Indoctrination: The Gospel as an Aroma of Christ – In 2 Corinthians1:21 to 2Co 2:17 we again get a glimpse of what a man looks like who is walking in a mature level of sanctification. It is important to note that this passage gives us a perspective of the role of the Holy Spirit as He uses God’s servants to indoctrination believers in this sanctified lifestyle. We immediately see a man who has dedicated his life to Christian service. He is attempting to impart a blessing upon God’s children through the knowledge of Christ. His role is to establish them in the faith. Paul first explains how they are established by faith in Christ (2Co 1:21 to 2Co 2:4), then he illustrates his efforts to establish them by charging them to forgive the offender and receiving him back into fellowship (2Co 2:5-11). Paul then compares the ministry of teaching the doctrines of Christ with the analogy of a sweet-smelling fragrance being dispersed abroad. It brings life to those who received it and death to those who reject it (2Co 2:12-17).

Outline Here is a proposed outline:

1. Explanation 2Co 1:21 to 2Co 2:4

2. Illustration 2Co 2:5-17

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Paul’s Seal of the Holy Spirit (His Anointing) In 1Co 1:21 to 1Co 4:16 Paul explains the role of the Holy Spirit in his spiritual journey of serving the Lord. This passage will open with the statement that he has been sealed with the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of his inheritance (2Co 1:22) and his discussion on his glorification will close with the same statement (2Co 5:5). Paul will explain how his has been called to indoctrinate them in the faith (2Co 1:21 to 2Co 2:17), and how the calling of the Gospel excels over that of Moses (2Co 3:1-18), and how he is determined to persevere (2Co 4:1-16) in order to reach his eternal home in Glory.

Outline – Note the proposed outline:

1. Indoctrination 2Co 1:21 to 2Co 2:17

a. Explanation 2Co 1:21 to 2Co 2:4

b. Illustration 2Co 2:5-17

2. Calling 2Co 3:1-18

a. Explanation 2Co 3:1-6

b. Illustration 2Co 3:7-18

3. Perseverance 2Co 4:1-16

a. Explanation 2Co 4:1-6

b. Illustration 2Co 4:7-16

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

God Himself Paul’s witness:

v. 21. Now He which establishes us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God,

v. 22. who hath also sealed us, and given thee earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

v. 23. Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.

v. 24. not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for by faith ye stand.

The content of the Gospel-preaching, which is so unquestionably reliable, naturally suggests the Author of its glorious message: He that sets us firm with you into Christ and has anointed us is God. That is the ultimate ground of St. Paul’s steadfastness and of that of all Christians. Teachers and hearers alike are firmly fixed in Christ by the power of God; they are grounded and rooted in Him; they have been anointed by Him, have been given spiritual endowment. See 1Jn 2:27. At the same time, God also sealed us, that is, all believers, and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. The terms used by St. Paul are in part legal terms to designate a definite guarantee. In Christ, through the anointing of the Spirit, God has paid us the earnest money of our salvation, and now He guarantees the delivery of that redemption, the consummation of our Christian hopes. Note: A more definite promise and assurance of the certainty of salvation in the case of those that accept the redemption of Christ by faith can hardly be conceived of: God pays the earnest-money in the blood of His Son, He anoints us to know and believe His plan for the salvation of the world, He seals this knowledge in our hearts, He guarantees the full enjoyment of all our hopes. This was the climax of Paul’s message, and by its proclamation he vindicated his claim to the possession of an unblemished moral character.

The situation being such, however, the apostle could now bring out his most solemn asseveration: But I invoke God as a witness against my soul. As he had appealed to the faithfulness of God above, v. 18, he here goes a step farther. If what he now says is untrue, may God appear as a witness against his soul, to its condemnation by His righteous sentence. This solemn oath was in this instance justifiable, because Paul’s credit as an apostle had been called into question, and with this was essentially connected the honor of Christ, who had sent him, and the cause of God, which he represented at Corinth. It was not a matter of levity or fickleness on account of which he had not come to Corinth as planned, but he gave up the thought of coming in order to spare them. He had hoped that his first letter would restore the Corinthian Christians to the proper relation with him, and that it would not become necessary for him to come with the rod, 1Co 4:21. Far from being the outflow of a selfish disposition, therefore, his treatment of the Corinthians in not revisiting them was a manifestation of his indulgent love. And lest this statement be again misconstrued as though he presumed upon rights over them which he did not possess, he adds, in a parenthetical form: Not that we are lords over your faith; it is not a part of his apostolic office to control their faith, their religious life, their relation to the Christian truth. But we are fellow-workers of your joy; it was his greatest delight to be able to serve them in bringing into their hearts the joy of faith. For by your faith you stand; that Paul gladly concedes to them. If in this respect they were submitting themselves to the authority of another, it would be impossible for them to show such uniform steadfastness. Note that the apostle speaks in a general way whenever he refers to the Christian character of his readers, always assuming, for the sake of charity, that his statement holds true of them all.

Summary

After the address the apostle opens his letter with a thanksgiving to God, which is continued as a word of consolation to his readers; he vindicates his conduct and life and the change in his plans in a passage emphasizing the certainty of the Gospel-promises.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

2Co 1:21. Now he which stablisheth us Who maketh us steady; in opposition to the charge of inconstancy, which he complains of, 2Co 1:17. The Greek of anointed is , that is, hath given us of the same Spirit which renders Jesus the Christ. See Heylin, and the next note.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

2Co 1:21 f. ] not specifying the ground of (Grotius), nor confirming the assurance that he had preached without wavering (Billroth), but continuative . Paul has just, with , pointed to the blessed result which his working (and that of his companions) is bringing about, namely, that the Amen of faith is said to all God’s promises to the glory of God. But now he wishes to indicate also the inner divine life-principle, on which this working and its result are based, namely, the Christian stedfastness , which is due to no other than to God Himself.

On the construction, comp. 2Co 5:5 ; hence Billroth (whom Olshausen follows) has incorrectly taken as subject, and . . . . as predicate. It is to be translated: “ And He who makes us stedfast with you toward Christ, after He has also anointed us, is God; who also ,” etc. Since the anointing precedes the , and is its foundation, and Paul has not written . . ., it is not to be regarded with the expositors as qui autem confirmat et unxit , but is to be taken as a definition subordinate to the , and as the also of the corresponding relation; otherwise, there would be a hysteron-proteron, which there is no ground for supposin.

] in relation to Christ , so that we remain unshakenly faithful to Christ. Chrysostom well says: . . The explanation: into Christ (Billroth, Olshausen) has against it the present participle. For the believers are already in Christ ; their continued confirmation ( ., see on 1Co 1:6 ) therefore could not but take place in Christo , Col 2:7 , not in Christum .

] Paul adds, in order not to appear as if he were denying to the readers the . Estius says aptly: “ut eos in hac sua defensione benevolos habeat.” This agrees with the whole tone of the context; but there is not, as Rckert conjectures, a side-glance at those who had held the apostle to be a wavering ree.

] here, without , is a figurative way of denoting the consecration to office (Luk 4:18 ; Act 4:27 ; Act 10:38 ; Heb 1:9 ), i.e. to the office of teacher of the gospel , without, however, pressing the expression so far as Chrysostom and Theophylact: . . Whether, however, did Paul conceive the consecration as effected by the call (Billroth, Olshausen, Rckert) or by the communication of the Spirit (Calvin, Grotius, Estius, Osiander, and many others, following the ancient expositors)? 2Co 1:22 is not opposed to the latter view (see below); and since the call to the office is, in point of fact, something quite different from the consecration, is certainly to be referred to the holy consecration of the Spirit (comp. Act 10:38 ). Comp., further, 1Jn 2:20 ; 1Jn 2:27 , and Dsterdieck on 1Jn 1 . p. 355. An allusion to (Bengel, Osiander, Hofmann, and others) would not be certain, even if there stood , because is not used appellatively, but purely as a proper name. An anointing of Christ (as at Luk 4:18 ; Act 4:27 ; Act 10:38 ; Heb 1:9 ) is as little mentioned by Paul as by John. If, however, it had been here in his mind, in order to compare with it the consecration of the , he could not but have added , or some similar more precise definition of the relation intended, to make himself intelligible; comp. the idea of the , and the lik.

. . . .] is argumentative. How could He leave us in the lurch unconfirmed, He, who has also sealed us , etc.! How would He come into contradiction with Himself! This . does not present the same thing, as was just expressed by ., in another figurative form ; but by means of it adds an accessory new element , [134] namely, the Messianic sealing conferred, although likewise through the Holy Spirit (see the sequel), apart from the anointing, i.e. the inner confirmation of the Messianic . Comp. on Eph 1:13 ; Eph 4:30 . It is not added to what the sealing objectively relates (to the Messianic salvation), because it is regarded as a familiar notion, well known in its referenc.

. . .] is epexegetical of . , Winer, p. 407 [E. T. 545].

] Comp. 2Co 5:5 . The genitive is the genitive of apposition , as 1Co 5:8 : the earnest-money, which consists in the Spirit , (also with the Romans arrhabo or arrha ) is properly , Etym. M.; Aristot. Pol. i. 4. 5; Lucian, Rhet. praec . 17, 18. Then it is a figurative expression for the notion guarantee . See in general Wetstein, and especially Kypke, Obss. II. p. 239 f. For what the Holy Spirit is guarantee, Paul does not say, but he presupposes it as an obvious fact in the consciousness of the readers, just as he did with . The Holy Spirit is in the heart as an earnest-money given for a guarantee of a future possession, the pledge of the future Messianic salvation . Comp. 2Co 5:5 ; Eph 1:14 . How? see Rom 8:2 ; Rom 8:10 f., 2Co 5:5 , 2Co 8:15 ff.; Gal 4:6 f.; Eph 5:19 . In ., therefore, the climax (Theodoret) is characteristi.

.] The direction is blended with the result, as 2Co 8:1 : He gave the Spirit, so that this Spirit is now in our hearts . Comp. 2Co 8:16 , and on Joh 3:35 .

[134] Hence is to be taken as also , not with the following , as well as also ; especially as . and are not two acts essentially different .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2002
THE DIFFERENT OPERATIONS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

2Co 1:21-22. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

IT is the inseparable property of divine grace to make us jealous for the honour of God, and studious to promote it to the utmost of our power.
St. Paul, when accused of instability, vindicated his own character, because it was connected with his usefulness in the ministry; but instantly ascribed to God the glory of whatever steadfastness he had been enabled to maintain.
His words naturally point out to our consideration,

I.

The blessings which all true Christians enjoy

Though all Christians do not attain the same measure either of holiness or of comfort, yet there are blessings common to all who are born of God.

1.

