes to be a very solemn question for us--What part are we playing in that great triumphal procession? We are all of us marching at His chariot-wheels, whether we know it or not. But there were two sets of people in the old triumph. There were those who were conquered by force and unconquered in heart, and out of their eyes gleamed unquenchable malice and hatred, though their weapons were broken and their arms fettered. And there were those who, having yielded to become His soldiers, shared in His triumph and rejoiced in His rule. Which of the two parts of the procession do you belong to? The one live, the other perish. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The triumph of the gospel

I. The triumphs of the gospel by the apostles. They were triumphs--

1. Of truth over error.

2. Over persecution.

3. Over principles which dissocialised and oppressed society.

I select one--selfishness.

(1) See how this fatal principle operated among the heathen. Look at--

(a) Their poor. They had no almshouses or asylums.

(b) Their slaves, whose number was almost incredible. No laws were enacted for their protection, for they were hardly considered human beings.

(c) Their religion--no precepts of forgiveness or charity.

(2) Now took at the triumphs of Christianity over selfishness.

(a) The first general collection among the Gentile churches was for the relief of poor strangers. And I need not dwell upon the many affectionate precepts of our religion.

(b) As to slavery, Christianity teaches, As ye would that others should do unto you, do ye even so unto them. And so, when Onesimus was converted, the apostle exhorted Philemon to receive him, not now as a slave, but as a brother beloved.

(c) Look at Christian charity. If thy brother sin against thee seven times, etc.; In malice be ye children,

4. In the salvation of men. This was its noblest triumph; and in this it triumphed in every place.

(1) Over the ignorance and obduracy of men (1Co_14:24-25).

(2) Over their gloomy apprehensions of futurity. Christ came to deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

(3) Over their vices (1Co_6:9-11).

(4) Over death itself.

II. The agency by which they were effected. All is ascribed to a Divine agency, which was marked--

1. In the selection of the instruments. It belongs to God to send forth His labourers, and this supposes selection. There was the bold simplicity of Peter, the soft persuasiveness of John, the fire of Stephen, the pointed, searching, epigrammatic turn of James, the ardour, learning, and strength of Paul. I clear the ground, says Luther, and Melancthon scatters the seed. The learning and moderation of Cranmer, the judgment of Ridley, and the popular eloquence, the searching wit, and the downright honesty of Latimer, admirably qualified them to co-operate. The ordinary ministry. There are sons of thunder and sons of consolation, etc,

2. In their personal experience. The gospel triumphed over the early ministers of Christ before they triumphed over the world. So necessary is personal experience that neither preacher nor people can understand the gospel efficiently without it. Who can know what true repentance is but by his own brokenness of heart? Who can know what faith is but by the personal possession and exercise of that principle? In the same manner only can any man understand the nature of a holy walk with God, of spiritual conflicts, and the renewal of the heart. Here, then, was the agency of God. He hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation.

3. In the effects produced--the salvation of men; and we need only fix upon the salvation of one individual to prove the direct agency of God.

III. The instrument by which all this is effected: the preaching of the gospel; the manifestation of the odour of the knowledge of Christ. Odours, much used in the east, revived the languid and refreshed the weary in those hot climates, and hence they afforded a natural and elegant figure to express whatever was grateful and reviving to the mind. What, then, was there in the knowledge of Christ to warrant this representation of it?

1. Its authority. That which has no authority from God is not religion, properly speaking; but here comes a religion from God, stamped and sealed as such, visibly, and in sight of all. Behold, then, the reason of its reviving and grateful odour to the saved. Want they truth? It is here assured to them; for what is from God is light, and no darkness at all. Inquire they for the will of their Maker? Here He had prescribed it Himself. Feel they the need of an atonement? Here God Himself had provided the Lamb for a burnt-offering. Need they the comfort of promises? Here they were found proceeding from lips which could not lie. Inquire they after future being? The resurrection and ascension of Christ had deprived death of its sting, and brought life and immortality to light.

2. Its adaptation. There was nothing here but what the case of man required, and there was everything that it did require. (R. Watson.)

The triumph of the gospel

I. Gospel successes set forth under the image of a triumph. Pauls eye was resting upon a great future of moral conquest; truth making victorious way against all the powers that could oppose its progress. In this light let us investigate the fitness of the apostles allusion.

1. Was not the first planting of Christianity a great triumph? The religion which Christianity had to overthrow was sanctioned by antiquity, supported by power, defended by talent, nourished by rank and influence, and loved by its votaries, by reason of the sanction it gave to their crimes. Yet all this magnificent system crumbled into dust before the mighty power of the gospel.

2. The gospel triumphed over bigotry and persecution and pride. Ten persecutions wasted the infant Church, yet it spread further and wider for the mighty desolation.

3. The gospel was victorious over the selfishness, oppression, and all the social miseries of the heathen. The heathen lived only to themselves; of blessing and benefiting others they had not the slightest notion.

4. The gospel won its victories over the spiritual wretchedness of the heathen, over their gloomy apprehensions of futurity, over the wretched feeling of moral alienation.

II. The agency by which these triumphs were achieved.

1. The originating cause is manifestly God Himself. Not thanks to ministers, that they preach so zealously; to the people, that they hear so willingly; but unto God, which hath put such a victorious energy into His Word. In nothing does the apostles humility shine more beautifully than in this. And if we look at the nature of conversion we must see in it a Divine agency. We need not take the case of a continent or of a city; enough that we take the instance of one solitary soul. For what is the condition of that soul by nature? What are the moral requirements to be found in us before the gospel can triumph over our natural reluctance, and the savour of the knowledge of Christ be made manifest to our souls? Is it intellectual light only that a man wants? If it be, then Paul or Apollos were of themselves adequate to the task. But the unconverted soul wants changed affections; it wants to have its carnal enmity destroyed; it wants to have all its inborn antipathies transformed into the love of God; and all this is to be accomplished, not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

2. Though God is the sole and efficient cause of all missionary triumphs, He disdains not to employ under Him secondary and subordinate agencies.

III. The outward means by which these gospel triumphs are to be achieved. The image suggests how grateful it is to men once fainting under the apprehension of deserved condemnation, and weary with attempts to make a righteousness for themselves, to have their eyes opened to a knowledge of Christ and all the abounding consolation of His gospel. Once they were blind, now they see; once they were under bondage and fear, now they have a good conscience; once they were children of the wicked one, now are they the sons of God. (D. Moore, M. A.)

The course of truth

I. The glorious progress of the gospel in apostolic times.

1. It was triumphant. The apostle did not find the hearts of men easy of access, so that he had but to enter and take possession.

2. It was intelligent. The apostles did not go forth demanding a blind and unquestioning acquiescence. The progress of the gospel was victory over darkness and ignorance; the victory, not of the secular sword, but of the sacred pen and the tongue of fire.

3. It was constant. Always causeth us to triumph, in every place. Sometimes it seemed doubtful which would win, truth or error; but it soon became decided that faith was the stronger, that more was with it than all that could be against it.

4. It was beneficent. The march of the army of King Jesus was not like the march of the conquering armies of Greece and Rome.

II. The glorious secret of the progress of the gospel in apostolic times. Now thanks be unto God, etc.

1. The apostle acknowledged that God was the author of the progress. He felt it was with God that he had to do.

2. The apostle acknowledged that Christ was the agent of the progress. Triumph in Christ. Jesus had been the agent in the great work of human redemption.

3. The apostle acknowledged that man was the instrument of the progress. Causeth us to triumph; By us in every place. What a wonderful blending of workers--God, Christ, us--the union of Divine power and human instrumentality! Apostles did not originate the gospel, they received it. Let every Christian worker learn from this the source and secret of success in the work of the Lord. (F. W. Brown.)

The ministry of the gospel

I. The absolute or real character of the gospel.

1. What anything is, is determined by what it is to God. Things are to us what we are to them. Light is most pleasant to the healthful eye, but nothing is more pernicious when it is diseased; food, in certain conditions of the body, will be as prejudicial as poison, and poison as beneficial as food. And there are who call evil good and good evil, etc. And, similarly, God is to us what we are to Him.

2. In itself the gospel is Gods spell, a message from God possessed of a charm. He that hath ears to hear it will be won by it; but the wicked, who are like the deaf adder, will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. In the gospel God appears in all the attractive attributes of His grace, that He may regain the alienated affections of His rebellious children.

3. It was not only declared by, but embodied in, Jesus, who was set forth to reveal the Father in His relations to a sinful world. Apart from Christ, man has no true knowledge of God, and is without hope. In Christ God is personally manifested and personally present. His message in the gospel is embodied in His messenger. Christ not only proclaims, but is the gospel. His name is as perfume poured forth--the diffusion of the sweet savour of the knowledge of God.

4. He is this because He is the manifestation of that which is the very soul of personality--Love. In the wide circumference of things God has gone forth in the division of His powers, but in Christ His deep central unity appears--His love. He who possesses the love of another possesses that other. God is Love, and the gospel is its complete display.

5. The gospel also reveals the depth of love in its wisdom. There is nothing so wise as love. God is the only wise God, because He is Love. The restoration of alienated man is the problem in the solution of which the love of God displays the marvellous resources of its wisdom. In the gospel the practical intelligence of the Divine love makes such a display of the Divine character that it appeals to all the influential motives operative on mans nature, so that, if he is not won by it, he is left without excuse, and God is left to lament, What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? etc. O Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered, etc.

6. The gospel also taxes to the utmost the resources of the Divine love and wisdom combined. Love takes counsel of wisdom how to make the most effective appeal to the sinners heart, and wisdom calls upon love for that winning display of the Divine goodness which looks upon the sinner with mercy whilst it exercises vengeance on his sin. It was with tears Christ pronounced the doom of Jerusalem. Mercy is that look of wisdom and love which pities where righteousness blames.

7. But the gospel is also the display of mercy in its deepest agony of effort! It is the Divine tragedy in which the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep, in which sin is judged, condemned, and slain, and the sinner justified, liberated, and restored.

(1) No wonder Paul felt the proclamation of its glad tidings to be the celebration of a triumph of God. The angels sang, Glory to God in the highest, as the preface to their song of peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

(2) And no wonder that preachers of this gospel were unto God a sweet savour of Christ. What can be so pleasant to love as that of being made known? What so fragrant to God as the diffusion of the sweet mystery of the Cross, to the intent that now unto principalities and powers, etc. And just as the scattered flowers, fragrant shrubs, and sweet incense breathed forth a perfume of sweet savour before the advancing ranks in the triumphal procession, irrespective of its effects on victor and vanquished, so, irrespective of its consequences with respect to those who hear the gospel, the ministry of its glad tidings is unto God the diffusion of a sweet savour.

II. Its critical influence as seen in its opposite effects on those to whom it is preached. The gospel embodies the wisdom and power of the Divine love in their endeavour to meet the requirements of mans sin, and is in itself perfectly adapted as the chosen body of truth to radiate the influence of the Holy Spirit, to awaken the mind, arouse the conscience, subdue the heart, and reform the whole nature. In it God appeals to us by motives which He knows to be influential, which exercise a constraining power on the thoughts, affections, and will, and in which He is mighty to save.

2. The effect, therefore, on those who listen to it must be great. We cannot come under the ministry of the gospel and remain-the same as we were before we heard it. It either subdues or hardens, alienates or reconciles, kills or cures. What it may be to us is dependent on the disposition we exercise towards it. We bring to it what determines its effect. The gospel changes not; it is always, in itself considered, the power of God unto salvation; but its effects on us vary with our varying dispositions. To those who seek peace God is a God of peace, but to those who strive with Him He is a man of war.

3. To the one we are the savour of life unto life. The ministry of the grace of God in Christ is the breathing forth of a spiritual essence fragrant with life. It has the power of life; of the sweetness, joy, beauty of life.

4. To the other the savour of death unto death. Paul felt acutely that he could not be the minister of the word of life to men without increasing their responsibility. For in proportion to its quickening power of life in those who receive it does it work death in those who refuse to accept it. Just as the balmy, life-giving breezes of spring bring life to the constitutionally sound, but death to those radically diseased, so is it with the gospel. To some it is life to hear it, to others death unto death--the death of indifference to the death of obduracy; the death of ignorance and darkness to that of light and knowledge having become darkness; the death of hopelessness to that of despair. The height of privilege bestowed upon man in the offer of the gospel is antithetic to the depth of ignominy which its rejection involves. (W. Pulsford, D. D.)

The ministers manifesto

I. The ministry in its relation to God.

1. It is of God.

(1) As having been instituted by Him.

