2 Corinthians 7:2

2Co_7:2-7

Receive us; we have wronged no man.

The apostles request

I. The ground on which he urged it--viz., that he deserved it.

1. It was a simple matter of justice. We have wronged no man, etc. The apostle meets the charges against him by an assertion of his innocence, which appealed to their own witness. No one who read those words could doubt whether he was guilty, for there is a certain tone in innocence not easily mistaken. There are some voices that ring true. This reminds us of Samuels purgation of himself when laying down his judgeship.

2. There is, however, a touch of graceful delicacy in the way he made this assertion of his innocence. A coarser man would have cared for nothing but the proof of his own integrity. Now St. Paul perceived that the broad assertion of this might give pain. It might seem to them as if this were spoken at them, and might wound those who had not suspected him. Therefore he adds, I speak not this to condemn you--i.e., I am not defending myself against you, but to you, and only to assure you of my undiminished love. There was one thing in the character of St. Paul which often escapes observation. Besides his integrity, there was a refined courtesy which was for ever taking off the edge of his sharpest rebukes. Remember the courtesy with which his request to Philemon is put; the delicate exception in his answer to Agrippa--except these bonds; and how he pours love over one of his strongest condemnations in Php_3:18. It is only love which can give this tender tact. It was not high breeding, but good breeding. High breeding gracefully insists on its own rights; good breeding gracefully remembers the right of others. It is not gentility, but gentleness. It is the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then gentle. There is a rough way and a gentle way of being true. Do not think that Christian polish weakens character, as polish thins the diamond. The polish of the world not only saps strength of character, but makes it even unnatural.

II. The grounds on which he hoped it. He rested it on his candour: Great is my boldness--i.e., freedom--of speech toward you. A scandalous crime had been committed. Now consider Pauls difficulty. If he rebuked the Corinthians, he would probably destroy his own interest, and irreparably offend them. If he left the crime unnoticed, he might seem to gloss it over. Besides this, the subject was a delicate one. Might it not be wise to leave the wound unprobed? Moreover, we all know how hard it is to deal harshly with the sins of those we love. Any of these considerations might have made a less straightforward man silent. But St. Paul did not hesitate; he wrote, calling wrong, wrong, and laying upon those who permitted it their full share of blame. Scarcely, however, had the apostle written the Epistle than misgivings began to cross his mind, as we see in verse 8, where he says, I did repent. To some persons this would be perplexing. If he regretted an act done under Gods guidance, just as any common man might regret a foolish act, how could the apostle be inspired? But inspiration does not make a man a passive machine, as a musician might use a flute. When God inspires, His Spirit mixes with the spirit of man. These misgivings lasted a considerable time (2Co_2:12; 2Co_7:5). Here I make a remark by the way: It is by passages such as these alone that we can appreciate the real trials of apostles and missionaries. It is a low estimate of the depth of apostolic trial to say that physical suffering was its chief element; and how much more degrading is it so to treat of the sufferings of Christ, of whom the prophet said, He shall see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. It was not the nails that pierced His bands which wrung from Him the exceeding bitter cry, but the iron that had entered into His soul. To return. In Macedonia St. Paul met Titus, bearing a letter from the Corinthians, by which it appeared that his rebuke had done its work. Instead of alienating, it had roused them to earnestness; they had purged themselves of complicity in the guilt by the punishment and excommunication of the offender. This was the apostles comfort; and on this ground he built his sanguine hope that the Corinthians would receive him (verse 7). Conclusion: Learn--

1. The value of explanations. Had St. Paul left the matter unsettled, or only half settled, there never could have been a hearty understanding between him and Corinth. Whenever, then, there is a misunderstanding the true remedy is a direct and open request for explanation. In the worlds idea this means satisfaction in the sense of revenge; in the Christian sense it means examination in order to do mutual justice. The rule for this is laid down by Christ: Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, etc. It is the neglect of this rule of frankness that perpetuates misunderstandings. Words are misconstrued, and two upright men, between whom one frank, open conversation would set all right, are separated for ever.

2. The blessing of entire truthfulness. The affectionate relations between St. Paul and the Corinthians, though interrupted, were restored again, because he had been true. Learn, then, never to smooth away, through fear of results, the difficulties of love or friendship by concealment, or a subtle suppression of facts or feelings. The deadliest poison you can instil into the wine of life is a fearful reserve which creates suspicion, or a lie which will canker and kill your own love, and through that your friends. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

Without were fightings, within were fears.--

Fightings and fears

The apostles course was remarkably varied. Note--

I. The troubles which assail the Christian worker from without.

1. Opposition to his doctrine.

2. Persecution.

II. The troubles which assail him from within. We can only conjecture the apostles fears. Fear lest--

1. There had been a want of wisdom or devotion in Christian service.

2. The work of God should have suffered through any insufficiency on the part of the worker.

3. At last the labourer should fail of approval.

III. The support and consolation provided.

1. The testimony of a good conscience that, however imperfect the service, it had been rendered in sincerity.

2. The assurance that an over-ruling Providence has permitted all that has taken place, even to the temporary discouragement of the toiler for Christ.

3. The conviction that in each trouble the servant has had fellowship with his Lord.

4. The hope and expectation that light affliction will work out an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (Prof. J. R. Thomson.)

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

2Co 7:2-4. Receive us — With that affection which is due to the faithful servants of Christ, and to those who have been instruments in your conversion and edification; for, whatever may have been insinuated by ill- designing persons to the contrary; we have wronged — Or injured; no man — In his person. We have corrupted no man — In his principles. We have defrauded no man — Of his property. In this he intimates, likewise, the good he had done them, but with the utmost modesty, as it were, not looking on it. I speak not this to condemn you — As if I accused you of charging me with any of these crimes, but to vindicate myself from the imputations of the false apostles; for I have said before, &c. — I am so far from thinking so unkindly of you; that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you — That is, I could rejoice to spend all my days with you. Great is my boldness, &c. — As if he had said, As an argument of my love, I deal very freely with you upon all occasions; Great is my glorying of you — Or my boasting concerning you. He could, with confidence, boast of them, after the account which Titus brought him of their obedience and good dispositions. I am filled with comfort — On your account. I am exceeding joyful, &c. — My joy for your obedience overbalances the pain occasioned by my affliction.

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

2. Paul’s exhortation to acceptance of his apostleship, 2Co_7:2-16.

a. From his purity and tender affection, 2Co_7:2-4.

2. Receive us—Accept and acknowledge me (with my co-labourers) as your founder-apostle. Paul blends the elevation of the Corinthians to a high platform of holiness with this acceptance. In his review of his gospel scheme, 2Co_5:13-21, and of his apostolic elevation, in 2Co_6:1-11, a sublime piety is the claim. In the earnest exhortation of 2Co_6:11 -vii, 1, this is the view: that Paulinism is pre-eminently a holy Christianity. This appeal, receive us, therefore means, do you on this high plane receive us who present and occupy that plane. Let us stand in union on the same high level of an exalted Christianity.

Have… have… have—The Greek aorist tense requires these three haves to be omitted. The three verbs then left, all point to a particular period; namely, (like a similar passage at 2Co_11:7-9,) the period of St. Paul’s first visit to Corinth and first founding that Church. Act_18:1-18. We have wronged no man. This passage makes beautiful reference to the magnanimous appeal of Samuel to Israel, as he closed his prophetic office, asserting the purity of his administration, (1Sa_12:3,) “Witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?” St. Paul refers, no doubt, to the insinuations of his detractors at Corinth.

Wronged—By any kind of injustice.

Corrupted—By any false or demoralizing doctrine; as the word signifies in 1Co_15:33.

Defrauded—In any money matters. Comp. Act_20:33-34. St. Paul here intimates that his holiness consisted not purely in religious emotions, but also in plain, downright equity of dealing. Piety without honesty is a poor article. Sublimated religious professions are a sad deception unless sustained by true, square, conscientious dealing in the shop, the store, the market, or the exchange. Piety has a great deal to do with money. It is in a true sense a “cash article.”

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

XIII.—STATEMENT AS TO THE EFFECT OF HIS FIRST EPISTLE, A CORDIAL APPEAL TO THEM, AND THE COMFORTING REPORT TITUS HAD BROUGHT HIM OF THE IMPRESSION PRODUCED BY THAT EPISTLE

2Co_7:2-16

2Receive us; we have [om. have, ὴδικήσαμεν] wronged no man, we have [om. have] corrupted no man, we have [om. have] defrauded no man. 3I speak not this to condemn you,1 for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you. 4Great is my boldness of speech [om. of speech, παῤῥησία] toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with [the] comfort, I am exceeding joyful [made exceedingly to abound with the joy] in all our tribulation. 5For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest,2 but we were troubled on every side [in every way];without were fightings, within were fears. 6Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; 7And not by his coming only, but by the consolation [comfort] wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind [zeal, ζῆλον] toward me; so that I rejoiced the more. 8For though I made you sorry with a [the] letter, I do not repent though3 I did repent: for4 I perceive that the same epistle hath made you 9sorry, though it were but for a season. Now [I do not regret it: although I did regret it (for I perceive that that epistle made you sorry though but for a season), yet now] I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.10For godly sorrow worketh5 repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but thesorrow of the world worketh death. 11For behold this selfsame thing, that ye6 sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness [diligence, σπουδή] it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, [longing, ἐπιπόθησιν] yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge [infliction of punishment]! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in7 this matter.12Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you [your earnest care for us]8 in the sight of God might appear unto [with, πρὸς] you. 13Therefore we were comforted in your comfort;9 yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we [comforted. But in our comfort, we joyed the more exceedingly] for the joy of Thus, because his spirit was [has been] refreshed by you all. 14For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; [was not made ashamed, οὐ κατῃσχύνθην] but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our10 boasting which I made [om. which I made] before Titus, is [was, ἐγενήθη] found a truth. And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. 16I rejoice therefore [om. therefore]11 that I have confidence in you in all things.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

2Co_7:2-4.—Receive us.—[In this passage we have Paul’s feelings toward his fellow-Christians presented with more liveliness than in almost any other passage. His restless anxiety to possess their love, his solicitude at having grieved them, and his delight on being reassured of their affection, show the warm friendliness of his nature. The same cause makes this one of the most rhetorical of all his writings; as may be seen in his repeated anaphoræ (2Co_7:2; 2Co_7:4; 2Co_7:11-12), the extreme delicacy of many of his allusions, the overflowing and struggling energy of his expressions (2Co_7:4; 2Co_7:7; 2Co_7:13; 2Co_7:15), his periphrastic designation of God (2Co_7:6), and the freedom (παῤῥησία) with which he runs from one suggestion to another. See Stanley’s note on Paul’s delight in human intercourse, and freedom from the ascetic spirit, p. 461]. The demand, Receive us, is probably a resumption of the idea thrown out in the similar demand, be ye also enlarged, in 2Co_6:13, and in it the Apostle intended to call on the Corinthians for their affectionate confidence. The original word (χωρήσατε) signifies, give us room in your hearts; like χωρεῖν τι in Joh_2:6, and χωρεῖν, so far as it referred to personal objects in Mar_2:2. Others would render it: understand us rightly: [Tyndale and Cranmer: “Understand us”]; comp. χωρεῖν, Mat_19:11-12. This certainly could refer to nothing in the preceding admonitions, for these had contained nothing likely to be misunderstood; but sufficient attention has not been given to the possible relation of this passage to the severity shown in 1 Corinthians 5 Nothing but love and confidence would be needful to insure their acceptance of what he then said and did.—We wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we defrauded no one (2Co_7:2 b).—In these brief sentences he presents in an animated style, without a γάρ, the reason for this demand. That he had an exclusive reference to the incestuous person, is as improbable as it is that he had no such reference whatever (comp. 2Co_7:8 ff.). Even if such a denial of doing injustice, or of having corrupted any one, could be made to fit such a reference (the former by signifying to inflict injustice through extreme severity (1Co_5:5), and the latter by signifying to ruin one, through the deliverance of him over to Satan), certainly the idea of fraud contained in ἐπλεονεκτήσαμεν could not be understood (as Rückert suggests) to refer to an improper assumption of spiritual powers, and therefore would not admit of such an interpretation. It is, however, very likely that in the first denial (ἠδικήσαμεν) he had his eye principally upon that case, and that he intended to repel the imputation of his having violated any one’s rights by a needless severity of discipline; that in the second (ἐφθείραμεν) he had some reference to the charges made by the Judaizing teachers, of his having seduced the people by false doctrines, and especially by his doctrine of Christian liberty (comp. ὡς πλάνοι, 2Co_6:8; also 2Co_2:17; 2Co_4:2 et al.); and finally that when he said he took advantage (πλεονεκτεῖν) of no one, he was repelling the insinuation noticed afterwards in 2Co_11:14; 2Co_11:16 ff., with respect to his management of the collections and other matters (comp. Meyer and Osiander).—I say not this to condemn you (2Co_7:3 a).—He here turns aside for a moment to notice a possible misapprehension of what he had just said, as if he had denied that they had any affection for him, and so had utterly condemned and cast them off for their ingratitude, their suspicions and their outrageous offences against him. It would not have been very difficult to give an offensive turn to his emphatic demand that they would receive him into their hearts. And yet it would by no means come up to the Apostle’s aim if the only condemnation which he wished to deny was supposed to be involved in his denial of such a defrauding as would be implied in accusing them of covetousness because they had contributed nothing to his support. After κατάκρισιν we must, understand ὑμῶν (not ἐκείνον as Rückert suggests with reference to the incestuous person).—For I have said before that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you (2Co_7:3 b).—The Apostle here proceeds to show that he could not have intended to condemn them, inasmuch as such a design would have been inconsistent with what he had said. The place in which he had said what he here speaks of must have been in the present Epistle (comp. Eph_3:3), and especially in 2Co_6:11 f. The substance of this he now repeats, when he says that they were in his heart (ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν ἐστε); comp. Php_1:7, [He uses the perfect instead of the aorist, because what he had said was still said and remained true up to the time of speaking]. The sincerity of the affection and fellowship here professed he further shows by adding: to die and to live with us εἰς τὸ συναποθανεῖν καὶ συζῇν). The subject of this infinitive sentence must be supplied. It must be either με, in which case, he intended to say: so that I would desire to die and live with you (though we could not then understand why συναπ. is placed before συζῇν); or ὑμᾶς, in which case he intended to say: in order that ye may die and live with us. The ἐστέ of the previous sentence is in favor of the latter, but we must remember that he is not here speaking of their sympathy with him in his extreme perils, his deliverances and his welfare. The main proposition had reference to the love which he had toward them, not to that which they had toward him. The expression refers either to the inseparable fellowship which he felt with respect to them (subjectively) in his own heart, in consequence of which they would never be absent from his heart, whatever might be his lot, whether to live or to die (just as we bear within our hearts those whom we love in life or in death) (Meyer), or (objectively), to such an intimate connection with him, that their life and death would be necessarily involved in his, i. e., that they would share in his death and his life, and in all his sufferings for Christ and his deliverances from them (possibly also in his eternal blessedness). Comp. 2Co_1:7. With this latter interpretation, the idea would be that the love which made him bear them on his heart would make every thing common between him and them, and hence that they would be brought into complete fellowship with him in life or in death. [Meyer: How natural it was for Paul, in continual danger of dying, to put the συναπ. emphatically before the συζῆν. There is therefore no necessity of supposing that συζῆν must refer to the future life because it comes after συναπ. Paul may or may not have known of the “sacred band” who had agreed to live and die with each other, or of Roman proverbs of a like nature with what he here says; but he was doubtless uttering simply the extreme devotion of every good shepherd to the welfare of his flock (Joh_10:11). Grotius: “egregius χαρακτὴρ boni pastoris]. The εἰς would imply that such would be the object he would have in view, and not merely that such would be the result. This explanation probably deserves the preference, not only to the former, but also to another, which makes συν imply a reciprocity of fellowship, and thus combines the subjective and the objective interpretation together.—Great is my boldness toward you, great is my glorying of you (2Co_7:4). In this verse the Apostle goes on to show that his disposition and conduct toward them were such that there ought to be no such misconstruction of his language. Παῤῥησία here signifies not liberty or plainness of speech (Luther [the English version] et al.), but inward confidence [Vulgate: mihi, fiducia est apud vos] (Eph_3:12; 1Jn_2:28; 1Jn_3:21; 1Jn_4:17; 1Jn_5:14; comp. Bleek on Heb_3:6). The outward expression of this inward disposition was the καύχησις. Neander: “When Paul was with others he boasted much of the ample and thorough results which the grace of God had produced among them.” To regard (with Osiander) this boasting as something entirely within the Apostle’s own heart is not indispensable to the symmetry of the discourse, nor accordant with the Apostle’s usual style. It was more probably the exulting way in which the confident spirit of Paul usually expressed itself when his heart was elevated. The object of this boasting was the Corinthians themselves (comp. 2Co_7:14; 2Co_9:2), the results of his labors among them, and their subsequent spiritual progress. We may remark here a climax with reference to the preceding clause. So with respect to the following sentences—I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulations (2Co_7:4 b).—we have παράκλησις—χαρὰ, πεπλήρωμαι—ὑπερπερισσεύομαι. [Hodge: “So far from having any disposition to upbraid or to recriminate, his heart was overflowing with different feelings. He had not only confidence in them, he was proud of them; he was not only comforted, he was filled with exceeding joy.” Instead of the third member of the anaphora, the Apostle has, by way of a stronger and climactic expression, πεπλήρωμαι]. Πεπλήρωμαι here, as also in Rom_1:29, and sometimes in the classic writers, is used with the dative. Υπερπερισσεύομαι signifies: I am made rich, overflowing with, etc. Περισσεύειν is used transitively also in 2Co_4:15; 2Co_9:8, and passively in Mat_13:12. The article implies that the Corinthians were the source of both emotions (as in 2Co_7:7): the special consolation which is from you and the joy which is in you (Osiander); or it indicates the particular consolation and joy which he needed (Meyer). The ἑπὶ here signifies, not as in 2Co_1:4, concerning (so as to express the relation or object of χαρά), but in, in the midst (simultaneously), and it expresses the relation of both the preceding clauses. The frequent change of the singular to the plural, and of the plural to the singular in this section, shows that the Apostle’s own feelings were predominant in all that he was saying of himself in common with his fellow-laborers. [In this verse the change was to indicate that he bore the suffering in common with them, but that the joy was wholly a matter of his own experience. Alford also notices that “the present tense indicates the abiding of the effect”].