They are established in Christ

[All who believe in Christ are united to him as branches of the true vine. At first indeed they are but as babes, or children, liable to be tossed to and fro [Note: Eph 4:14.]; but by experience they become more rooted and grounded in Christ [Note: Col 2:7.]. As their views of their own weakness and of his sufficiency are enlarged, they grow more and more; nor was this peculiar to the Apostle, but the common privilege of all the Church at Corinth. Indeed, it is the great end for which all other blessings are communicated; and, in attaining it, the believer becomes immoveable as Mount Sion [Note: Psa 125:1.].]

2.

They are anointed with a heavenly unction

[It is the communication of the Holy Spirit that first enables them to believe in Christ [Note: 1Jn 2:20.]; but, as the lamps in the sanctuary, they have daily supplies of the holy oil. By means of these they obtain more abundant knowledge and grace [Note: Isa 2:2-3.], and are progressively renewed after the image of their God [Note: 2Co 4:16.]. Not that all, even of true Christians, are alike favoured; but every one receives according to the measure of the gift of Christ [Note: Eph 4:7.].]

3.

They are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise

[A seal is for the purpose of both marking and securing property; and with both these views the Holy Spirit seals the people of God. He stamps the very image of God himself upon their souls [Note: Eph 4:23-24.]; he thus marks them as his peculiar, his purchased possession; he secures them also to the day of complete redemption [Note: Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30.].]

4.

They have the earnest of the Spirit in their hearts

[An earnest is both a part of a payment, and a pledge of the remainder; and such is the Spirit to us, not in one only, but in all his operations. In illuminating, quickening, sanctifying, or comforting the soul, he is an earnest of that light and life, that purity and joy, which will be more richly communicated to us in the future world. As a seal, the Spirit assures us of our right to heaven; as an earnest, he gives us a foretaste of it.]

The consideration of such inestimable blessings may well lead us to inquire after,

II.

The source from whence they flow

It appears needless, at first sight, to enter minutely into this part of our subject: but the very construction of the sentence shews that there is something particularly emphatical in it. It implies,

1.

That these blessings are purely the gift of God

[They are not the creatures of a vain and heated imagination; nor are they the offspring of mans will and power [Note: Joh 1:13.]; nor, though imparted in the use of means, do they necessarily flow from the means themselves. They are purely and entirely the gift of God [Note: Jam 1:17.], and are bestowed by Him according to his sovereign will and pleasure [Note: 1Co 12:6; 1Co 12:11.].]

2.

That they evidently bear the Divine stamp and character upon them

[The visible creation manifestly approves itself to be of Divine workmanship [Note: Psa 19:1.], and in the same manner do these blessings evidently appear to proceed from God. The very effects which they produce upon the soul, discover this: but the conviction, which they, who possess these blessings, feel of their Divine original, is inexpressibly clear and strong [Note: Isa 41:20.]: without the smallest hesitation they ascribe them to God as their only source [Note: 2Co 5:5.].]

3.

That God is glorified by means of them

[It is the Apostles express design to glorify God on account of them: and surely we cannot fail of admiring his power and goodness in them; or experience them, without an increased desire to devote ourselves to him; and most of all shall we adore him for these beginnings of his grace, when we shall have received their full completion.]

Infer
1.

How little is true religion known and experienced in the world!

[Christianity is in general viewed as a system of restraints, rather than as a source of enjoyments; but none can have a just view of it who do not experience a measure of these blessings. Let not any one then rest in false notions, or uninteresting professions. Let all seek rather such a religion as will make them holy and happy, and pray, with the Apostle, that God would fulfil in them all his good pleasure [Note: 2Th 1:11.].]

2.

How much do many true Christians live below their privileges

[Many, instead of enjoying a heaven upon earth, are filled with doubts and fears: yet even these have the image of God manifestly instamped upon them, and the hope which they possess is more precious to them than the whole world: but we may well say to them, Why art thou lean, seeing thou art a kings son? Let them be ashamed of giving such occasion to the enemies of religion to triumph; and let them seek that full liberty which God will vouchsafe to all his children.]

3.

How astonishing are our obligations to each person in the Sacred Trinity!

[The Father is the great source and fountain of all our blessings: Christ is the procurer of them, and the medium through whom they come: and the Holy Spirit is the agent, by whom they are conveyed to us. Let us hold fellowship with each in his distinct office and character [Note: 1Jn 1:3.], and acknowledge with gratitude their united exertions; and let every blessing received from them quicken us to the service, and lead us to the enjoyment of our triune God.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(21) Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; (22) Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. (23) Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. (24) Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

I pray the Reader to attend, with all suitable regard, to what the Apostle hath here said. That the saints of God may be, and indeed are, by grace established in the faith, is a fundamental doctrine of Scripture; and the Apostle brings an additional testimony in this place, in confirmation of it. The everlasting uncertainty, that some poor precious, but weak saints, are at on this ground, doth by no means weaken, or make void, the doctrine. Every child of God desires to be at certainty, on a point of such infinite importance. And here the Apostle by the Holy Ghost, declares, that God’s people, when being regenerated, and brought into an apprehension of Christ, and our interest in him, are established and anointed. And He that doth this mighty act, and hath sealed, as well as anointed the Church, is God; who hath also given an earnest of his work by his Spirit in our hearts. Reader! as the point is of such high moment, I do pray you, that you will attend a little somewhat more particularly unto it.

And, first. Here is said to be an establishment of the child of God in grace. And, in confirmation that this is attainable in the present life, it should be observed, that all the Persons of the Godhead concur in it. By electing grace God the Father establisheth them in Christ. They are given to Him, accepted in Him, justified in Him, sanctified in Him; and made everlastingly happy in Him; in time, and to all eternity. They are beheld in Christ as one, and established in this oneness and union with Him: so that because He lives, they must live also. And they are anointed and sealed, as the sweet Scripture saith, by the earnest of the Spirit in their hearts. So that they have the united testimony of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to the great truth of their establishment.

But I cannot call that man established, whose mind is exercised with doubts, and fears, and misgivings! As long as there is a doubt remaining upon the mind; whether Christ hath, or hath not compleated deliverance for his people; and as long as the child of God is at doubts, and fears, and peradventures of his interest in Christ, there will be no solid, substantial joy and comfort in the soul. Oh! how sweet is it then when the soul is established, and is anointed in Christ, and sealed with the earnest of the Spirit in the heart!

I detain not the Reader, to make any further observations on the Apostle’s appeal, as to his readiness, to visit the Corinthians. These things are all now passed by. But, I beg the Reader to notice with me, the striking conclusion of the Chapter; that it is by faith the Lord’s people stand. Sweet thought! No changeableness of men, no temptations of Satan, no undeservings of the Lord’s people destroy the perfection of Christ, which gives strength to faith. And this faith, is not the cause, but the effect: not the motive, for which the Lord established his people; but the result. Oh! how blessed, that our safety, and security, is not founded in, the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

XXVII

THE TWO COVENANTS

2Co 1:21-3:18 .

In the last of 2Co 1 there is one passage that we need to discuss: “Now he that established us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God; who also sealed us, and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” Some words used here a Christian ought to understand. For instance, “anointed,” “sealed,” “earnest.” In the Old Testament, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with the “holy anointing oil” whose recipe Moses gave in Exo 30:22-33 . As a ceremony it signified their consecration, or setting apart, to office. As a symbol it signified the influence of the Holy Spirit which qualified them to perform their official duties. In the New Testament it means that the Holy Spirit, received by faith, qualifies every Christian to be a priest of God, to offer spiritual sacrifices. The word “anointed,” I say, refers to the influence that comes upon the Christian in the sense of setting him apart for the work of Christ and qualifying him to do it. As the Old Testament priest, prophet, and king were anointed for an office, so is every Christian. We are all kings and priests unto God. Without the Holy Spirit we cannot acceptably serve God.

The word “seal” has a different signification.

It is quite common in Pedo-baptist literature to refer to baptism as a seal, but in the Word of God baptism is nowhere called a seal. On the contrary, we are expressly said to be sealed by the Holy Spirit.

The object of a seal is to accredit or designate ownership. For instance, a man writes a letter and puts the mark of his seal on it; that authenticates the letter. If a seminary confers a degree or sells a piece of property, neither degree nor deed is valid unless it bears the corporate seal of the seminary. We are said to be sealed by the Holy Spirit. That simply means this that the gift of the Holy Spirit to a Christian authenticates that Christian as God’s property. Suppose I address a communication and put my seal on it; that seal is designed to keep the communication intact until it gets to its address. So we are sealed unto the day of redemption.

That is a very strong argument in favor of the final preservation of the saints. The imprint of the Holy Spirit on us is a mark that we belong to God and will be delivered to God on the day of redemption. If the seal of God does hold (and there is no power that can break it) that is demonstrative that the Christian will reach his destination.

There is still another word “given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” An “earnest” is something of this kind: The holy land was promised to the Israelites. Spies were sent to look out the country and sample it. They brought back a bunch of grapes, and the people were enabled to eat those grapes before they got to the country where the grapes grew. They were the same in kind, but not the same in quantity. God intends that our promised land shall be heaven; but before we get to heaven he gives us foretastes in kind of what we are to get when we reach heaven; the joy, peace, and glory that often comes to the Christian heart here on earth is an earnest of what heaven will be. It is a little piece of heaven, sent down to us beforehand. How often in a great revival we hear brethren say, “This is heaven on earth! We are getting foretastes of the glory of God.” The sense of forgiveness, the sweet peace that comes in the heart on reconciliation with God, the joy of the converted soul anything of that kind is an earnest of heaven.

The first part of 2Co 2 is devoted to a case of discipline. In the first letter he had written very sharply in a way to bring grief to their hearts because they had allowed an awful sin, committed by one of their members, to go unrebuked. He is now explaining to them why he made them sorry: “If I make you sorry, who then is he that maketh me glad but he that is made sorry by me? And I wrote this very thing, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.” That sharp letter he wrote was prompted by love. He saw that they were getting themselves into trouble. He adds, “But if any hath caused sorrow, he hath caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) to you all. Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many.” When they came to expel that man they could not get a unanimous vote, for some stood for him.

That conveys this lesson to us, that in expelling a man it is not necessary that the vote should be unanimous; a majority vote is sufficient for expulsion or any discipline whatever.

It is different in the reception of a member. Pastors and churches sometimes have to show why it is that a majority vote is sufficient to expel a man, and here is the text. The word “many” means majority. This case also contains another important lesson on discipline: “Sufficient to such a one is the punishment inflicted by the majority; so that contrariwise ye should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you to confirm your love toward him. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things. But to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also; for what I also have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes have I forgiven it.”