(2) Because He called men specially to occupy it.

2. It is under the special inspection of God. In the sight of God speak we in Christ, Feeling this, Paul was particularly careful--

(1) Not to corrupt or adulterate the Word of God, to make merchandise of it--i.e., to make it more marketable by a little politic admixture of things more to the taste of the people.

(2) To be himself actuated in his work by the purest motives. But as of sincerity. This sincerity applies to the preacher just as the incorruptibility applies to the gospel. Here, then, we have a pure preacher and a pure gospel.

3. It will be approved of God, whatever be its effects upon men (verse 15). Sweet savour always indicates approval. This is the expression generally used to denote the acceptableness of an offering.

II. The different effects of this ministry upon men (verse 16).

1. To the saved--life. The savour of life means that which produces life and nurtures it.

2. To the lost or perishing--death (2Co_4:3; 1Pe_3:7-8). There are certain conditions pertaining to certain men which convert the means of life into an instrument of death. The sun, which converts the generous soil into a fruitful garden, reduces the clay to the hardness of a stone. So is it morally, only with a great difference. The clay is not responsible, but men are responsible. One thing, then, is clear--no one will escape Without some effects from the ministry. What is there more beautiful than the sunbeams? Yet there are some objects which can convert them into a consuming fire. So there are moral characters which transform the loving, life-giving gospel into an instrument of destruction; in short, cause the God of love to become to them a consuming fire.

III. The demand of the ministry upon the minister.

1. The unspeakably solemn character of the results of the ministry demands the gravest and most prayerful thought, and the greatest anxiety for the salvation of souls. Note, for example, the surgeon when performing some critical surgical operation that might be for life or death to the patient. So careful and deeply anxious is he that he will not operate except in association with others. The preaching of the gospel is an inexpressibly solemn operation that may affect men for weal or for woe to eternity. And, knowing this, how natural to ask, Who is sufficient for these things?

2. But this sense of insufficiency ought not to be confounded with helplessness; on the contrary, it makes a minister all the more strenuous and unsparing in applying his entire energies to the work (Col_1:29).

IV. The ministrys encouragements and source of confidence. (verse 14). Whatever be the difficulties of the work, however great our fears and deep our sense of insufficiency, over against them we have God assuring us the victory. Through God the gospel is always having the victory. Much as it has been opposed and persecuted, yet God has always caused it to triumph. (A. J. Parry.)

And maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place.--

The savour of Divine knowledge

The expression was suggested by the figure of the triumph which was present to his mind in all its details. Incense smoked on every altar as the victors passed through the streets of Rome; the fragrant steam floated over the procession, a silent proclamation of victory and joy. So the knowledge of Christ, the apostle tells us, was a fragrant thing. True, he was not a free man, but Christs captive. Necessity was laid upon him, but what a gracious necessity it was! The love of Christ constraineth us. The Roman captives made manifest the knowledge of their conqueror; they declared to all his power; there was nothing in that knowledge to suggest the idea of fragrance. But as Paul moved through the world, all who had eyes to see saw in him, not only the power, but the sweetness of Gods redeeming love. The mighty Victor made manifest through him, not only His might, but His charm; not only His greatness, but His grace. It was a good thing men felt to be subdued and led in triumph like Paul; it was to move in an atmosphere perfumed by the love of Christ, as the air around the Roman conqueror was perfumed with incense. Savour, in connection with the knowledge of God in Christ, has its most direct application, of course, to preaching. When we proclaim the gospel, do we always succeed in manifesting it as a savour? Or is not the savour--the sweetness and charm of it--the very thing that is left out? We miss what is most characteristic in the knowledge of God if we miss this. We leave out the very element which makes the gospel evangelic, and gives it its power to subdue and enchain the souls of men. But, wherever Christ is leading a single soul in triumph, the fragrance of the gospel goes forth in proportion as His triumph is complete. There is sure to be that in the life which will reveal the graciousness, as well as the omnipotence, of the Saviour. And it is this virtue which God uses as His main witness, His chief instrument, to evangelise the world. In every relation of life it should tell. Nothing is so insuppressible, so pervasive, as fragrance. The lowliest life which Christ is really leading in triumph will speak infallibly and pervasively for Him. (J. Denney, B. D.)

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

2Co 2:14. Now thanks be to God, who — In Macedonia, as elsewhere; causeth us to triumph — Makes our ministry successful against all opposition; in Christ — Namely, by the influence of his truth and grace. To triumph implies not only victory, but an open manifestation of it. And maketh manifest the savour — Rather odour; of his knowledge — Namely, the knowledge of God and Christ, and his gospel; in every place — Where he calls us to labour, or in the course of his providence casts our lot. “As in triumphal processions, especially in the East, fragrant odours and incense were burned near the conquerors, so he seems beautifully to allude to that circumstance in what he says of οσμη, the odour of the gospel, in the following verses. And he seems further to allude to the different effects of strong perfumes to cheer some, and to throw others into violent disorders, according to the different dispositions they are in to receive them.” So Doddridge. Macknight gives rather a different interpretation of the passage, thus: “In triumphs, the streets through which the victorious generals passed were strewed with flowers, Ovid, Trist. 4. eleg. 2, line 29. The people, also, were in use to throw flowers into the triumphal car as it passed along. This, as all the other customs observed in triumphal processions, was derived from the Greeks, who in that manner honoured the conquerors in the games when they entered into their respective cities. Plutarch, (Emil., p. 272,) tells us, that in triumphal processions, the streets were θυμιαματων πληρεις, full of incense.”

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

2 Corinthians

THE TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION

2Co 2:14

I suppose most of us have some knowledge of what a Roman Triumph was, and can picture to ourselves the long procession, the victorious general in his chariot with its white horses, the laurelled soldiers, the sullen captives, with suppressed hate flashing in their sunken eyes, the wreathing clouds of incense that went up into the blue sky, and the shouting multitude of spectators. That is the picture in the Apostle’s mind here. The Revised Version correctly alters the translation into ‘Thanks unto God which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ.’

Paul thinks of himself and of his coadjutors in Christian work as being conquered captives, made to follow their Conqueror and to swell His triumph. He is thankful to be so overcome. What was deepest degradation is to him supreme honour. Curses in many a strange tongue would break from the lips of the prisoners who had to follow the general’s victorious chariot. But from Paul’s lips comes irrepressible praise; he joins in the shout of acclamation to the Conqueror.

And then he passes on to another of the parts of the ceremonial. As the wreathing incense appealed at once to two senses, and was visible in its curling clouds of smoke, and likewise fragrant to the nostrils, so says Paul, with a singular combination of expression, ‘He maketh manifest,’ that is visible, the savour of His knowledge. From a heart kindled by the flame of the divine love there will go up the odour of a holy life visible and fragrant, sweet and fair.

And thus all Christians, and not Christian workers only in the narrower sense of the word, who may be doing evangelistic work, have set before them in these great words the very ideal and secret of their lives.

There are three things here, on each of which I touch as belonging to the true notion of a Christian life-the conquered captive; that captive partaking in the triumph of his Conqueror; and the conquered captive led as a trophy and a witness to the Conqueror’s power. These three things, I think, explain the Apostle’s thoughts here. Let me deal with them now.

I. First then, let us look at that thought of all Christians being in the truest sense conquered captives, bound to the chariot wheels of One who has overcome them.

The image implies a prior state of hostility and alienation. Now, do not let us exaggerate, let us take Paul’s own experience. He is speaking about himself here; he is not talking doctrine, he is giving us autobiography, and he says, ‘I was an enemy, and I have been conquered.’

What sort of an enemy was he? Well! He says that before he became a Christian he lived a pure, virtuous, respectable life. He was a man ‘as touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.’ Observant of all relative duties, sober, temperate, chaste; no man could say a word against him; he knew nothing against himself. His conscience acquitted him of wrong: ‘I thought I ought to do many things,’ as I did them. And yet, looking back from his present point of view upon a life thus adorned with many virtues, pure from all manifest corruption, to a large extent regulated by conscientious and religious motives of a kind, he says, ‘Notwithstanding all that, I was an enemy.’ Why? Because the retrospect let him see that his life was barren of the deepest faith and the purest love. And so I come to some of my friends here now, and I say to you, ‘Change the name, and the story is true about you,’ respectable people, who are trying to live pure and righteous lives, doing all duties that present themselves to you with a very tolerable measure of completeness and abominating and trying to keep yourselves from the things that your consciences tell you are wrong, yet needing to be conquered, in the deepest recesses of your wills and your hearts, before you become the true subjects of the true King. I do not want to exaggerate, nor to say of the ordinary run of people who listen to us preachers, that they commit manifest sins, ‘gross as a mountain, open, palpable.’ Some of you do, no doubt, for, in every hundred people, there are always some whose lives are foul and whose memories are stained and horrible; but the run of you are not like that. And yet I ask you, has your will been bowed and broken, and your heart overcome and conquered by this mighty Prince, the Prince of Peace, the Prince of Life? Unless it has, for all your righteousness and respectability, for all your outward religion and real religiousness of a sort, you are still hostile and rebellious, in your inmost hearts. That is the basis of the representation of my text.

What else does it suggest? It suggests the wonderful struggle and victory of weaponless love. As was said about the first Christian emperor, so it may be said about the great Emperor in the heavens, ‘In hoc signo vinces!’ By this sign thou shalt conquer. For His only weapon is the Cross of His Son, and He fights only by the manifestation of infinite love, sacrifice, suffering, and pity. He conquers as the sun conquers the thick-ribbed ice by raying down its heat upon it, and melting it into sweet water. So God in Christ fights against the mountains of man’s cold, hard sinfulness and alienation, and by the warmth of His own radiation turns them all into rivers that flow in love and praise. He conquers simply by forbearance and pity and love.

And what more does this first part of my text say to us? It tells us, too, of the true submission of the conquered captive; how we are conquered when we perceive and receive His love; how there is nothing else needed to win us all for Him except only that we shall recognise His great love to us.

This picture of the triumph comes with a solemn appeal and commandment to every one of us professing Christians. Think of these men, dragged at the conqueror’s chariot-wheels, abject, with their weapons broken, with their resistance quelled, chained, yoked, haled away from their own land, dependant for life or death on the caprice of the general who rode before them there. It is a picture of what you Christian men and women are bound to be if you believe that God in Christ has loved you as we have been saying that He does. For abject submission, unconditional surrender, the yielding up of our whole will to Him, the yielding of all our possessions as His vassals-these are the duties that are correspondent to the facts of the case.

If we are thus won by infinite love, and not our own, but bought with a price, no conquered king, dragged at an emperor’s chariot-wheels, was ever half as absolutely and abjectly bound to be his slave, and to live or die by his breath, as you are bound to your Master. You are Christians in the measure in which you are the captives of His spear and of His bow; in the measure in which you hold your territories as vassal kings, in the measure in which you say, stretching out your willing hands for the fetters, ‘Lord! here am I, do with me as Thou wilt.’ ‘I am not mine own; be Thou my will, my Emperor, my Commander, my all.’ Loyola used to say, as the law of his order, that every man that became a member of the Society of Jesus was to be like as a staff in a man’s hand, or like as a corpse. It was a blasphemous and wicked claim, but it is but a poor fragmentary statement of the truth about those of us who enter the real Society of Jesus, and put ourselves in His hands to be wielded as His staff and His rod, and submit ourselves to Him, not as a corpse, but yield yourselves to our Christ ‘as those that are alive from the dead.’

II. Now we have here, as part of the ideal of the Christian life, the conquered captives partaking in the triumph of their general.

Two groups made up the triumphal procession-the one that of the soldiers who had fought for, the other that of the prisoners who had fought against, the leader. And some commentators are inclined to believe that the Apostle is here thinking of himself and his fellows as belonging to the conquering army, and not to the conquered enemy. That seems to me to be less probable and in accordance with the whole image than the explanation which I have adopted. But be that as it may, it suggests to us this thought, that in the deepest reality in that Christian life of which all this metaphor is but the expression, they who are conquered foes become conquering allies. Or, to put it into other words-to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with Christ. And the praise which breaks from the Apostle’s lips suggests the same idea. He pours out his thanks for that which he recognises as being no degradation but an honour, and a participation in his Conqueror’s triumph.