2Co_7:5-7. For even as we went into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled in every way. (2Co_7:5).—The Apostle now enters into some details; and, in the first place, with respect to the tribulation. καί has reference to what he had said in 2Co_2:12 f. He had there informed them that on his arrival at Troas he could not rest, but that he had gone immediately to Macedonia. He now adds that even when he came to Macedonia he was unable to find rest. Ἔσχηκεν is here the same as in 2Co_2:12, and its accordance with the verb in that passage suggests the suspicion that ἔσχεν may have been the original reading. The reason that our flesh (ἡ σάρξ ἡμῶν) is substituted for my spirit (τῷ πνεύματί μου) as in 2Co_2:12, may be found in the difference of circumstances on the two occasions. At Troas the unrest had its source and seat within, and consisted of anxious thoughts, etc.; but in Macedonia it was one which affected the flesh. And yet we must not suppose it exactly confined to the body (as Rückert supposes, e. g., a sickness), nor that it means his whole person, and so the same as we; but it means the whole natural life in its infirmities, its susceptibilities and its sensibility to suffering; in a word, the whole sensuous nature, internal and external (comp. Mat_26:41), every thing which can be influenced not only by the conflicts of the world around him, but by those cares and temptations of the inward spirit of which he was about to speak. In positive contrast with this he now says we were troubled in every way (ἀλλ̓ ἐν παντὶ θλιβόμενοι). He uses the participle, as if he had written οὐκ ἤμεθα ἄνεσιν ἐχοντες τῇ σαρκί (comp. Meyer). What he means by ἐν παντί (in every condition, in all possible circumstances) is more fully developed when he says,—without were fightings, and within were fears. (ἔξωθεν μάχαι, ἔσωθεν φόβοι). The latter phrase is more forcible without ἦσαν). Ἐξωθεν and ἔσωθεν have reference not to those who were Christians (weak brethren and erroneous teachers), and those who were not; but in the one case to those opponents with whom he came in conflict, whether in the Church or out of it, and in the other to various difficulties within the Christian community, some of which, especially those which pertained to the Corinthian Church, occasionally became quite formidable. [It seems more natural to understand these particles with reference to the Apostle himself, since he was narrating his personal restlessness and troubles].—Nevertheless He who comforteth the downcast, comforted us. even God comforted us, by the coming of Titus—(2Co_7:6). Having considered the trouble to which he had been subjected, he now turns to notice the Divine consolation he had received under it. This had been sufficient to allay the storm in his soul. He mentions God in this connection [not at first under any of the ordinary names of the Deity, for at the moment he was so full of this peculiar aspect of God, that he deems it sufficient to designate him] as the One whose peculiar office it is to comfort them who are cast down (ὁ παρακαλῶν τοὺς ταπεινούς, comp. 2Co_1:3). [The present indicates that this is what is always taking place. In classical and Hellenistic usage ταπεινοί means not only those who are humble, but. those who are humbled, stricken down; and it refers not merely to the outer condition, but to the feelings of the heart, the disposition, and probably to both united (cast down). In the present case it should probably be taken in the most extensive sense. In the conclusion of this part of the sentence God must be regarded as especially emphatic. ̓Εν signifies, as usual, in, the sphere in which the comfort took place, but it also means in consequence of. The arrival of Titus was the reason for his consolation. With great delicacy he speaks of himself as bowed down on account of the misconstruction of his brethren, and as if nothing could relieve his mind but the personal return of his beloved associate. He intimates also that one essential element in the comfort he experienced, sprung from the delightful frame of mind which Titus exhibited on their account.—And not by His coming only, but also by the comfort wherewith He was comforted concerning you (2Co_7:7 a).—Ἐπί has here, as in 1Th_3:7, the sense of: on account of, in relation to. We conclude, therefore, that Titus also had been much disturbed and anxious on account of the state of things at Corinth, and that he had been reassured by what he had seen during his visit there. The close connection between the participial sentence and παρεκλήθη, suggests that the Apostle was here speaking of the tranquilizing effect which the visit at Corinth had had upon Titus’ own mind. This was so perceptible, that during the recital of what Titus had witnessed, the load of care was removed also from the heart of the Apostle himself. Of course this implies that Titus had previously had all his anxieties allayed by what he had seen of the disposition of the Corinthian Church. (Osiander thinks that the Apostle in the tumult of his joy had completely amalgamated into a single thought the consolation of Titus, his own perception of that consolation, and the account of the whole which he was then writing). [It is implied that Titus was comforted while he was reciting the story in the ears of Paul himself, for the participle sἀναγγ. is given to explain how Titus was comforted. The Apostle was comforted while hearing, and Titus while telling such news]. The comforting things which Titus announced respecting the Corinthians, are given in the succeeding sentence,—when he told us your longing, your mourning, your zeal respecting me, so that I rejoiced the more. (2Co_7:7 b).—This implies: 1, their longing to see the Apostle once more, increased, as it doubtless was, by his delay in coming to them; 2, their ὀδυρμός. i. e., the extreme sorrow which they had expressed in bitter lamentations, when they became aware of the anxiety their sad state had caused him, and when they had received the severe reproof contained in his first Epistle; 3, their zeal in behalf of the Apostle, the interest awakened in the Church (as a whole, though not without some important exceptions), in behalf of his person and his authority (others say: affectionate zeal to repair the injury they had done him, to allay all his apprehensions, and to give him joy by their amendment). The phrase ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ (your zeal for, or in behalf of me), is so essentially and immediately connected with ζῆλον, that it seemed needless to repeat the article in order to define it more perfectly. The power of the impression made upon him by the account is shown in the sentence: ὥστε με μᾶλλον χαρῆναι. If we regard μᾶλλον here as equivalent to: potius, we must place the emphasis upon χαρῆναι, and the sense then would be: ‘so that instead of being troubled, I rather rejoiced,’ But from the order of the words we are induced to place the emphasis rather upon μᾶλλον, or at least upon παρεκάλεσεν, which, indeed, contains essentially the idea of joy, and may be regarded as the climax of this joy [so that the sense would be, so that I rejoiced or was comforted more than before]. Others suggest in addition that the increased joy was in consequence of the arrival of Titus [i. e., my usual joy was much increased]. Such a meaning would be much the same in its essential result. [In the old Oxford Paraphrase, the expression here is: so that I rejoiced now the more exceedingly from the occasion of my former grief. Chrysostom: “On these (before mentioned) he abounds in joy, and was filled with consolation, because he had made them feel. These things seem to me to be said, not only to soften what has gone before, but to encourage those who had acted well. For although we doubt not that some among the Corinthians were obnoxious to his former accusations, and unworthy of these praises, he did not wish to distinguish them, but makes both the praises and the accusations common, leaving it to the consciences of his hearers, to select what respectively belonged to them.”]

2Co_7:8-11. Because even though I made you sorry in the Epistle, I do not regret it: although I did regret it (for I perceive that that Epistle made you sorry, though but for a season), yet now I rejoice.—[The word ὅτι compels us to treat this sentence as a reason for the rejoicing of which he had just spoken. The phrase εἰ καὶ occurs three times in this single verse, and in each instance admits a fact without encouraging a doubt respecting it: ‘I admit I made you sorry, that I regretted it, and that the sorrow was but for a season.’ And yet it is implied that notwithstanding those facts, there were qualifying circumstances: ‘Even though such things were true, he did not then regret the sorrow, etc.’]. The painful impression his former Epistle had produced, did not prevent his present rejoicing. He refers, when he speaks of making them sorrowful, to the effect of the severe reproofs he had administered in his first Epistle, especially in the fifth chapter. [And yet many cannot discover anything in the first Epistle answering to such representations. The severity there refers mainly to a private wrong of an individual. They think, therefore, that an Epistle which had been so severe that the Apostle shrinks from reminding the Corinthians that it was his own (τῇ ἐπιστολῇ), must have been a brief and lost one which was confined to public censures, see Introd., § 6.]. There is some dispute regarding the way in which the following sentences should be taken. If we adopt the reading, εἰ καὶ μετεμελόμην (without the δὲ, which is contained only in Cod. B.), two different constructions are possible. In the first place, we may connect this expression with what precedes, as if he had intended to say: ‘I do not regret it, though I did regret it;’ in which case βλέπω γὰρ, ὅτι ἐλύπησα ὑμᾶς is simply a practical confirmation of the preceding ἐλύπησα: I see, from what Titus has told me, that the Epistle made you sorrowful, though only for a season; or we may regard it as giving the reason for his regretting that he had written (μετεμελόμην). When he says: although for a brief season, he informs them of a circumstance which had diminished his regrets, and he probably implies also that his own regret had been only a transient feeling (and yet it is in the imperfect). Meyer, however, correctly remarks that βλέπω γάρ, etc., could not be construed as the reason for any but the οὐ μετεμελόμην of the preceding clause (with which, however, on this construction it could have no suitable meaning [for why should he give what he now sees as a reason for his former regrets])? In the second place, we may commence a new sentence with εἰ καὶ μετεμελόμην, as we may also, and even must do, if we accept of the reading εἰ δὲ καὶ. Those also who leave out γάρ after βλέπω, find in the clause beginning with βλεπω the apodosis of the whole sentence beginning with εἰ καὶ μεταμ.: q. d. “though I did regret it, I now perceive that the Epistle made you sorry only for a season.” Even this construction gives no better specimen of reasoning than the other. It remains that we should make the clause commencing with νῦν χαίρω (2Co_7:9) the apodosis of the whole sentence in which εἰ κὰι μεταμ., etc., is the protasis. [The Vulgate renders it: Quoniam etsi contristavi vos in epistola, non me pœnitet: et si pœniteret, videns quod epistola illa, etsi ad horam, vos coniristavit, Nunc gaudeo, etc. This is translated by the Rhemish, “ For, although I made you sorry in an Epistle, it repenteth me not: albeit it repented me, seeing that the same Epistle (although but for a time) did make you sorry. Now I am glad,” etc.] If we adopt the reading which the Vulgate must have used [i. e., βλέπω γὰρ,] the participial sentence will very conveniently connect with, and form a part of, the protasis, to which the apodosis is, ‘now I rejoice.’ The reading βλέπω γὰρ is, however, so well established that we are compelled to receive it into our text. We may then regard the sentence commencing with these words as a logical parenthesis, thus: “Though I did at one time regret it—(and not without reason) for I perceive (from the account of you by Titus) that that Epistle made you sorry—now I rejoice” (Meyer.) The regret of which he spoke had been experienced sometime before that in which his feelings changed and he became joyful. On this construction, we are struck with the difficulty, that the Apostle used the present βλέπω, rather than the past ἕβλεπον to correspond with μεταμελόμην; but the reason probably is that what the Apostle perceived on a former occasion continued still before his mind, and the peculiar nature of the parenthesis had introduced some confusion into the strict logical connection. The actual course of thought was probably something like the following: From the first account brought by Titus he had perceived that the Corinthians were much troubled by the contents of this first Epistle, and for a while he had been sorry that he had reproved them so severely. But when Titus had brought further information [on a second return from Corinth] he perceived not only that the disturbance had been essentially only temporary (πρὸς ὥραν, Gal_2:5, for a season), but that it soon gave way to a feeling of joy, and was productive of many important benefits. Their sorrow was therefore so far from being a source of regret to him, that he never recollected the effects which that Epistle had produced without joyful emotions. [The word βλέπω is more expressive than ὁρῶ. It refers to the mental contemplation which his paternal spirit had of them while he was absent from the scene. The abrupt and disconnected form which the Apostle’s language here assumes gives us a vivid picture of the inner workings of his heart. Wordsworth remarks: “that the language is beyond the rigid rules of ordinary grammar, and belongs to a higher science, the grammar of nature and even of inspiration; and impart an indescribable grace of tenderness and truth to these impassioned outpourings of his full heart. If they so touch the soul when read now, what must have been their effect when they sounded forth in all their original freshness, with the living voice, in the public recitations of these Epistles in the churches of Corinth and Achaia.” It is not implied that the Apostle’s regret involved any moral self-reproach. Dr. Campbell says it denotes simply “that uneasiness which a good man feels, not from the consciousness of having done wrong, but from a tenderness for others, and a fear lest that which, prompted by duty he had said, should have too strong an effect upon them.”] Accordingly the hesitation which some writers have felt in admitting that an inspired writer would be the subject of such regrets, springs from a mistake with regard to the human element in inspiration, i. e., the variable disposition of the inspired person. As the nobler human feelings are still supposed to be in exercise, notwithstanding the essential divinity of the power which moves them, there is no call for those arbitrary attempts, which some have made to interpret our passage (com. Meyer and Osiander). From what we have already said, it is evident that υῦν in 2Co_7:9, should be taken in a temporal and not in a logical sense. Not because ye were made sorry, but because ye were made sorry unto repentance. (2Co_7:9 b). In οὐχ ὅτι ἐλυπῄθῃτε: (not because ye were, etc.) his design was to prevent, the misconstruction which might be put upon what he had said, as if it were a pleasure to him to remember that he had given them pain, (cold severity, com. Lam_3:33). The matter which gave occasion to his joy was that they had been troubled in such a way as to produce a change of their feelings, especially with respect to the sad case mentioned in the former Epistle (1 Corinthians 5.). The result of such a change was that they had made a great advance in Christian morality and seriousness, and that they had been deeply humbled. He proceeds to speak still further on this point when he adds: For ye were made sorry according to God, that ye might receive damage from us in no respect (2Co_7:9 c). In accordance with Paul’s usage κατὰ θεόν must be designed to direct our minds to the efficient author of the sorrow. (Deo efficiente.) It means: according to God, i. e., according to the mind or will of God. Thus in Rom_8:27. Bengel says: “The sorrow of penitents renders their minds conformable to God,” and “κατά signifies the feeling of the mind which has regard to and follows after God.” Such a one “is grieved because he has done what God abhors.” (Ambrosius). “Iva is here expressive of the divine intention, with, respect to their sorrow according to God; and it implies, even if it had not been implied in κατὰ θεόν, that God had had a hand in producing their sorrow. The object God had in view was, that they might in no way suffer injury from their teachers, not even by their sorrow. Neander: “It is agreeable to the theological view every where predominant in Paul’s writings to say that what he had written with an upright intention should not result in injury to them.” Osiander: ἐν μηδενί has the sense of, in no part, i. e., neither in your joyful confidence nor in the purity of the Church.” But is such a meaning quite appropriate or consistent with the context? Ζημιοῦσθαι occurs in 1Co_3:15, in the sense of, he shall suffer loss. The preposition ἐκ shows the source of the injury which is denied (2Co_2:2). He does not mean that they would thus be saved from punishment. He merely implies that they might have been injured if they had experienced no change of mind, especially if their feelings had become alienated from him and embittered toward him. On the contrary he rejoiced to find that the result had been salutary.—This idea is further carried out in 2Co_7:10, where a reason is assigned for what had been said in the preceding final sentence: “Ye have been troubled by God that ye might receive injury from us in nothing.—For the sorrow which is according to God worketh out repentance unto salvation not to be repented of, (2Co_7:10 a),—i. e., a change of heart which leads to salvation.” The apostle here refers back to εῖς μετάνοια, (unto repentance) in 2Co_7:9, and he describes this as the effect of a right kind of sorrow. When a man