That raises the question: What is the object of discipline? To gain the offending brother. Even when we exclude him, if he be a Christian, and his exclusion is conducted properly, it will likely have that effect on him. It had that effect in this case. When this man saw that this church by a majority vote decided that he was living in a, sin of such heinousness that it disqualified him for membership in a church of Jesus Christ, it broke his heart and he repented of his sin. Paul says, “Let that punishment of expulsion be sufficient, and on his repentance forgive him and take him back again.” That is the point in discipline.

All the rest of the letter until we come to 2Co 8 is on Paul’s ministry: “Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened unto me in the Lord, I had no relief for my spirit, because I found not Titus, my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia.” The thought is that a man who loves to preach the gospel and is holding a meeting where the door of success is open, may yet have such a burden on his heart about other matters that he cannot fulfil his duty as a preacher. Paul is distressed to death about that case at Corinth for fear that the church should go astray and be lost from the churches of Jesus Christ, as he says elsewhere that the case of all the churches was resting on his apostolic heart. Many a time when the preacher preaches he carries a burden that nobody else knows anything about. Sometimes he has a burden on him right in the midst of a meeting that does not touch the meeting, coming from circumstances elsewhere that divert his mind and press on his heart.

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

Notice that always and in every place the true preacher triumphs.

Paul explains how that is: “For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life.” Some preachers think if they preach, and people are not saved, they have failed. If the preacher preaches God’s gospel where he wants him to preach, he wins a victory over the lost if not over the saved.

In other words, God intends that the terms of mercy contained in his gospel should be submitted to people whether they receive it or reject it, and that there is no responsibility attaching to the preacher in the issue.

If they reject it, the gospel is to them a savor of death unto death, and of life unto life, if they accept it. I do not know any other part of the Scriptures so little understood as that statement.

One night, when I was a young pastor, a brother pastor came to see me, very much distressed. He said, “My ministry is a failure.” I said, “I am disposed to question that.” He said, “I cannot disguise it from myself; it is a dead failure. I have preached for a solid year in tears and in earnestness and nobody in my community has been convicted of sin.” I said, “That does not prove that you have failed. If you had preached without praying or studying or asking God to give you the right message, I would agree with you that your ministry is a failure. But if you have preached in faith, in tears, in prayer, faithfully holding up the gospel, you have won the victory,” and I read this passage. He was so impressed that he got right down on the floor at my house, and such a thanksgiving I never heard. He said, “Do you know that you have saved my life? I felt like quitting the ministry because I was in such despair.” Generally, we should look for success in the salvation of men, and that should be our principal desire in preaching, and generally that will be the result, but sometimes it will not. “But always in every place God causeth us to triumph.”

2Co 3 commences with a reference to letters of recommendation: “Are we beginning again to commend ourselves, or need we, as do some, epistles of commendation to you or from you? Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men; being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh.” He uses two figures about the letters: First, in his heart it is written; second, Christ, using him as a penman, wrote a letter on their hearts, and that letter that Christ wrote could be known and read of all men not written with ink and pen, but with the Spirit. It was not written like the commandments of Moses, on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart. He says, “I don’t need a letter of recommendation, as some other people do. The Jewish brethren came bringing letters from the Jerusalem church, and they had stirred up all this trouble. They needed letters of recommendation. You heard the gospel through me. I built on no other man’s foundation, but led you to Christ. If you want to know where my letter of recommendation is, look on yourselves. Christ dictated; I wrote the letter, and it is a long ways better than a letter written in ink.” An ink letter oftentimes means very little.

Once a man came into my office and asked me for a letter of recommendation. I said, “I do not even know you.” He said, “That is all right; you can tell them about me.” I said, “Why do you not tell them about yourself? Your word would mean as much as my letter. You have come to the wrong place; I never write a letter of recommendation unless I know what I am writing about.” Again, a certain man wanted me to commend a book. I said, “I have never read that book.” “Well, I will show you its prospectus,” said he. “But the prospectus is not the book. Do you think I would commend a book that I have not read, and do you think I would trade my name for a single book?” “Well,” he said, “other people do that way.” “Yes,” I said, “and that is the reason that their letters of recommendation are not worth anything.”

It is a suspicious thing for a man to carry his valise full of recommendations. I once knew a preacher who carried around a scrapbook in which he had preserved every foolish thing that had ever been said in his favor by the newspapers. My father used to say, “Whenever you see a chimney with a big log up against it, you may know that it is a weak chimney, and needs to be propped.” The object of a letter of recommendation is simply to give a person an introduction, and then let him stand for himself.

The poorest preacher and the poorest pastor I ever saw had twenty-three letters of recommendation and several degrees from colleges.

The most important thought in connection with these letters of recommendation is that, after all, everything must be judged by its fruits, and every man must be known by his works. What is Christianity? Christ wrote a letter. Where is that letter? That Corinthian church. Is there anything different between what they are now and what they were before their conversion? Yes, a great deal of difference, and all that difference is in favor of the Christian religion that worked the change. We may tell a man about the effects of Christianity, and he will take all we say with a grain of salt, but if we show him actual cases of changed people, they become letters of recommendation for the Christian religion. If the one who joins the church remains as he was before, it proves nothing; but if Christianity makes better husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, and citizens, the whole wide world can read that letter.

An infidel once said to me that there was one woman in my church who had really been converted, or changed, and that the change was for the better, and that was one argument for Christianity that he could not answer. The next thought is in 2Co 3:5-6 : “But our sufficiency is from God; who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth.” The lesson from that word “sufficient” should sink down into every preacher’s heart. It is not because a man is six feet tall; Paul was a low man. It is not because a man is pretty; Paul was ugly. It is not because a man is clear-eyed; Paul was dim-eyed. It is not because a man is sound in health; Paul was in ill health. It is not because a man is a rhetorician; Paul did not use his rhetoric. “Our sufficiency is of God.” We cannot put too much emphasis on that thought.

I was stopping once in Louisville. The brethren, hearing I was there, sent for me to make a talk to the Seminary boys, and I combined two passages which say, “Good and able ministers of Jesus Christ.” I took that as my theme. What is a good preacher? This refers to character. What is an able preacher? This refers to efficiency. I do not think I ever made a better talk to preachers than I made that night.

Now comes in the ministry of Paul, commencing at 2Co 3:7 , showing a distinction between the two covenants. We have already had one distinction, that the old covenant was written on tables of stone and the new covenant on tables of the heart. Here we have another: “But if the ministration of death, written, and engraven on stones, came with glory.” The old covenant was the ministration of death. The law gendered to bondage. The soul that sinneth shall die. The new covenant is the ministration of life. We cannot save men by the law. We can kill them, but we save men by the gospel. That distinction should be kept sharp in mind. It was a very solemn thing when God came down on Mount Sinai, crested with fire, and shaken with thunder, illumined with lightning, and the beat of the angel pinions filled the air it was a glorious thing. But what is that to the ministration of life through the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ? The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ our Saviour, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. The law the ministration of death is written on cold rock, outside of man. The gospel the ministration of life is written on the warm heart, inside of man. Paul, in Heb 8:7-12 , says in speaking of the two covenants, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, ha saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, That I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers In the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt; For they continued not in my covenant, And I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, And on their heart also will I write them: And I will be to them a God, And they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, And every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: For all shall know me, From the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And their sins will I remember no more.”

Then Paul adds, “In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away.” The new covenant is internal, and nothing has been done until the writing touches on the inside.

The glory of the old covenant was reflected in the face of Moses. When he came down from the mount his face was shining so that it dazzled the eyes of the people. But that was nothing like the shining of the transfiguration of Christ. The shining of Moses’ face was transitory. Moses put a veil over his face. He knew that the shining would pass away and his face would be as it was before. He veiled his face lest the Jews should see the end of the shining, and would not follow him. But the Jews believed that he veiled his face because it was too bright to look at, and that if the veil were lifted off, the face of Moses would outshine any face in the world. Mightily does Tom Moore bring out the thought in The Veiled Prophet of Khorasan , in Lalla Rookh. An impostor, wearing a veil, played upon the superstition of the people, saying that no mortal could endure the brightness of the splendor of his face, and in mercy to them he kept his face veiled. But he promised some day to uncover his face that they might see his glory. His object was to pre-commit them, and so bring them to absolute despair and ruin at the unveiling. One of the most pathetic things in poetry is where the prophet lifted his veil that the ruined Zelica might see his face; that she might see the horrible face of the demon who had deceived her. What must be the unveiling of the Law covenant to the lost dupes who have trusted it?

The next point is, that the Old Testament is a ministration of condemnation: “For if the ministration of condemnation hath glory, much rather doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.” The word “righteousness” here should be rendered “justification.” The thought is that the old covenant condemns men; the new covenant justifies men. The preacher ought to be able to distinguish between those two points, condemnation and justification.

The next point is that the old covenant was written in types, veiling the truth signified. He says, “Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness of speech, and are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face.” Moses set forth things in allegories and types. Boldness, or plainness of speech here, refers to absence of figures of speech. That is the difference between telling a thing in straight-out language, and in using parables. The gospel makes the way of life very plain, so that a fool cannot misunderstand. In much of the Old Testament we have to study so as to find the signification of the type or of the prophetic visions. They were but shadows.

Notice again the old covenant dazzled the eye 2Co 3:18 : “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” The verse preceding says, “The Lord is the spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Mirrors in those days were made of hammered and polished metal) and made a dim reflection. The sun may be out of sight, but the moon is a mirror catching the light of the sun and reflecting it to the eye of the beholder.

I am going to give you what I call a very impressive illustration. In Prescott’s Conquest of Peru, there is a description of the Temple of the Incas as Cuzco. This temple consists of three walls, north, south, west. The eastern side of the structure was open. The walls were smoothly cemented, and on the cement was put thinly hammered gold. The way they worshiped was this: They would come to the temple just before dawn and stand in that opening to the east, and facing the western wall a golden wall; on the left a golden wall; and on the right a golden wall. The sun would rise behind them, and long before they could see it directly they could see its reflection in the western wall, and be covered with the golden light. Their faces were illumined in the reflection. Now we all look into the mirror upon the glory of the Lord, and that mirror reflects it on us, and we catch the reflected image and are changed in it from glory to glory; as the sun behind those people rising higher, blazing brighter, bathed them more and more in its reflected light, so the Lord of righteousness, as he rises, brings healing in his wings. We look at Christ as in a mirror. He is not here, but we see him mirrored in the face of his saints. It is a law that we become like that which we steadfastly contemplate. If we steadily study about good, pure, and holy things, we become like them. If we study about evil things, vile and loathsome and slimy, we become like them. We steadfastly behold the glorious things of the gospel as in a mirror and become transformed ourselves, more and more like Jesus, and at last become altogether like him in image.

