14 Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be a burden to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. [There has been much dispute as to whether Paul says that this is his third visit, or the third time he has intended to visit. Evidently it was to be his third visit. See 2:1; 12:21; 13:1, 2. [237] Knowing that if this letter moved them to repentance or shame, the Corinthians would wish him to accept some compensation for his services, and that if he did so his enemies would revive their slanders against him, and assert that his whole purpose in writing was to gratify his mercenary desires, Paul makes it easy to decline any such offer on their part by declining it now beforehand. He asserts that he will maintain himself without their support, as he has done on his two former visits, and lest they should resent this independence on his part, he declares that he is actuated thereto by an intense love for them--a love which seeks not their money for his benefit, but their souls for their own benefit. He affectionately, yet almost playfully, bases his conduct on that rule as to parents and children which, though it sometimes permits children to aid parents, obliges parents always to maintain children. He was their spiritual father (1 Cor. 4:14, 15), and he claims the obligations of his parental relation as if they were much-coveted rights. Thus, as throughout the epistle, the thunders of the apostle have quickly subsided into the tender accents of the parent.] 15 And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less? 16 But be it so, I did not myself burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile. [And as a doting parent I will gladly spend all that I have and all that I am for your soul's sake. Gladly, as it were, will I break the earthen vessel that its contents may be lavishly poured out upon you (4:7; Mark 14:3). And can it be possible that you will be so unnatural as to love me less in proportion as I love you the more? "But," say my detractors, "you apparently did not burden us; we concede this to be so; but you caught us with guile, for you have levied contributions, ostensibly for the poor in Jerusalem, but really to reimburse yourself for the wages which you feel to be due you, and about which you have been so noisily boasting."] 17 Did I take advantage of you by any one of them whom I have sent unto you? 18 I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? walked we [238] not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? [Now let us look at the facts and see where I used such guile. My detractors admit that I myself took nothing: then I must have taken it through the agency of others. If so, by whom? Titus and the brother who accompanied him were the only agents I sent. Did Titus thus cheat you in my behalf? Did he not, on the contrary, show you the same inner spirit of self-sacrifice which I displayed? Did he not outwardly follow my plans, exhorting you not to give it to him, or send it to me, but to lay it up in your own treasury weekly as I directed? See 1 Cor. 16:1, 2. If Titus, as we have supposed, accompanied the messengers who bore Paul's first epistle to Corinth, he very naturally carried out the directions of that epistle. Who was then with him we do not know. Titus had not yet reached Corinth to undertake this work a second time as Paul directed (8:6, 16, 17). Paul's actions were ever free from guile or covetousness--1 Thess. 2:3-5.] 19 Ye think all this time that we are excusing ourselves unto you. In the sight of God speak we in Christ. But all things, beloved, are for your edifying. 20 For I fear, lest by any means, when I come, I should find you not such as I would, and should myself be found of you such as ye would not; lest by any means there should be strife [1 Cor. 6:7], jealousy [11:19, 22], wraths, factions [1 Cor. 1:11], backbitings, whisperings, swellings [1 Cor. 8:1, 2], tumults [disorders]; 21 lest again when I come my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for many of them that have sinned heretofore, and repented not of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they committed. [Doubtless all the while you have been reading or listening to my words you have been thinking that you are sitting in judgment on my case, and that I have been making my defense before you, anxiously hoping for a favorable verdict. Be not deceived. We can never be judged by you, but are divinely appointed a judge over you (Matt. 19:28). My only object is to speak before God in Christ, that is, to [239] acquaint you with the truth as it appears in God's sight, that you may be instructed and not left in harmful ignorance. For I fear that even yet after all this instruction you may not profit by it, so that when I come I may find you not obedient as I would have you, and that I may be found of you not gentle as you would have me to be. For I expect to find among you the very sins which I have reproved in these epistles, and which were there when I last visited you (2:1). I will not spare you this time as I did then, but I shall exercise discipline, and therefore I fear that I shall mourn for many whom I shall be compelled to deliver over to Satan (1 Cor. 5:5), because they still impenitently persist in their unchaste sins despite all my reproof.]