is conformed to the mind of God, or is troubled by a regard to God on account of his sins, he will turn from those sins with all his heart; and he will become totally opposed to all that once was pleasant or seemed indifferent to him (μετάνοια). But this change of heart which was the result of the sorrow spoken of, and which in the actual experience of believers always included faith, was especially the fruit of the sorrow according to God and conducted to salvation.12 If we connect ἀμεταμέλητον with σωτηρίαν, the idea will be that when a man is delivered from his sinful corruption he thereby attains everlasting life and must of course be forever satisfied. It would be absurd to suppose that such a one would ever regret his course or have the slightest wish that he had never come into this state or into the way which leads to it. It must be conceded therefore that this epithet is quite suitable to σωτηρίαν, and the order of the words favors such an application. But Luther and others connect it with μετάνοιαν, and pœnitentiam non pœnitendam is an expression which makes good sense. [Calvin also with fine critical discernment remarks: The play here upon the word penitence, when he says not to be repented of, is elegant, for however unpleasant at first taste a thing may be, it renders itself desirable by its usefulness. For though the epithet (ἀμεταμέλ.) may refer as much to the salvation as to the penitence, it appears to me to agree better with the latter word: q. d.: We are taught by the very event that no sorrow ought to be grievous or troublesome to us; so that though repentance have something bitter in it of itself, it is described as not to be repented of because of the sweet and precious fruit which it produces.” The Vulgate renders the phrase thus: pœnitentiam in salutem stabilem operatur, which the Rhemish translates: worketh penance unto salvation that is stable. This use of ἀμεταμέλητος in the sense of unchangeable is perhaps sanctioned by its use in Rom_11:29. It is commonly supposed that our English Version favors the reference of the word to repentance. This however does not seem quite clear.] It is true we should more naturally have expected that ἀμετανόητον would have been used in application to μετάνοιαν, but ἀμεταμέλητος brings out better that part of the sorrow which is painful, and no one can justly say that it creates any halting or feebleness in the course of thought. We may therefore, with Osiander give the preference to such a connection. There is an evident reference to the οὐ μεταμέλομαι in 2Co_7:8. As this epistle had drawn forth their sorrow and this had produced a change of heart which could never be regretted, it had been followed by such fruits and had led to salvation (σωτηρία), he could of course have no regrets on account of the effect of his epistle, and he could only rejoice in the recollection of it.—But the sorrow of the world worketh death. (2Co_7:10 b).—He here brings up as an illustration of what he had said, a striking contrast. To the divine sorrow of which he had spoken he now opposes the sorrow of the world, i. e., the sorrow which the ungodly multitude sometimes experience. As Thomas says: “as is the love so is the sorrow.” Τοῦ κόσμου is the genitive, not of the object, i. e., a sorrow on account of worldly things or possessions, but of the subject, and it must be interpreted with reference to the contrast. It here signifies such a trouble about the apostle’s reproofs as would have produced no change of mind, but rather an irritability and a depression of spirit on account of wounded pride. As this could only harden the heart, it would lead to the death which was equivalent to perdition, and of course the reverse of salvation. Death is here not merely moral corruption, nor a fretting of one’s self to death, and above all not a mortal sickness or suicide. Comp. Elwert. Stud. der Würt. Geistl. IX. 1 135ff.—For behold this very thing, that ye were made sorry according to God, what great diligence it wrought in you (2Co_7:11).—The apostle here points out the way in which the good results of the sorrow had been exhibited among the Corinthians themselves. He shows by actual facts the proof (introduced by γάρ) of what he had been saying. Behold! (ἰδού) is here the utterance of a lively emotion. (Osiander). Τοῦτο indicates in advance and in a very emphatic manner, the matter on which he is about to speak, and the particulars of which he immediately proceeds to specify; and by αὐτό he designed to say that it was that precise thing, and that alone which had had such an influence. The simple dative ὑμῖν (in you) is more forcible than ε̇ν ὑμῖν would have been, and it must here be regarded as the Dative of relation, but closely approximating the dat. commodi. The substantive σπουδή signifies originally haste, then diligence, activity, and it is here applied to the case of discipline then in hand, in contrast with the previous inactivity (Starke: diligence in recognizing your defects, in complying with my exhortations, in removing offences, and in making up for past neglects).—Yea, clearing of yourselves; yea, indignation; The ἀλλά which is so many times repeated and with so much emphasis (comp. 1Co_6:11), is not only climactic, but corrective; equivalent to: yea, rather. He intended to say that σπουδή was perhaps too feeble a word to express the change which took place in their minds in consequence of their godly sorrow. Ἀπολογία here means, not their defence of the Apostle against his opponents, but in accordance with the context, their own justification before Titus and so before the Apostle. It signifies their answer to the charge of having apparently given countenance to sin, and their solemn disavowal of all fellowship with crime. It was not, however, their practical justification of themselves by the actual punishment of the offender, for this would have anticipated the idea expressed afterwards by ἐκδίκησις. The ἀγανάκτησις (indignation) was more than the ἀπολογία; for it implies that they were indignant that such a thing should have taken place among them, and perhaps at themselves that they had so long tolerated it and had been so careless of the honor of the church.—yea, fear; yea, longing desire.—The φόβος was in this case a fear not of Divine judgment and still less of apostasy, but of the Apostle lest he should come to them with a rod (1Co_4:21). (Heubner thinks incorrectly that it was an apprehension that new offences might arise, and hence that it signifies an increased watchfulness and jealousy of themselves). To this reference of the fear of the Apostle corresponds the succeeding word, in which he passes suddenly to the very opposite; for ἐπιπόθησις signifies not a joyful longing for their own improvement, but as in 2Co_7:7, an earnest desire to see the Apostle himself, whose love for them they felt even while he reproved them so severely, but to whom they turned with confidence as soon as they had removed the offence.—yea, zeal; yea, infliction of punishment.—If (with Bengel and Meyer) we divide the series of six things here mentioned into three pairs, in which ἀπολογία and ἀγανάκτησις relate to the Corinthians themselves; [φόβος and ἐπιπόθησις to Paul], and ζῆλος and ἐκδίκησις to the offender, we must regard ζῆλος as signifying something different from what it means in 2Co_7:7. It must signify in such a case a zeal to punish the offender, which attains its end in the ἐκδίκησις, but which is essentially a zeal in behalf of God, the Apostle’s authority, and the church’s reputation. Bengel makes both of these refer to the incestuous person, and with a rather excessive refinement he explains ζῆλο̇ς as pro bono animæ ejus, and ἐκδίκησις as contra malum ejus. Ἐκδίκησις is the infliction of punishment in consequence of which the law (in this case the Divine) is carried out, maintained and satisfied in its demands upon the holiness of God’s people. (The attempt to find in this place the Romish doctrine of satisfaction is purely arbitrary). If (with Osiander) we regard the members in the several pairs as contrasted with one another and rising in each case towards a climax, ζῆλος would be zeal for the Lord, etc., that the Divine law might be maintained through the ἐκδίκησις, i. e., the punishment of the guilty one. [Doddridge: “Some divines have taken it for granted that this verse contains seven distinct marks of true repentance, to be found in every sincere penitent, whereas these are not the characters of the temper of each, but of different persons in different circumstances, according to the part they respectively acted in the affair in question.”] The result of all this was—In every respect ye have commended yourselves as clear in this affair. (2Co_7:11 b).—In accordance with the lively and emphatic style in which the Apostle was here writing, this is introduced without an οὖν or anything of the kind. Ἐν παντὶ signifies here in every respect. Συνεστήσατε is equivalent to ἀπεδείξατε (Osiander makes it a collateral idea in connection with what he had said of their conciliatory and just course). With this meaning the word has sometimes an accusative of the object in connection with it (Rom_5:8), sometimes ὅτι, and sometimes as in the present case an accus. cum infin. Ἁγνος signifies pure, innocent. In other places it is used with a genitive of the offence, but here it is with a dative signifying with reference to, like ἐλεύθερος τῇ δικαιοσύνῃ (free from righteousness) in Rom_6:20. Τῷ πραγματι is a lenient general phrase to avoid anything more specific. Bengel: “He speaks indefinitely because the thing was unpleasant.” Neander uses this passage to confirm his view, that Paul has reference in this epistle nowhere to the case of the incestuous person, but to some individual in personal hostility to himself. [“If the case alluded to here had been that of the incestuous person, the Corinthians would have had no need of showing their innocence in the matter, for no one could have supposed them to be sharers in such a crime; but if we suppose that it was the case of some individual in personal opposition to the Apostle, we can easily see how they might have shared in this offence, and how they might have shown themselves clear in this matter.”]

2Co_7:12-16. Accordingly, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his sake who had done the wrong, nor for his sake who had suffered wrong. (2Co_7:12 a).—We have here an inference [ἄρα, consequently] from the effects which his first Epistle had produced, with reference to his object in writing it. [The same phrase (εἰ καὶ) occurs here which had occurred thrice a few sentences before (2Co_7:8), and in the same sense: “Even though I wrote unto you; conceding, as I do, that I did so”]. His first inference, as to what must have been his motive in writing, is stated negatively as to what was not his object. From the results which he had recounted in their own experience, he wished them to infer what must have been his true design, and to give up all unfounded surmises with respect to his motives. He doubtless had reference to his design in writing that portion of the Epistle (1 Corinthians 5.) which treated of the matter in hand, and its contents; not to the severity or sternness of its spirit. The latter could not be alluded to without some more specific designation of his object. Meyer expresses it thus: “Though I have not been silent, but have opened my heart to you by letter on this matter.” From ἔγραψα we may readily conclude what verb must be supplied in the final sentence It must be, of course, “I wrote.” Neander thinks that ἔγραψα refers not to the first Epistle to the Corinthians, but to one which has been lost, and which, being confined to a single object, may have contained some severe expressions. Οὐκ—ἀλλά in this place also should not be enfeebled in its meaning, for the Apostle intended to say that his object in writing had not been to do justice to either of these persons, but one far higher. Meyer: “He must, indeed, have written in opposition to the wrong doer (ἀδικήσας), and to the same extent in favor of the injured one (ἀδίκηθείς), and yet the determining cause which had prevailed upon him and had induced him to write, was not the case of either of these persons, but the interest of the Church in general.” Most expositors understand ἀδικήσας as having reference to the incestuous person. But who is the ἀδικηθείς? We are not surprised to find it in the Masculine, for this seems demanded by its contrast with ἀδικήσας. The neuter=ἀδικήματος would have been not only inconsistent with grammatical usage, but without a consistent meaning, for he had nowhere said any thing of the crime itself. That the Corinthians were not meant is evident from the use of the singular number. He must, therefore, have meant either himself, who, as an Apostle, had been deeply injured by such a blot upon the reputation of one of his churches, or the father of the incestuous person whose conjugal rights had been so severely violated. But not only 2Co_2:5 (οὐκ ἐμὲ λελύπηκεν), but the entire absence of any more particular designation (as ἐμοῦ), argues very strongly against the former view, even though we leave out the improbable extension some have given it, by reminding us that the man may have become especially vindictive against the Apostle, and may have drawn others into his party. In behalf of the second view we may also suggest that in other places ἀδικεῖσθαι is employed with reference to a violation of conjugal relations. As a reason for the silence of the other passages (1Co_5:2; 1Co_5:5 ff.) with respect to the father, we may remark that there was no occasion, or at least no necessity, for a reference to him there. If we make the word apply to him, the Apostle must be understood to deny that his object was to procure satisfaction for him. Neander regards the Apostle as the one who had received a personal offence (comp. 2Co_2:5). If this were so, Paul would have been the ἀδικηθείς, and we must understand him to deny that he wrote under the irritation such an injury might be supposed to produce. His real object in mentioning the matter at all in a letter to them, is brought before us in the next clause (which, according to the best established reading of the text, is):—but that your diligence in our behalf might be made manifest among you in the sight of God (2Co_7:12 b)—i. e., that your care for us and our work, to help us in accomplishing our aims and purposes, and in attaining the great objects of our mission, might be brought into the light (comp. 2Co_7:11; 2Co_2:9). Very likely πρὸς ὑμᾶς appeared inappropriate in this place, and hence the various reading: ἡμῶν τὴν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν. But he intended to say that by their means or under their direction, in the church and in consequence of their active exertions in this matter, their zeal in his behalf had become apparent, Πρός appropriately designates what direction this manifestation had taken. The purity or uprightness with which this had been done is pointed out by the phrase, in the sight of God, which evidently was intended to show the presence in which the manifestation took place. This intimates that they ought to make trial of their zeal as in the presence of God, and see to it that it was no mere pretence or vain form.—Therefore we have been comforted: but besides (ἐπί) our comfort we have rejoiced more abundantly in the joy of Titus (2Co_7:13).—He means here to say: On this account, i. e., since this was our object, and inasmuch as this object has been attained (2Co_7:9 ff.), we have been comforted. [The perfect indicates a continued comfort]. If we adopt the reading of the Receptus: ἐπὶ τῇ παρακλήσει ὑμῶν περισσοτέρως δὲ , we must take ὑμῶν not in an active sense, so that the idea would be: “in consequence of the consolation afforded me by you;” but in a passive sense, according to which the meaning would be: in consequence of the comfort you enjoyed after the temporary (πρὸς ὥραν, 2Co_7:8) sorrow my epistle caused you, you have found peace by means of the repentance (μετάνοια). The word παράκλησις in this connection has the sense of comfort, not as Reiche maintains, of an admonition, as if Paul was comforted on account of the favorable result of the severe admonition he had given the Corinthians. But the best established reading places the δέ immediately after ἐπί; in consequence of which a new sentence must commence with ἐπί, and the preceding three words form a beautiful, impressive and brief sentence by themselves (Osiander). We may then regard ἐπί as indicating the condition or state in which the speaker was with the sense of either, in, or still better, in addition to what had been possessed before, as in Mat_25:20, and Luk_16:26. That which is added is thus regarded as based or resting upon that which before existed (Passow 2Co_1:2, p. 1038 b). [There is a general unity, with a particular diversity, in the meaning which ἔπὶ bears in this section. Its general signification (upon, Jelf. §633, Webster, pp. 174–6) is obviously at the basis of each instance of its use, and yet this branches out into the special meanings, with a dative; on account of (2Co_5:7; 2Co_5:13, second time), in addition to (2Co_7:13, first time), and with a genitive: before, or in the presence of (2Co_7:14). Comp. Ellicott on 1Ti_5:19]. By περισσοτέρως μᾶλλον (comp. 2Co_7:7) the Apostle intended to say that this new joy which is added to the previous comfort was more abundant than that of the comfort itself. The double comparative [for even in the positive a comparison is implied, and μᾶλλον (found also in Mar_7:36) therefore doubles it] increases the force of the expression. The object or reason for this joy was the joy of Titus. The latter is more definitely described when it is added—because his spirit had been refreshed by you all. (2Co_7:13 b).—These words are not dependent upon ἐχάρημεν, as if Paul rejoiced because the spirit of Titus had been refreshed; and of course they are not parallel with ἐπὶ τῇ χαρᾷ to define more distinctly what the joy of Titus was; but they are added to inform us with more precision respecting the cause of Titus’ joy. The position of ἀναπἐπαυται at the commencement of the clause shows that it was intended to be emphatic. We had ἀναπαύειν (they refreshed my spirit) once before, in 1Co_16:18. The source from which the refreshment came is pointed out by ἀπο. Another reason for his great joy on account of Titus’ joy he proceeds to assign in 2Co_7:14.—For if in anything I have boasted to him of you I was not made ashamed, but as we spake all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus was found to be truth.—Ἒι τι does not signify any doubt as to the fact asserted, but it is a delicate mode of expression, common also in classical writers, and equivalent to ὅ τι or ὃσον . The dative αὐτῷ should be explained by means of the λαλε͂ιν implied in καυχᾶσθαι. To the negative, I was not made ashamed, he adds the positive, our boasting was found to be truth. Ἐγενήθη, in its logical signification, means here: turned out to be, proved to be in accordance with facts. Ἐπὶ has here, as 1Co_6:1, the sense of, before, in the presence of. His object was, by way of comparison, to put by the side of what he had said to them what he had boasted before Titus when he sent him to Corinth and when he was anxious to encourage him. All that he had said to them and to him was now proved to have been said uprightly. The whole passage is apologetical (comp. 2Co_1:17 ff.). Πάντα must be taken in a general sense, and not applied merely to the favorable things he had been saying to them respecting Titus. Ἐν ἀληθεἰᾳ has an adverbial signification (truly), as in Col_1:16 and Joh_17:19. One result of this confirmation of the Apostle’s boastful assertions, by means of Titus’ own experience among the Corinthians, is mentioned in ver.15, where it is said—And his inward affection is more abundant toward you while he remembers the obedience of you all.—Σπλάγχνα occurred before in chap 2Co_6:12. Περισσοτέρως, signifies: even more than before. Εἰς ὑμᾶς ἐστιν means that he was inclined or attached to them. In the phrase ἀναμιμνησκομένου, etc. (recalling to himself. Jelf. § 363, 6; Winer, § 39, 3), he refers to that which awakened and perpetually sustained his earnest love toward them, viz: their ὑπαποή, their obedience to Titus, his deputy to them. This sprung up in his heart when he learned the spirit with which they had received Titus, and it was sustained more especially by his lively recollection of the same event.—How with fear and trembling ye received him. (2Co_7:15 b.)—With respect to fear and trembling, comp. on 1Co_2:3. The phrase here signifies that profound reverence which they entertained for one who had been delegated by Christ’s own Apostle, and which made them exceedingly zealous lest they should fail in any duty they owed him (Osiander, Meyer). He concludes this section with an expression of his joyful confidence in them.—I rejoice that I have confidence in you in all things (2Co_7:16).—[He here gives the conclusion of the whole discussion. The first seven chapters had been occupied with subjects of a personal nature between him and the Corinthians, and as he is about to leave the subject] he gives the result at which he arrives in an abrupt appendix (asyndeton, without οὑν). The proper signification of θαῤῥῶ is simply, I am of good courage, not I may or can be of good courage, as if he had meant merely, that he had ground for encouragement. As in other passages θαῤῥεῶ is never construed with ἑν, when the object of confidence is referred to. Meyer is inclined to consider ἐν as expressive of the original cause or source of the confidence. (I am of good courage through you), and yet the analogy of πιστεύειν, ἐλπίζειν and other words of a similar meaning, favors the interpretation which seems here most natural, viz: with respect to the object: I have confidence concerning, with regard to, or in you. [Dr. Hodge thinks that if θαῤῥῶ cannot, when joined with ἐν, be rendered, I have confidence, “ἐν had better be rendered before: I stand full of confidence before you, i. e, in your presence,” and he refers to 1Co_14:11. He, however, with our author, prefers the translation given in the common English version. Stanley renders the passage: “I am bold through your encouragement.”] The comprehensive ἐν παντὶ, which must here signify, in all things, forms a suitable transition to the following section.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

[1. The inspiration of the sacred writers was not inconsistent with the free exercise of all human feelings (2Co_7:8). Even assuming that Paul was fully inspired when he wrote the lost Epistle, he appears afterwards to have had misgivings respecting it, whether he had acted under an infallible Divine influence. Conceding this, we may still maintain that every thing which has been actually preserved as holy Scripture is infallibly true and Divine. Men who claimed to be, and doubtless were, infallibly inspired in all that concerned their official duties, seem to have been left to doubts and infirmities at other times and in their private relations, like other men (Gal_2:11; 2Co_12:7; 2Co_1:15 f. Php_2:23). “Holy men,” whose free human faculties were “moved,” informed and directed to any requisite extent “by the Holy Ghost,” appear to have been allowed, even in the moment of inspiration, to express themselves according to their individuality of character. Paul’s style and manner of expression is unmistakably unlike John’s, or David’s, or Jeremiah’s. Different instruments of music, even when played upon by the same hand, and with equal power, will give forth each its peculiar tone. The most plenary inspiration was probably consistent with the freest possible play of human thoughts and feelings. Comp. Lee. on Inspiration, Chap. 6., p. 176ff. Hodge: “Inspiration simply rendered its subject infallible in writing and speaking as the messenger of God. Paul might doubt whether he had in a given instance made a wise use of his infallibility, as he might doubt whether he had wisely exercised his power of working miracles. He never doubted as to the truth of what he had written.”]