QUESTIONS

1. What three important words in 2Co 1:21-22 which need to be understood?

2. What the meaning and application of the word “anointed”?

3. Discuss the word “seal,” showing its application by illustrations.

4. What the meaning of “earnest,” what the illustration given, and what the spiritual significance of it?

5. To what is the first part of 2Co 2 devoted, and what connection has this with the first letter?

6. What the history of this case, and what important lesson for us in it?

7. What lesson here as to the object of discipline, and how is it clearly shown in this case?

8. To what is the next section, 2Co 2:12-7:16 , devoted, and what the lessons of 2Co 2:12-13 ?

9. What the ground of Paul’s thanksgiving here, and how could Paul say, “God always leadeth us in triumph”? Illustrate.

10. What lesson for us here on the question of letters of recommendation, and what the explanation of Paul’s two figures of speech relative to this matter? Illustrate.

11. What the most important thought in connection with these letters of recommendation, and how does the author illustrate it?

12. What lesson here as to our sufficiency, and how does this idea relate to “Good and able ministers of Jesus Christ”?

13. What 2 distinctions here noted between the new covenant and the old?

14. What prophet does Paul quote to show the difference between the old covenant and the new, where do we find this quotation, and how does this prophet show the difference?

15. Give an account of the shining face of Moses, and illustrate with the incident of The Veiled Prophet of Khorasan.

16. How is the Old Testament a ministration of condemnation, in what does the ministration of righteousness exceed the ministration of the Old Testament, and what the meaning of word “righteousness” here?

17. What difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament expressed in 2Co 3:12 , and how is this illustrated in the case of Moses veiling his face?

18. What Paul’s mirror-illustration, and how is this illustrated by author?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

Ver. 21. Hath anointed us ] i.e. Consecrated and qualified us.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

21, 22 .] construction as in ch. 2Co 5:5 , which in form is remarkably similar;

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

21. ] . is the (prefixed) predicate, and the subject., . = . , confirmeth us (in believing) on Christ.

, after . and the , cannot refer (as Meyer, al.) to any anointing of the Apostles only , but must be taken, as Chrys., al., of all, Apostles and Corinthians. . . . Chrys., p. 448. See 1Jn 2:20 . “Observe the connexion of and .” Stanley.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

2Co 1:21 . . . .: now He that stablisheth us with you into Christ and anointed us is God , etc. For the form of the sentence cf. chap. 2Co 5:5 . The ultimate ground of St. Paul’s steadfastness in Christ is God Himself; and having been led on to say this, he adds , in order to introduce (as he does at every opportunity in the early part of the Epistle) the idea of unity between him and his Corinthian converts. The play on words is obvious; the only other place in the N.T. where the idea is found of the “anointing” of the Christian believer by God is 1Jn 2:20 ; 1Jn 2:27 , . Deissmann has pointed out ( Bibelstudien , p. 104) that and (see note below) are both technical terms belonging to the law courts ( cf. Lev 25:23 , LXX), and that is here deliberately used rather than (Gal 3:15 ), or any other such word.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

2 Corinthians

ANOINTED AND STABLISHED

2Co 1:21 .

The connection in which these words occur is a remarkable illustration of the Apostle’s habit of looking at the most trivial things in the light of the highest truths. He had been obliged, as the context informs us, to abandon an intended visit to Corinth. The miserable crew of antagonists, who yelped at his heels all his life, seized this change of purpose as the occasion for a double-barrelled charge. They said he was either fickle and infirm of purpose, or insincere, and saying ‘Yea’ with one side of his mouth and ‘Nay’ with the other. He rebuts this accusation with apparently quite disproportionate vehemence and great solemnity. He points in the context to the faithfulness of God, to the firm Gospel which he had preached, to God’s great ‘Yea!’ as his answer. He says in effect, ‘How could I, with such a word burning in my heart, move in a region of equivocation and double-dealing; or how could I, whose whole being is saturated with so firm and stable a Gospel, be unreliable and fickle? The message must make the messenger like itself. Communion with a faithful God must make faith-keeping men; the certainties of God’s “Yea,” and the certitudes of our “Amen,” must influence our characters.’ And so to suppose that a man, influenced by Christianity, is a weak, double-dealing, unsteadfast man is a contradiction in terms. In the text he carries his argument a step further, and points, not only to the power of the Gospel to steady and confirm, but also to the fact that God Himself communicates to the believing soul Christian stability by the anointing which He bestows.

So, then, we have in these words the declaration that inflexible, immovable steadfastness is a mark of a Christian, and that this Christian steadfastness, without which there is no Christianity worth the naming, is a direct gift from God Himself by means of that great anointing which He confers upon men. To that thought, in one or two of its aspects, I ask your attention.

I. Notice the deep source of this Christian steadfastness.

The language of the original, carefully considered, seems to me to bear this interpretation, that the ‘anointing’ of the second clause is the means of the ‘establishing’ of the first-that is to say, that God confers Christian steadfastness of character by the bestowment of the unction of His Divine Spirit.

Now notice how deep Paul digs in order to get a foundation for a common virtue. There are many ways by which men may cultivate the tenacity and steadfastness of purpose which ought to mark us all. Much discipline may be brought to bear in order to secure that; but the text says that the deepest ground upon which it can be rested is nothing less divine and solemn than this, the actual communication to men, to feeble, vacillating, fluctuating wills, and treacherous, wayward, wandering hearts, of the strength and fixedness which are given by God’s own Spirit.

I suppose I need not remind you that from beginning to end of Scripture, ‘anointing’ is taken as the symbol of the communication of a true divine influence. The oil poured on the head of prophet, priest, and king was but the expression of the communication to the recipient of a divine influence which fitted him as well as designated him, for the office that he filled. And although it is aside from my present purpose, I may just, in a sentence, point to the felicity of the emblem. The flowing oil smoothes the surface upon which it is spread, supples the limbs, and is nutritive and illuminating; thus giving an appropriate emblem of the secret, silent, quickening, nourishing, enlightening influences of that Spirit which God gives to all His sons.

And inasmuch as here this oil of the Divine Spirit is stated as being the true ground and basis of Christian steadfastness, it is obvious that the anointing intended cannot be that of mere designation to, and inspiration for, apostolic or other office, but must be the universal possession of all Christian men and women. ‘Ye,’ says another Apostle, speaking to the whole democracy of the Christian Church, and not to any little group of selected aristocrats therein-’ye have an unction from the Holy One,’ and every man and woman who has a living grasp of the living Christ, receives from Him this great gift.

Then, notice further that this anointing by a Divine Spirit, which is a true source of life to those that possess it, is derived from, and parallel with, Christ’s anointing. We use the word ‘Christ’ as a proper name, and forget what it means. The ‘Christ’ is the Anointed One . And do you think that it was a mere accident, or the result of a scanty vocabulary, which compelled the Apostle, in these two contiguous clauses, to use cognate words when he said:-’He that establisheth us with you in the Anointed , and hath anointed us, is God’ ? Did he not mean to say thereby, ‘Each of you in a very true sense, if you are a Christian, is a Christ’ ? You, too, are anointed; you, too, are God’s Messiahs. On you in a measure the same Spirit rests which dwelt without measure in Him. The chief of Christ’s gifts to the Church is the gift of His own life. All His brethren are anointed with the oil that was poured upon His head, even as the oil upon Aaron’s locks percolated to the very skirts of his garments. Being anointed with the anointing which was on Him, all His people may claim an identity of nature, may hope for an identity of destiny, and are bound to a prolongation of part of His function and a similarity of character. If He by that anointing was made Prophet, Priest, and King for the world, all His children partake of these offices in subordinate but real fashion, and are prophets to make God known to men, priests to offer up spiritual sacrifices, and kings at least over themselves, and, if they will, over a world which obeys and serves those that serve and love God. Ye are anointed-’Messiahs’ and ‘Christs,’ by derivation of the life of Jesus Christ.

And if these things be true, it is plain enough how this divine unction, which is granted to all Christians, lies at the root of steadfastness.

We talk a great deal about the gentleness of Christ; we cannot celebrate it too much, but we may forget that it is the gentleness of strength. We do not sufficiently mark the masculine features in that character, the tremendous tenacity of will, the inflexible fixedness of purpose, the irremovable constancy of obedience in the face of all temptations to the contrary. The figure that rises before us is that of the Christ yearning over weaklings far oftener than it is that of the Christ with knitted brow, and tightened lips, and far-off gazing eye, ‘steadfastly setting His face to go to Jerusalem,’ and followed as He pressed up the rocky road from Jericho, by that wondering group, astonished at the rigidity of purpose that was stamped on His features. That Christ gives us His Spirit to make us tenacious, constant, righteously obstinate, inflexible in the pursuit of all that is lovely and of good report, like Himself. That Divine Spirit will cure the fickleness of our natures; for our wills are never fixed till they are fixed in obedience, and never free until they elect to serve Him. That Divine Spirit will cure the wandering of our hearts and bind us to Himself. It will lift us above the selfish and cowardly dependence on externals and surroundings, men and things, in which we are all tempted to live. We are all too like aneroid barometers, that go up and down with every variation of a foot or two in our level, but if we have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, it will cut the bonds that bind us to the world, and give us possession of a deeper love than can be sustained by, or is derived from, these superficial sources. The true possession of the Divine Spirit, if I might use such a metaphor, sets a man on an insulating stool, and all the currents that move round about him are powerless to reach him. If we have that Divine Spirit within us, it will give us an experience of the preciousness and the truth, the certitude and the sweetness, of Christ’s Gospel, which will make it impossible that we should ever cast away the confidence which has such ‘recompense of reward.’ No man will be surely bound to the truth and person of Christ with bonds that cannot be snapped, except he who in his heart has the knowledge of Him which is possession, and by the gift of the Divine Spirit is knit to Jesus Christ.

So, dear friends, whilst the world is full of wise words about steadfastness, and exalts determination of character and fixity of purpose, rightly, as the basis of much good, our Gospel comes to us poor, light, thistledown creatures, and lets us see how we can be steadfast and settled by being fastened to a steadfast and settled Christ. When storms are raging they lash light articles on deck to holdfasts. Let us lash ourselves to the abiding Christ, and we, too, shall abide.

II. In the next place, notice the aim or purpose of this Christian steadfastness.

‘He stablisheth us with you in Christ,’ or as the original has it even more significantly, into or ‘ unto Christ.’ Now that seems to me to imply two things-first, that our steadfastness, made possible by our possession of that Divine Spirit, is steadfastness in our relations to Jesus Christ. We are established in reference or in regard to Him. In other words, what Paul here means is, first, a fixed conviction of the truth that He is the Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and my Saviour. That is the first step. Men who are steadfast without their intellect guiding and settling the steadfastness are not steadfast, but obstinate and pigheaded. We are meant to be guided by our understandings, and no fixity is anything better than the immobility of a stone, unless it be based upon a distinct and whole-brained intellectual acceptance of Jesus Christ as the All-in-all for us, for life and death, for inward and outward being.