      XIII. 1 This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every word be established. [Deut. 19:15.] 2 I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, to them that have sinned heretofore, and to all the rest, that, if I come again, I will not spare [The apostle here declares that patience has reached its just limit. Twice he has been present and has forborne, but at the third coming he will handle them with rigorous discipline. He will not, however, proceed rashly, nor will he decide who is guilty by direct or immediate revelation, lest he be regarded as arrogating to himself the offices of both witness and judge. He will proceed by due legal form, and call witnesses, since they are to be had, and obviate the necessity of employing miraculous knowledge. Some argue from the context that Paul means to say that his three visits will be, as it were, three witnesses against them, or that his thrice-repeated threats are shown to be true by these repetitions. But such interpretations are fanciful. There may, however, be a parallelism in Paul's thought; thus: Let my three warnings, repeated at such long intervals, persuade you that my words will testify against me if I do not keep them by punishing you, for I have thrice said I would do this thing, viz.: when I first wrote, when I was present, and now, when [240] I am writing again, that I would do this thing]; 3 seeing that ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me; who to you-ward is not weak, but is powerful in you: 4 for he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him through the power of God toward you. [The apostle here gives the reason why he had so fully decided to discipline: they had tauntingly desired it. You ascribe, says he, weakness to the Christ who speaks in me, and strength to the Christ, who, according to their profession, speaks in these false apostles, and you would put me to the test. Their Christ, ye say, is the mighty Keeper of the Jewish law, while mine is the weak, crucified Christ. But you should remember that he has not been weak toward you, either in my ministry (12:12), or in miracles and judgments (6:7; 1 Cor. 2:4, 5; 11:30), or in the bestowal of gifts (1 Cor. 1:7), for, though he did indeed manifest through the weakness of our humanity a mortal life susceptible to death by crucifixion (Phil. 2:7, 8; 1 Cor. 1:23; Heb. 2:14); yet, per contra, through the power of God the Father working in him (Rom. 1:4; 6:4; Eph. 1:20), he overcome this weakness and lives again. And by virtue of our union with him, we follow the pattern of his life in our dealings with you; for you who have beheld our physical weakness, infirmities, gentle forbearance, etc. (10:10; 12:5, 9, 10), and have, as it were, put our influence and power to death among you, shall behold also in me the same divine power of God effecting a resurrection of us because of our union with Christ, that we may exercise our rightful authority over you. We should note the direct assertion of inspiration, and the willingness to have it tested contained in verse 3.] 5 Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. Or know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed ye be reprobate. 6 But I hope that ye shall know that we are not reprobate. [Ye who are so eager to put me to the test as to whether I am united with Christ, would exercise a truer wisdom if you tested your own selves to see whether you are [241] in possession of that faith which should unite you with Christ--yea, test your own selves and do not foolishly wait for me to apply the rigors of my testing. Ye seek to know whether Christ is in me, but the obvious, immediate way of testing this is to see if I have been able to impart Christ to you. Or have you indeed lost all consciousness of Christ being in you, using you as his temple? Compare John 15:4, 5; 1 John 3:24; Gal. 2:20; 4:19; Eph. 3:17; Col. 1:27. Surely you have this consciousness which is the conclusive test of my ministry (3:1-3; 1 Cor. 9:2), unless indeed ye are proved to be no Christians at all, by the application of this test. But I hope that by my testing when I come, the true authority of Christ in me may be vindicated, and that, testing me, you may find me approved by the testing. Reprobate means that which fails to stand the test (Jer. 6:30). It is evident to the casual observer that Paul uses the word in an entirely different sense from that horrible meaning read into it by Calvin.] 7 Now we pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that ye may do that which is honorable, though we be as reprobate. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. [While hoping or expecting to be vindicated, his prayer is of a different sort. We pray, says he, that you may be kept from evil, and thus escape the discipline. We do not thus pray for the sake of approving ourselves by showing our power to restrain you from evil (and thus our approval would result from our prayer), but we thus pray because of our earnest desire for your righteousness. We would have you do that which is honorable, even though you thereby deprive us of the opportunity of vindicating ourself, so that we shall still be looked upon by you as untrustworthy, and not capable of enduring tests. Compare with the like unselfishness at Rom. 9:3. For our apostolic power is given to us to use, not against, but for, the truth. We are powerless against anything which is right and true. If ye, therefore, do the truth, you withdraw your demand for a test of us, and deprive us of this chance of vindicating ourselves by showing our power, and this we desire that you should do.] 9 For we rejoice, when [242] we are weak, and ye are strong: this we also pray for, even your perfecting. 10 For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not when present deal sharply, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for casting down. [Here Paul amplifies the thought of verses 7 and 8. If the Corinthians are only perfected in strength, if they are mighty in faith and righteousness, he is content to be looked upon as weak by them; and therefore to spare himself the pains of disciplining them at his coming, he has taken the milder method of doing so by letter. For it indeed pained him to use divine power in tearing down a Church, when that power was given him for the purpose of building up churches. In short, Paul was content that they should look upon him as no apostle it all, provided they could do so without any injury to themselves. He was zealous for his apostolic authority over them, because without his guiding power they would make shipwreck of the faith.] 11 Finally, brethren, farewell. [Literally, rejoice; a reverting to the purpose declared in 1:24. Compare Phil. 4:4.] Be perfected [Eph. 4:13; Matt. 5:48]; be comforted [1:6; 7:8-13; 1 Thess. 4:18]; be of the same mind [1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 2:2; 1 Pet. 3:8; Rom. 12:16, 18]; live in peace [Eph. 4:3]: and the God of love and peace shall be with you. 12 Salute one another with a holy kiss. [Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 1 Pet. 5:14. See note on 1 Thess. 5:26.] 13 All the saints salute you. [That is, all the saints with me in Macedonia.] 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. [This is the full apostolic benediction. It contains three blessings respectively derived from the three divine sources. It occurs nowhere else in the Scripture. Coming, as it does, after this, the most severe of letters, it reminds one that the greatest showers of blessing often follow the fiercest flashes of lightning and the mightiest reverberations of thunder. Thus closes Paul's second epistle to the church at Corinth. It evidently furthered the good work set in motion by the first epistle and by Titus; for when Paul a little later [243] wrote his letter to the Romans from Corinth, he was evidently in a calm and peaceful frame of mind. Also compare 10:15, 16 and notes, with Rom. 15:22-24. Moreover, the collection for Jerusalem was taken, and was apparently generous, for Paul accompanied them who bore it to Jerusalem. Compare 1 Cor. 16:4 and note, with Rom. 16:18; Acts 20:4.] [244]

[TCGR 237-244]