2. Godly sorrow, or the sorrow which is conformed to the will of God, is one which directs the man wholly and only to God. He is troubled because he has violated God’s law, has injured God’s cause, has dishonored God’s name, and has made himself utterly unworthy of God’s holy love. In this mere act of renouncing sin there must be involved such a radical change of heart as must remove all hindrances on man’s part to his participation in God’s salvation. It is in itself such a thoroughly purifying fire, as necessarily implies that its subject is in the way to everlasting life. By such a change of disposition, which every one must recognize as the work of God’s Spirit, he becomes susceptible of, and prepared for, every blessing proffered to him by Divine grace, and purchased for him by Christ’s expiatory work. But there is another kind of sorrow which is sometimes felt by men who are alienated and estranged from God. They are often indignant and offended when their misdeeds are brought to light, because they apprehend that their reputation and standing among men may be injured, when they are brought by providential discipline into various kinds of trouble, and when their honor, their earthly possessions, or their enjoyments are impaired. They are not disturbed at the thought of sin itself, in its relation to God and His kingdom, nor as a violation of their duty to their fellow-men, and an impediment or a complete destruction to all intercourse with God. They who have only this kind of sorrow are still in the way of death, of eternal perdition, and of everlasting banishment from God’s kingdom.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Starke:

2Co_7:2. Ministers are bound not to injure their hearers (e. g., by excessive severity), nor to corrupt them (by false doctrines or wrong conduct), nor needlessly to molest or trouble them; but their hearers are equally bound to love, honor and imitate their ministers.

2Co_7:3. Those who have great success in preaching, and have affectionate hearers, may have obtained them without any violation of conscience or of the duties of their office.—Those who are faithful are willing to lay down their lives for the salvation of their people (2Co_12:15).

2Co_7:4. To be afflicted for Jesus’ sake, and yet to be joyful and confident, implies something above human power.—Hedinger:

2Co_7:5. The life, the work and the love of the Christian may sometimes bring him much anxiety; and yet how calm can he be in the midst of commotion! The flesh may be in the conflict while the spirit is calm! Blessed indeed are they who know what this is! Joh_16:33. Spener:—God afflicts His people in many ways, and we must not suppose His saints to be insensate blocks; they are obliged to endure much inward suffering, and to feel that they are still men.

2Co_7:6. Thou who sittest in the dust and art troubled, listen to a good friend, whose counsels will cheer and enliven thee again! God sent him to comfort thee! 2Co_7:7. Blessed indeed are they who make such a use of their spiritual chastisements! It is the mark not only of a good spirit, but of an upright minister, when nothing troubles a man more than offences among his people, or rejoices him more than the removal of them (Jer_13:7; 3Jn_1:4).—Hedinger:

2Co_7:8 ff. It is never a pleasure to a minister to reprove and disturb his people. But when his words reach their hearts and produce excellent fruit, it is a blessed offence and the beginning of a glorious conversion. Hedinger:—That godly sorrow in which the sinner repents of his wickedness, not because it brings upon him punishment, torment, fears, shame and disturbance, but because he has offended the God who loves him and does him good, and in which he would willingly suffer a thousand deaths, if he could thereby blot out the reality of his guilt, has its source in a union of sorrow with filial love, and in a faith which recognizes the goodness of God and the inconceivable abomination of sin (Examples in 2Sa_12:13; Luk_15:21; Luk_18:13; Mat_26:75; Luk_7:38). Such a sorrow frees us from sin, brings us nigh to God, and makes us partakers of eternal glory. We can never regret such a repentance, even though it occasions us some temporary pain, if in the end it leads us to great glory.—The sorrow of the world (on account of worldly losses, fear of punishment, or dishonor) will never know any thing of mercy from God, but it will drive the soul to despair, to new and fretful complainings, on account of its condemnation, and finally to actual hardness of heart.—Spener:

2Co_7:11. He who is troubled after a godly sort will have his carnal slumbers driven from him; and having thus become conscious of the power of sin, he will be more watchful against it, and will press forward more vigorously in the way of the Lord.—The marks of true repentance are: horror and disgust at sin, delight in goodness, and diligence in the pursuit of it—. 2Co_7:13. True love rejoices with those who rejoice, and weeps with those who weep (Rom_12:15). Blessed are they of whom their ministers can testify and boast much which is good. But alas! for those over whom their ministers can breathe forth nothing but sighs! (Heb_13:17). Uprightness becomes any man but especially one who preaches the Gospel.

Berlenb. Bible:

2Co_7:3. People are very quick in their rage to take what they hear as a condemnation of themselves; but if our own hearts condemn us not, no man can condemn us.

2Co_7:4. Within a single hour a pious soul may be in deep affliction and overwhelmed with joy.

2Co_7:6 f. It is one of the mysteries of God’s way that Christians must be comforters to one another. They will thus be joined together as one body.

2Co_7:8 f. (Cassian): “The sorrow which worketh repentance is obedient, humble, gentle, loving and patient; for it comes from the love of God, and under many and severe trials it will never grow weary in following after perfection. But the sorrow which the devil gives is harsh, impatient, severe, selfish, full of fears, and it is sure to drive the man in his ignorance in an opposite direction.” Can God then be served only in brooding sorrow? The great point is, what reason we have for sorrow, and whither our sorrow tends? A true child of God cannot but grieve that, during his whole life, he has done so little which can be pleasing to his heavenly Father.

2Co_7:10. Sorrow is usually looked upon as something disagreeable, and even spiritless and dull; and hence most persons strive to be merry and drive away sad thoughts by worldly pleasures and luxuries. But while such miserable expedients leave our nature infected with the evil, they bring down upon us additional judgments, and afford no protection against the gnawing tooth of conscience. Still less can false comfort and mere fancies give us relief. We must search deep within our souls for the true cause of our sorrow, or we shall derive no permanent benefit from it. God never afflicts us willingly; but such is our present state, that he can do us good in no other way; He is obliged to kill before he can give us life. Before we can have any true joy, we must sorrow unto repentance. By making light of repentance, we only plunge deeper into an eternal melancholy. The godly sorrow which springeth from God and his love leaves nothing behind it but blessedness, for the repentance to which it leads is unto salvation. The sorrow itself, and all that legitimately flows from it, must correspond with the spirit and purpose of the Being who produced it. Hence, if our sorrow comes from God, it must awaken within us a salutary humility, and a repentance which excites us to the exercise of true godliness, and makes us prayerful, obedient to God, patient under trials, kind to our fellowmen, and rich in good works; while the sorrow of the world will make us sullen and unfit for any useful work; and yet in this latter state, sad and dark as it is, (melancholy), are all those who live without God. Even pious souls are not without temptations to this worldly sorrow. They are liable to melancholy (the sorrow of the world) when they are discouraged under the torments of sin and corruption, under the disorders and distractions of spiritual and bodily trials, and under the afflictions incident to an inordinate love of the world. He who has been a murderer from the beginning, and grudges every happy hour the willing soul spends with its God, conceals himself behind all these depressions of the believer’s spirit, and aggravates them when he pretends to remove them. That dark spirit often induces men under extraordinary afflictions to forsake that which is good, and deprives them of all desire or capacity to enjoy it. The recollection of sins committed before conversion frequently contributes much to such a state of mind; and hence Christians should pay no attention to those representations, in which the serpent, under the guise of humility, reminds them of abominations, which God himself has blotted out and cast into the depths of the sea. In like manner we should never despair on account of those sinful remnants of former habits which continue to beset us even after our conversion.

2Co_7:11. When a man first obtains a correct idea of his own corruption, and is properly humbled for his sins, his whole heart is aroused, and everything there is in confusion. One emotion only gives place to another. We set about correcting everything at once; the thought of former sluggishness and security makes us indignant at ourselves; we tremble under apprehensions of God’s wrath; we are so anxious to clear ourselves in the minds of those whom we have offended, that we lose no opportunity to do them good; and we burn with zeal to be revenged upon the enemy of our souls, by a true repentance and a hearty renunciation of every sin. Every possible method is resorted to to cast off this hated evil of sin, and if we are not as successful as we hoped to be at once, we are apt to be perplexed, and at a loss what to think or do. Though this shows our utter weakness, it is a good sign that we have truly repented of sin. It indicates that we are thoroughly in earnest, and it is a thousand fold better than the tranquil state of the hypocrite or the self-deceiver. We need not doubt that God will be very patient with persons in such a state. “That ye are clear!” Past offences are easily forgotten when the parties are thoroughly reconciled. Our Lord himself said to those who had miserably sinned against Him, that they were already clean from a regard to Him and through the Gospel which He was speaking to them (Joh_15:3.). Wherever the heart is right, He will be satisfied, although He is obliged to overlook many improprieties in the outward life of His disciples.

Rieger:

2Co_7:2-7. If we are under the direction of the Spirit of love and of power and of a sound mind, we shall never be at a loss to conduct ourselves so as to avoid showing undue fear or favor toward those around us, to meet with composure whatever they inflict upon us, and at the same time to maintain as far as is in us lies their confidence, and to show them that in other respects we esteem them, and are satisfied with them. “The Comforter of those who are cast down!” what a precious name for God!

2Co_7:8 ff. How the spirit of a father, yea, of God Himself, is apparent here! For although God does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, yet when He cannot do them good in any other way He brings them into trouble; and, like Joseph before his brethren, turns away and weeps. We are in continual danger not only of being too tender with our brethren, and of withholding from them the needful salt of Christian reproof, but of exercising the authority given us with such severity as will overwhelm them in overmuch sorrow. Ours is the delicate work of assisting them in bringing forth godly sorrow. Blessed are they who can bring about a harvest of joy from a sowing of tears! Those whom God’s Spirit makes sorrowful, because they have lost God, His grace, His way, and the hope of being with Him forever, must see to it that their sorrow does not stop short of that repentance unto life, which can never be repented of. The sorrow of the world must end in death and corruption, because it not only fosters erroneous views and wrong motives, but engenders powerful, though often secretly indulged lusts which mutually strengthen one another.

Heubner:

2Co_7:2. We should receive those who love us and are sincerely endeavoring to do us good, with the most enlarged affection.

2Co_7:3. The affectionate minister never puts forth a severe expression merely to wound, or reprove, or condemn any one, but to do him good. To accomplish this he is willing to risk every thing else.

2Co_7:4. Those who are free and candid with us, give the best proof that they have confidence in us.

2Co_7:6. God bestows His consolations only upon the lowly, because they trust not to themselves and their own powers, but in God alone; and because they know their own wretchedness, and sigh and weep over it before God. The Lord always looks kindly upon such. Often when they are in the deepest affliction He is preparing to help and comfort them.

2Co_7:7. How precious the joy of benefiting others.

2Co_7:8. The purer and the more considerate all your conduct is, the less reason will you have to apprehend future regrets respecting it. A brief sorrow which leads to amendment saves us from eternal torment.

2Co_7:9. The new birth cannot be effected without pain.

2Co_7:10. The distinction between a holy sorrow and the sorrow of the world, springs from their different sources. The latter is merely a feeling of mortification or chagrin under the injuries or the dishonor of which sin has been the occasion. The man complains very little of himself; but against God and Divine Providence he not only complains, but sometimes exhibits extreme malice and spite. On the other hand godly sorrow lays all the burden of guilt upon the sinner, and is full of shame and grief for the dishonor which belongs to sin itself. The former only makes the man worse, hardens his heart, drives him away from God, and lands him in despair; while the latter turns him from his sins, strengthens his powers, and gives him peace with God. The world’s sorrows and the world’s joys are equally worthless. The joys it vaunts in society, and the sorrows it endures all the remaining time.

2Co_7:11. The repentance of a whole congregation for some offence it has committed, should not be a merely transient emotion of sympathy, but it should lead to earnest efforts to remove the offence, and to withstand the evil. It is no true love which fears to disturb offenders, and is only anxious to make their repentance as easy as possible.

2Co_7:12. Every minister should strive to convince his people that he has no interest at heart but theirs.

Ver 14. A minister should be very cautious about boasting of his people or of his work among them. He is very liable thus to prepare occasions for subsequent mortification. Should we afterwards find ourselves deceived, the reaction will be painful and the great enemy never feels happier than when he finds us indulging in such boastings.

W. F. Besser:

2Co_7:3. The Christian life extends beyond the present world, and does not attain its perfection until after death. Blessed is that fellowship in which each one has all others in his heart to live and to die with them.

2Co_7:4. Deeper than the pain God’s ministers suffer from a persecuting world, is the pain they feel for straying brethren and unthankful children; but they have a joy which no earthly sorrow can destroy, a joy which is exceeding abundant, when these lost sheep return to the fold of the Good Shepherd.

2Co_7:13. Godly comforts are never wanting where there is godly sorrow. It is by the way of repentance that God graciously brings to Jesus Christ those who sorrow after a godly manner over their fallen state.

2Co_7:15. How unfounded the common impression that a Christian’s love to a brother will grow cold in proportion to his knowledge of that brother’s sins and imperfections! On the contrary, the more it does for him, the warmer it grows.

[2Co_7:2-8. I. Paul’s claim to a cordial reception: 1. Its ground; (a) he deserved it, for his blameless life (2Co_7:2) and for his self-sacrificing love (2Co_7:3 b); 2. The way in which he urged it, (a) so as to give no needless pain (2Co_7:3 a), (b) with open unsuspecting confidence (2Co_7:4). II. His former experience with reference to them: 1. He had been compelled to reprove them, 2. He had been depressed by great trials (2Co_7:5, comp. 2Co_2:12 f.), 3. God had comforted him (2Co_7:6 f.).

2Co_7:9-10. Power of sorrow: I. The sorrow of the world: 1. It has no moral basis; 2. It is irreparable; 3. It engenders corrupt passions. II. Godly sorrow: 1. Its source (God in Christ) proves it right; 2. It estranges from all which really can injure us; 3. It works out a positive love of goodness; 4. It shuts us up into the faith of Christ; 5. It secures everlasting salvation.—On the whole section: A minister’s joy in his people: 1. When he has a large place in their hearts; 2. When they heed his admonitions; 3. When their sorrows are not entirely worldly; 4. When their sorrow is according to God; 5. When this works among them all spiritual graces; 6. When he can safely boast of them, and hope confidently for the future. Comp. F. W. Robertson. Serm. VIII., series II. Lectt. L. and LI., and Lisco’s Entwürfe.]

Footnotes:

[1]2Co_7:3.—Lachm. instead of ον̓ μρὸς κατάκ. λ̇έγω has πρός κατάκρισιν ον̓ λέγω with B. C.; but against much stronger evidence. [Sinait. has since added its testimony to that of B. C., but even such authority is doubtful against all the versions and nearly all the Greek and Latin Fathers.]

[2]2Co_7:5—Lachm. has ἄνεσιν ἔσχεν instead of ἔσχηκεν ἄνεσιν, with pretty strong but not decisive authorities. [The Rec. has ἔσχηκεν with C. D. L. and Sin. with Chrys., Theodt. and Damasc. The perfect (hath had) is much more likely to be genuine, as expressive of a continued and not a momentary feeling. The position of ἄνεσιν before ἔσχ. is sustained principally by C. F. G. the Ital. and Vulg. Theodt. and the Latin Fathers.]

[3]2Co_7:8.—Lachm. has εἰ δὲ καί instead of the second εί καί, with only B. The δέ was interpolated in order to make the contrast with the preceding sentence more prominent.

[4]2Co_7:8.—A number of MSS. leave out γάρ, though in opposition to superior authorities. The Vulgate has βλέπων [videns quad]. This last was a correction to show that the inference or conclusion commenced with νῦν χαίρω; and γάρ was left out to show that the inference commenced with βλέπω. [The Rec. will thus best explain all the variations; all agree that a new subject is introduced with εἰ καί μετεμελόμην; then δέ was introduced for the sake of contrast and connection; then γάρ was left out by some because the apodosis was supposed to commence with βλέπω; and by others βλέπων was substituted for βλέπω γάρ, because they thought the apodosis should commence with νῦν χαίρω. Tischendorf (agreeing in sense with the Vulgate and Luther) punctuates as Dr. Kling does in his version, with a colon after μεταμέλομαι, and a comma after ὑμᾶς. The punctuation in our Eng. Vers, makes the sense very tame.]