We may illustrate that thought, that to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with Christ, by such considerations as these. This submission of which I have been speaking, abject and unconditional, extending to life and death, this submission and captivity is but another name for liberty. The man who is absolutely dependent upon Jesus Christ is absolutely independent of everything and everybody besides, himself included. That is to say, to be His slave is to be everybody else’s master, and when we bow ourselves to Him, and take upon us the chains of glad obedience, and life-deep as well as life-long consecration, then He breaks off all other chains from our hands, and will not suffer that any others should have a share with Him in the possession of His servant. If you are His servants you are free from all besides; if you give yourselves up to Jesus Christ, in the measure in which you give yourselves up to Him, you will be set at liberty from the worst of all slaveries, that is the slavery of your own will and your own weakness, and your own tastes and fancies. You will be set at liberty from dependence upon men, from thinking about their opinion. You will be set at liberty from your dependence upon externals, from feeling as if you could not live unless you had this, that, or the other person or thing. You will be emancipated from fears and hopes which torture the men who strike their roots no deeper than this visible film of time which floats upon the surface of the great, invisible abyss of Eternity. If you have Christ for your Master you will be the masters of the world, and of time and sense and men and all besides; and so, being triumphed over by Him, you will share in His triumph.

And again, we may illustrate the same principle in yet another way. Such absolute and entire submission of will and love as I have been speaking about is the highest honour of a man. It was a degradation to be dragged at the chariot-wheels of conquering general, emperor, or consul-it broke the heart of many a barbarian king, and led some of them to suicide rather than face the degradation. It is a degradation to submit ourselves, even as much as many of us do, to the domination of human authorities, or to depend upon men as much as many of us do for our completeness and our satisfaction. But it is the highest ennobling of humanity that it shall lay itself down at Christ’s feet, and let Him put His foot upon its neck. It is the exaltation of human nature to submit to Christ. The true nobility are those that ‘come over with the Conqueror.’ When we yield ourselves to Him, and let Him be our King, then the patent of nobility is given to us, and we are lifted in the scale of being. All our powers and faculties are heightened in their exercise, and made more blessed in their employment, because we have bowed ourselves to His control. And so to be triumphed over by Christ is to triumph with Christ.

And the same thought may be yet further illustrated. That submission which I have been speaking about so unites us to our Lord that we share in all that belongs to Him and thus partake in His triumph. If in will and heart we have yielded ourselves to Him, he that is thus joined to the Lord is one spirit, and all ‘mine is Thine, and all Thine is mine.’ He is the Heir of all things, and all things of which He is the Heir are our possession. ‘All things are yours, and ye are Christ’s.’ Thus His dominion is the dominion of all that love Him, and His heritage is the heritage of all those that have joined themselves to Him; and no sparkle of the glory that falls upon His head but is reflected on the heads of His servants. The ‘many crowns’ that He wears are the crowns with which He crowns His followers.

Thus, my brother, to be overcome by God is to overcome the world, to be triumphed over by Christ is to share in His triumph; and he over whom Incarnate Love wins the victory, like the patriarch of old in his mystical struggle, conquers in the hour of surrender; and to him it is said: ‘As a prince thou hast power with God and hast prevailed.’

III. Lastly, a further picture of the ideal of the Christian life is set before us here in the thought of these conquered captives being led as the trophies and the witnesses of His overcoming power.

That idea is suggested by both halves of our verse. Both the emblem of the Apostle as marching in the triumphal procession, and the emblem of the Apostle as yielding from his burning heart the fragrant visible odour of the ascending incense, convey the same idea, viz. that one great purpose which Jesus Christ has in conquering men for Himself, and binding them to His chariot wheels, is that from them may go forth the witness of His power and the knowledge of His name.

That opens very wide subjects for our consideration which I can only very briefly touch upon. Let me just for an instant dwell upon some of them. First, the fact that Jesus Christ, by His Cross and Passion, is able to conquer men’s wills, and to bind men’s hearts to Him, is the highest proof of His power. It is an entirely unique thing in the history of the world. There is nothing the least like it anywhere else. The passionate attachment which this dead Galilean peasant is able to evoke in the hearts of people all these centuries after His death, is an unheard of and an unparalleled thing. All other teachers ‘serve their generations by the will of God,’ and then their names become speedily less and less powerful, and thicker and thicker mists of oblivion wrap them round until they disappear. But time has no power over Christ’s influence. The bond which binds you and me to Him nineteen centuries after His death is the very same in quality as, and in degree is often far deeper and stronger than, the bond which united to Him the men that had seen Him. It stands as an unique fact in the history of the world, that from Christ of Nazareth there rays out through all the ages the spiritual power which absolutely takes possession of men, dominates them and turns them into His organs and instruments. This generation prides itself upon testing all things by an utilitarian test, and about every system says:-’Well, let us see it working.’ And I do not think that Christianity need shrink from the test. With all its imperfections, the long procession of holy men and women who, for nineteen centuries, have been marching through history, owning Christ as their Conqueror, and ascribing all their goodness to Him, is a witness to His power to sway and to satisfy men, the force of whose testimony it is hard to overthrow. And I would like to ask the simple question: Will any system of belief or of no belief, except the faith in Christ’s atoning sacrifice, do the like for men? He leads through the world the train of His captives, the evidence of His conquests.

And then, further, let me remind you that out of this representation there comes a very stimulating and solemn suggestion of duty for us Christian people. We are bound to live, setting forth whose we are, and what He has done for us. Just as the triumphal procession took its path up the Appian Way and along the side of the Forum to the altar of the Capitol, wreathed about by curling clouds of fragrant incense, so we should march through the world encompassed by the sweet and fragrant odour of His name, witnessing for Him by word, witnessing for Him by character, speaking for Him and living like Him, showing in our life that He rules us, and professing by our words that He does; and so should manifest His power.

Still further, Paul’s thanksgiving teaches us that we should be thankful for all opportunities of doing such work. Christian men and women often grudge their services and grudge their money, and feel as if the necessities for doing Christian work in the world were rather a burden than an honour. This man’s generous heart was so full of love to his Prince that it glowed with thankfulness at the thought that Christ had let him do such things for Him. And He lets you do them if you will.

So, dear friends, it comes to be a very solemn question for us. What part are we playing in that great triumphal procession? We are all of us marching at His chariot wheels, whether we know it or not. But there were two sets of people in the old triumph. There were those who were conquered by force and unconquered in heart, and out of their eyes gleamed unquenchable malice and hatred, though their weapons were broken and their arms fettered. And there were those who, having shared in the commander’s fight, shared in his triumph and rejoiced in his rule. And when the procession reached the gate of the temple, some, at any rate, of the former class were put to death before the gates. I pray you to remember that if we are dragged after Him reluctantly, the word will come: ‘These, mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them before Me.’ Whereas, on the other hand, for those who have yielded heart and soul to Him in love and submission born of the reception of His great love, the blessed word will come: ‘He that overcometh shall inherit all things.’ Which of the two parts of the procession do you belong to, my friend? Make your choice where you shall march, and whether you will be His loyal allies and soldiers who share in His triumph, or His enemies, who, overcome by His power, are not melted by His love. The one live, the other perish.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:14–7:4 At this point, the story about finding Titus breaks off and will not be resumed until 7:5. Paul digresses to discuss his ministry as an apostle proclaiming the Good News.

2:14 Like captives in a Roman general’s celebration march, Paul was in Christ’s triumphal procession (cp. 1 Cor 4:9; Eph 4:7-11), carrying the marks of willing servitude (see Rom 1:1; Gal 6:17).

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

2Co 2:14. Τῷ δὲ Θεῷ, but [now] to God) Although I have not come to Corinth, I did not remain at Troas; nevertheless there is no want of the victory of the Gospel even in other places: The modal expression is added [Append. on Modus, i.e. with expression of feeling, not a mere categorical proposition]; Thanks be unto God.—πάντοτε, always) The parallel follows, in everyplace.—θριαμβεύοντι ἡμᾶς) who shows us in triumph, not as conquered, but as the ministers of His victory; not only the victory, but the open ‘showing’ of the victory is denoted: for there follows, Who maketh manifest. The triumph forcibly strikes the eyes; the savour, the nostrils [sense of smell.]—τὴν ὀσμὴν, the savour) The metaphor is taken from all the senses to describe the power of the Gospel. Here the sight (of the triumph) and its savour occur.—αὐτοῦ, of Him) of Christ, 2Co 2:15.—φανεροῦντι, who maketh manifest) a word, which often occurs in this epistle, and refutes the suspicions of the Corinthians [towards the apostle.] So 1Co 4:5.

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

2Co_2:14. In Macedonia, however, he had met Titus, and, through him, received good news of the impression made by his former Epistle. See 2Co_7:6. Therefore he continues: But thanks be to God, etc., placing first not χάρις, as in most cases (2Co_8:16, 2Co_9:15), but τῷ Θεῷ, because, in very contrast to his own weakness, the helping God, whom he has to thank, comes into his mind. Comp. 1Co_15:57. Others here make a digression go on as far as 2Co_7:5, and refer the thanks to the spread of the gospel in Troas (Emmerling!) or Macedonia (Flatt, Osiander). Comp. Calvin and Bengel. Against the context; for, after the description of the anxiety and disquiet, the utterance of thanks must relate to the release from this state (comp. Rom_7:24 f.). The apostle, however, in the fulness of his gratitude to God, includes (and thereby makes known) his special experience of the guidance of divine grace at that time in the general thanksgiving for the latter, as he experiences it always in his calling. This also in opposition to Hofmann, who abides by the general nature of the thanksgiving, and that in contrast to the declaration that the apostle did not preach in Troas in spite of the good opportunity found ther.

τῷ πάντοτε θριαμβεύοντι ἡμᾶς] given rightly by the Vulgate: qui semper triumphat nos, is taken by many older expositors (Luther, Beza, Estius, Grotius, and others), and by some more recent (Emmerling, Flatt, Rückert, Olshausen, Osiander): who makes us always triumph.[148] It is certainly a current Greek custom to give to neuter verbs a factitive construction and meaning. See in general, Matthiae, p. 1104, 944; Fritzsche, ad Matth. p. 250; Bähr, ad Ctes. p. 132; Lobeck, ad Aj. 40, 869. Comp. from the N. T., ἀνατέλλειν τὸν ἥλιον, Mat_5:45; καίειν τι, Mat_5:15; μαθητεύειν τινά, Mat_28:19; from the LXX., βασιλεύειν τίνα, 1Sa_8:22; Isa_7:6, al. Comp. 1Ma_8:13. θριαμβεύειν τινά is thus taken: to make any one a triumpher. Comp. χορεύειν τινά, to make any one dancei.e. to celebrate by means of dancing (Brunck, ad Soph. Ant. 1151; comp. Jacobs, ad Del epigr. x. 55, 90). The suitableness of the sense cannot be denied, but the actual usage is against it; for θριαμβεύειν τινά has never that assumed factitive sense, but always means triumphare de aliquo, to conduct, to present any one in triumph; so that the accusative is never the triumphing subject, but always the object of the triumph, as Plut. Thes. et Romans 4 : βασιλεῖς ἐθριάμβευσε καὶ ἡγεμόνας, also Plut. Mor. p. 318 B, θριαμβ. νίκην. Quite similar is the Latin triumphare aliquem. See in general, Wetstein; Kypke, II. p. 243. Comp. also Hofmann on the passage. Paul himself follows this usage, see Col_2:15. We are thus the less authorized to depart from it. Hence it is to be translated: who always triumphs over us (apostolic teachers)i.e. who does not cease to represent us as his vanquished before all the world, as a triumpher celebrates his victories. In this figurative aspect Paul considers himself and his like as conquered by God through their conversion to Christ. And after this victory of God his triumph now consists in all that those conquered by their conversion effect as servants and instruments of God for the Messianic kingdom in the world; it is by the results of apostolic activity that God continually, as if in triumph, shows Himself to the eyes of all as the victor, to whom His conquered are subject and serviceable. For the concrete instance before us, this perpetual triumph of God exhibited itself in the happy result which He wrought in Corinth through the apostles letter (as Paul learned in Macedonia through Titus, 2Co_7:6). Note further, how naturally with Paul this very conception of his working, as a continual triumph of God over him, might proceed from the painful remembrance of his earlier persecution of the church of God, and how at the same time this whole conception is an expression of the same humility, in which he, 1Co_15:10, gives to God alone the glory of his working. Jerome, ad Hedib. 11, translates rightly: triumphat nos or de nobis, but quite alters the sense of the word again by the interpretation: triumphum suum agit per nos. Theodoret does not do justice to the notion of the triumph, when he merely explains it: ὃς σοφῶς τὰ καθʼ ἡμᾶς πρυτανεύων τῇδε κἀκεῖσε περιάγει δήλους ἡμᾶς ἅπασιν ἀποφαίνων. Wetstein is more exact, but also takes the element of leading about, and not that of celebrating the victory, as the point of comparison: Deus nos tanquam in triumpho circumducit, ut non maneamus in loco, aut in alium proficiscamur pro lubito nostro, sed ut placet sapientissimo moderatori. Quem Damasci vicit, non Romae et semel, sed per totum terrarum orbem, quamdiu vivit, in triumpho ducit. Comp. Krause, Opusc. p. 125 f. The conception of antiquity, according to which the θριαμβευόμενος is necessarily the conquered, is quite abandoned by Calvin,[149] Elsner, Bengel: qui triumpho nos ostendit, non ut victos, sed ut victoriae suae ministros. So also de Wette, and substantially Ewald: comp. Erasmus, Annot.