Paul means, next, a steadfastness in regard to Christ in our trust and love. Surely if from Him there is for ever streaming out an unbroken flow of tenderness, there should be ever on our sides an equally unbroken opening of our hearts for the reception of His love, and an equally uninterrupted response to it in our grateful affection. There can be no more damning condemnation of the vacillations and fluctuations of Christian men’s affections than the steadfastness of Christ’s love to them. He loves ever; He is unalterable in the communication and effluence of His heart. Surely it is most fitting that we should be steadfast in our devotion and answering love to Him. And Paul means not only fixedness of intellectual conviction and continuity of loving response, but also habitual obedience, which is always ready to do His will.

So we should answer His ‘Yea!’ with our ‘Amen!’ and having an unchanging Christ to rest upon, we should rest upon Him unchanging. The broken, fluctuating affections and trusts and obediences which mark so much of the average Christian life of this day are only too sad proofs of how scant our possession of that Spirit of steadfastness must be supposed to be. God’s ‘Yea’ is answered by our faltering ‘Amen’; God’s truth is hesitatingly accepted; God’s love is partially returned; God’s work is slothfully and negligently done. ‘Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.’

Another thought is suggested by these words-viz. that such steadfastness as we have been trying to describe has for its result a deeper penetration into Jesus Christ and a fuller possession of Him. The only way by which we can grow nearer and nearer to our Lord is by steadfastly keeping beside Him. You cannot get the spirit of a landscape unless you sit down and gaze, and let it soak into you. The cheap tripper never sees the lake. You cannot get to know a man until you summer and winter with him. No subject worth studying opens itself to the hasty glance. Was it not Sir Isaac Newton who used to say, ‘I have no genius, but I keep a subject before me’ ? ‘Abide in Me; as the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in Me.’ Continuous, steadfast adhesion to Him is the condition of growing up into His likeness, and receiving more and more of His beauty into our waiting hearts. ‘Wait on the Lord; wait, I say, on the Lord.’

III. Lastly, notice the very humble and commonplace sphere in which the Christian steadfastness manifests itself.

It was nothing of more importance than that Paul had said he was going to Corinth, and did not, on which he brings all this array of great principles to bear. From which I gather just this thought, that the highest gifts of God’s grace and the greatest truths of God’s Word are meant to regulate the tiniest things in our daily life. It is no degradation to the lightning to have to carry messages. It is no profanation of the sun to gather its rays into a burning glass to light a kitchen fire with. And it is no unworthy use of the Divine Spirit that God gives to His children, to say it will keep a man from hasty and precipitate decisions as to little things in life, and from chopping and changing about, with a levity of purpose and without a sufficient reason. If our religion is not going to influence the trifles, what is it going to influence? Our life is made up of trifles, and if these are not its field, where is its field? You may be quite sure that, if your religion does not influence the little things, it will never influence the great ones. If it has not power enough to guide the horses when they are at a slow, sober walk, what do you think it will do when they are at a gallop and plunging? ‘He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.’ So let us see to two things-first, that all our religion is worked into our life, for only so much of it as is so inwrought is our religion-and, second, that all our life is brought under the sway of motives derived from our religion: for only in proportion as it is, will it be pure and good.

And as regards this special virtue and prime quality of steadfastness and fixedness of purpose, you can do no good in the world without it. Unless a man can hold his own, and turn an obstinate negative to the temptations that lie thick about him, he will never come to any good at all, either in this life or in the next. The basis of all excellence is a wholesome disregard of externals, and the cultivation of a strong self-reliant and self-centred, because God-trusting and Christ-centred, will. And I tell you, especially you young men and women, if you want to do or be anything worth doing or being, you must try to get your natures hardened into being ‘steadfast, unmovable.’ There is only one infallible way of doing it, and that is to let the ‘strong Son of God’ live in you, and in Him to find your strength for resistance, your strength for obedience, your strength for submission. ‘I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.’

There are two types of men in the world. The one has his emblem in the chaff, rootless, with no hold, swept out of the threshing-floor by every gust of wind. That the picture of many whose principles lie at the mercy of the babble of tongues round about them, whose rectitude goes at a puff of temptation, like the smoke out of a chimney when the wind blows; who have no will for what is good, but live as it happens. The other type of man has his emblem in the tree, rooted deep, and therefore rising high, with its roots going as far underground as its branches spread in the blue, and therefore green of leaf and rich of fruit ‘We are made partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence, steadfast until the end.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

stablisheth = confirms. Greek. bebaioo. See Rom 15:8.

hath. Omit.

anointed. Greek. chrio, the verb from which Christos is formed. Elsewhere, always of the Lord. Luk 4:18. Act 4:27; Act 10:38. Heb 1:9.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

21, 22.] construction as in ch. 2Co 5:5, which in form is remarkably similar;

Fuente: The Greek Testament

2Co 1:21. , now He who confirmeth [establisheth]) The Son glorifies the Father, 2Co 1:19 : whilst [autem, ] the Father in turn glorifies the Son.-, confirming) that we may be firm in the faith of Christ. The term sealing corresponds to this word; the one is from Christ and His anointing; the other from the Spirit, as an earnest. That is sealed, which is confirmed as the property of some one, whether it be a property purchased, or a letter, so that it may be certain, to whom it belongs; comp. 1Co 9:2. A trope[8] abstracts from the persons and things from which it is taken.-, us) apostles and teachers.- , with you) He speaks modestly of himself.- , in [into] Christ, and hath anointed) Conjugate words. From the oil here, we derive strength, and a good savour, 2Co 2:15. All things tend to the yea; , in faith in [towards] Christ.

[8] See Append., on tropus.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

2Co 1:21

2Co 1:21

Now he that establisheth us with you in Christ,-[God had established Paul in Christ. Therefore fickleness, duplicity, or deceit was impossible. Observe, too, that he does not assert his truthfulness because of his apostleship, but because of his devotion to Christ, for he associates with himself Sylvanus, Timothy, the Corinthian Christians, and all believers. He does not claim for himself any steadfastness in Christ, or any trustworthiness as dependent upon it, which is not possible to other faithful believers. It is their calling as Christians to be steadfast in Christ. Such steadfastness God is ever seeking to impart through the gospel, and in striving to attain it, every Christian can appeal to him for help. If Christians are letting God have his way with them in this respect, they can be depended upon for conduct in keeping with the goodness and faithfulness of God, into which they have been confirmed by him. ]

and anointed us,-Kings, prophets, and priests were anointed when inaugurated in their several offices; to anoint may therefore mean to qualify by divine influence, and thereby to authorize anyone to discharge the duties of any office. In the synagogue at Nazareth the Lord applies to himself the prophecy of Isa 61:1-2-The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. (Luk 4:18). In speaking of Jesus at the house of Cornelius, Peter said: God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. (Act 10:38). Christians are in like manner spoken of as having an anointing from the Holy One which abides in them. (1 John 2 20, 27). At the conclusion of Peters sermon on the day of Pentecost, those who heard were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Act 2:37-38). In the passage before us, when Paul says, and anointed us, he means that the anointing of the Spirit is common to all Christians.

is God;-God it is who confirms and anoints bis people. It is worth noticing that in the New Testament the act of anointing is never ascribed to anyone but God.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Operations Of The Holy Spirit

2Co 1:21-22

Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts, (vv. 21-22)

We have in these verses, suggested at least, every operation of the Holy Spirit of God that is brought before us elsewhere in the New Testament. There is absolutely no ministry of the Holy Spirit as far as the believer is concerned that is not touched on here. In the Revised Version there is a slight change which helps to make it clearer. Now He which establisheth us with you into Christ, and hath anointed us, is God.

When we think of establishment into Christ by the Holy Spirit, we necessarily think, if we are intelligent in the understanding of the truth of Scripture, of three very definite operations of the Holy Spirit. We think first of all of conviction, or sanctification by the Spirit. Secondly, we think of the new birth by the Spirit through the Word. And thirdly, we think of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. All these operations are involved in the establishment of a believer into Christ. No one is in Christ by natural birth.

As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (1Co 15:22). All men naturally are in Adam. To be in Adam means that we have received life from Adam. He was our federal head; we belong by nature to Adams race, and that entire race is under judgment because of sin. To be in Christ means that we have received life from Christ, and that He, the risen exalted One in heaven, is the Head of a new race, a new creation to which we now belong. The steps by which we enter into that new creation are laid down very clearly in the Word.

First of all, no one would ever come to Christ if it were not for the convicting, sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit of God. Unless the Spirit of God awakens a man, unless the Spirit of God brings him to see his lost condition, convicts him of the tremendous truths of Holy Scripture, no man would ever of himself turn to Christ. That is a very solemn fact, but it is a fact nevertheless. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy (Rom 9:16). On the other hand, it is quite possible for the Spirit of God to operate in convicting power on the heart of man and yet that man do what the Jews did in Stephens day. It is written of them, Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost (Act 7:51). So it is possible to be convicted by the Spirit and yet to resist the Spirit. But there must be the convicting work of the Spirit of God or no one would ever come to Christ. Jesus Christ said, Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will convince [or convict] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment (Joh 16:7-8). Conviction is far more than a mere emotional breakdown. People often confound conviction with that. Such a breakdown may be there, and we are glad sometimes when it is. Most of us are so cold and stony-hearted that it is refreshing to see people break down and weep over their sins. The saintly Rutherford complained in his day that there were so few who ever had a sick night for sin. There must be first a recognition of ones utterly lost condition. The Spirit of God has come to convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Our Lord Jesus says, Of sin, because they believe not on me. The great damning sin that is sending men down to perdition is the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not told that the Spirit of God was sent particularly to convict men of sins of the flesh and sins of a general character. Every mans conscience convicts him of the sinfulness of licentiousness, of immoral living, of lying, of drunkenness, of pride and vanity, and all these other things, and if a mans conscience should be so dulled by continual sinning that it seems to cease to register, still there is Gods holy law with its stern thou shalts and thou shalt nots which will convict any honest man of the sinfulness of a wicked life.