[5]2Co_7:10.—For ἐργάζεται Rec. has κατεργάζ. in opposition to the best authorities. It was so made that the word might conform to its form in 2Co_7:11. [Κατεργάζ. does not seem demanded here, as it does at the close of 2Co_7:10, even if the simple verb had been used in the first half of that verse].

[6]2Co_7:11.—Rec. has ὐμᾶς although opposed by the best MSS. It was evidently inserted to complete what was understood. [Inserted by D. K. L. and the Greek Fathers, but omitted by B. C. F. Sin. and the Lat. Fathers].

[7]2Co_7:11.—Recep. has ἐν before τῷ πράγματι, but it is thrown out by some of the best MSS. It was probably an explanatory addition. [It does not, appear in B. C. D. (1st Cor.) F. G. Sin. the Vulg. and Goth, verss., and some of the Fathers]. In like manner, in the first part of the verse, ἐν is Sometimes put before ὑμῖν, and Lachmann has received it though in brackets. [It is omitted by B. D K. L. Sin., with the Copt, and Goth, verss., and Clem., Damasc. and Oecum.]

[8]2Co_7:12.—Some MSS. have ὑμῶν τ.ὑμῶν, some ἠμῶν,—ἡμῶν and some ἡμῶν—ὐμῶν. The decided preponderance of testimony, however, is in favor of ὐμῶν—ἡμῶν, which also is to be preferred as the more difficult reading. [Alterations from the original may have taken place either designedly to remove a difficulty, or undesignedly from the resemblance in appearance and sound. Our author’s rendering is adopted by Griesbach, Lach., Tisch. and Alford, and they are sustained by B. C. D. (2d and 3d Cor.) K. L. and many cursives with the Syr., Arm., Copt., Ethiop., Damasc. and Oecum. The Sinait. has in the orig. cod. ὐμῶν—ὐμῶν. B. and Sin. (3d Cor.) also insert ἀλλ̓ before οὐδὲ.]

[9]2Co_7:13.—Rec. has παρακεκλήμεθα ἐπί τῇ παρ.ῦ. περισσοτέρως δὲ in opposition to the best MSS. The same may be said of ὐμῶν which it has instead of ἡμῶν. The latter was a change on account of the ἐπι occurring twice in different senses. [Alford: “The δε was placed after περισ. apparently to conform to the ἐχαρήμεν ἐπι below, by joining παρακεκλ. έπὶ: then also the change of ἡμ. into ὐμ became necessary.” The reading adopted by Lach., Tisch. and Alford is παρακεκλήμεθα. Ἐπι δε τῇ παρακλ. ἡμ.περισ. μᾶλλον, after B. C. D. F. K. L. Sin. with the Lat. Syr. and Copt, versions.]

[10]2Co_7:14.—Lachm. has ὑμῶν instead of ἡμῶν after καύχησις but it is feebly sustained. The same is true of the omission of ἠ before ἑπι Τίτου, [although it has for itself the important testimony of B. and Sin.]

[11]2Co_7:16—We have sufficient authority for throwing out the οὖν which the Rec. inserts after χαίρω. [It is absent from every uncial of much authority, and from most of the cursives, and it is an evident correction to assist the connection].

[12][in this passage (2Co_7:8-10), the words μετανοέω and μεταμέλομαι are translated indiscriminately by the English word: repent. The latitude with which this English word is popularly used may perhaps warrant this, and yet such a fact only shows how inadequate the word is to express the particular meaning of at least one of these Greek verbs. The more precise meaning which Theology has assigned to the term Repentance, is certainly not quite suitable to either of them. Divines have attempted to show that the original words were uniformly distinguishable in sense, and yet passages from the Bible have been quoted to show that each of them has sometimes borne every meaning which has been given to the other. It must however be conceded that the predominant usage of each word arose naturally out of its original meaning, and differs very essentially from that of the other. Bengel, (on 2Co_7:10), Bishop J. Taylor, (on Repent. Chap. 2. § 1), Campbell, (Diss. VI. part III. § 9), Archbp. Trench, (Synn. Ser. 2 p. 90 ff), and Webster, (Synn. p. 221 f.), have described this meaning and difference with the greatest care. Both words have reference to a knowledge or feeling after (μετά) the event. Μεταμέλομαι is from the simple μέλω: to be an object of care; μετανοέω from the simple νοέωto see, to think. There was from the first a gradual change in the meaning of both words; the latter signifying first, after knowledge, then a change of views, then regret, and finally a complete change of the whole mind. often it was used irrespective of all moral feeling, but when it came into New Testament language, it gradually came to mean a change to a better mind. The noun (μετάνοια) occurs there some five and twenty, and the verb (μετανοε͂ιν) some five and thirty times. The noun (μεταμέλεια) does not occur in the N. T., the verb, (μεταμέλομαι) only five times; once for the beginning of a true repentance (Mat_21:29), once of the Jews who “did not repent” (Mat_21:32) once of Judas (Mat_27:3), twice (once also as a verbal adjective) in our passage, and once of God (Heb_7:21). Μετάνοια then evidently signifies what Coleridge expressively calls, “transmentation” in a good sense, i. e., to come to a right understanding, conversion so far as it relates to the mind; whereas, μεταμέλεια is simply: after care, in a good or indifferent sense, sorrowful retrospections, and leading to a good or bad result. Osiander: “μετάμελ. has reference simply to a change of care or effort, μετάν. to a change of the whole mind and course of thought; that concerns an individual thing, this everything; that refers principally to the feelings and is therefore usually translated sorrow, while this is the fruit of a true sorrow, and hence (as what is perfect embraces the whole) is also frequently used to designate the whole process of repentance. The moral nature and worth of repentance is represented in μετάν. inasmuch as it includes a change of the entire mind, and hence Valla with many others much prefer the Greek to the Latin word pænitentia, (and the Germ. Büsse). In the N. T., μετάν. is sometimes and μετάμελ. is never, employed to designate this entire change.” Paul’s λύπη when it was κατα θεὸν worked out a μετάνοια which was ἀμεταμέλητον, i, e. the sorrow which was according to God would worκ out in the soul a mental revolution, which could never give rise to unhappy regrets: on the other hand, the λύπη which was τοῦ κόσμου would at some period of existence work out a μεταμέλεια, a painful regret which will continue to eternity, and be in itself a θάνατον μεταμέλητον.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 19

REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE.- 2Co_7:2-16 (R.V)

IN this fine passage St. Paul completes, as far as it lay upon his side to do so, his reconciliation with the Corinthians. It concludes the first great division of his Second Epistle, and henceforth we hear no more of the sinner censured so severely in the First. {2Co_5:1-21} But see on 2Co_2:5-11, or of the troubles which arose in the Church over the disciplinary treatment of his sin. The end of a quarrel between friends is like the passing away of a storm; the elements are meant to be at peace with each other, and nature never looks so lovely as in the clear shining after rain. The effusion of feeling in this passage, so affectionate and unreserved; the sense that the storm-clouds have no more than left the sky, yet that fair weather has begun, make it conspicuously beautiful even in the writings of St. Paul.

He begins by resuming the appeal interrupted at 2Co_6:13. He has charged the Corinthians with being straitened in their own affections: distrust and calumny have narrowed their souls, nay, shut them against him altogether. "Receive us," he exclaims here-i.e., open your hearts to us. "You have no cause to be reserved: we wronged no man, ruined no man, took advantage of no man." Such charges had doubtless been made against him. The point of the last is clear from 2Co_12:16-18 : he had been accused of making money out of his apostolic work among them. The other words are less precise, especially the one rendered "corrupted," which should perhaps be rather explained, as in 1Co_3:17, "destroyed." Paul has not wronged or ruined any one in Corinth. Of course, his Gospel made serious demands upon people: it insisted on readiness to make sacrifices, and on actual sacrifice besides; it proceeded with extreme severity against sinners like the incestuous man; it entailed obligations, as we shall presently hear, to help the poor even of distant lands; and then, as still, such claims might easily be resented as ruinous or unjust. St. Paul simply denies the charge. He does not retort it; it is not his object to condemn those whom he loves so utterly. He has told them already that they are in his heart to die together and to live together (2Co_6:2); and when this is so, there is no place for recrimination or bandying of reproaches. He is full of confidence in them; he can freely make his boast of them. He has had affliction enough, but over it all he has been filled with consolation; even as he writes, his joy overflows (observe the present: υπερπερισσευομαι).

That word-"ye are in our hearts to die together and to live together"-is the key to all that follows. It has suffered much at the hands of grammarians, for whom it has undeniable perplexities; but vehement emotion may be permitted to be in some degree inarticulate, and we can always feel, even if we cannot demonstrate, what it means. "Your image in my heart accompanies me in death and life," is as nearly as possible what the Apostle says; and if the order of the words is unusual-for "life" would naturally stand first-that may be due to the fact, so largely represented in 2Co_4:1-18., that his life was a series of deadly perils, and of ever-renewed deliverances from them, a daily dying and a daily resurrection, through all the vicissitudes of which the Corinthians never lost their place in his heart. More artificial interpretations only obscure the intensity of that love which united the Apostle to his converts. It is leveled here, unconsciously, no doubt, but all the more impressively, with the love which God in Christ Jesus our Lord bears to His redeemed. "I am persuaded," St. Paul writes to the Romans, "that neither death nor life can separate us from that." "You may be assured," he writes here to the Corinthians, "that neither death nor life can separate you from my love." The reference of death and life is of course different, but the strength of conviction and of emotion is the same in both cases. St. Pauls heart is pledged irrevocably and irreversibly to the Church. In the deep feeling that he is theirs, he has an assurance that they also are his. The love with which he loves them is bound to prevail; nay, it has prevailed, and he can hardly find words to express his joy. "En qualiter affectos esse omnes Pastores conveniat" (Calvin).

The next three verses carry us back to 2Co_2:12 ft., and resume the story which was interrupted there at 2Co_2:14. The sudden thanksgiving of that passage-so eager and impetuous that it left the writer no time to tell what he was thankful for-is explained here. Titus, whom he had expected to see in Troas, arrived at length, probably from Philippi, and brought with him the most cheering news. Paul was sadly in need of it. His flesh had no rest: the use of the perfect (εσχηκεν) almost conveys the feeling that he began to write whenever he got the news, so that up to this moment the strain had continued. The fights without were probably assaults upon himself, or the Churches, of the nature of persecution; the fears within, his anxieties about the state of morals, or of Gospel truth, in the Christian communities. Outworn and depressed, burdened both in body and mind, {cf. the expressions in 2Co_2:13 and 2Co_7:5} he was suddenly lifted on high by the arrival and the news of Titus. Here again, as in 2Co_2:14, he ascribes all to God. It was He whose very nature it is to comfort the lowly who so graciously comforted him. Titus apparently had gone himself with a sad and apprehensive heart to Corinth; he had been away longer than he had anticipated, and in the interval St. Pauls anxiety had risen to anguish; but in Corinth his reception had been unexpectedly favorable, and when he returned he was able to console his master with a consolation which had already gladdened his own heart. Paul was not only comforted, his sorrow was turned into joy, as he listened to Titus telling of the longing, of the Corinthians to see him, of their mourning over the pain they had given him by their tolerance for such irregularities as that of the incestuous man or the unknown insulter of the Apostle, and of their eagerness to satisfy him and maintain his authority. The word "your" (υμων) in 2Co_7:7 has a certain emphasis which suggests a contrast. Before Titus went to Corinth, it was Paul who had been anxious to see them, who had mourned over their immoral laxity, who had been passionately interested in vindicating the character of the Church he had founded; now it is they who are full of longing to see him, of grief, and of moral earnestness; and it is this which explains his joy. The conflict between the powers of good in one great and passionate soul, and the powers of evil in a lax and fickle community, has ended in favor of the good; Pauls vehemence has prevailed against Corinthian indifference, and made it vehement also in all good affections, and he rejoices now in the joy of his Lord.

Then comes the most delicate part of this reconciliation (2Co_7:8-12). It is a good rule in making up disputes to let bygones be bygones, as far as possible; there may be a little spark hidden here and there under what seem dead ashes, and there is no gain in raking up the ashes, and giving the spark a chance to blaze again. But this is a good rule only because we are bad men, and because reconciliation is seldom allowed to have its perfect work. We feel, and say, after we have quarreled with a person and been reconciled, that it can never be the same again. But this ought not to be so; and if we were perfect in love, or ardent in love at all, it would not be so. If we were in one anothers hearts, to die together and to live together, we should retrace the past together in the very act of being reconciled; and all its misunderstandings and bitterness and badness, instead of lying hidden in us as matter of recrimination for some other day when we are tempted, would add to the sincerity, the tenderness, and the spirituality of our love.

The Apostle sets us an example here, of the rarest and most difficult virtue, when he goes back upon the story of his relations with the Corinthians, and makes the bitter stock yield sweet and wholesome fruit.

The whole result is in his mind when he writes, "Although I made you sorry with the letter, I do not regret it." The letter is, on the simplest hypothesis, the First Epistle; and though no one would willingly speak to his friends as Paul in some parts of that Epistle speaks to the Corinthians, he cannot pretend that he wishes it unwritten. "Although I did regret it," he goes on, "now I rejoice." He regretted it, we must understand, before Titus came back from Corinth. In that melancholy interval, all he saw was that the letter made them sorry; it was bound to do so, even if it should only be temporarily: but his heart smote him for making them sorry at all. It vexed him to vex them. No doubt this is the plain truth he is telling them, and it is hard to see why it should have been regarded as inconsistent with his apostolic inspiration. He did not cease to have a living soul because he was inspired; and if in his despondency it crossed his mind to say, "That letter will only grieve them," he must have said in the same instant, "I wish I had never written it." But both impulses were momentary only; he has heard now the whole effect of his letter, and rejoices that he wrote it. Not, of course, that they were made sorry-no one could rejoice for that-but that they were made sorry to repentance. "For ye were made sorry according to God, that in nothing ye might suffer loss on our part. For sorrow according to God worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret. But the sorrow of the world worketh death."

Most people define repentance as a kind of sorrow, but this is not exactly St. Pauls view here. There is a kind of sorrow, he intimates, which issues in repentance, but repentance itself is not so much an emotional as a spiritual change. The sorrow which ends in it is a blessed experience; the sorrow which does not end in it is the most tragical waste of which human nature is capable. The Corinthians, we are told, were made sorry, or grieved, according to God. Their sorrow had respect to Him: when the Apostles letter pricked their hearts, they became conscious of that which they had forgotten-Gods relation to them, and His judgment on their conduct. It is this element which makes any sorrow "godly," and without this, sorrow does not look towards repentance at all. All sins sooner or later bring the sense of loss with them; but the sense of loss is not repentance. It is not repentance when we discover that our sin has found us out, and has put the things we most coveted beyond our reach. It is not repentance when the man who has sown his wild oats is compelled in bitterness of Soul to reap what he has sown. It is not a sorrow according to God when our sin is summed up for us in the pain it inflicts upon ourselves - in our own loss, our own defeat, our own humiliation, our own exposure, our own unavailing regret. These are not healing, but embittering. The sorrow according to God is that in which the sinner is conscious of his sin in relation to the Holy One, and feels that its inmost soul of pain and guilt is this, that he has fallen away from the grace and friendship of God. He has wounded a love to which he is dearer than he is to himself: to know this is really to grieve, and that not with a self-consuming, but with a healing, hopeful sorrow. It was such a sorrow to which Pauls letter gave rise at Corinth: it is such a sorrow which issues in repentance, that complete change of spiritual attitude which ends in salvation, and need never be regretted. Anything else-the sorrow, e.g., which is bounded by the selfish interests of the sinner, and is not due to his sinful act, but only to its painful consequences-is the sorrow of the world. It is such as men feel in that realm of life in which no account is taken of God; it is such as weakens and breaks the spirit, or embitters and hardens it, turning it now to defiance and now to despair, but never to God, and penitent hope in Him. It is in this way that it works death. If death is to be defined at all, it must be by contrast with salvation: the grief which has not God as its rule can only exhaust the soul, wither up its faculties, blight its hopes, extinguish and deaden all.

St. Paul can point to the experience of the Corinthians themselves as furnishing a demonstration of these truths. "Consider your own godly sorrow," he seems to say, "and what blessed fruits it bore. What earnest care it wrought in you! how eager became your interest in a situation to which you had once been sinfully indifferent!" But "earnest care" is not all. On the contrary (ἀλλὰ), Paul expands it into a whole series of acts or dispositions, all of which are inspired by that sorrow according to God. When they thought of the infamy which sin had brought upon the Church, they were eager to clear themselves of complicity in it (ἀπολογίαν), and angry with themselves that they had ever allowed such a thing to be (ἀγανάκτησιν); when they thought of the Apostle, they feared lest he should come to them with a rod (φόβον), and yet their hearts went out in longing desires to see him (ἐπιπόθησιν); when they thought of the man whose sin was at the bottom of all this trouble, they were full of moral earnestness, which made lax dealing with him impossible (ζῆλον), and compelled them to punish his offence (ἐκδίκησιν). In every way they made it evident that, in spite of early appearances, they were really pure in the matter. They were not, after all, making themselves partakers, by condoning it, of the bad mans offence.