ἐν Χριστῷ] Christ is the element in which that constant triumph of God takes place: no fact in which that consists has its sphere out of Christ: each is of specifically Christian quality.

The following καὶ τ. ὀσμὴν κ.τ.λ. declares what God effects through this His triumphing. That αὐτοῦ refers not to God (so usually, as also Hofmann, following the Vulgate), but to Christ (Bengel, Osiander), is shown by 2Co_2:15. The genitive τῆς γνώσ. αὐτ. is the genitive of apposition (comp. 2Co_1:22), so that the knowledge of Christ is symbolized as an odour which God everywhere makes manifest through the apostolic working, inasmuch as He by that means brings it to pass that the knowledge of Christ everywhere exhibits and communicates its nature and its efficacy. How does Paul come upon this image? Through the conception of the triumph; for such an event took place amid perfumes of incense: hence to assume no connection between the two images (Osiander) is arbitrary. To think of ointments (Oecumenius, Grotius), or of these as included (Chrysostom, Theophylact, Beza[150]), is alien to the first image; and it is as alien to suppose that a closed vessel, filled with perfume, is meant, and that the φανεροῦντι points to the opening of the same (Hofmann). Observe, moreover, that by διʼ ἡμῶν (since the ἡμεῖς are those conducted in the triumph, οἱ θριαμβευόμενοι) the thing itself finds its way into the image, and by this the latter loses in congruity.

[148] To this also the expositions of Chrysostom and Theophylact ultimately amount. The latter says: ἡμᾶς οὖν ὁ Θεὸς μετὰ τῶν κατὰ τοῦ διαβόλου τροπαίων περιφανεῖς ποιεῖ. So in substance Chrys. Comp. Ambrosiaster, Anselm, and others.

[149] In the translation he has triumphare nos facit: and in the Commentary it is said: Paulus autem intelligit, se quoque triumphi, quem Deus agebat, fuisse participem, quod esset opera sua acquisitus; qualiter legati currum primarii ducis equis insidentes comitabantur tanquam honoris socii.

[150] Beza, Grotius, and also L. Cappellus, contrary to the context, find an allusion to the anointing of the priests.

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 2:14 . τῷ δὲ Θεῷ χαρις κ . τ . λ .: but thanks be to God, etc. Instead of giving details of the information which Titus brought to him in Macedonia (chap. 2Co 7:6 ), he bursts out into a characteristic doxology, which leads him into a long digression, the main topic of the Epistle not coming into view again until 2Co 6:11 . τῷ πάντοτε θριαμβεύοντι : who always, sc. , even in times of anxiety and distress, leadeth us in triumph in Christ . θριαμβεύειν , “to lead as captive in a triumphal procession,” occurs again in this sense Col 2:15 . The rendering of the A.V., “which causeth us to triumph,” though yielding a good sense here (and despite the causative force of verbs in - εύω ), must be abandoned, as no clear instance of θριαμβεύειν in such a signification has been produced. The splendid image before the writer’s mind is that of a Roman triumph, which, though he had never seen it, must have been familiar to him as it was to every citizen of the Empire. He thinks of God as the Victor (Rev 6:2 ) entering the City into which the glory and honour of the nations (Rev 21:26 ) is brought; the Apostle as “in Christ” as a member of the Body of Christ is one of the captives, by means of whom the knowledge and fame of the Victor is made manifest. He rejoices that he has been so used by God, as would appear from the tidings which Titus has brought him. καὶ τὴν ὀσμὴν τῆς γνώσεως κ . τ . λ .: and maketh manifest through us the savour of the knowledge of Him ( sc. , of Christ) in every place, sc. , at Corinth as well as in Troas and Macedonia. It is possible that the metaphor of the ὀσμή is suggested by and is part of that of the triumph; e.g. , Plutarch ( Æmil. Paul. c. 32) says that the temples were “full of fumigations” during the passage of the procession. But ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας is a frequent LXX phrase (see reff.).

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

He alludeth to the anointing of the Priests, and the incense of the sacrifices.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Now--Greek, "But." Though we left Troas disappointed in not meeting Titus there, and in having to leave so soon so wide a door, "thanks be unto God," we were triumphantly blessed in both the good news of you from Titus, and in the victories of the Gospel everywhere in our progress. The cause of triumph cannot be restricted (as ALFORD explains) to the former; for "always," and "in every place," show that the latter also is intended.

causeth us to triumph--The Greek, is rather, as in Col 2:15, "triumphs over us": "leadeth us in triumph." Paul regarded himself as a signal trophy of God's victorious power in Christ. His Almighty Conqueror was leading him about, through all the cities of the Greek and Roman world, as an illustrious example of His power at once to subdue and to save. The foe of Christ was now the servant of Christ. As to be led in triumph by man is the most miserable, so to be led in triumph by God is the most glorious, lot that can befall any [TRENCH]. Our only true triumphs are God's triumphs over us. His defeats of us are our only true victories [ALFORD]. The image is taken from the triumphal procession of a victorious general. The additional idea is perhaps included, which distinguishes God's triumph from that of a human general, that the captive is brought into willing obedience (Co2 10:5) to Christ, and so joins in the triumph: God "leads him in triumph" as one not merely triumphed over, but also as one triumphing over God's foes with God (which last will apply to the apostle's triumphant missionary progress under the leading of God). So BENGEL: "Who shows us in triumph, not [merely] as conquered, but as the ministers of His victory. Not only the victory, but the open 'showing' of the victory is marked: for there follows, Who maketh manifest."

savour--retaining the image of a triumph. As the approach of the triumphal procession was made known by the odor of incense scattered far and wide by the incense-bearers in the train, so God "makes manifest by us" (His now at once triumphed over and triumphing captives, compare Luk 5:10, "Catch," literally, "Take captive so as to preserve alive") the sweet savor of the knowledge of Christ, the triumphant Conqueror (Col 2:15), everywhere. As the triumph strikes the eyes, so the savor the nostrils; thus every sense feels the power of Christ's Gospel. This manifestation (a word often recurring in his Epistles to the Corinthians, compare Co1 4:5) refutes the Corinthian suspicions of his dishonestly, by reserve, hiding anything from them (Co2 2:17; Co2 4:2).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 14. Now, thanks be unto God] His coming dispelled all my fears, and was the cause of the highest satisfaction to my mind; and filled my heart with gratitude to God, who is the Author of all good, and who always causes us to triumph in Christ; not only gives us the victory, but such a victory as involves the total ruin of our enemies; and gives us cause of triumphing in him, through whom we have obtained this victory.

A triumph, among the Romans, to which the apostle here alludes, was a public and solemn honour conferred by them on a victorious general, by allowing him a magnificent procession through the city.

This was not granted by the senate unless the general had gained a very signal and decisive victory; conquered a province, c. On such occasions the general was usually clad in a rich purple robe, interwoven with figures of gold, setting forth the grandeur of his achievements his buskins were beset with pearls, and he wore a crown, which at first was of laurel, but was afterwards of pure gold. In one hand he had a branch of laurel, the emblem of victory; and in the other, his truncheon. He was carried in a magnificent chariot, adorned with ivory and plates of gold, and usually drawn by two white horses. (Other animals were also used: when Pompey triumphed over Africa, his chariot was drawn by elephants; that of Mark Antony, by lions; that of Heliogabalus, by tigers; and that of Aurelius, by deer.) His children either sat at his feet in the chariot, or rode on the chariot horses. To keep him humble amidst these great honours a slave stood at his back, casting out incessant railings, and reproaches; and carefully enumerating all his vices, c. Musicians led up the procession, and played triumphal pieces in praise of the general and these were followed by young men, who led the victims which were to be sacrificed on the occasion, with their horns gilded, and their heads and necks adorned with ribbons and garlands. Next followed carts loaded with the spoils taken from the enemy, with their horses, chariots, c. These were followed by the kings, princes, or generals taken in the war, loaded with chains. Immediately after these came the triumphal chariot, before which, as it passed, the people strewed flowers, and shouted Io, triumphe!

The triumphal chariot was followed by the senate and the procession was closed by the priests and their attendants, with the different sacrificial utensils, and a white ox, which was to be the chief victim. They then passed through the triumphal arch, along the via sacra to the capitol, where the victims were slain.

During this time all the temples were opened, and every altar smoked with offerings and incense.

The people at Corinth were sufficiently acquainted with the nature of a triumph: about two hundred years before this, Lucius Mummius, the Roman consul, had conquered all Achaia, destroyed Corinth, Thebes, and Chalcis; and, by order of the senate, had a grand triumph, and was surnamed Achaicus. St. Paul had now a triumph (but of a widely different kind) over the same people; his triumph was in Christ, and to Christ he gives all the glory; his sacrifice was that of thanksgiving to his Lord; and the incense offered on the occasion caused the savour of the knowledge of Christ to be manifested in every place. As the smoke of the victims and incense offered on such an occasion would fill the whole city with their perfume, so the odour of the name and doctrine of Christ filled the whole of Corinth and the neighbouring regions; and the apostles appeared as triumphing in and through Christ, over devils, idols, superstition, ignorance, and vice, wherever they came.

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

14. But thanks be to God Here he again glories in the success of his ministry, and shows that he had been far from idle in the various places he had visited; but that he may do this in no invidious way, he sets out with a thanksgiving, which we shall find him afterwards repeating. Now he does not, in a spirit of ambition, extol his own actions, that his name may be held in renown, nor does he, in mere pretense, give thanks to God in the manner of the Pharisee, while lifted up, in the mean time, with pride and arrogance. (Luke 18:11.) Instead of this, he desires from his heart, that whatever is worthy of praise, be recognised as the work of God alone, that his power alone may be extolled. Farther, he recounts his own praises with a view to the advantage of the Corinthians, that, on hearing that he had served the Lord with so much fruit in other places, they may not allow his labor to be unproductive among themselves, and may learn to respect his ministry, which God everywhere rendered so glorious and fruitful. For what God so illustriously honors, it is criminal to despise, or lightly esteem. Nothing was more injurious to the Corinthians, than to have an unfavorable view of Paul’s Apostleship and doctrine: nothing, on the other hand, was more advantageous, than to hold both in esteem. Now he had begun to be held in contempt by many, and hence, it was not his duty to be silent. In addition to this, he sets this holy boasting in opposition to the revilings of the wicked.

Who causeth us to triumph If you render the word literally, it will be, Qui nos triumphat — Who triumpheth over us. Paul, however, means something different from what this form of expression denotes among the Latins. For captives are said to be triumphed over, when, by way of disgrace, they are bound with chains and dragged before the chariot of the conqueror. Paul’s meaning, on the other hand, is, that he was also a sharer in the triumph enjoyed by God, because it had been gained by his instrumentality, just as the lieutenants accompanied on horseback the chariot of the chief general, as sharers in the honor. As, accordingly, all the ministers of the gospel fight under God’s auspices, so they also procure for him the victory and the honor of the triumph; but, at the same time, he honors each of them with a share of the triumph, according to the station assigned him in the army, and proportioned to the exertions made by him. Thus they enjoy, as it were, a triumph, but it is God’s rather than theirs.

He adds, in Christ, in whose person God himself triumphs, inasmuch as he has conferred upon him all the glory of empire. Should any one prefer to render it thus: “Who triumphs by means of us,” even in that way a sufficiently consistent meaning will be made out.

The odor of his knowledge. The triumph consisted in this, that God, through his instrumentality, wrought powerfully and gloriously, perfuming the world with the health-giving odor of his grace, while, by means of his doctrine, he brought some to the knowledge of Christ. He carries out, however, the metaphor of odor, by which he expresses both the delectable sweetness of the gospel, and its power and efficacy for inspiring life. In the mean time, Paul instructs them, that his preaching is so far from being savourless, that it quickens souls by its very odor. Let us, however, learn from this, that those alone make right proficiency in the gospel, who, by the sweet fragrance of Christ, are stirred up to desire him, so as to bid farewell to the allurements of the world.