The Holy Spirit came to convict of the sin of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. God took the entire sin question into account when the Lord Jesus Christ hung on Calvarys cross, and because of what Christ did then and there, God is able to be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Rom 3:26). But if men reject the Lord Jesus Christ, if men refuse to put their trust in Him, they have to go on to judgment, to face their own sins when they will be judged, every man according to his works. Some men rather pride themselves on their morality, on their respectability, and say, I do not know that I need the salvation of God. I have never been guilty of breaking the moral code. Let me ask you this: Have you received the Lord Jesus Christ, Gods blessed Son, as your own personal Savior? If not, if you are still rejecting Him, you are guilty of the worst sin that any one can possibly commit, for God has given heavens best, in sending His blessed Son to earth to bleed and die for your redemption. Can there be any greater sin, any worse offense in the eyes of a holy God, than to reject that Savior, to trample on His grace, and spurn His loving-kindness? It is the work of the Spirit of God to convict men of the sin of the rejection of Christ, and then to convict of righteousness. That is, to show men that though they have no righteousness of their own God has provided one for them in His risen Son. And so the apostle cries, [I would] be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith (Php 3:9). Yet Saul of Tarsus did not feel that way in his unconverted days. It was not until the Spirit of God convicted him of righteousness that he said, Now I see it. I gladly part with every pretension to righteousness of my own; I would be found in Christ.

The Holy Spirit comes to convict of judgment. Not merely of judgment to come, but of the fact that this world is already under judgment, and that every believer is brought out from that judgment, and is raised up with this risen Christ, and so is called to walk apart from the world. Jesus said, Because the prince of this world is judged (Joh 16:11). Satan is the prince of this world, and at the cross the ancient prophecy was fulfilled, It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Gen 3:15). At the cross Satan bruised the heel of the Son of God, but there his own head was bruised, and now he is a judged prince, and the entire scene that recognizes his authority is under judgment. You and I are called by grace to step out from it all and take our place with the Christ whom the world rejected.

Scripture sometimes uses another term for the convicting work of the Spirit of God; it speaks of the sanctification of the Spirit. In 1Co 6:11 the apostle mentions some very ungodly people, and then he says, And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Sanctification means to be set apart. You who are in Christ, do you not remember when you were part of this ungodly world? You lived for the world and for self, and then the hour came when earthly things began to pall upon you, you lost your appetite for the pleasures of the world and you were deeply concerned about your sinful and lost condition. You said, I cannot live like this; I want something better than the world has ever given me, and your trouble went on until you came to Christ and believing in Him you were justified. That was the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit of God that thus led you to Christ. When people come to Christ, when the Spirit of God leads them to His blessed feet and they believe the gospel, what takes place? They are immediately born again. Being born again, says Peter, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever (1Pe 1:23).

Our Lord Jesus said, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (Joh 3:5). People get confused about the water in that verse. They imagine sometimes that it means baptism, but Christian baptism had not been instituted when the Lord Jesus used those words. The best way to find out what it means is to go through Johns writings and see how he speaks of water. You remember Jesus said to the woman at the well, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst: but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Whatever water means in John 3 it means exactly the same in John 4, and Jesus is not talking about drinking the water of baptism. Even when we are immersed we close our lips; we do not drink the water. But He is speaking of another kind of water altogether. We read in Rev 22:17: Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. What is the water of life? It is the offer of life that Jesus gives, the message that we have here in the Word of God. That Word has cleansing and refreshing power, and when we receive the Word in the simplicity of faith we are regenerated by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Tit 3:5). So then, the Spirit convicts, sanctifies, and regenerates through the Word, and more than that, the Spirit puts us into the body of Christ.

By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body (1Co 12:13). Some time ago we were just so many units utterly uninterested in one another, but through grace we have been led not only to know that we are saved ourselves, but we have been brought into a blessed and hallowed unity with all fellow believers. We are members of that one body of which our Lord Jesus Christ is the Head. That is what it is to be established into Christ.

And then notice the next operation of the Spirit mentioned here: And hath anointed us. The anointing is for service and illumination. You remember in Old Testament times three kinds of people were anointed with oil: prophets, priests, and kings; and oil is the recognized type of the Holy Spirit. After His baptism in the Jordan, Jesus was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power. When the Spirit of God descended upon Him in a special way, that was His anointing for His threefold office. He was Prophet on earth, He is Priest in heaven, and He will be King when He comes again, and this blessed ministry is all in the power of the Holy Spirit. Though our Lord Jesus Christ was God, yet as to His Manhood He chose to do all His works in the Spirits power, and so as believers we are anointed by the Spirit, and even the youngest believer has this anointing. You may have been converted only a day or two ago, but the Spirit of God now dwells in you as the anointing, and when you want instruction and power for service, look up to God that He by the Spirit may give you the instruction you need through the Word, and that He may empower you to serve Him.

In the next place we read, Who hath also sealed us. A seal speaks of ownership. The same Holy Spirit who regenerated us, who baptized us into the body of Christ, who is our anointing for service and our illumination, dwells within us as the seal that we belong to God. As I look at a group of people I cannot tell a Christian from one who is not converted, but as God looks down He sees every believer in whom the Holy Spirit dwells and says, That is one of Mine, and wherever the Holy Spirit is not dwelling in a person, If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his (Rom 8:9). The seal is the mark that we belong to Him, After that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise (Eph 1:13). And again we are told in that same epistle to the Ephesians, Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption (4:30). Notice two things: first, how clearly it brings out the personality of the Holy Spirit. You cannot grieve anything that is not personal. You can grieve those you love the most by bad behavior or coldness or indifference; and so, you may grieve the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit dwells in you to claim you for Christ, and if you are careless in your life as a believer, allowing worldliness or carnality or anything that is un-Christlike a place in your life, you are grieving the Holy Spirit of God. You might expect it to go on, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, lest He leave you, lest you grieve Him away, but it says, Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. This suggests the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit of God. He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Php 1:6). When He is come, our Savior tells us, He shall abide with you for ever (Joh 14:16). The very reason you should not grieve Him is that He remains within you whether grieved or ungrieved, but if your behavior is such that you are grieving the Holy Spirit, you are going to be a very unhappy Christian. The happy Christian is the one living in the power of an ungrieved Spirit. It is absolutely impossible to live carelessly and be happy. The happy Christian is the holy Christian.

The apostle adds, in closing this passage, And given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. The Holy Spirit dwelling within us is the earnest of that full blessing which we are to have at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him, and the more the Holy Spirit is given His right of way in our lives now, the more we are permitted to enjoy of that which shall be ours in all its fullness someday. And so we see that the filling of the Holy Spirit is connected with the earnest. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18). He lives within us, and everything that we enjoy of a spiritual nature we enjoy through the indwelling Holy Spirit. But, someone says, I feel so limited at times; there is so much I ought to enter into, so much more God has for me that I do not seem to lay hold on. Right here comes the admonition, Be filled with the Spirit.

Every believer has the Holy Spirit in him as the earnest. Someone says, But you mean we need more of the Holy Spirit. No, I do not mean that at all. The Holy Spirit is a Person, and He lives in you, and so I do not say you need more of the Holy Spirit, but I do say the Holy Spirit wants to possess more of you. That is the trouble with so many of us, we crowd the Spirit of God off into some one corner of our hearts. A great many of us live our lives almost in airtight compartments. The Holy Spirit can have His place in our religious lives, but what about the home life, the business life, the social life, and even the church life? We often live our lives in these compartments, and when at home we live one way, when at business another, in our social obligations another, and when we go to church another, and then we have our little time of spiritual devotion. There can be no happy, triumphant Christian life until all these partitions are broken down and your life comes entirely under the Spirit of God. Let Him have His way in everything, and there will be a life of victory and blessing. That is what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The story is told of a young man who was ashamed of his childhood home and of his mother. He built a beautiful home and had a little place built in the attic for his mother and brought her there to live. But he kept the secret even from his wife as to who she was, until one day she found it out and said to him, What is this? Your mother hidden away up there in the attic? I never dreamed who was up there.

Well, you know, he said, she has never had any education; she isnt accustomed to our way of living, and so I thought it better that she should be hidden away up there.

No, said the wife, we will never treat her like that. Your mother is to come down from the attic, and is to have the run of the house and enjoy herself to the fullest degree.

The Holy Spirit of God lives in you, believer. Is He hidden away in the attic of your life or has He the run of the house? Has your life been surrendered to Him? Are you yielded to His control?

You have seen how every operation of the Spirit of God is suggested. But somebody says, What about the gifts of the Spirit? He is not speaking here of gifts, but all the gifts are linked with the anointing of the Spirit, and so God has given various gifts to different believers, but it is all through the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God who fits us for any special service which the Lord may have for us.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

stablisheth: 2Co 5:5, Psa 37:23, Psa 37:24, Psa 87:5, Psa 89:4, Isa 9:7, Isa 49:8, Isa 62:7, Rom 16:25, Col 2:7, 1Th 3:13, 2Th 2:8, 2Th 2:17, 2Th 3:3, 1Pe 5:10

anointed: Psa 45:7, Isa 59:21, Isa 61:1, Joh 3:34, Act 10:38, Rom 8:9, 1Jo 2:20, 1Jo 2:27, Rev 1:6, Rev 3:18

Reciprocal: Exo 28:41 – anoint them Exo 30:26 – General Exo 37:29 – he made Lev 7:35 – portion Lev 10:7 – the anointing Lev 14:18 – the remnant 1Ki 1:34 – Zadok 2Ki 11:12 – anointed him Psa 23:5 – thou anointest Psa 92:10 – I shall Son 4:10 – the smell Eze 16:9 – anointed Rom 1:11 – to the 1Co 1:8 – confirm Heb 13:9 – it is

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

2Co 1:21. Stablisheth denotes to confirm or strengthen a person in his work. Paul gives God the credit for such support Which he and the brethren in Corinth were enjoying in Christ.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

2Co 1:21. Now he which stablisheth us with you in ChristGr. into Christ (the pregnant sense of the Greek preposition)not only inserting us into, but keeping us in Christ; compare 1Co 1:30, Of Him (God) are ye in Christ Jesus,and anointed us, is God;

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

In these two verses we have four very great and noble privileges, which the apostle declares God had conferred upon the Corinthians: namely, his establishing, anointing, and sealing of them, and giving the earnest of his Holy Spirit to them.

First, their establishment: He which stablisheth us with you is God.

Learn thence, That a people’s establishment in the doctrine of the gospel, and in the faith of the promise, is alone the gracious work of God. We are naturally like reeds shaken with every wind: it is the establishing grace of God that makes us pillars in the church.

Again, secondly their anointing, this is from God; the sanctifying grace of God is often in scripture compared to oil, in regard of its effects. It refresheth the weary, it healeth the wounded, it comforts the heart, it beautifies the face, it strengthens the limbs. Such internal virtues and excellences hath the sanctifying grace of God in the hearts of the people.

Thirdly, their sealing: Who hath also sealed us. God’s sealing of his children doth imply his high valuation and esteem of them. What is sealed is esteemed very precious: it implies their safety and security; what is under seal, is not in danger of being lost.

Again, sealing doth imply secrecy and privacy; that which is sealed is secret and hidden; it is the new name which none know but he that receiveth it.