A popular criticism disparages repentance, and especially the sorrow which leads to repentance, as a mere waste of moral force. We have nothing to throw away, the severely practical moralist tells us, in sighs and tears and feelings: let us be up and doing, to rectify the wrongs for which we are responsible; that is the only repentance which is worth the name. This passage, and the experience which it depicts, are the answer to such precipitate criticism. The descent into our own hearts, the painful self-scrutiny and self-condemnation, the sorrowing according to God, are not waste of moral force. Rather are they the only possible way to accumulate moral force; they apply to the soul the pressure under which it manifests those potent virtues which St. Paul here ascribes to the Corinthians. All sorrow, indeed, as he is careful to tell us, is not repentance; but he who has no sorrow for his sin has not the force in him to produce earnest care, fear, longing, zeal, avenging. The fruit, of course, is that for which the tree is cultivated; but who would magnify the fruit by disparaging the sap? That is what they do who decry "godly sorrow" to exalt practical amendment.

With this reference to the effect of his letter upon them, the Apostle virtually completes his reconciliation to the Corinthians. He chooses to consider the effect of his letter as the purpose for which it was written, and this enables him to dismiss what had been a very painful subject with a turn as felicitous as it is affectionate. "So then, though I did write to you, it was not for his sake who did the wrong [the sinner of 2Co_5:1-21], nor for his who had it done to him [his father]; {But see on 2Co_2:5-11} but that you yourselves might become conscious of your earnest care of our interests in the sight of God." Awkward as some of the situations had been, all that remained, so far as the Apostle and the Corinthians were concerned, was this: they knew better than before how deeply they were attached to him, and how much they would do for his sake. He chooses, as I have said, to regard this last result of his writing as the purpose for which he wrote; and when he ends the twelfth verse with the words, "For this cause, we have been comforted," it is as if he said, "I have got what I wanted now, and am content."

But content is far too weak a word. Paul had heard all this good news from Titus, and the comfort which it gave him was exalted into abounding joy when he saw how the visit to Corinth had gladdened and refreshed the spirit of his friend. Evidently Titus had accepted Pauls commission with misgivings: possibly Timothy, who had been earlier enlisted for the same service, {1Co_16:10} had found his courage fail him, and withdrawn. At all events, Paul had spoken encouragingly to Titus of the Corinthians before he started; as he puts it in 2Co_7:14, he had boasted somewhat to him on their account; and he is delighted that their reception of Titus has shown that his confidence was justified. He cannot refrain here from a passing allusion to the charges of prevarication discussed in the first chapter; he not only tells the truth about them (as Titus has seen), but he has always told the truth to them. These verses present the character of Paul in an admirable light: not only his sympathy with Titus, but his attitude to the Corinthians, is beautifully Christian. What in most cases of estrangement makes reconciliation hard is that the estranged have allowed themselves to speak of each other to outsiders in a way that cannot be forgotten or got over. But even when the tension between Paul and the Corinthians was at its height, he boasted of them to Titus. His love to them was so real that nothing could blind him to their good qualities. He could say severe things to them, but he would never disparage or malign them to other people; and if we wish friendships to last, and to stand the strains to which all human ties are occasionally subject, we must never forget this rule. "Boast somewhat," even of the man who has wronged you, if you possibly can. If you have ever loved him, you certainly can, and it makes reconciliation easy.

The last results of the painful friction between Paul and the Corinthians were peculiarly happy. The Apostles confidence in them was completely restored, and they had completely won the heart of Titus. "His affections are more abundantly toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him." "Fear and trembling" is an expression which St. Paul uses elsewhere, and which is liable to be misunderstood. It does not suggest panic, but an anxious scrupulous desire not to be wanting to ones duty, or to do less than one ought to do. "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you," does not mean" Do it in a constant state of agitation or alarm," but "Work on with this resource behind you, in the same spirit with which a young man of character would work, who was starting in business on capital advanced by a friend." He would proceed, or ought to proceed, with fear and trembling, not of the sort which paralyze intelligence and energy, but of the sort which peremptorily preclude slackness or failure in duty. This is the meaning here also. The Corinthians were not frightened for Pauls deputy, but they welcomed him with an anxious conscientious desire to do the very utmost that duty and love could require. This, says Calvin, is the true way to receive ministers of Christ; and it is this only which will gladden a true ministers heart. Sometimes, with the most innocent intention, the whole situation is changed, and the minister, though received with the utmost courtesy and kindness, is not received with fear and trembling at all. Partly through his own fault, and partly through the fault of others, he ceases to be the representative of anything that inspires reverence or excites to conscientious earnestness of conduct. If, under these circumstances, he continues to be kindly treated, he is apt to end in being, not the pastor, but the pet lamb of his flock. In apostolic times there was no danger of this, but modern ministers and modern congregations have sometimes thrown away all the possibilities of good in their mutual relations by disregarding it. The affection which they ought to have to each other is Christian, not merely natural; controlled by spiritual ideas and purposes, and not a matter of ordinary good feeling; and where this is forgotten, all is lost.

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

7:2-4 Please open your hearts to us: Paul picks up his plea from 6:11-13 (see study note on 6:14–7:1). Paul had a deep concern for the churches (11:28), expressed by seeking a close bond of fellowship. When he was misunderstood, he explained his actions, as he does here. • We have not . . . taken advantage of anyone: That is, by taking their money.

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

2Co 7:2. Χωρήσατε ἡμᾶς, receive us) The sum of what is stated in this and in the tenth and following chapter.—ἡμᾶς) us, who love you and rejoice for your sake, receive also with favour our feelings, words, and actions.—οὐδένα ἠδικήσαμεν, οὐδένα ἐφθείραμεν, οὐδένα ἐπλεονεκτήσαμεν) He lays down three things by gradation, the first of which he treats from 2Co 7:4, by repeating the very word ἀδικεῖν, at 2Co 7:12; the second from ch. 2Co 10:1, by repeating the very word φθείρειν, at ch. 2Co 11:3; the third from ch. 2Co 12:13, by repeating the very word πλεονεκτεῖν, ib. 2Co 12:17. I have marked however the beginning of the paragraph at 2Co 7:11 of the chapter quoted. The point of transition [to the discussion of πλεονεκτεῖν] may be referred to what goes before or to what follows after 2Co 7:11 [i.e., may be fixed in the context before or after 2Co 7:11]. The discussion of the clause itself, οὐδένα ἐπλεονεκτήσαμεν begins at 2Co 7:13. This then is what he means to say: There is no reason, why you should not receive us [favourably: capiatis]: for we have injured no man, by our severity producing an absorbing grief [referring to ch. 2Co 2:7, “lest such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow”]; nay, we have not even made a man worse by a too haughty mode of acting: nay, we have not even defrauded any man for gain; in everything we have consulted you and your interests: comp. 2Co 7:9; and that too, without any reward. Whilst he declares, that he had been the occasion of no evil to the Corinthians, he intimates, that he had done them good, but very modestly keeps it as it were out of sight.

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

2Co_7:2. Having finished his exhortation, 2Co_6:14 to 2Co_7:1, he now repeats the same request with which in 2Co_6:13 he had introduced that exhortation (πλατύνθητε ὑμεῖς), using the corresponding expression χωρήσατε ἡμᾶς: take us, i.e. receive us, give us room in your heart (comp. Mar_2:2; Joh_2:6; Joh_21:25; 4Ma_7:6; Herod. iv. 61; Thuc. ii. 17. 3; Eurip. Hipp. 941), and then adds at once (without the medium of a γάρ) in lively emotion the reason why they had no cause whatever to refuse him this request (στενοχωρεῖσθαι ἐν τοῖς σπλάγχνοις, comp. 2Co_6:12). Chrysostom rightly as to substance explains the figurative χωρήσατε by φιλήσατε and Theophylact: δέξασθε ἡμᾶς πλατέως, καὶ μὴ στενοχωρώμεθα ἐν ὑμῖν. Comp. Theodoret. So also most of the later commentators, though the meaning was often limited in an arbitrary way (comp. Rosenmüller, Stolz, Flatt, and Pelagius), e.g.: give ear to us, and the like. Others take it: understand us rightly (Bengel, Storr, Bretschneider, Rückert, de Wette). Unobjectionable from a linguistic point of view (see Wetstein, ad Mat_19:11); but in the exhortation of 2Co_7:1 there was nothing to be misunderstood, just as little as for the readers in the disclosure that follows (to which de Wette refers it); and if Paul, as Rückert thinks, had had it in his mind that the measures of his first Epistle had been judged unfavourably, he could not have expected any reader to gather this from the simple χωρήσατε ἡμᾶς, especially as in what follows the idea of the effects of the first Epistle is quite kept at a distance by οὐδένα ἐπλεονεκτήσαμεν.[255]

οὐδένα ἠδικήσαμεν κ.τ.λ.] This is no doubt aimed at hostile calumniations of the apostle and his companions. Some one must have said: They act wrongly towards the people! they ruin them, they enrich themselves from them! It is impossible to prove that ἐφθείραμεν applies exactly to the corruptela quae fit per falsam doctrinam (Calvin and most, following the Fathers; just as Hofmann also refers it to the inward injuring of the persons themselves, 1Co_3:17); the way in which the word is associated with ἠδικήσ. and ἐπλεονεκτ. is rather in favour of a reference to the outward position. In how many ways not known to us more precisely may the apostle and his fellow-labourers have been accused of such a ruining of others! How easily might such slanders be based on the strictness of his moral requirements, his sternness in punishing, his zeal for collections, his lodging with members of the church, the readiness to make sacrifices which he demanded, and the like! Probably his prosecution and administration of the collections would be especially blackened by this reproach of πλεονεκτεῖν. Comp. 2Co_12:17-18. Rückert refers all three words to the contents of the former Epistle: with what I wrote you, I have done no one wrong, etc.; so that ἠδικ. would refer to the severe punishment of the incestuous person, ἐφθείρ. to his delivery over to Satan, and ἐπλεονεκτ. to the control which Paul by this discipline seemed desirous to exercise over the transgressor and over the church. But if his readers were to know of this reference to his former Epistle, he must have expressed it (the reader could not guess it). Besides, the word ἐπλεονεκτ. is against this view, for in the N. T. it denotes overreaching for ones own benefit as an act of covetousness properly so called, provided the context (as in 2Co_2:11, by ὑπὸ τοῦ Σατανᾶ) does not furnish a more general reference. And, moreover, those acts of discipline, to which Paul is supposed to refer, were acts so completely personal on the part of the apostle, that the plural expression in our passage would be quite unsuitabl.

οὐδένα] in the consciousness of innocence is with great emphasis prefixed three times; but we cannot, with Rückert, infer from this that the incestuous person is concealed under it. Comp. πάντες and πάντα, and 1Co_12:29; 1Co_13:7; Buttm. neut. Gram. p. 341 [E. T. 398].

[255] This also in opposition to de Wettes way of completing the thought: Impute no evil designs to me in writing the first Epistle. For such imputation I have given you no occasion in my apostolic conduct. I have wronged no one, etc.

2Co_7:2-16. Regarding the impression made by the former Epistle and its result. A conciliatory outpouring of love and confidence serves as introduction, 2Co_7:2-4. Then an account how Paul received through Titus the comforting and cheering news of the impression made by his Epistle, 2Co_7:5-7. True, he had saddened the readers by his Epistle, but he regrets it no longer, but rejoices now on account of the nature and effect of this saddening, 2Co_7:8-12. Therefore he is calmed, and his joy is still more heightened by the joy of Titus, who has returned so much cheered that Paul saw all his boasts to Titus regarding them justified. He is glad to be of good courage in everything through them, 2Co_7:13-16.

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 7:2-4 . HE CLAIMS THEIR SYMPATHY AGAIN. He now resumes the appeal which is interrupted at 2Co 6:13 by the parenthetical warning 2Co 6:14 to 2Co 7:1 .

2Co 7:2 . χωρήσατε ἡμᾶς κ . τ . λ .: make room for us, sc. , in your hearts, i.e. , let there be no στενοχωρία , (2Co 6:12 ); we wronged no man, we corrupted no man, we took advantage of no man . Apparently accusations of this sort had been laid to his charge (see esp. chap. 2Co 12:16-17 ), and he is, as ever (chap. 2Co 2:17 , Act 20:33 ), careful to assert their baselessness. It is an excessive refinement of exegesis which finds here distinct charges hinted at in the three words ἠδικήσαμεν , ἐφθείραμεν , ἐπλεονεκτήσαμεν . They are used quite generally, the only one that offers any ambiguity being the second, φθείρειν often (see reff.), though not always, carrying a reference to bodily defilement through lust; here (as at 1Co 3:17 ) it seems to connote injury of any sort.

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

He returneth again from that admonition to his own person, opposing the testimonies both of his faithfulness and also of his continual good will towards them.

Let me have some place amongst you, that I may teach you.

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

Receive us--with enlarged hearts (Co2 6:13).

we have wronged . . . corrupter . . . defrauded no man--(compare Co2 7:9). This is the ground on which he asks their reception of (making room for) him in their hearts. We wronged none by an undue exercise of apostolic authority; Co2 7:13 gives an instance in point. We have corrupted none, namely, by beguilements and flatteries, while preaching "another Gospel," as the false teachers did (Co2 11:3-4). We have defrauded none by "making a gain" of you (Co2 12:17). Modestly he leaves them to supply the positive good which he had done; suffering all things himself that they might be benefited (Co2 7:9, Co2 7:12; Co2 12:13).

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 2. Receive us] χωρησατε ημας. This address is variously understood. Receive us into your affections-love us as we love you. Receive us as your apostles and teachers; we have given you full proof that God hath both sent and owned us. Receive, comprehend, what we now say to you, and carefully mark it.

We have wronged no man] We have never acted contrary to the strictest justice.

We have corrupted no man] With any false doctrine or pernicious opinion.

We have defrauded no man.] Of any part of his property. But what have your false teachers done? They have beguiled you from the simplicity of the truth, and thus corrupted your minds. 2Co 11:3. They have brought you into bondage; they have taken of you; devoured you; axalted themselves against you, and ye have patiently suffered all this. 2Co 11:20. It is plain that he refers here to the false apostle or teacher which they had among them.

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

2. Make room for us. Again he returns from a statement of doctrine to treat of what more especially concerns himself, but simply with this intention — that he may not lose his pains in admonishing the Corinthians. Nay more, he closes the preceding admonition with the same statement, which he had made use of by way of preface. For what is meant by the expressions Receive us, or Make room for us? It is equivalent to, Be ye enlarged, (2 Corinthians 6:13;) that is, “Do not allow corrupt affections, or unfavorable apprehensions, to prevent this doctrine from making its way into your minds, and obtaining a place within you. For as I lay myself out for your salvation with a fatherly zeal, it were unseemly that you should turn a deaf ear upon me.”

We have done injury to no man. He declares that there is no reason why they should have their minds alienated, inasmuch as he had not given them occasion of offense in any thing. Now he mentions three kinds of offenses, as to which he declares himself to be guiltless. The first is, manifest hurt or injury. The second is, the corruption that springs from false doctrine. The third is, defrauding or cheating in worldly goods. These are three things by which, for the most part, pastors are wont to alienate the minds of the people from them — when they conduct themselves in an overbearing manner, and, making their authority their pretext, break forth into tyrannical cruelty or unreasonableness, — or when they draw aside from the right path those to whom they ought to have been guides, and infect them with the corruption of false doctrine, — or when they manifest an insatiable covetousness, by eagerly desiring what belongs to another. Should any one wish to have it in shorter compass-the first is, fierceness and an abuse of power by excessive insolence the second, unfaithfulness in teaching. the third, avarice.

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.

(2) Receive us; we have wronged no man.—Better, Make room for us; we wronged no man: with the same change of tense in the verbs that follow. There is an almost infinite pathos in that entreaty, uttered, we may well believe, as from the very depths of the soul—“Make room for us.” The under-current of thought flows on. He had complained of their being straitened in their affections, had entreated that they would enlarge their hearts towards him, as his heart was enlarged towards them. He has travelled on—his thoughts turning now to the party of license, with whom he had pleaded so earnestly in 1 Corinthians 8-10—to the terribly unutterable contaminations to which they were exposing themselves by their companionship with idolaters. He now, almost, as it were, with sobs, entreats once more: “You can find a place for such as these in your heart. Have you no place for me?” In the words “we wronged no man” we find reference to charges of greed of gain and self-interested motives that had been whispered against him, and to which he refers again in 2Co_8:20; 2Co_12:18. Perhaps, also, he contrasts himself with others, who “did wrong and defrauded” (1Co_6:8).