He says in every place, intimating by these words, that he went to no place in which he did not gain some fruit, and that, wherever he went, there was to be seen some reward of his labor. The Corinthians were aware, in how many places he had previously sowed the seed of Christ’s gospel. He now says, that the last corresponded with the first.

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.

(14) Now thanks be unto God.—The apparent abruptness of this burst of thanksgiving is at first somewhat startling. We have to find its source, not in what the Apostle had written or spoken, but in what was passing through his memory. He had met Titus, and that disciple had been as a courier bringing tidings of a victory. The love of God had won another triumph.

Causeth us to triumph.—Better, who always leads us in His triumph. There is absolutely no authority for the factitive meaning given to the verb in the English version. In Col_2:15, it is translated rightly, “triumphing over them in it.” It is obvious, too, that the true rendering gives a much more characteristic thought. It would be unlike St. Paul to speak of himself as the triumphant commander of God’s great army. It is altogether like him that he should give God the glory, and own that He, as manifested in Christ, had triumphed, and that Apostle and penitent, the faithful and the rebellious, alike took their place in the procession of that triumph.

The imagery that follows is clearly that of the solemn triumphal procession of a Roman emperor or general. St. Paul, who had not as yet been at Rome, where only such triumphs were celebrated, had, therefore, never seen them, and was writing accordingly from what he had heard from others. Either from the Roman Jews whom he had met at Corinth, many of them slaves or freed-men in the imperial household, or the Roman soldiers and others with whom he came in contact at Philippi, possibly from St. Luke or Clement, he had heard how the conqueror rode along the Via Sacra in his chariot, followed by his troops and prisoners, captive kings and princes, and trophies of victory; how fragrant clouds of incense accompanied his march, rising from fixed altars or wafted from censers; how, at the foot of the Capitoline hill, some of the prisoners, condemned as treacherous or rebellious, were led off to execution, or thrown into the dungeons of the Mamer-tine prison, while others were pardoned and set free. It is not without interest to remember that when St. Paul wrote, the latest triumph at Rome had been that solemnised at Rome by Claudius in honour of the victory of Ostorius over the Britons in A.D. 51, and commemorated by a triumphal arch, the inscription on which is now to be seen in the court-yard of the Barberini Palace at Rome; that in that triumph Caractacus had figured as a prisoner; and that he and his children, spared by the mercy of the emperor, had passed from the ranks of the “lost” to those of the “saved” (Tacit. Ann. xiii. 36). According to a view taken by some writers, Claudia and Linus (2Ti_4:21) were among those children. (See Excursus on the Later Years of St. Paul’s Life, at the close of the Acts of the Apostles.

The savour of his knowledge.—There is obviously a reference to the incense which, as in the above description, was an essential part of the triumph of a Roman general. It is there that St. Paul finds an analogue of his own work. He claims to be, as it were, a thurifer, an incense-bearer, in the procession of the conqueror. Words, whether of prayer or praise, thanksgiving or preaching, what were they but as incense-clouds bearing to all around, as they were wafted in the air, the tidings that the Conqueror had come? The “savour of his knowledge” is probably “the knowledge of Him:” that which rests in Him as its object.

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

14. Now thanks be unto God] This passage is an instance of the abrupt digressions peculiar to St Paul’s style. See Introduction to the first Epistle, p. 16, and 1Co_4:8. Also Introduction to this Epistle. “As soon as St Paul came to the word Macedonia, memory presented to him what had greeted him there,” i.e. the favourable intelligence brought by Titus (ch. 2Co_7:6-7) “and in his rapid way—thoughts succeeding each other like lightning—he says, without going through the form of explaining why he says it, ‘Now thanks be to God.’ ” Robertson.

which always causeth us to triumph in Christ] The verb here rendered causeth us to triumph may also be rendered, leadeth us in triumph. It is used in the latter sense in Col_2:15, the only other place in which it occurs in the Bible, but the former sense is defended here by the analogy of other verbs used causatively. See Rom_8:37.

and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge] The word savour (from the Latin sapor, flavour) is, with one exception (Mat_5:13), used in the Scriptures to denote an odour. See Gen_8:21; Ecc_10:1; Joe_2:20, &c. The Apostle as yet does not refer to the ‘sweet savour’ of the sacrifices (Exo_29:18; Lev_1:9; Lev_1:12, &c.). If we take the rendering of the A. V. in the former part of the verse, ‘the savour of his knowledge’ (i.e. the sweet scent of the knowledge of God), is the incense, either “rising from fixed altars or wafted from censers” (Dr Plumptre in loc.), which it was customary (see Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities, Art. Triumphus) to burn as the conqueror to whom a triumph was decreed passed along. This custom has been revived in our own day, on the occasion of the public entry of the Princess of Wales into London before her marriage. If the sense ‘leadeth us in triumph,’ be adopted, it regards the ministers of Christ either, (a) as the partners in the triumph of their Master, or (b) as the captives of the enemy he has overcome, delivered by His victorious arm, or (c) as the enemies he has defeated and led captive. Either of these yields a good sense, while the ‘savour’ is still the incense which attends the victor’s triumph. See Wordsworth in loc. Dr Plumptre notices the fact, one of great interest to the inhabitants of these Islands, that the last triumph which had taken place at Rome before these words were written, was in commemoration of the victories of Claudius in Britain, and that the British king Caractacus was then led in triumph through the streets of Rome.

by us] St Paul is either (1) the altar (Rom_12:1) from which the odour of God’s knowledge arises, or more probably (2) the thurifer or incense-bearer who diffuses that odour abroad as he passes along.

in every place] The history of the church shews that the first ministers of the Gospel extended their operations over a wide area. It is hardly tradition which regards St Thomas and St Bartholomew as having preached in India, and St Andrew in Scythia. And the first Epistle of St Peter bears witness to a wide dissemination of the Gospel in Asia. See 1Pe_1:1; 1Pe_5:13.

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.

Now thanks be unto God,.... The apostle having mentioned the door that was opened for him at Troas, to preach the Gospel with success, calls to mind the great and manifold appearances of God for him and his fellow ministers, in blessing their labours to the conversion of many souls; which causes him to break forth into thanksgiving to God, on this account: what he takes notice of, and is thankful to God for is, that he

always causeth us to triumph in Christ; not only had done so, but continued to do so: some versions ascribe this act of triumph to God, as his act, reading the passage thus, "now thanks be unto God, who triumphs over us", or "by us in Christ"; who has conquered us by his grace, and made use of us as instruments for the conversion of sinners; and so first triumphed over us, having subdued us to himself, and then over others by us, in whose hearts the arrows of his word have been sharp and powerful: so the word is used for the person's own act of triumph spoken of, Co2 2:15, but here it signifies, as words do in the Hebrew conjugation "Hiphil", which most commonly denotes an effect upon another, or which is caused and produced in another, and is rightly rendered, "which causeth us to triumph"; and refers not to the triumph of faith, common with the apostles to other believers; though this is in Christ, in his righteousness, death, resurrection, ascension, session at God's right hand, and intercession; and is what God causes, and to whom thanks is to be given for it: but this is a triumph peculiar to ministers of the Gospel, who are made to triumph over men and devils, over the world, the reproaches, persecutions, smiles, and flatteries of it; over wicked men, by silencing them, stopping the mouths of gainsayers, refuting false teachers, and preserving the Gospel pure, in spite of all opposition; and by being made useful to the turning of many souls from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God: and this is

in Christ: it is owing to the victory he has got; it is by his strength, it is in his name, for his sake, and because of his glory herein concerned: and

always; wherever the ministers of Christ are called to labour, and wherever the Gospel is purely and powerfully preached by them, some good is done; and they are made to triumph over hell and earth, over sin, Satan, and the world; and for all this, thanks is due to God; for he it is that causes them to triumph, or they never could; as will easily appear, if we consider what poor weak instruments they themselves are; what opposition is made against them; what wonderful things are done by them; by what means they triumph, by the preaching of the cross, and that in the midst of the greatest pressures and afflictions. Thanks are also given to God, that he

maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place; by "his knowledge" is meant, either the knowledge of God, who causes the ministers of the Gospel to triumph; or the knowledge of Christ, in whom they triumph; or rather of both, of the knowledge of God in Christ; and designs the Gospel, which is the means thereof: and which is said to have a "savour" in it, and denotes the acceptableness of it to sensible souls; and the good name, fame, and credit, which Christ has by the faithful ministration of it; and is an allusion to Sol 1:3. Now this, God is said to make manifest; it was hid before, hid in himself, and to the sons of men; it was like a box of ointment shut, but now opened by the preaching of the word, which diffuses a fragrant smell; and therefore he is said to make it manifest "by us": the ministers of the Gospel, who openly, boldly, and faithfully preach it; and "by manifestation of the truth"; spread the savour of it, and that "in every place", where they come; their commission being at large, to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.

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

14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

Ver. 14. Now thanks be to God] Deo gratias was ever in Paul’s mouth, ever in Austin’s; and a thankful man is ever ready with his present, as Joseph’s brethren were, Gen 43:26.

Causeth us to triumph] Maketh us more than conquerors, even triumphers; while he rides upon us as upon his white horses, all the world over, "conquering and to conquer," Rev 6:2.

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.

Now thanks be unto God ... - There seem to have been several sources of Paul’s joy on this occasion. The principal was, his constant and uniform success in endeavoring to advance the interests of the kingdom of the Redeemer. But in particular he rejoiced;

Because Titus had come to him there, and had removed his distress; compare 2Co 2:13.

(2)Because he learned from him that his efforts in regard to the church at Corinth had been successful, and that they had hearkened to his counsels in his first letter; and,

Because he was favored with signal success in Macedonia. His being compelled, therefore, to remove from Troas and to go to Macedonia had been to him ultimately the cause of great joy and consolation. These instances of success Paul regarded as occasions of gratitude to God.

Which always causeth us - Whatever may be our efforts, and wherever we are. Whether it is in endeavoring to remove the errors and evils existing in a particular church, or whether it be in preaching the gospel in places where it has been unknown, still success crowns our efforts, and we have the constant evidence of divine approbation. This was Paul’s consolation in the midst of his many trials; and it proves that, whatever may be the external circumstances of a minister, whether poverty, want, persecution, or distress, he will have abundant occasion to give thanks to God if his efforts as a minister are crowned with success.

To triumph in Christ. - To triumph through the aid of Christ, or in promoting the cause of Christ. Paul had no joy which was not connected with Christ, and he had no success which he did not trace to him. The word which is rendered here as “triumph” (θριαμβευοντι thriambeuonti from θριαμβέυω thriambeuō) occurs in no other place in the New Testament, except in Col 2:15. It is rendered there as “triumphing over them in it,” that is, triumphing over the principalities and powers which he had spoiled, or plundered; and it there means that Christ led them in triumph after the manner of a conqueror. The word is used here in a causative sense - the sense of the Hebrew Hiphil conjugation. It properly refers to a triumph; or a triumphal procession. Originally the word θριαμβος thriambos meant a hymn which was sung in honor of Bacchus; then the tumultuous and noisy procession which constituted the worship of the god of wine; and then any procession of a similar kind. - Passow. It was particularly applied among both the Greeks and the Romans to a public and solemn honor conferred on a victorious general on a return from a successful war in which he was allowed a magnificent entrance into the capital.

In these triumphs, the victorious commander was usually preceded or attended by the spoils of war; by the most valuable and magnificent articles which he had captured; and by the princes, nobles, generals, or people whom he had subdued. The victor was drawn in a magnificent chariot, usually by two white horses. Other animals were sometimes used. “When Pompey triumphed over Africa, his chariot was drawn by elephants; that of Mark Antony was drawn by lions; that of Heliogabalus pulled by tigers; and that of Aurelius drawn by deer” - Clark. The people of Corinth were not unacquainted with the nature of a triumph. About 147 years before Christ, Lucius Mummius, the Roman consul, had conquered all Achaia, and had destroyed Corinth, Thebes, and Colchis, and by order of the Roman Senate was favored with a triumph, and was surnamed Achaicus. Tyndale renders this place: “Thanks be unto God which always giveth us the victory in Christ.” Paul refers here to a victory which he had, and a triumph with which he was favored by the Redeemer. It was a victory over the enemies of the gospel; it was success in advancing the interests of the kingdom of Christ; and he rejoiced in that victory, and in that success, with more solid and substantial joy than a Roman victor ever felt on returning from his conquests over nations, even when attended with the richest spoils of victory, and by humbled princes and kings in chains, and when the assembled thousands shouted Io triumphe!