Finally, sealing is for confirmation; contracts and bargains among men are confirmed by hand and seal. Thus the graces of the Spirit which sanctify us, do also witness and seal to us the assurance of God’s love and special favour in Jesus Christ.

The fourth privilege here conferred by God upon the Corinthians, is his giving the earnest of his Spirit in their hearts: grace wrought in the heart here is a sure earnest of glory hereafter; there is a great deal of difference between a shilling, a single piece of money, and a shilling that is an earnest of a greater sum. It is joy to find grace in the soul, as grace mortifying our corruptions; but it rejoices much more to look upon grace as an earnest of glory, as the first- fruits which insure the full crop.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

God’s Verification of Paul’s Sincerity

God had established Paul’s sincerity by backing him with signs and miracles. Since God was a promise keeper, He would not support one who was dishonest. God had anointed Paul as an apostle and placed His seal on him to show His ownership. The Holy Spirit working through Paul was God’s way of putting up enough money to guarantee payment of His part of the bargain. The Spirit was evidence that Paul was working in God’s behalf ( 2Co 1:21-22 ).

Paul called God as a witness since God knows all things and is able to search man’s heart. He wanted them to know that he did not come to Corinth when promised, to spare them added hardships. The apostle could not rule over their faith. Instead, he revealed the will of God to them in the hope that they would grow in faith. He wanted his trip to be with them to be a happy occasion, which it would be if they stood firm in God’s truth. Paul refused to come to them while they needed discipline for their weakness in the faith. He had made them sorry by the discipline of the earlier letter and was hoping to be made happy by their changed lives. His love for the church and desire to see them grow in faith made it well worth the wait before coming. Only those he had caused to be sorry could make him happy. Their standing firm in the faith would bring rejoicing ( 2Co 1:23-24 ; 2Co 2:1-2 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

2Co 1:21-22. Now he which stablisheth us Apostles and teachers; with you All true believers; in the faith of Christ Or he who confirms both you and us in the truth; and hath anointed us With the oil of gladness, with joy in the Holy Ghost; thereby giving us strength both to do and suffer his will: or, he who hath consecrated us to this apostolic office, and endued us with the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, thereby qualifying us for it; is God From whom alone every good and perfect gift cometh. Who hath also sealed us Stamped his image on our hearts; thus marking and sealing us as his own property. Anciently, seals were used for marking goods, as the property of the person who had put his seal on them, that they might be distinguished from the goods of others. Thus all believers are said to be sealed with the Spirit of promise, or which was promised, (Eph 1:13,) because they are thereby marked as Christs property. Thus, likewise, the servants of God are said to be sealed on their foreheads for the same purpose, Rev 7:3; Rev 9:4. The apostles therefore are said to have been sealed of God, because by the sanctifying graces and the extraordinary gifts conferred upon them, they were declared to be both his servants and the apostles of his Son, and could not be suspected either of fraud or falsehood. And given us the earnest of the Spirit Those sacred communications of his grace, which are the anticipation of our future felicity. There is a difference between an earnest and a pledge. A pledge is to be restored when the debt is paid; but an earnest is not taken away, but completed. Such an earnest is the Spirit; the first-fruits of which true believers have, (Rom 8:23,) and wait for all its fulness. The apostle is thought by some to allude to the custom of hiring servants by giving them earnest-money; as if he had said, He hath hired us to be his servants, and the apostles of his Son, by giving us the Holy Spirit in his gifts and graces. These are called the earnests with which the apostles were hired, because they were to them a sure proof of those far greater blessings which God would bestow on them in the life to come, as the wages of their faithful services. For the same reason all believers are represented as having the earnest of the Spirit given them, 2Co 5:5; Eph 1:14.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Now he that establisheth us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God;

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Verse 21

Anointed us; consecrated us to his service; anointing having been, in ancient times, a ceremony of consecration.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

1:21 {13} Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, [is] God;

(13) He attributes the praise of this constancy only to the grace of God, through the Holy Spirit. In addition he concludes that they cannot doubt of his faith and his fellows, without doing injury to the Spirit of God, seeing that they themselves know all this to be true.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The corporate vocal "Amen" draws attention to the unity of believers with one another as well as with God. Paul had developed this idea of sharing with the Corinthians to help them appreciate God’s consistency and his own consistency in harmony with God’s. Now he did so also to stimulate their own consistency in harmony with his and God’s consistency.

God had established them together in Christ. Paul cited three evidences of their spiritual unity. First, they had experienced anointing, as had Christ (the "Anointed One"). This took place when they trusted Christ as their Savior. God poured out the Holy Spirit on them equipping them to serve acceptably to the glory of God (1Co 12:13; 1Jn 2:20; 1Jn 2:27).

Second, they had all experienced sealing. A seal in the Roman world signified ownership, authentication, and security. God stamps His own invisible mark on every believer (i.e., the Holy Spirit) and guarantees his or her preservation as God’s child and servant (Eph 1:13; Eph 4:30; cf. Joh 6:27). Thus the seal of God, in addition to the promise of God, guarantees the believer’s eternal security. [Note: See Eldon Woodcock, "The Seal of the Holy Spirit," Bibliotheca Sacra 155:618 (April-June 1998):139-63.]

Third, they had received the Holy Spirit as a down payment of the inheritance God has promised. The "pledge" was earnest money put down as a deposit that guaranteed the consummation of the contract (cf. Gen 38:17-18). The Greek word (arrabona) also occurs in the Greek papyri (all kinds of common contemporary non-biblical writings in New Testament Greek) of an engagement ring. Such a pledge guarantees that the marriage will take place. [Note: Tasker, p. 49. See also Barclay, p. 197.]

These three acts of God uniting us in Christ build to an emotional climax and reinforce the solidarity that we believers have with our consistent God.

"We should not overlook the references to the Trinity in 2Co 1:18-22: (1) the certainty given by God (2Co 1:18); (2) the centrality found in Christ (2Co 1:18-20); (3) the certification established by the Spirit (2Co 1:21-22)." [Note: Broomall, p. 1265.]

By way of review, Paul’s point in this section (2Co 1:15-22) was that Christians normally behave like Christ. Yet we all know Christians who do not behave consistently. Why did Paul think that this appeal would make the Corinthians conclude that he had been consistent? He was not relying on this argument alone but was simply affirming his consistency and proving it consistent with the character of the One who had appointed him as an apostle.

"Paul has been showing how the accusation of insincerity and fickleness is entirely incompatible with the Corinthians’ own personal knowledge of him and his word, as well as with the character of one to whom God has given stability, anointing, sealing, and the earnest of the Spirit. Now he explains why it was that he had found it desirable to make an alteration in his plans: it was to spare them-and the explanation is fortified by a solemn oath." [Note: Hughes, p. 46.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 4

CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES.

2Co 1:21-22 (R.V)

IT is not easy to show the precise connection between these words and those which immediately precede. Possibly it is emotional, rather than logical. The Apostles heart swells as he contemplates in the Gospel the goodness and faithfulness of God; and though his argument is complete when he has exhibited the Gospel in that light, his mind dwells upon it involuntarily, past the mere point of proof; he lingers over the wonderful experience which Christians have of the rich and sure mercies. Those who try to make out a more precise sequence of thought than this are not very successful. Of course it is apparent that the keynote of the passage is in harmony with that of the previous verses. The ideas of “stablishing,” of “sealing,” and of an “earnest,” are all of one family; they are all, as it were, variations of the one mighty affirmation which has been made of Gods promises in Christ. From this point of view they have an argumentative value. They suggest that God, in all sorts of ways, makes believers as sure of the Gospel, and as constant to it, as He has made it sure and certain to them; and thus they exclude more decisively than ever the idea that the minister of the Gospel can be a man of Yes and No. But though this is true, it fails to do justice to the word on which the emphasis falls-namely, God. This, according to some interpreters, is done, if we suppose the whole passage to be, in the first instance, a disclaimer of any false inference which might be drawn from the words, “to the glory of God by us.” “By us,” Paul writes; for it was through the apostolic preaching that men were led to receive the Gospel, to look at Gods promises, confirmed in Christ, with an appropriating Amen to His glory; but he hastens to add that it was God Himself whose grace in its various workings was the beginning, middle, and end both of their faith and of their preaching. This seems to me rather artificial, and I do not think more than a connection in sentiment, rather than in argument, can be insisted upon.

But setting this question aside, the interpretation of the two verses is of much interest. They contain some of the most peculiar and characteristic words of the New Testament-words to which, it is to be feared, many readers attach no very distinct idea. The simplest plan is to take the assertions one by one, as if God were the subject. Grammatically this is incorrect, for is certainly the predicate; but for the elucidation of the meaning this may be disregarded.

(1) First of all, then, God confirms us into Christ. “Us,” of course, means St. Paul and the preachers whom he associates with himself, -Silas and Timothy. But when he adds “with you,” he includes the Corinthians also, and all believers. He does not claim for himself any steadfastness in Christ, or any trustworthiness as dependent upon it, which he would on principle refuse to others. God, who makes His promises sure to those who receive them, gives those who receive them a firm grasp of the promises. Christ is here, with all the wealth of grace in Him, indubitable, unmistakable; and what God has done on that side, He does on the other also. He confirms believers into Christ. He makes their attachment to Christ, their possession of Him, a thing indubitable and irreversible. Salvation, to use the words of St. John, is true in Him and in them; in them, so far as Gods purpose and work go, as much as in Him. He who is confirmed into Christ is in principle as trustworthy, as absolutely to be depended upon, as Christ Himself. The same character of pure truth is common to them both. Christs existence as the Savior, in whom all Gods promises are guaranteed, and Pauls existence as a saved man with a sure grasp on all these promises, are alike proofs that God is faithful; the truth of God stands behind them both. It is to this that the appeal of vv. 15-20 {2Co 1:15-20} is virtually made; it is this in the long-run which is called in question when the trustworthiness of Paul is impeached.

All this, it may be said, is ideal; but in what sense is it so? Not in the sense that it is fanciful or unreal: but in the sense that the divine law of our life, and the divine action upon our life, are represented in it. It is our calling as Christian people to be steadfast in Christ. Such steadfastness God is ever seeking to impart, and in striving to attain to it we can always appeal to Him for help. It is the opposite of instability; in a special sense it is the opposite of untrustworthiness. If we are letting God have His way with us in this respect, we are persons who can always be depended upon and depended upon for conduct in keeping with the goodness and faithfulness of God, into which we have been confirmed by Him.