We have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.—The word for “corrupt” is the same as that translated “defile” in 1Co_3:17, and is used with manifest reference to sensual impurity in 2Pe_2:12; Jud_1:10; Rev_19:2. The word for “defrauded” is not the same as that in 1Co_6:8, and though meaning literally “to make a gain,” or “seek a gain,” had, with its cognate nouns, acquired a darker shade of meaning. The verb is used in obvious connection with impurity in 1Th_4:3-6, where see Note. The nouns often appear in closest companionship with those which indicate that form of evil (1Co_5:10-11; Eph_5:5; 2Pe_2:14; Rom_1:29; Col_3:5). Mere greed of gain is commonly described by another word, which we translate “the love of money” (Luk_16:14; 1Ti_6:10; 2Ti_3:2). There seems, then, sufficient reason for connecting this verb also with the same class of sins. It would seem as if the word had colloquially acquired a secondary meaning, and was used of those who sought gain by ministering to the vice of others—who became, as it were, purveyors of impurity. The words, so understood, give us a momentary glimpse into a depth of evil from which we would willingly turn our eyes. But they leave no room for doubt that, in the infinite pruriency of such a city as Corinth, even such things as these had been said of the Apostle in the cynical jests of the paganising party of license. They tolerated such things themselves. They welcomed those who practised them to their friendship (1Co_5:11). They whispered, we may well believe, of private interviews in lonely lodgings, of public gatherings at night of men and women, and of the kiss of peace. They insinuated that, after all, he was even such a one as themselves. So, in like manner, was the fair fame of a disciple of St. Paul’s attacked by Martial, not apparently with malignity, but only in the wantonness of jest. (See Excursus on the Later. Years of St. Paul’s Life, at the end of the Acts of the Apostles.) So like charges were levelled at the reputation of Athanasius (Sozomen. Hist. ii. 25), and of Hooker (Walton’s Life). So, generally, it was the ever-recurring calumny of the heathen against the Christians that their Agapae, or Feasts of Love, were scenes of foulest license. It is obvious that there is much in the popular outcry against confession that partakes more or less of the same character. Against charges of this nature St. Paul utters his indignant denial: “No,” he virtually says; “you find a place in your affections for those who do such things: can you not find a place also for us who are free from them?” The sense which some have given to the word “corrupt,” as referring only to doctrinal corruptions, is manifestly out of the question.

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

2–16. Exhortation to set aside all suspicion and to confide in the Apostle’s love and zeal for their spiritual well-being

2. Receive us] Literally, Make room for us (‘capaces estote nostri,’ Erasmus and Calvin. Tyndale and Cranmer, incorrectly, understonde us). The word here used is to be found in the sense of having room for in Mar_2:2; Joh_2:6; Joh_21:25. These words have reference to ch. 2Co_6:12; 2Co_6:14, where see notes. The connection of what follows with what has just preceded is to be found in the thought which underlies the whole, that St Paul’s only desire is the spiritual advancement of his flock.

we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man] Perhaps these words should be rendered ‘we wronged, corrupted, defrauded no man,’ i.e. during the course of our ministry at Corinth. St Paul here refers to the charges brought against him. He had been accused of wronging the Corinthians by claiming an authority to which he had no right, and which he turned to his own account (see 1Co_9:1-6; 2Co_1:12-17; 2Co_5:12; 2Co_6:3-4; 2Co_6:12; 2Co_10:7-11; 2Co_11:7; 2Co_12:14); of corrupting them by preaching false doctrine, 2Co_2:17, 2Co_4:2 (unless, with Thomas Aquinas, we interpret it of bad example); of defrauding them, 2Co_12:17-18, where the word here used is translated ‘make a gain of.’ To this he replies by challenging them to prove their assertions, to name a single instance in which he had done either. Dr Plumptre regards the words ‘corrupted’ and ‘defrauded’ as referring to sensual sin, and illustrates by the revolting charges of immorality brought against the Christians by those who misinterpreted their brotherly and sisterly affection. It is true that the word here translated ‘defrauded’ seems to have a reference to something more than mere greed of gain. See note on 1Co_5:10-11. Still, the word translated ‘corrupted’ and its derivatives do not appear to have had any such restricted sense in St Paul. See, for instance, 1Co_3:17, ch. 2Co_11:3 of this Epistle; and, in a less degree, Eph_4:22. And, however common such charges were in the days of Minucius Felix and Tertullian, they are not hinted at elsewhere in Scripture, but rather the contrary. See 1Pe_4:4; 2Pe_2:2.

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.

Receive us,.... Into your affections, let us have a place in your hearts, as you have in ours: Gospel ministers ought to be received with love and respect, both into the hearts and houses of the saints; for "he that receiveth you", says Christ, "receiveth me", Mat 10:40. Their doctrines are to be received in the love of them, and with faith and meekness; and this may be another part of the apostle's meaning here; receive the word and ministry of reconciliation, which we as the ambassadors of Christ bring, and the several exhortations we give in his name, particularly the last mentioned: next follow reasons, or arguments, engaging, them to comply with this request,

we have wronged no man; we have done no man any injury in his person, estate, or name. There is one among you that has done wrong, and another among you that has suffered wrong, Co2 7:12 and we have given very faithful advice to the church how to behave in this affair; but, in so doing, we have neither wronged him nor you; and as not in this, so neither in any other case: if I or my fellow apostles have wronged you in anything, it is in not being "burdensome" to you for our maintenance, "forgive me this wrong", Co2 12:13 for in no other respect have we done you any: some understand this of any lordly power, or tyrannical domination they had exercised over them, denied by the apostle; we have not behaved in an insolent manner towards you, we have not lorded it over God's heritage, or claimed any dominion over your faith, or required any unreasonable obedience and submission from you:

we have corrupted no man; neither by our doctrines and principles, which are perfectly agreeable to the word of God, make for the good of souls, and tend to the glory of Christ; nor by our example, but have been careful to lead such lives and conversations as are becoming the Gospel of Christ, adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, and are patterns to them that believe; nor have we corrupted by flatteries, or with bribes, any of the leading men among you, in order to gain their good will, and thereby respect and credit among others:

we have defrauded no man, or "coveted no man"; no man's silver, gold, or apparel; we have not sought yours, but you; not to amass wealth to ourselves, but that we might be useful to your souls, for your spiritual good, and serviceable to the glory of Christ; we have not through covetousness made merchandise of you, with feigned words, as the false apostles have done, therefore receive us.

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

2 Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.

Ver. 2. Receive us] Gr. χωρησατε, Locum date. Make room for us in your hearts and houses. Set wide open the everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in triumphantly, riding upon us, his white horses, Rev 6:2.

We have wronged no man] Ministers must so live that they may, if need be, glory of their innocence and integrity, as did Moses, Samuel, Paul, Melancthon.

We have corrupted no man] viz. As the false apostles had done with their leaven of false doctrine, which eateth as a canker, 2Ti 2:17, or a gangrene, which presently overruns the parts, and takes the brain. Protagoras in Plato boasted that of those sixty years that he had lived, he had spent forty in corrupting of youth.

We have defrauded no man] We have cunningly made sale of no man, as those old impostors that made prize of their prisoners, 2Pe 2:3. And as those Popish Muscipulatores, or mice catchers, as the story calleth them, that raked together their Peter’s pence and other monies here in England by most detestable arts. Polydore Virgil was one of these ill officers, that left not so much money in the whole kingdom sometimes as they either carried with them or sent to Rome before them.

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.

Receive us - Tyndale renders this: “understand us.” The word used here (χωρήσατε chōrēsate) means properly, give space, place, or room; and it means here evidently, make place or room for us in your affections; that is, admit or receive us as your friends. It is an earnest entreaty that they would do what he had exhorted them to do in 2Co 6:13; see the note on that verse. From that he had digressed in the close of the last chapter. He here returns to the subject and asks an interest in their affections and their love.

We have wronged no man - We have done injustice to no man. This is given as a reason why they should admit him to their full confidence and affection. It is not improbable that he had been charged with injuring the incestuous person by the severe discipline which he had found it necessary to inflict on him; note, 1Co 5:5. This charge would not improbably be brought against him by the false teachers in Corinth. But Paul here says, that whatever was the severity of the discipline, he was conscious of having done injury to no member of that church. It is possible, however, that he does not here refer to any such charge, but that he says in general that he had done no injury, and that there was no reason why they should not receive him to their entire confidence. It argues great consciousness of integrity when a man who has spent a considerable time, as Paul had, with others, is able to say that he had wronged no man in any way. Paul could not have made this solemn declaration unless he was certain he had lived a very blameless life; compare Act 20:33.

We have corrupted no man - This means that he had corrupted no man in his morals, either by his precept or his example. The word (φθείρω phtheirō) means in general to bring into a worse state or condition, and is very often applied to morals. The idea is, here, that Paul had not by his precept or example made any man the worse. He had not corrupted his principles or his habits, or led him into sin.

We have defrauded no man - We have taken no man’s property by cunning, by trick, or by deception. The word πλεονεκτέω pleonekteō means literally to have more than another, and then to take advantage, to seek unlawful gain, to circumvent, defraud, deceive. The idea is, that Paul had taken advantage of no circumstances to extort money from them, to overreach them, or to cheat them. It is the conviction of a man who was conscious that he had lived honestly, and who could appeal to them all as full proof that his life among them had been blameless.

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

Receive us.[1] This, according to St. John Chrysostom and others, is the same as what he said before, be enlarged or dilated in heart, that is, have a love, and true charity, and a zeal for us, and for the ministers of the gospel. --- We have injured no one, &c. He perhaps hints at the ways and proceedings of the false teachers among them. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Capite nos, Greek: choresate emas. St. John Chrysostom says, hom. xiv., Greek: toutesti philesate emas. Others think the sense is, receive and understand the instruction I give you.

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).

Receive us; let us have a room in your hearts and esteem, or (more generally) accept us, as you ought to receive and accept the ministers of Christ. As our heart is enlarged towards you, so let your hearts be enlarged towards us; we have done nothing to alienate your hearts from us.

We have wronged no man; we have done no harm to any of you, we have not been like the shepherds that merely take the fleece, and eat the flesh of the flock: Act 20:33; I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel. We have corrupted no man; we have corrupted none by any false doctrine, or by flattering speeches, or by bribes or gifts.

We have defrauded no man; we have cheated or defrauded no man. By which vindication of or apology for himself and his fellow labourers, it is not improbably judged, that the apostle reflecteth upon those false apostles and teachers that were crept into this church, who had wronged him, corrupted them, and been too busy in other ways to pick their pockets. Nothing becometh more a minister of the gospel, than innocency and righteousness; nothing more commends him unto his people: for though they are easily persuaded that an innocent and just man must be a pious man, yet they are difficultly persuaded, (and there is no reason for it), that an unjust or mischievous man can be so. Men are so mad of their lusts, that ofttimes teachers who will favour them in them, though never so unjust and unrighteous in their actings, shall find more favour with them, than the most righteous person that will not spare them as to their Herodias: But he who will entertain the least hopes to bring men off from their lusts and sinful practices, is concerned above all men to be innocent and righteous.

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

Receive us; rather, open your hearts to us; make room for us (Mar_2:2; Joh_2:6) It is an appeal to them to get rid of the narrowness of heart, the constricted affections, of which he has complained in 2Co_6:12. We have wronged corrupted defrauded no man. The "no man" in the original is placed first, and this emphatic position, together with its triple repetition, marks St. Paul"s insistence on the fact that, whatever his enemies might insinuate, there was no single member of their Church who could complain of injury, moral harm, or unfair treatment from him. Clearly he is again thinking of definite slanders against himself. His sternness to the offender may have been denounced as a wrong; his generous sanction of broad views about clean and unclean meats, idol-offerings, etc., may have been represented as corrupting others by false teaching (2Co_2:17) or bad example (2Co_4:2; 1Th_4:6) his urgency about the collection for the saints (2Co_12:16; Act_20:33) or his assertion of legitimate authority, may have been specified as greed for power. The verb pleonektein is often used in connection with other verbs, implying sensuality. It is difficult for us even to imagine that St. Paul had ever been charged with gross immorality; but it may have been so, for in a corrupt atmosphere everything is corrupt. Men like Nero and Heliogabalus, being themselves the vilest of men, openly declared their belief that no man was pure, and many in the heathen world may have been inclined to similar suspicions. Of Whitefield, the poet says

His sins were such as Sodom never knew, And calumny stood up to swear all true.

We know too that the Christians were universally charged with Thyestean banquets and promiscuous licentiousness. It is, however, more natural to take pleonektein in its general sense, in which it means "to overreach," "to claim or seize more than one"s just rights" (see 2Co_2:11) In 1Co_9:1-6 he is defending himself against similar charges, as also in this Epistle (1Co_5:12 1Co_6:3 1Co_10:7-11; 1Co_10:11.; 1Co_10:12., passim). For similar strains of defence, see those of Moses and of Samuel.

Vers. 2-7.

Appeal for affectionate relations between himself and the Corinthians; sorrow and consolation.

The rendering of ver. 2, Revised Version, is full of vigour, "Open your hearts to us: we wronged no man, we corrupted no man, we took advantage of no man." Room in their hearts for whom? Room for him who had violated no rights, led no one astray, acted fraudulently in nothing towards any person, so that, he challenges their confidence to the full. But had he not done this before, and that very earnestly? Had he not done it again and again? Yes; but his enemies had their headquarters at Corinth; they were untiring, ever inventing new scandals, ever increasing in zealotry, for his overthrow. Now, it is a matter of interest to understand St. Paul"s motive in this frequent and vehement defence of himself. From the outset his position had been singular. Not one of the original twelve who had "companied" with the Lord Jesus, a converted persecutor and blasphemer, an apostle called to an exceptional apostleship, and placed in the forefront of that battle which was to liberate Christianity from Jewish thraldom, and preserve it from Gentile corruptions. It was inevitable that the man and the apostle should be subjected to a most critical and severe inquisition. Yet how wonderfully was this overruled! Only think of the spiritual biography that has grown out of this painful necessity of his attitude before the Church. Somewhat of this kind of writing we have in the Old Testament, particularly in the Book of Job, in the Psalms, and in Ecclesiastes, but nothing as to depth, variety, profundity, compass of experience, such as we have in St. Paul"s Epistles. In the latter we see the Christian consciousness in its early realizations, and that too in all its important aspects. For what is there in the struggles of the "new creature" with the "old Adam"? What is there in outward conflict we have not here in exactness of detail? No finer illustration of this could be given than the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Was he simply giving his spiritual history? Nay, indeed, but writing a typical biography of the human heart under the training of the Holy Ghost. This is its distinctive merit the portraiture of the human soul forming and shaping in the image of Christ for eternal glory. Such a mirror was needed. Of what avail a standard of doctrine without a standard of experience? Of what utility a knowledge of duties, and yet entire ignorance of the legitimate results of precepts carried into practice? From his pen we have Christianity as a system of truths; from the same pen, Christianity in personal consciousness; and the two are so wrought together and interblended, that we are no more at a loss to understand what Christianity is as an inspiration of life than a revelation of Divine wisdom. Follow the man in this chapter. Do you admire manly boldness? There it is in that second verse. Are you, touched by delicacy and tenderness? You have them in the third verse: "I say it not to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die together and live together." Is this commonplace sentiment? Is this the language, the air, the spirit of a persecuted hero of the world? Match it if you can. To die together and live together this would be poetry, if it were not that rarer thing, the most impassioned and exalted prose. "In our hearts;" there they abide to die and live together. If he had written to them, it was not to condemn, but to save them, Inclined to find fault and harshly criminate? Far from him a censorious temper, "Great is my boldness of speech towards you;" and why bold? "Great is my glorying on your behalf;" and why glory? The glad spirit, free once more from its oppressive burden, cannot repress its exultation. My boldness," my glorying;" just before we" and us" and our," the personal intensity bursting forth. "I am filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all our affliction." Such a heart authenticates itself instantly to our confidence and love. To doubt its truthfulness would be treachery to our own instincts. We all love a fervent lover. However cold and constrained our temperament, there is something divinely contagious in a spirit like St. Paul"s; and, for the sake of humanity, "great" is our "glorying" on his "behalf." If, there, we find him in the next verses (5-7) referring to his individual solicitudes, we may be sure that this has its place in the development of Christian doctrine, going on in the history of the Church. Instead of being an insight into the private heart of the apostle only, it is likewise a most trustworthy record of religious experience, to which we may come for instruction and help when burdened by cares and anxieties. Unable to remain in Troas, because of his deep concern to hear from Corinth, he passed into Macedonia; but there was no relief from the pressure. "We were troubled on every side," His whole nature shared the suffering of the mind, his "flesh had no rest," and the sorrow reached such an extent that he sums it up in the condensed expressions, "without were fightings, within were fears." Things had put on their darkest look. Yet in that very hour consolation was near by. Titus came with good tidings from Corinth, and, in his opportune arrival, St. Paul sees the good hand of God. The statement is given in an emphatic form. At first it is he "who comforteth the lowly;" and then even God "comforteth us by the coming of Titus;" and how happy Titus himself was! The visit to the Corinthians had been a blessing to his young friend, and this added much to his joy, for he participated in "the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you." Grace to others is often grace, and the richest grace, to our own souls. And in this instance we can easily understand how a man with St. Paul"s quick sympathies entered into the experience of Titus. A delicate task had been assigned to his youthful companion, and it had been managed with success. Added to his intense pleasure growing out of the favourable change at Corinth was the gratification from the skill and efficiency of Titus"s mission. One pictures the scene of the meeting, the narration, the questions asked and answered, the frequent interruptions of the story by the sudden outbreaks of the listener"s emotion, the happy exclamations, and the surprise increasing as the detail of incidents progressed to the completion of the history. Had not St. Paul a valuable helper now? Was not God giving him a coworker precious to his heart? Could he not see the future Titus, the same who was afterwards to be associated so closely with him, and to whom he would write a pastoral letter? Those were gracious hours, and he might well say, "I rejoiced the more," since he was not only greatly cheered by the "earnest desire," the "mourning," the "fervent mind" of the Corinthian brethren towards him, but was confirmed in the impression that Titus was to be a valuable auxiliary in the work now enlarging on his hands, and daily getting to be more complicated. L.

Vers. 2-4.

Christian affection.

I HINDERS WRONG DOING. Paul had many reasons for not in any way injuring the Corinthians, but his love for them was certainly one. He loved them too well to wilfully do them any evil. As true love to God leads to obedience to Divine commands and abstention from injuring the Divine kingdom, so love to men leads us to consult their interests. We should love men too well to harm them. This check of love is very beautiful as well as very powerful. It is love, after all, that rules the world; only, alas! it is largely love of self and love of sin.

II LEADS TO FAITHFUL UTTERANCE. The apostle was very outspoken to the Corinthians because of his great love for them. His love rendered silence impossible. If we love our brother much we shall not suffer sin upon him. Blindness and dumbness towards the sins of our brethren are cruelty, not kindness. If we find it practically impossible to admonish the erring, it is not because we love them so much, but because we love them so little. Ministers and teachers should have great boldness of speech. A house dog is no good unless he barks. A surgeon who never uses the knife deserves few patients. Faithful speech is a true child of the chief of the graces.

III SHOULD BE VERY INTENSE TOWARDS BELIEVERS, ESPECIALLY TOWARDS OUR SPIRITUAL CHILDREN. The only manacles of the children of God are golden ones. Believers can be truly knit together by love alone. The cement joining together the living stones of God"s house is love. Churches without love are scandalous spectacles to the world, dens of misery in themselves, and hateful in the sight of God. But love can make a happy family out of otherwise incongruous elements, and a holy family out of elements still marked by imperfections. A particular affection should be cherished towards those whom we have led to Christ. Paul"s affection for his spiritual children was remarkable; yet not greater than ours ought to be. If we love such greatly, we can do much for them; our love to them and special relation will give us power over them. They will need guidance, counsel, possibly admonition. A great love for them will prompt to great efforts on their behalf. Paul"s love made him cleave to his converts; they were in his heart "to die together and live together" (ver. 3).

IV SHOULD BE STRONG ENOUGH TO BEAR A GREAT STRAIN. It is very likely to be subjected to this. So easy is it to love when we are loved, deferred to, obeyed, courteously treated; so difficult otherwise. But apostolic love could bear this test. (see 2Co_12:15) We are apt to love ideal persons, or to suppose that the real persons of our affection have ideal excellences. Love is tested when we discover the many imperfections in the objects of our affection; but love ought to bear the test. Profitably may we remember that, if we see faults in others, they probably see not a few in us.

V WILL OFTEN TRIUMPH OVER OPPOSITION. If you want to conquer men, love them. Persist in loving the unlovely. Some hearts may not yield even to love, but nothing is likely to bring them so near to yielding. There is mighty power in love. But it must be real, solid, test-bearing, abiding. Paul"s great power was love power.

VI BRINGS MUCH JOY TO THOSE EXERCISING IT. It has its pains, but these are chastened. It is the unloving heart which is the unrejoicing heart. Especially is the joy great when this love is reciprocated or begins to triumph. Paul"s cup ran over when the Corinthians yielded to his love. He could say, "I overflow with joy in all our affliction" (ver. 4). God is love, and God lives in unsullied bliss. If we were more like God in love we should be more like God in joy. The atmosphere of heaven is love; if we breathe this atmosphere on earth we experience heavenly delight.

VII FITS US FOR USEFULNESS. A less loving apostle than Paul could never have done Paul"s work. The greatest teacher the world has ever seen was the One who had most love. Love drives us to usefulness and qualifies us for it at the same time. If we would be more educated for Christian service, let us labour to take a higher degree in the university of love. The world wants Christian workers whose hearts are full of apostolic, yea, of Christ-like, love. H.

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

Receive us - The sum of what is said in this, as well as in the tenth and following chapters. We have hurt no man - In his person. We have corrupted no man - In his principles. We have defrauded no man - Of his property. In this he intimates likewise the good he had done them, but with the utmost modesty, as it were not looking upon it.

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

Observe here, 1. The duty which St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to, namely, to receive him, their apostle, into their kind affections into the bosom of their love, Receive us; that is, into your best affections. The ministers of Christ are very desirous of a large share and interest in their people’s love; well knowing, that if they be prejudiced against their persons, they will reap no benefit by their doctrine.

Observe, 2. The solemn protestation which the holy apostle makes of his integrity and uprightness towards the Corinthians, We have wronged no man, corrupted no man, defrauded no man; that is, we have wronged none in their reputation by slander, we have corrupted no man’s judgment by error and false doctrine, we have defrauded no man of any part of their estates, either by force or fraud.

Learn hence, That the holy servants of God, especially the faithful ministers of Christ, may justify themselves, and make solemn protestations of their own integrity and uprightness, especially when they fall under jealousy and suspicion by the enemies of religion. As it was the continual practice of the false apostles to discredit St. Paul’s ministry, and reflect upon his person; so it was his constant care to counter-work them, by a professed vindication of himself, and all his actions.

Observe, 3. The fervour of the apostle’s affection towards his Corinthian converts, You are in our hearts to live and die with you; that is, you lie and are lodged so near our hearts, that we could live with you, and die for you, to promote your spiritual and eternal welfare. Behold how large a room the people of God have in the affections of his ministers, how near do they lie to their hearts; and so passionately desirous are they of their people’s salvation, that they could even lay down their lives, and die, to promote their temporal and eternal advantage.

Observe, 4. How the apostle gloried in, and was comforted by the Corinthians, in the midst of all his afflictions, by the report he had of their repentance, obedience, and liberality; Great is my glorying in you; I am filled with comfort, and exceeding joyful in the midst of all my tribulations. As if he had said, "Verily, the report I have had of your repentance and reformation upon the receiving of my former epsitle, has afflictions and tribulations which I meet with for the gospel."

Learn hence, That the repentance and reformation of any of our people, by the blessing of God upon our ministerial endeavours, is matter of great rejoicing and glorying to us the ministers of God, who desire, above all things, the conversion, edification, and salvation of the souls of the people: Great is my glorying in you; I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful.

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

PAUL’S SOLICITUDE IN BEHALF OF THE CORINTHIANS

2. “Receive us,” i. e., when we come; “have no hesitancy, though you have heard much disparaging against us during our absence. We have injured no one, we have ruined no one,” i. e., by false doctrine or in any other way, “we cheated no one.” This is a protestation of their purity and innocence, which we all should be prepared to make.

3. “I do not speak to your condemnation; for I have before said that you are in our hearts to live along with you and die along with you.” He is now speedily coming to them, and he is preparing for his reception by the most affectionate declarations of his paternal affection in their behalf.

5. “For we coming into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest; fightings without and fears within.” Some have misconstrued this statement about “fightings without and fears within” as out of harmony with the conclusion that he and his ministerial comrades at that time enjoyed entire sanctification. Such criticism is utterly untenable, as we see from the following verse the entire scope of those fightings without and fears within. It was simply because of his ardent love and importunate solicitude in behalf of the Corinthians. He had sent Titus on before him to preach to them and expound his first epistle to them, and do his utmost to bring about the desired reformations and readjustments. When Titus arrived bringing the good news, all of these “fightings without and fears within” were at an end. To give them any sort of carnal construction is utterly irreconcilable with the context.

6. “But God, who comforteth the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” Here we find the end of all the “fightings without and fears within” mentioned in the preceding verse.

7. “Not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted by you, proclaiming to us your earnest desire,” i. e., to see him, and to fulfill his wishes, “your steadfastness, as Titus had been so encouraged to see you standing true to the faith, like heroes on the battle- field, your zeal in my behalf, so that I rejoice the more.” He postponed writing this letter until after the arrival of Titus, whose ministry had been signally blessed at Corinth with a grand and glorious reclamation of all who had backslid, and renunciation of all the errors designated and condemned in the first epistle, and a reaffirmation of their faith on all lines of revealed truth, and really a general, sweeping revival had crowned the labors of Titus and. his comrades. So when he came up into Macedonia and brought all this good news, it turned a sun-burst of joy on the apostle, inundating him with exultation and gratitude because of the wonderfully good news from his spiritual children.

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

[In this section the apostle appeals to the Corinthians to accept him as a true apostle and minister of Christ, and as persuasive to this end he sets forth his affection for them, his anxiety concerning them, and his joy at learning of their loyalty to him.] Open your hearts to us: we wronged no man, we corrupted no man, we took advantage of no man . [Open your hearts and receive us into your love and confidence, for, despite all that our enemies have said about us, it must be apparent to you when you have sifted their accusations that they have proved nothing which should shake your confidence in us. We have replied to their accusations without in any way dealing unjustly by them, and they have failed to show that we have corrupted any one, either in morals or doctrine, or that we have in any way overreached anybody, or shown any mercenary spirit ( 1Co_9:1-6 ) Compare Num_16:15 ; 1Sa_12:3-5 ]

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.

2–4. Receive us. Make room in your hearts for us and our admonitions. Compare 6:11–13. We wronged no man. In the severe charges of his first letter. We corrupted no man. Probably this is an answer to the vile insinuations of his adversaries at Corinth.

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

Connecting Statement:

Having already warned the people of Corinth about other leaders who were striving to get these Corinthian believers to follow them, Paul reminds the people of the way he feels about them.

Make room for us

This refers back to what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:11-13 about them opening their hearts to him. AT: "Make room for us in your hearts" or "Love us and accept us" (See: Metaphor and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

It is not to condemn you that I say this

"I do not say this to accuse you of having done wrong." The word "this" refers to what Paul just said about not having wronged anyone.

you are in our hearts

Paul speaks of his and his associates' great love for the Corinthians as if they held them in their hearts. AT: "you are very dear to us" (See: Metaphor)

for us to die together and to live together

This means that Paul and his associates will continue to love the Corinthians no matter what happens. AT: "whether we live or whether we die" (See: Idiom)

for us to die

"us" includes the Corinthian believers. (See: Inclusive "We")

I am filled with comfort

This can be stated in active form. AT: "You fill me with comfort" (See: Active or Passive)

I overflow with joy

Paul speaks of joy as if it is a liquid that fills him until he overflows. AT: "I am extremely joyful" (See: Metaphor)

even in all our afflictions

"despite all our hardships"

translationWords

wrong

condemn

heart

die

life

confidence

proud

comfort

joy

afflicted

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

2–4. Return to the appeal for reconciliation, which in turn brings him back to the subject of the news brought by Titus, of which he began to tell in 2Co 2:12, but from which he almost at once digressed, 2Co 2:17.

2. Χωρήσατε ἡμᾶς. Open your hearts to us (R.V.); make room for us in your hearts as in Mat 19:11-12. Neither there nor here does it mean ‘understand rightly’: comp. Mar 2:2; Joh 2:6; Joh 8:37; Joh 21:25. It refers back to πλατύνθητε καὶ ὑμεῖς (2Co 6:13). Now follow, with emotional abruptness, reasons why the Corinthians ought not to close their hearts against him.

οὐδένα ἠδικήσαμεν κ.τ.λ. The three aorists indicate that in no single instance had he done any one of them an injury. Comp. the similar disclaimer, Act 20:23, and that of Samuel, τίνα κατεδυνάστευσα ὑμῶν ἢ τίνα ἐξεπίεσα; (1Sa 12:3). It is not probable that this refers to his letters. It refers to charges made against him respecting his conduct; some supposed abuse of his apostolic authority in matters of discipline, raising money for the poor, &c. Comp. 1Th 2:3-4.

οὐδένα ἐφθείραμεν. We ruined no one. Some interpret this of corrupting their morals, or of teaching false doctrine (2Co 11:3), or of handing over to Satan. But the context points rather to ruining financially. We know too little about the facts to make sure conjectures. Comp. the list of things which he says that they do suffer at the hands of others (2Co 11:20): and perhaps here there is a side reference to the Judaizers’ treatment of the Corinthians: corripuerunt eos falsa docendo, circumvenerunt eos substantiam eorum exhauriendo (Atto Vercel.).

οὐδένα ἐπλεονεκτήσαμεν. We took advantage of no one. It is not certain that any of the three verbs refers to money matters; and therefore English words which imply fraud had better be avoided. Comp. 2Co 12:17-18: we had the passive of this verb 2Co 2:11. Assuming that 10–13 was written before 1–9, this passage may refer to 2Co 12:17-18. Excepting 1Th 4:6, the verb is peculiar to 2 Corinthians in the N.T.; it occurs only thrice in the LXX.

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.

2-16.] Concerning the effect on them, and results in their conduct, which his former Epistle had produced.

2-4.] He introduces the subject by a friendly assurance of his love and bespeaking of theirs, as before in ch. 6:11-13.

2.] χωρήσ., see above on ch. 6:13; δέξασθε ἡμᾶς πλατέως, κ. μὴ στενοχωρώμεθα ἐν ὑμῖν. Theophyl. De Wette, after Bengel, al., renders it, ‘understand us rightly,’ referring to ref. Matt.: but even there the meaning is ‘to take in,’ and only ‘to understand rightly,’ because τὸν λόγον τοῦτον follows. And as Meyer observes, there could not well be any misunderstanding as to what he here says.

οὐδένα ἠδ., κ.τ.λ.] Reasons why they should make room for him in their hearts: We (when he dwelt among them,—the aorists refer to a set time, not to his course hitherto) wronged no man (in outward acts, namely,—in the exercise of his apostolic authority, or the like),—we ruined no man (this probably also of outward conduct towards others, not as Calv., al., of corrupting by false doctrine),—we cheated no man. To understand, with Rückert, these verbs as applying to the contents of the former Epistle, is very forced. If ἠδικ. had really referred to the severe punishment of the incestuous person,—ἐφθείρ. to the delivering him over to Satan,—and ἐπλεον. to the power which Paul gained over them by this act of authority,—surely we should have found more express indication of such reference in the text. But no allusion has as yet been made to the former Epistle; and therefore it is much better to understand the words generally of the time when he resided among them. “In how many ways of which history says nothing, may such ruining of others have been laid to the charge of Paul? How easily might his severe visitation of sin, his zeal for eleemosynary collections, his habit of lodging with members of the churches, and the like, have been thus unfavourably characterized!” Meyer: who remarks, that the emphatic position of οὐδένα thrice repeated is no confirmation of Rückert’s view.

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

2-4. The return to the affectionate appeal in 6:11-13 is as sudden as the digression at 6:14. He has concluded the warning against what would hinder complete reconciliation and gladly resumes tender language. χωρήσατε ἡμᾶς goes back at once to πλατύνθητε καὶ ὑμεῖς. It shows still more clearly what he means by their opening wide their hearts; they are to open them to him.

2. χωρήσατε ἡμᾶς. Capite nos (Vulg.), Accipite nos (Beza). The latter is better, but dots not give the exact sense. ‘Make room for us’ in your hearts is the meaning. ‘Not all men have room for the saying,’ that it is not good to marry (Mat 19:11). Cf. Mar 2:2, and οὐκ ἐχώρει αὐτούς γῆ κατοικεῖν ἅμα (Gen 13:6).* The asyndeton throughout these verses is expressive of the eagerness with which he dictates the telling sentences. He rapidly negatives reasons which might make them hesitate to open their hearts to take him in.

οὐδένα ἠδικήσαμεν. The οὐδένα comes first in each case with emphasis, and the aorists imply that there has not been a single case in which he has wronged, ruined, defrauded, any of them. Evidently he had been accused or suspected of something of the kind; but here again we are in ignorance as to the facts to which he alludes. Cf. 4:2 and οὐκ ἐκ πλάνης οὐδὲ ἐε ἀκαθαρσίας οὐδὲ ἐν δόλῳ (1Th 2:3). We have a similar protest in the Apostle’s speech at Miletus (Act 20:26, Act 20:27); cf. 1Sa 12:3; Num 16:15. Those who think it improbable that he is alluding to charges actually made by the Corinthians take the words as playfully ironical, or as a hit at the Judaizing teachers, who had injured the Corinthians with their corrupt doctrine and perhaps lived in Corinth at their expense. See on 4:2.

οὐδένα ἐφθεἰραμεν. ‘We ruined no one,’ a vague expression, which we cannot define with certainty. It may refer to money, or morals, or doctrine. Calvin is too definite; corruptela quae fit per falsam doctrinam, which may or may not be right. He might be said to have ruined people who had had to abandon lucrative but unchristian pursuits. The Judaizers declared that his doctrine of Christian freedom was thoroughly immoral and some of his disciples, who misinterpreted his teaching, gave the freedom an unchristian and immoral meaning.

οὐδένα ἐπλεονεκτήσαμεν. ‘We took advantage of no one.’ ‘Defrauded’ (AV) is too definite, as implying financial dishonesty; and we are not sure that there is any such allusion in any of the three verbs. If 10-13 is part of a letter written before this letter, ἐπλεονεκτήσαμεν may refer to 12:17, 18. Excepting the difficult passage 1Th 4:6, the verb is peculiar to 2 Cor. in N.T., and in LXX it is rare; πλεονεζία is more freq. in both LXX and N.T. See Trench, Syn. § xxiv. With the rhetorical repetition of οὐδένα comp. that of κἀγώ in 11:22, and of μή πάντες (seven times in all) in 1Co 12:29, 1Co 12:30.

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

Receive [χωρησατε] . From cwrov place or space. Primarily, to leave a space, make room for. See on containing, Joh 2:6; Joh 8:37. The meaning here is make room for us. Rev., open your hearts to us, which is felicitous in view of the reference to ch. 6 12. It is equivalent to saying enlarge your hearts to take us in, as our heart is enlarged (ch. 6 11).

Defrauded [επλεονεκτησαμεν] . Used by Paul only. It adds the idea of wrong for the sake of gain, which is not necessarily implied in either of the other verbs.

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