And maketh manifest - Makes known; spreads abroad - as a pleasant fragrance is diffused through the air.

The savor - (ὀσμὴν osmēn). The smell; the fragrance. The word in the New Testament is used to denote a pleasant or fragrant odor, as of incense, or aromatics; Joh 12:3 see Eph 5:2; Phi 4:18. There is an allusion here doubtless to the fact that in the triumphal processions fragrant odors were diffused around; flowers, diffusing a grateful smell, were scattered in the way; and on the altars of the gods incense was burned during the procession, and sacrifices offered, and the whole city was filled with the smoke of sacrifices, and with perfumes. So Paul speaks of knowledge - the knowledge of Christ. In his triumphings, the knowledge of the Redeemer was diffused abroad, like the odors which were diffused in the triumphal march of the conqueror. And that odor or savor was acceptable to God - as the fragrance of aromatics and of incense was pleasant in the triumphal procession of the returning victor. The phrase “makes manifest the savor of his knowledge,” therefore, means, that the knowledge of Christ was diffused everywhere by Paul, as the grateful smell of aromatics was diffused all around the triumphing warrior and victor. The effect of Paul’s conquests everywhere was to diffuse the knowledge of the Saviour - and this was acceptable and pleasant to God - though there might be many who would not avail themselves of it, and would perish; see 2Co 2:15.

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

Thanks be to God, who always causeth us to triumph by his grace, so that we every where make manifest the odour of his knowledge, making God known and worshipped, and instructing the people in the faith of Christ, to the advantage and eternal good of those who hearken to us, and are saved; but to the greater condemnation of those, who after they have heard of the truth, by their own fault remain obstinate: so that the preaching of the gospel is to some the odour of death unto death, when they remain dead in their sins, they incur an eternal death: and to them who are converted, the odour of life unto life; they receive the spiritual life of grace in their souls in this world, and an eternal life in the next. (Witham)

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).

Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ: the translation of the Greek here is not certain; for to translate it word for word, it is: But thanks be to God always, triumphing us in Christ; which makes it uncertain, whether there be not a defect of a preposition, upon the supply of which it would be, who triumpheth over us in Christ, having subdued our hearts to the kingdom and obedience of Christ. But the most interpreters rather agree with our translators, and think the sense of the apostle is who maketh us to triumph. In the Hebrew there is a conjugation, where the active verb signifieth to make another to do a thing; and there are several instances brought by learned men out of the Septuagint, where the active verb in the Greek also hath that sense; that which cometh nearest it in the original in holy writ, is that, Rom 8:26, where the Spirit is said to make intercession for us, because it causeth us to make intercession. According to this, the sense is: Blessed be God, who though we meet with many enemies, yet through Christ he maketh us more than conquerors, Rom 8:37, so that we are not overcome by any of them, but, on the contrary, we triumph over them as conquered by us.

And maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place; and this by manifesting by us in every place

the savour of the knowledge of Christ; that is, of the gospel. He calleth it a savour, either with allusion to that sweet perfumed ointment, with which the high priest, under the law, was anointed, Exo 30:23; Psa 133:2; or with reference to the incense used also under the law; or with relation to Solomon’s expression, Son 1:3, where we read of the savour of Christ’s good ointments, and that his name is as an ointment poured forth. By the savour of the knowledge of Christ here mentioned, the apostle plainly meaneth the reputation or good report that the gospel had in every place: see Hos 14:7.

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

14. Causeth us to triumph—Rather, leadeth us in triumph; for God is the victor; and the apostle views himself in the double capacity of captive-led, and of the joyful priests burning the incense that made the air and the occasion agreeable to the nostrils of the spectators.

Many commentators, as well as the Vulgate and our translators, have given to the Greek verb a causative sense—causeth us to triumph—triumphs us. St. Chrysostom, to whom Greek was vernacular, gives it that sense in a spirited passage. “Thanks be to God who triumphs us, that is, makes us illustrious in the eyes of all. Our persecutors are the trophies which we erect in every land.” On the nature of the Roman triumph, see Col_2:15.

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

Now thanks be unto God. The whole of this Epistle is the apostle"s Apologia pro vita sua, and is more full of personal details and emotional expressions than any other Epistle. But nothing in it is more characteristic than this sudden outburst of thanksgiving into which he breaks so eagerly that he has quite omitted to say what it was for which he so earnestly thanked God. It is only when we come to 2Co_7:5, 6 that we learn the circumstance which gave him such intense relief, namely, the arrival of Titus with good news from Corinth about the treatment of the offender and the manner in which the first letter had been received. It is true that this good news seems to have been dashed by other remarks of Titus which, perhaps, he withheld at first, and which may only have been drawn from him, almost against his will, by subsequent conversations. But, however checkered, the main and immediate intelligence was good, and the apostle so vividly recalls his sudden uplifting out of an abyss of anxiety and trouble (2Co_7:5) that the mere remembrance of it awakens a thankfulness to God which can only find vent by immediate utterance. Now thanks be unto God . The order of the original is more forcible, "But to God be thanks." The remembrance of his own prostration calls into his mind the power and love of God. Which always causeth us to triumph; rather, who leadeth us in triumph. The verb thriambeuo may undoubtedly have this meaning, on the analogy of choreuo, I cause to dance, basileuo, I cause to reign, etc.; and other neuter verbs which sometimes have a factitive scribe. But in Col_2:15 St. Paul uses this word in the only sense in which it is actually found, "to lead in triumph;" and this sense seems both to suit the context better, and to be more in accordance with the habitual feelings of St. Paul (Gal_6:17; Col_1:24) and especially those with which these Epistles were written (1Co_4:9-13; 2Co_4:10 2Co_11:23) St. Paul"s feeling is, therefore, the exact opposite of that of the haughty Cleopatra who said, OuJ qriambeuqhsomai, "I will not be led in triumph." He rejoiced to be exhibited by God as a trophy in the triumphal procession of Christ. God, indeed, gave him the victory over the lower part of his nature, (Rom_8:37) but this was no public triumph. The only victory of which he could boast was to have been utterly vanquished by God and taken prisoner "in Christ." The savour of his knowledge. The mental vision of a Roman triumph summons up various images before the mind of St. Paul. He thinks of the streets breathing with the fragrance of incense offered upon many a wayside altar; of the tumult and rejoicing of the people; of the fame and glory of the conqueror; of the miserable captives led aside from the funeral procession to die, like Vercingetorix, in the Tullianum at the foot of the Capitoline hill. He touches on each of these incidents as they crowd upon him. The triumph of L. Mummius over the conquest of Corinth had been one of the most splendid which the Roman world had ever seen, and in A.D. 51, shortly before this Epistle was written (A.D. 57), Claudius had celebrated his triumph over the Britons and their king Caractacus, who had been led in the procession, but whose life had been spared (Tacitus, "Ann.," 13:36).

The savour of his knowledge; i.e. the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ. By us. The details of the metaphor are commingled, as is often the case in writers of quick feeling and imagination. Here the apostles are no longer the vanquished who are led in procession, but the spectators who burn and diffuse the fragrance of the incense. In every place. Even at that early period, not twenty-five years after the Crucifixion, the gospel had been very widely preached in Asia and Europe. (Rom_15:18, Rom_15:19)

Vers. 14-16.

The solemnity of the ministry.

A Roman triumph, to which the apostle refers in this passage, was the most magnificent of earthly pageants. The conqueror, in whose honour it was given, was an illustrious commander, who had defeated an enemy or gained a province. The route traversed by the triumphal procession lay through Rome to the Capitol itself. The spectators who feasted their eyes upon the sight were the vast population of the city. Before, the victor passed onwards the captives taken in the campaign, and the spoil which had been wrested from the foe. Behind, followed the army, flushed with victory and rejoicing in the insolence and pride of military might. The conqueror himself, mounted aloft upon his car, was the centre of observation and attraction. Every mark of honour was paid to him. Sacrifices were offered by the priests to the gods to whose favour victory was ascribed. Incense bearers marched in the procession, and fragrant clouds ascended, floating in the air and mingling with the shouts and with the strains of martial music. And in the temples sacrificial offerings were accompanied by the presentation of the odorous incense.

I THE TRIUMPHS OF THE GOSPEL. The warfare of the Word is against the sins of the rebels who have defied the authority of the Most High. In apostolic times the progress of the gospel, though often opposed and often checked, appealed to the view of Paul as a triumphal progress. God, who had triumphed over the enemies whom he converted into his friends and companions, made them, as his representatives, triumph in their turn, and admitted them to share his triumph over the enemies of truth and righteousness.

II THE INCENSE BEARERS IN THE TRIUMPHAL TRAIN. There is a prodigality of wealth in the imagery here employed. Paul and his fellow ministers were themselves both captives and also incense bearers God a sweet savour of Christ." As the Son of the Eternal is infinitely acceptable to his Father, so those who share his mission and purpose, and faithfully publish his gospel, are well pleasing to him, as the odour of the fragrant incense to the nostril.

III THE ACCOMPANIMENTS AND RESULTS OF THE GOSPEL TRIUMPH. These are twofold and opposed.

1. To the perishing the ministry is a sentence of death. Some captives weretaken aside and put to death in cold blood as the procession approached the Capitoline hill. The incense to such was deadly an odour premonitory of a violent and miserable death. Thus the proclamation of the gospel, in itself an unspeakable blessing, is actually the occasion of the condemnation of unbelievers, who reject and despise it.

2. To those in course of salvation the ministry is a message of life.Welcome and pleasant alike to God and man, the glad tidings of redemption tell of life to those whose desert is death. A welcome and delightful fragrance to the saved, it promises participation in the glorious victory and the eternal reign of the Divine Redeemer. T.

The triumph.

The emotional and susceptible nature of the Apostle Paul was quick to recognize either opposition or success. And when it occurred to him, in the providence of God, to meet with instances in which his message was gratefully welcomed and he himself was cordially appreciated, his heart was filled with joy, and he was eager to utter forth gratitude and praise. When elated with prosperity in his evangelistic work, he felt that God was always making him to triumph. His spiritual successes were to him more glorious than the triumph which the victorious general enjoyed upon his return to Rome, when he ascended the Capitoline hill, with his fellow-warriors in the procession and his captives in his train. What an inspiration do these words of the apostle afford to those who are engaged in the service of the Saviour, and are experiencing the vicissitudes of earthly ministry!

I IF THERE IS WARFARE, THERE WILL BE VICTORY. The Christian life is a warfare, involving effort, danger, and resistance. Much more manifestly does this figure apply to those who preach the gospel, especially as evangelists among the heathen, the degraded, the unbelieving. Such stand in need both of spiritual courage and el spiritual weapons. And in the stress of the conflict, in the noise and tumult of warfare, it is well for them to remember that the issue is not uncertain, that conquest is close at hand.

II IF THERE ARE ENEMIES, THEY WILL BECOME EITHER CAPTIVES OR, BETTER STILL, ALLIES AND FELLOW SOLDIERS. When spiritual opponents are many and daring, and when their onset is sore and perhaps alarming, the heart of the soldier of Christ may sometimes sink within him. But he is required to estimate the fortunes of the war, not by human probabilities, but by Divine predictions. Of those who oppose themselves none shall prevail. Some shall be vanquished and put to shame. Others shall confess the justice and the grace of Christ, shall lay down the arms of rebellion, shall enlist in the spiritual host, shall take to them the armour of God.

III IF THERE IS DISAPPOINTMENT, THERE WILL BE RECOMPENSE. Paul knew often enough what it is to be cast down. The higher the hope, the bitterer the sorrow when that hope is frustrated. It sometimes happens that, where the Christian warrior spends all his strength, and attacks the enemy with courage and perseverance, there he experiences the most humiliating rebuff. Then let him be assured that different experience is in store for him. Foes shall yield, whose stubbornness, it seemed to him, no power could subdue. Victory shall be to the faithful and to the brave.

IV IF THERE BE A SHARING OF CHRIST"S CROSS, THERE SHALL BE ALSO A SHARING OF HIS THRONE. Our Lord, the Captain of our salvation, knew by experience the power of the enemy. And can it be expected that with us all will be prosperous? Shall we not be followers of him, and know the likeness of his death? Thus shall it be given to him that overcometh to sit down with him upon his throne. T.

Vers. 14-17.

The constant triumph of the faithful minister.

I HE TRIUMPHS BECAUSE WHEREVER HE GOES HE MAKES KNOWN GOD AND CHRIST. This is a true triumph. If he succeeds in doing this he has a great success the success of performance of duty and of fulfilment of the Divine will. Moreover, the kingdom of God is almost certain to be extended. Apparent failure, when more closely examined and tried by the test of time, will often be found to be success.

II HIS TRIUMPH IS NOT DEPENDENT UPON THE RECEPTION OF HIS MESSAGE.

1. To some his word is a savour from death unto death. The Christ proclaimed is to them a dead Christ, and his gospel lifeless and powerless, leading them only to denser spiritual death. This is very disheartening when viewed under one aspect. But Christ is preached, the work is acceptable to God, the Divine mercy is vindicated, and the responsibility of the disastrous issue rests solely on the rejecters. The excellence of the truth is demonstrated by its rejection on the part of the vile and sin-loving.

2. To others his word is a savour from life unto life. Here the triumph is unquestioned by all. A tiring Christ is recognized, and one who has life-giving power.

III HE TRIUMPHS ONLY AS HE IS FAITHFUL. For only so does he honour God and set forth the truth as it is in Jesus. The faithful minister:

1. Does not corrupt the Word of God (ver. 17). Many do

(1) by false interpretation,

(2) bias,

(3) insinuation,

(4) omission,

(5) addition.

Prompted by

(1) gain,

(2) applause,

(3) carnal, preferences.

2. But

(1) distrusts himself, crying, "Who is sufficient for these things?

(2) uses utmost sincerity;

(3) gets his message from God God" (ver. 17);

(4) speaks as in the sight of God;

(5) speaks in Christ, in communion with him as the Head.

IV His TRIUMPH IS OF GOD. He is led in triumph by God (ver. 14). God has triumphed over him, and now God triumphs through him. His sufficiency is of God. (2Co_3:5) He has no power when he only has his own; he has all power when he has God"s. H.

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

To triumph, implies not only victory, but an open manifestation of it. And as in triumphal processions, especially in the east, incense and perfumes were burned near the conqueror, the apostle beautifully alludes to this circumstance in the following verse: as likewise to the different effects which strong perfumes have upon different persons; some of whom they revive, while they throw others into the most violent disorders.

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

THE GOSPEL OMINOUS OF DOOM

14. “Thanks be unto God, who causeth us to triumph in Christ, manifesting the odor of the knowledge of Himself through us in every place.” The apostles are everywhere the heralds of victory in Christ, who causes them to triumph over all of their spiritual foes, their message of truth, testimony of personal Salvation, songs of joy and shouts of victory filling the very atmosphere with the fragrant odors of the knowledge of Christ; i. e., everything they say and do is constantly revelatory of the knowledge of Christ.

15. “Because we are a sweet savor to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” So long as we are in this world we are not saved in a final sense, but only being saved, i. e., in process of salvation, ripening for Heaven, justification being primary salvation, sanctification full salvation and glorification final salvation. Meanwhile the wicked are not yet damned, but only condemned, with an opportunity to have the condemnatory sentence rescinded. There is no final issue in either case till we pass out of this probation. The true ministers are a sweet savor to God, because they so proclaim the whole counsel of God as to turn the full responsibility over to the hearers, thus vindicating the Divine justice and magnifying sovereign mercy, whether in the case of salvation or perdition.

16. “To the latter an odor from death unto death, and to the former an odor of life unto life. Who is sufficient for these things?” In the case of the wicked, we are an odor from the spiritual death which now locks them tight unto the eternal death which awaits them. In the case of the righteous, we are an odor from the glorious spiritual life they now enjoy, to the ineffable joys of the eternal life to which they fast hasten, the present state in either case being significantly ominous of the momentous future. No wonder he indulges in the interjection, “Who is equal to these things?” Tremendous are the issues and immeasurable the responsibilities.

17. “For we are not as many, who are in the habit of adulterating the Word of God .” What an awful responsibility! and yet how many are guilty of bending the Word to suit the creed or the congregation. God’s Word is His voice, replete with His awful majesty. In the first place, it is an awful pity a creed was ever made. This is the reason why they corrupt the Word to suit the creed. No one should assume the awful responsibility of handling God’s Word till he is dead to creeds, opinions, and everything but God. “But as from purity, but as from God, we speak before God in Christ.” The “sincerity” in E.V. is eilikrineias, from eilee, a “sunbeam,” and krinoo, judge. Hence it means “judged in a sunbeam,, i. e., God proposes to make your heart so pure that when illuminated by the infallible Sun of Righteousness, His own omniscient eye can see no impurity in it. We are to preach in the constant realization that we are standing in the presence of God.

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

But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place .

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.

14. Now thanks be to God. He did meet him there, and heard news that filled him with thankfulness. To triumph in Christ. A Roman triumph was given because of victory; God always gave the victory, through Christ, in the end. He had feared that Corinth would be an exception. Maketh manifest the savor of his knowledge. The figure is that of a sacrifice. A sweet-smelling savor was diffused by the offerings. So, through them everywhere, the knowledge of God was made known, and was grateful to the saved.

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.

God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph

Paul speaks of God as if he were a victorious general leading a victory parade and of himself and his coworkers as those who take part in that parade. Possible meanings are 1) "God, who in Christ always causes us to share in his triumph" or 2) "God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph as those over whom he as gained victory" (See: Metaphor)

Through us he spreads the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere

Paul speaks of the knowledge of Christ as if it were incense that has a pleasing smell. AT: "He causes the knowledge of Christ to spread to everyone who hears us, just as the sweet smell of burning incense spreads to everyone near it" (See: Metaphor)

he spreads ... everywhere

"he spreads ... everywhere we go"

we are to God the sweet aroma of Christ

Paul speaks of his ministry as if it were a burnt offering that someone offers to God. (See: Metaphor)

the sweet aroma of Christ

Possible meanings are 1) "the sweet aroma which is the knowledge of Christ" or 2) "the sweet aroma that Christ offers."

those who are saved

This can be stated in active form. AT: "those whom God has saved" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

God

in Christ

know

save

perish

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

14. Τῷ δὲ θεῷ χάρις. This abrupt transition graphically, though unintentionally, reproduces the sudden revulsion of feeling caused by the news which Titus brought from Corinth. At the mere mention of Macedonia, the memory of what he experienced there carries him away. The journey, the search, the meeting, the report brought by his emissary are all passed over, and he bursts out into thanksgiving for God’s great mercies to him and to the cause. Note the emphatic position of τῷ θεῷ here, as in 1Co 15:57. He commonly writes χάρις τῷ θεῷ (2Co 8:16, 2Co 9:15; Rom 6:17; Rom 7:25: comp. 1Ti 1:3). The outburst of thanksgiving makes him forget the story of the return of Titus. We might have guessed it; but he tells it 2Co 7:6-7: interjacet nobilissima digressio (Bengel). It is surprising that anyone should attribute this sudden outpouring of praise to the success in Troas, or to that in Macedonia (of which there is here no hint), or to God’s blessings generally. Along with the signal mercy granted to him in the crisis of Titus’ mission to Corinth S. Paul thinks of the constant blessings which he enjoys; but it is the remembrance of that unspeakable relief from a sickening anxiety which inspires this thanksgiving. The connexion with 2Co 2:13 is close, and the R.V. rightly makes 2Co 2:12-17 one paragraph.

τῷ πάντοτε θριαμβεύοντι ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ χριστῷ. ‘Which always causeth us to triumph’ (A.V.) is almost certainly wrong. In Col 2:15, as in classical Greek, θριαμβεύω means ‘I lead in triumph,’ and is used of a conqueror in reference to the vanquished. No doubt some verbs of similar formation at times acquire a causative sense. Thus, μαθητεύω, ‘I am a disciple’ (Mat 27:57, where the differences of reading illustrate both uses), also means ‘I make a disciple of’ (Mat 28:19; Act 14:21): and βασιλεύω, ‘I am a king’ (Luk 19:14; Luk 19:27), sometimes means ‘I make to be king’ (Isa 7:6). But that does not prove that θριαμβεύω ever has a causative sense, still less that it means ‘cause to triumph’ here. To say that ‘causeth us to triumph’ is the only rendering which makes sense here, is superficial criticism. It would be nearer the truth to say that the meaning which θριαμβεύω has in every other known passage gives a deeper sense than the rendering which at first sight seems to fit so well. But it is going too far on the other side to say that it must mean ‘triumph over.’ It need mean no more than ‘lead in triumph’; and which always leadeth us in triumph (R.V.) is the safest rendering here. ‘He leads us about here and there and displays us to all the world’ is Theodoret’s paraphrase: τῇδε κἀκεῖσε περιάγει δήλους ἡμᾶς πᾶσιν ἀποφαίνων. In Tatian, Oratio ad Graecos XXII., we have ‘Cease making a display of other people’s sayings and, like the jackdaw, decorating yourselves with plumage not your own’: παύσασθε λόγους ἀλλοτρίους θριαμβεύοντες καὶ, ὥσπερ ὁ κολοιός, οὐκ ἰδίοις ἐπικοσμούμενοι πτεροῖς. Suicer shows that Chrysostom uses θριαμβεύω and θριάμβευσις simply in the sense of display. Here, those who are led in triumph are so led, not to humiliate them, but to show them to the whole world as being the property and the glory of Him who leads them. In a Roman triumph the general’s sons (Liv. XLV. 40), with his legati and tribuni (Cic. In Pis. xxv. 60; Appian, Mith. 117), rode behind his chariot. So God has made a pageant of the Apostle and his fellow-workers, as instruments of His glory. We may go farther, and say that, before exhibiting them as His, He had taken them captive, as was true, in a very marked way, of S. Paul; or that He had triumphed over them by showing that all their anxiety, which they ought to have cast upon Him (1Pe 5:7), was needless. But the idea of display is all that is required (comp. 1Co 4:9), and it fits on very well to φανεροῦντι, which follows. The success of his letter to Corinth and of the mission of Titus was a conspicuous example of God’s showing to the world that the Apostle and his colleagues were His ministers working for His glory. The addition of ἐν τῷ χριστῷ, like ἐν κυρίῳ in 2Co 2:12, marks the sphere in which the display takes place. It is as being Christ’s that they are God’s (1Co 3:23). See Field, Otium Norvic. III. p. 111, Notes on Translation of the N.T. p. 181; but he denies the reference to a Roman triumph.

τὴν ὀσμὴν τῆς γνὡσεως αὐτοῦ. The idea of a triumphal procession continues, with the burning of incense which accompanied such things. The sweet odour is the knowledge (genitive of apposition) of God in Christ, diffused by the Apostles and their fellows in every part of the world. It is immaterial whether we interpret αὐτοῦ of God or of Christ. 2Co 2:15 favours the latter: comp. 2Co 4:6. God is revealed in Christ, who came in order to reveal Him; so that the meaning is the same, however we interpret αὐτοῦ. See Chase, Chrysostom, p. 184.

διʼ ἡμῶν. Through us (R.V.). As in 2Co 1:19-20, διά indicates that they are only instruments. Throughout the passage everything is attributed to God. It is to Him that thanks are due. It is He too who, not makes us to triumph, but displays us in His triumph, as instruments which He owns and uses in diffusing the fragrant knowledge of Himself in His Son. Note the πάντοτε, ‘at every time,’ at the beginning, and the ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ, ‘in every place,’ at the end, of this description of God’s work.

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.

14-17.] Omitting, as presupposed, the fact of his having met with Titus in Macedonia, and the nature of the intelligence which he brought,—he grounds on these a thanksgiving for that intelligence, and a magnification of his apostolic office. It is evidently beside the purpose to refer this thanksgiving to the diffusion of the gospel in Macedonia (as Flatt), or in Troas (as Emmerling), or to general considerations (as Bengel):—both the context, and the language itself (see below), shew that its reference is to the effects of the apostolic reproof on the Corinthians.

14. θριαμβεύοντι] leading us in triumph, see ref. Two kinds of persons were led in triumph: the participators of the victory, and the victims of the defeat. In Col. the latter are plainly meant; here, according to many Commentators (Calv., Elsner, Bengel, De Wette, al.), the former: which however is never elsewhere the reference of the word, but it always implies triumphare de aliquo. Wetst. quotes this sense, βασιλεῖς ἐθριάμβευσε, Plut. Rom. p. 38 d, and in four other places:—and the Scholiast to Hor. Od. i. 37. 31, who relates of Cleopatra, “invidens Privata deduci superbo Non humilis mulier triumpho,” that she refused the terms offered her by Augustus, saying, οὐ θριαμβευθήσομαι. Meyer in consequence understands it in this sense here: who ever triumphs over us, i.e. ‘who ceases not to exhibit us, His former foes, as overcome by Him:’—and adds in a note, “Remark the emphatic πάντοτε, prefixed, to which the similarly emphatic ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ, at the end, corresponds. God began His triumph over the ἡμεῖς at their conversion;—over Paul, at Damascus, where he made him a servant, from being an enemy. This triumph he ever continues, not ceasing to exhibit before the world these His former foes, by the results of their present service, as overcome by Him. This, in the case before us, was effected by Paul, in that (as Titus brought him word to Macedonia) his Epistle had produced such good results in Corinth.” De W. objects to this as a strange way of expressing thankfulness for deliverance from our anxiety. But is it so to those who look beneath the surface? In our spiritual course, our only true triumphs are, God’s triumphs over us. His defeats of us, are our only real victories. I own that this yet appears to me to be the only admissible rendering. We must not violate the known usage of a word, and invent another for which there is no precedent, merely for the sake of imagined perspicuity. Such is that of ‘to make to triumph’ (Beza, Estius, Grot., al.):—μαθητεύειν, Mat 28:19, and βασιλεύειν, 1Ki 8:22, are not cases in point, their sense being, to ‘make a disciple,’ ‘to make a king,’—whereas that required for θριαμβεύειν, would be, ‘triumphatorem facere.’ χορεύειν, for ‘to make to dance,’ is more to the point: οὔπω καταπαύσομεν μούσας, αἵ μʼ ἐχόρευσαν, Eur. Herc. Fur. 688,—τάχα σʼ ἐγὼ μᾶλλον χορεύσω, ib. 873:—but the Apostle’s own usage in ref. Col., in my mind, decides the question. See also the following context.

ἐν τῷ χρ., as usually, in our connexion with, ‘as members of,’ Christ: not, ‘by Christ.’

τὴν ὀσμήν] The similitude is not that of a sacrifice, but still the same as before: during a triumph, sweet spices were thrown about or burnt in the streets, which were θυμιαμάτων πλήρεις, Plut. Æmil. p. 272 (cited by Dr. Burton). As the fact of the triumph, or approach of the triumphal procession, was made known by these odours far and wide, so God diffuses by our means, who are the materials of His triumph, the sweet odour of the knowledge of Christ (who is the Triumpher, Col 2:15).

τῆς γνώσ.] genit. of apposition: the odour, which in the interpretation of the figure, is the knowledge.

αὐτοῦ,—χριστοῦ, cf. next verse.

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

14. Τῷ δὲ Θεῷ χάρις. St Paul generally writes χάρις τῷ Θεῷ (8:16, 9:15; Rom 6:17, Rom 7:25), but here, as in the similarly sudden transition to thanksgiving in 1Co 15:7, he puts τῷ Θεῷ first with great emphasis. The two thanksgivings should be compared. In each case we have a noble digression of irrepressible gratitude. And the gratitude here is evoked by the thought of the intense revulsion of feeling from anxiety to joy when he met Titus and heard that all was well in Corinth. To seek for any other explanation is unintelligent waste of time. The remembrance of the victory of God’s cause at Corinth leads him on to think of the triumph of the Gospel generally, and of the very subordinate but glorious share which Apostolic missionaries have in that triumph. He thinks of its progress as a magnificent procession moving onwards through the world. The victorious commander is God, and the Apostles are—not His subordinate generals, but His captives, whom He takes with Him and displays to all the world. St Paul thanks God, not for ‘always causing him to triumph’ (AV), but for ‘at all times leading him in triumph.’ The Apostles were among the first to be captured and made instruments of God’s glory. When a Roman imperator triumphed, clouds of incense arose all along the route; and in the triumph-train of the Gospel the incense of increased knowledge of God is ever ascending. The Apostles cause this increase of knowledge, and therefore they themselves are a fragrance to the glory of God, a fragrance that is life-giving to those that are on the road to salvation, but will prove deadly to those who are on the other road. The atmosphere of the Gospel is one which only those who are prepared to welcome it can breathe with safety and delight; to others it is a peril and a pain.

Some editors make vv. 14-17 a separate paragraph; but the connexion with vv. 12, 13 should not be broken.

τῷ πάντοτε θριαμβεύοντι ἡμᾶς. ‘Who at all times leadeth us in triumph’ is almost certainly right. It is true that some verbs in -ευω acquire a causative sense: μαθητεύω may mean ‘I make a disciple of’ (Mat 28:19; Act 14:21) as well as ‘I am a disciple’ (Mat 27:57), and βασιλεύω may be ‘I make to be king’ (Isa 7:6) as well as ‘I am a king’ (Luk 19:14, Luk 19:27). But we do not know that θριαμβεύω ever means ‘I cause to triumph,’ although that meaning would make good sense here and is adopted by various interpreters; qui facit ut semper triumphemus (Beza), qui triumphare nos facit (Calvin). But in Col 2:15 θριαμβεύω has its usual meaning of ‘I lead in triumph,’ and that is likely to be its meaning here. Earlier writers have nos in triumpho circumduco. This is Thdrt.’s explanation; τῇδε κἀκεῖσε περιάγει δήλους ἡμᾶς πᾶσιν ἀπογφαίνων. And Chrys. is similar; τῷ πᾶσι ποιοῦντι περιφανεῖς. Oecumenius also; τῷ φανεροῦντι ἡμᾶς καὶ καταδήλους ποιοῦντι.* See on 1Co 4:9, where we have a similar metaphor, and the leading idea in both places is that of exhibiting, displaying to the world. As to the usual signification of θριαμβεύω one example may suffice; Cleopatra, captured by Caesar, says to the Manes of Mark Antony, whom she had recently buried, μηδʼ ἐν ἐμοὶ περιίδῃς θριαμβευόμενον σεαυτόν (Plut. Ant. 84). Wetstein gives other examples. See also Field, Notes on Translation of the N.T. p. 181, who, however, questions the allusion to a Roman triumph. The derivation of θρίαμβος, like that of εἰλικρινία (1:12), is a problem, but its meanings are well established. Originally a hymn sung in processions in honour of Bacchus, it was used as equivalent to the Roman triumphus, probably through similarity of sound and of association. Thus Polybius says that the Senate can add glory even to the successes of generals by bringing their achievements in tangible form before the eyes of the citizens in what are called ‘triumphs’ (6., 15:8).† Wetstein well sums up the meaning of the passage; “God leads us round as it were in triumph, so that we do not stay in one place or move on to another according to our own will, but as seems good to our all-wise Director. The man whom He vanquished at Damascus He leads in triumph, not at Rome, and just once, but through the whole world, as long as he lives.” See also McFadyen, ad loc., and also on the Pauline phrase ‘in Christ’ in Truth in Religion, pp. 242-259, from which much of the next note is taken.

ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ. Cf. ἐν Κυρίῳ in v. 12. The expressions, ἐν Χριστῷ, ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ, ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, ἐν Ἰησοῦ Χριστῳ, ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, ἐν Κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ, occur upwards of fifty times in N.T., and nearly all of them are found in the Pauline Epp. The exceptions are 1 Pet. v. 10, 14, of which 5:10 is doubtful, and both may be due to Pauline influence. Of the six forms of expression (which cover all four groups of the Pauline Epp.), the first three are very common, while the last three are rare, occurring only once or twice each. The differences in the forms of expression may not mean much, but the total amount may show channels of thought in which the Apostle’s mind habitually ran. ‘In Christ’ or ‘in Christ Jesus’ was a sphere in which his inner life ever moved. To us the phrase has a conventional sound; it is like a coin much defaced by frequent use, and it needs to be taken back to the mint in which it was fashioned, the mint of experience. St Paul had been persecuting the followers of Jesus as being the worshippers of a false and dead Messiah. Experience had confronted him with the same Jesus and had compelled him to recognize Him as the true Messiah, victorious over death, and able to make Himself known to living men. Further experience had proved that Jesus the Messiah was one in whom was revealed all that men could know about God, and that the way to learn the truth about God was to be united with His Christ. Henceforth St Paul thought of himself as ‘in Christ,’ and these words tell us of a man with a changed consciousness of life.* The chief element of change was a sense of freedom, freedom from the bondage of the Law and from the bondage of sin: but it was not the only element. ‘In Christ’ we have indeed a sphere of liberty, but we have also a sphere of work; for freedom is freedom to do something, and to be ‘in Christ’ is to be working in His service, as fellow-workers not only of Apostles (8:23), but of God Himself (1Co 3:9). To be working in this atmosphere of liberty is an experience which makes men ‘new creatures in Christ Jesus’ (v. 17), with new estimates of things, new aims and hopes, and new powers wherewith to attain and fulfil them.

Whether intended to do so or not, ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ at the end of this clause balances τῷ Θεῷ at the beginning of it. It is for being perpetually led in triumph ‘in Christ’ that the Apostle gives rapturous thanks to God. And the central word is πάντοτε, which is repeated in another form in ἐν παντὶ τὀπῳ. Neither in time nor in space is there any point at which this being led in triumph ceases.

τὴν ὀσμὴν τῆς γνώσεως αὐτοῦ. Sweet odours often reveal the presence of what cannot be seen; odor ideo, quia sentitur potius quam videtur (Pseudo-Primasius). God makes manifest through the labours of His ministers the fragrance which a knowledge of the Christ who reveals Him always brings. The genitive is probably one of apposition; the knowledge is the fragrance; cf. τὸν ἀρραβῶνα τοῦ Πνεύματος (1:22). This metaphor of fragrance suggests the penetrating strength of the revelation and the delight which it brings to those who receive it. We have here one of many passages in N.T.—more common in St John than in St Paul—in which we are in doubt whether a pronoun refers to God or to Christ. Here αὐτοῦ may mean either; but the preceding ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ and the Χριστοῦ εὐωδία which follows make the reference to Christ more probable. In any case it is in Christ that the knowledge of God is acquired; 4:6.

φανεροῦντι διʼ ἡμῶν ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ. The choice of the verb is determined by τῆς γνώσεως rather than by τὴν ὀσμήν.* As in 1:19 and 1Co 3:5, the Apostles are not independent agents, but instruments. Cf. the frequent διὰ τοῦ προφήτου. It is a mistake to refer διʼ ἡμῶν to St Paul alone. He is not claiming an exclusive revelation. Ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ανδ πάντοτε show that there is no special reference to the crisis at Corinth. It is fanciful to find in ὀσμή any allusion to the anointing of priests, or in γανεροῦντι any suggestion of the opening of a box of unguents. The verb is very freq. in the Johannine and Pauline writings, and occurs nine times in this Epistle.

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

Causeth to triumph [θριαμβευοντι] . This rendering is inadmissible, the word being habitually used with the accusative (direct objective) case of the person or thing triumphed over, and never of the triumphing subject. Hence, to lead in triumph. It occurs only here and Col 2:15. It is not found in any Greek author later than Paul 's date. It is derived from qriambov a hymn to Bacchus, sung in festal processions, and was used to denote the Roman "triumph," celebrated by victorious generals on their return from their campaigns. The general entered the city in a chariot, preceded by the captives and spoils taken in war, and followed by his troops, and proceeded in state along the sacred way to the Capitol, where he offered sacrifices in the temple of Jupiter. He was accompanied in his chariot by his young children, and sometimes by confidential friends, while behind him stood a slave, holding over his head a jewelled crown. The body of the infantry brought up the rear, their spears adorned with laurel. They shouted "triumph !" and sang hymns in praise of the gods or of their leader. Paul describes himself and the other subjects of Christ 's grace under the figure of this triumphal pomp, in which they are led as trophies of the Redeemer's conquest. 140 Render, as Rev., which always leadeth us in triumph in Christ. Compare ch. 10 5.

The savor of His knowledge. According to the Greek usage, savor and knowledge are in apposition, so that the knowledge of Christ is symbolized as an odor communicating its nature and efficacy through the apostle 's work, "permeating the world as a cloud of frankincense" (Stanley). For a similar usage see on ch. 2Co 1:22. The idea of the Roman triumph is still preserved in this figure. On these occasions the temples were all thrown open, garlands of flowers decorated every shrine and image, and incense smoked on every altar, so that the victor was greeted with a cloud of perfume. Compare Aeschylus on the festivities at the return of Agamemnon from Troy :

"The altars blaze with gifts; And here and there, heaven high the torch uplifts Flame, - medicated with persuasions mild, With foul admixture unbeguiled - Of holy unguent, from the clotted chrism Brought from the palace, safe in its abysm." " Agamemnon, " 91 - 96, Browning's Translation.

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