(2) From this general truth, with its application to all believers, the Apostle passes to another of more limited range. By including the Corinthians with himself in the first clause, he virtually excludes them in the second-“God anointed us.” It is true that the New Testament speaks of an anointing which is common to all believers-“Ye have an anointing from the Holy One; ye all know”: {1Jn 2:20} but here, on the contrary, something special is meant. This can only be the consecration of Paul, and of those for whom he speaks, to the apostolic or evangelistic ministry. It is worth noticing that in the New Testament the act of anointing is never ascribed to any one but God. The only unction which qualifies for service in the Christian dispensation, or which confers dignity in the Christian community, is the unction from on high. “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power,” and it is the participation in this great anointing which capacitates any one to work in the Gospel. Paul undoubtedly claimed, in virtue of his divine call to apostleship, a peculiar authority in the Church; but we cannot define any peculiarity in his possession of the Spirit. The great gift which must be held in some sense by all Christians-“for if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His”-was in him intensified, or specialized, for the work he had to do. But it is one Spirit in him and in us, and that is why we do not find the exercise of his authority alien or galling. It is authority divorced from “unction”-authority without this divine qualification-against which the Christian spirit rebels. And though “unction” cannot be defined; though no material guarantee can be given or taken for the possession of the Spirit; though a merely historical succession is, so far as this spiritual competence and dignity are concerned, a mere irrelevance; though, as Vinet said, we think of unction rather when it is absent than-when it is present, -still, the thing itself is recognizable enough. It bears witness to itself, as light does; it carries its own authority, its own dignity, with it; it is the ultima ratio, the last court of appeal, in the Christian community. It may be that Paul is preparing already, by this reference to his commission, for the bolder assertion of his authority at a later stage.

(3) These two actions of God, however-the establishing of believers in Christ, which goes on continually (), and the consecration of Paul to the apostleship, which was accomplished once for all () – go back to prior actions, in which, again, all believers have an interest. They have a common basis in the great deeds of grace in which the Christian life began. God, he says, is He who also sealed us, and gave the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

“He also sealed us.” It seems strange that so figurative a word should be used without a hint of explanation, and we must assume that it was so familiar in the Church that the right of application could be taken for granted. The middle voice () makes it certain that the main idea is, “He marked us as His own.” This is the sense in which the word is frequently used in the Book of Revelation: the servants of God are sealed on their foreheads, that they may be recognized as His. But what is the seal? Under the Old Testament, the mark which God set upon His people-the covenant sign by which they were identified as His-was circumcision. Under the New Testament, where everything carnal has passed away, and religious materialism is abolished, the sign is no longer in the body; we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. {Eph 1:13 f.} But the past tense (“He sealed us”), and its recurrence in Eph 1:13 (“ye were sealed”), suggests a very definite reference of this word, and beyond doubt it alludes to baptism. In the New Testament, baptism and the giving of the Holy Spirit are regularly connected with each other. Christians are born of water and of the Spirit. “Repent,” is the earliest preaching of the Gospel, {Act 2:38} “and be baptized every one of you and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” In early Christian writers the use of the word “seal” () as a technical term for baptism is practically universal; and when we combine this practice with the New Testament usage in question, the inference is inevitable. God puts His seal upon us, He marks us as His own, when we are baptized.

But the seal is not baptism as a ceremonial act. It is neither immersion nor sprinkling nor any other mode of lustration which marks us out as Gods. The seal by which “the Lord knoweth them that are His” is His Spirit; it is the impress of His Spirit upon them. When that impress can be traced upon our souls, by Him, or by us, or by others, then we have the witness in ourselves; the Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God.

But of all words “spirit” is the vaguest; and if we had nothing but the word itself to guide us, we should either lapse into superstitious ideas about the virtue of the sacrament, or into fanatical ideas about incommunicable inward experiences in which God marked us for His own. The New Testament provides us with a more excellent way than either; it gives the word “spirit” a rich but definite moral content: it compels us, if we say we have been sealed with the Spirit, and claimed by God as His, to exhibit the distinguishing features of those who are His. “The Lord is the Spirit”. {2Co 3:17} To be sealed with the Spirit is to bear, in however imperfect a degree, in however inconspicuous a style, the image of the heavenly man, the likeness of Jesus Christ. There are many passages in his Epistles in which St. Paul enlarges on the work of the Spirit in the soul; all the various dispositions which it creates, all the fruits of the Spirit, may be conceived as different parts of the impression made by the seal. We must think of these in detail, if we wish to give the word its meaning; we must think of them in contrast with the unspiritual nature, if we wish to give it any edge. Once, say, we walked in the lusts of the flesh: has Christ redeemed us, and set on our souls and our bodies the seal of His purity? Once we were hot and passionate, given to angry words and hasty, intemperate deeds: are we sealed now with the meekness and gentleness of Jesus? Once we were grasping and covetous, even to the verge of dishonesty; we could not let money pass us, and we could not part with it: have we been sealed with the liberality of Him who says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive?” Once a wrong rankled in our hearts; the sun went down upon our wrath, not once or twice, but a thousand times, and found it as implacable as ever: is that deep brand of vindictiveness effaced now, and in its stead imprinted deep the Cross of Christ, where He loved us, and gave Himself for us, and prayed, “Father forgive them?” Once our conversation was corrupt; it had a taint in it; it startled and betrayed the innocent; it was vile and foolish and unseemly: are these things of the past now? and has Christ set upon our lips the seal of His own grace and truth, of His own purity and love, so that every word we speak is good, and brings blessing to those who hear us? These things, and such as these, are the seal of the Spirit. They are Christ in us. They are the stamp which God sets upon men when He exhibits them as His own.

The seal, however, has another use than that of marking and identifying property. It is a symbol of assurance. It is the answer to a challenge. It is in this sense that it is easiest to apply the figure to baptism. Baptism does not, indeed, carry with it the actual possession of all these spiritual features; it is not even, as an opus operatum, the implanting of them in the soul; but it is a divine pledge that they are within our reach; we can appeal to it as an assurance that God has come to us in His grace, has claimed us as His own, and is willing to conform us to the image of His Son. In this sense, it is legitimate and natural to call it Gods seal upon His people.

(4) Side by side with “He sealed us,” the Apostle writes, “He gave the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” After what has been said, it is obvious that this is another aspect of the same thing. We are sealed with the Spirit, and we get the earnest of the Spirit. In other words, the Spirit is viewed in two characters: first, as a seal; and then as an earnest. This last word has a very ancient history. It is found in the Book of Genesis, {Gen 38:18 : } and was carried, no doubt, by Phoenician traders, who had much occasion to use it, both to Greece and Italy. From the classical peoples it has come more or less directly to us. It means properly a small sum of money paid to clench a bargain, or to ratify an engagement. Where there is an earnest, there is more to follow, and more of essentially the same kind-that is what it signifies. Let us apply this now to the expression of St. Paul, “the earnest of the Spirit.” It means, we must see, that in the gift of this Spirit, in that measure in which we now possess it, God has not given all He has to give. On the contrary, He has come under an obligation to give more: what we have now is but “the firstfruits of the Spirit.” {Rom 8:23} It is an indication and a pledge of what is yet to be, but bears no proportion to it. All we can say on the basis of this text is that between the present and the future gift-between the earnest and that which it guarantees-there must be some kind of congruity, some affinity which makes the one a natural and not an arbitrary reason for believing in the other.

But the Corinthians were not limited to this text. They had St. Pauls general teaching in their minds to interpret it by; and if we wish to know what it meant even for them, we must fill out this vague idea with what the Apostle tells us elsewhere. Thus in the great text in Ephesians {Eph 1:13 f.}, so often referred to, he speaks of the Holy Spirit with which we were sealed as the earnest of our inheritance. God has an “inheritance” in store for us. His Spirit makes us sons; and if sons, then heirs; heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ. This connection of the Spirit, sonship, and inheritance is constant in St. Paul; it is one of his most characteristic combinations. What then is the inheritance of which the Spirit is the earnest? That no one can tell. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him.” But though we cannot tell more precisely, we can say that if the Spirit is the earnest of it, it must be in some sense a development of the Spirit; life in an order of being which matches the Spirit, and for which the Spirit qualifies. If we say it is “glory,” then we must remember that only Christ in us (the seal of the Spirit) can be the hope of glory.

The application of this can be made very plain. Our whole life in this world looks to some future, however near or bounded it may be; and every power we perfect, every capacity we acquire, every disposition and spirit we foster, is an earnest of something in that future. Here is a man who gives himself to the mastery of a trade. He acquires all its skill, all its methods, all its resources. There is nothing any tradesman can do that he cannot do as well or better. What is that the earnest of? What does it ensure, and as it were put into his hand by anticipation? It is the earnest of constant employment, of good wages, of respect from fellow-workmen, perhaps of wealth. Here, again, is a man with the scientific spirit. He is keenly inquisitive about the facts and laws of the world in which we live. Everything is interesting to him-astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, history. What is this the earnest of? It is the earnest, probably, of scientific achievements of some kind, of intellectual toils and intellectual victories. This man will enter into the inheritance of science; he will walk through the kingdoms of knowledge in the length of them and the breadth of them, and will claim them as his own. And so it is wherever we choose to take our illustrations. Every spirit that dwells in us, and is cultivated and cherished by us, is an earnest, because it fits and furnishes us for some particular thing. Gods Spirit also is an earnest of an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, imperishable: can we assure ourselves that we have anything in our souls which promises, because it matches with, an inheritance like this? When we come to die, this will be a serious question. The faculties of accumulation, of mechanical skill, of scientific research, of trade on a great or a small scale, of agreeable social intercourse, of comfortable domestic life, may have been brought to perfection in us; but can we console ourselves with the thought that these have the earnest of immortality? Do they qualify us for, and by qualifying assure us of, the incorruptible kingdom? Or do we not see at once that a totally different equipment is needed to make men at home there, and that nothing can be the earnest of an eternal life of blessedness with God except that Holy Spirit with which He seals His own, and through which He makes them, even here, partakers of the divine nature?

We cannot study these words without becoming conscious of the immense enlargement which the Christian religion has brought to the human mind, of the vast expansion of hope which is due to the Gospel, and at the same time of the moral soundness and sobriety with which that hope is conceived. The promises of God were first really apprehended in Jesus Christ; in Him as He lived and died and rose again from the dead, in Him especially as He lives in immortal glory, men first saw what God was able and willing to do for them, and they saw this in its true relations. They saw it under its moral and spiritual conditions. It was not a future unconnected with the present, or connected with it in an arbitrary or incalculable way. It was a future which had its earnest in the present, a guarantee not alien to it, but akin-the Spirit of Christ implanted in the heart, the likeness of Christ sealed upon the nature. The glorious inheritance was the inheritance, not of strangers, but of sons; and it still becomes sure as the Spirit of sonship is received, and fades into incredibility when that Spirit is extinguished or depressed. If we could live in the Spirit with the completeness of Christ, or even of St. Paul, we should feel that we really had an earnest of immortality; the glory of heaven would be as certain to us as the faithfulness of God to His promise.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary