Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 2:8
Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm [your] love toward him.
8. Wherefore I beseech you, that you would confirm your love towards him ] The word ‘your’ is not in the original. It is not their love, but love itself, the fundamental principle (see 1Co 13:1; 1Jn 4:8; 1Jn 4:16) of the Christian covenant. The word here rendered confirm is used of the ratification, i.e. by some public act or token, of a covenant. See Gal 3:15; Gal 3:17, where the same word is used in the original. The Vulgate, Calvin, Wiclif, the Geneva and Rhemish versions render confirm, Tyndale and Cranmer that love may have strength.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him – The word rendered here as confirm ( kurosai) occurs in the New Testament only here and in Gal 3:15. It means to give authority, to establish as valid, to confirm; and here means that they should give strong expressions and assurances of their love to him; that they should pursue such a course as would leave no room for doubt in regard to it. Tyndale has well rendered it: Wherefore I exhort you that love may halve strength over him. Paul referred, doubtless, here to some public act of the church by which the sentence of excommunication might be removed, and by which the offender might have a public assurance of their favor.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. That ye would confirm your love toward him.] You do love him, notwithstanding the reproach he has brought on the Gospel; and notwithstanding your love to him, ye were obliged to cut him off for the credit of the Gospel. Now that he has repented, I beseech you to confirm, , to ratify, by a public act of the Church, your love to him; give him the fullest proof that you do love him; by forgiving him and restoring him to his place in the Church.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That you would restore him to a communion with you in your church assemblies, and take him into the bosom of your church again, and be (as before) friendly towards him. The word which we translate
confirm; is , which signifieth authoritatively to establish or confirm. Some observe, that the apostle speaks to them as judges, to gain their good opinion, and make them more pliable, whereas he might authoritatively have absolved him. It is hard: to say what authority the apostles had, or had not, to excommunicate; but we want a precedent in holy writ of the apostles, or any of them, exercising such a power, as being absent, and so in no capacity to hear the proof of any fact against scandalous persons. Paul (1Co 5:1-13) writes to the church of Corinth to do it, and doth only himself command them to do their duty; and here again he writeth to them to forgive him, and restore him. There being no mention, either in the former Epistle, or here, of any command that the incestuous person should put away his wife taken unlawfully, or that he did any such thing in testification of his repentance, makes it very probable, that his crime was not using his fathers wife as his wife, but as his harlot; had it been otherwise, we should, very probably, have read of something in the one or the other place, signifying such a command of the apostle, or the thing done by him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. confirm your love toward himbygiving effect in act, and showing in deeds your love; namely, byrestoring him to your fellowship and praying for his recovering fromthe sickness penally inflicted on him.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore I beseech you,…. Or exhort you:
that ye would confirm your love towards him: express your love to him in the most kind and tender manner, show the same, and as strong love to him as you did before, and as if he had never offended; receive him as a brother in the most affectionate manner, and embrace him with the most endearing expressions of respect and friendship; and let your reception of him in this kind and friendly way be with the full consent, and by the joint vote and suffrage of the whole church, for so the word translated “confirm” signifies; for as the ejection of a person out of a church must be done by the decree and vote of the church, or it is not authentic, so the reception of a person into it must be in like manner; and since this was to be done by the suffrage of the church, the apostle beseeches and exhorts them to do it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
To confirm (). First aorist active infinitive of old verb , to make valid, to ratify, from (head, authority). In N.T. only here and Ga 3:15.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Confirm your love [ ] . The verb is found only here and Gal 3:15. From kurov supreme power, authority. Hence to take judicial resolution to treat the offender with brotherly love.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Wherefore I beseech you,” (dio parakalo humas) “Wherefore I beseech or exhort you all;” I call you alongside for fellowship advice, council, and instruction.
2) “That ye would confirm your love toward him,” (kurosai eis auton agapen) “To confirm to him (your) love,” reestablish him in your love and fellowship company or circle of worship, and service. Show him practical kindness, Eph 4:32.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(8) That ye would confirm your love.The word for confirm (better, perhaps, ratifycomp. Gal. 3:15) suggests the thought of an act as formal and public as the rebuke had been. The excommunicated man was to be re-admitted to fellowship by a collective act of the Church.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Beseech you As yet the Church, though predisposed to lenity and love, had not acted for his restoration.
Confirm Put into authoritative form by official restoration.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Co 2:8 . . .] to resolve in reference to him love i.e. through a resolution of the church to determine regarding him, that he be regarded and treated as an object of Christian brotherly love. On , of a resolution valid in law, comp. Herodotus, vi. 86, 126; Thuc. viii. 69; Polyb. i. 11. 3, i. 17. 1; Diod. Sic. ii. 9; Gal 3:15 ; Gen 23:20 ; 4Ma 7:9 . See Blomfield, ad Aesch. Prom. Gloss . 70, and Pers . 232. Here also (comp. on 2Co 2:6 ) Rckert again finds a prudent measure of the apostle, whereby the form, if not also the thing (the apostolic approval), is saved. A diplomacy, which would be the opposite of 2Co 1:13 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
Ver. 8. Confirm your love, &c. ] Gr. , ratify it, and declare it authentic, as it were in open court, and by public sentence, as Gal 3:15 and that at mine instance, as an advocate, .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8. ] , hardly (as usually understood) to ratify by a public decree of the church : if (see above) his exclusion was not by such a decree, but only by the abstinence of individuals from his society, the ratifying their love to him would consist in the majority making it evident to him that he was again recognized as a brother.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Co 2:8 . . . .: wherefore I beseech you (or “exhort you,” see on 2Co 1:4 ) to confirm your love toward him . Authority “to bind” and “to loose” had been committed to the Apostles (Mat 18:18 ); St. Paul had exercised the former function (1Co 5:5 ), and he now discharges the latter. The various meanings of have been noted above (on 2Co 1:4 ); it is interesting to observe here how the word is used in one sense in 2Co 2:7 , and in another in close sequence in 2Co 2:8 ( cf. the two senses of in 1Co 11:23 ). For see on 2Co 2:4 above.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
beseech. Greek. parakaied, as above.
confirm = ratify with authority. Greek. kuroo. Only here and Gal 1:3, Gal 1:15. Akin to kuries, lord.
toward. Greek. eia. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8.] , hardly (as usually understood) to ratify by a public decree of the church: if (see above) his exclusion was not by such a decree, but only by the abstinence of individuals from his society, the ratifying their love to him would consist in the majority making it evident to him that he was again recognized as a brother.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Co 2:8. , to confirm) the is connected with love, not with sorrow. The majesty of the ecclesiastical government and discipline consists in love. It is this, which reigns. , LXX., , Gen 23:20; Lev 25:30.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Co 2:8
2Co 2:8
Wherefore I beseech you to confirm your love toward him.-They should show their love by forgiving him, rewarding him, cherishing him, and making it evident to him that he was again recognized as a brother. [The expressions of love to him ought to be as public and as unmistakable as the expressions of disapproval and condemnation. Confirm here means public testimony of kind feeling to him by the reversal of his excommunication. ]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
that: Gal 5:13, Gal 6:1, Gal 6:2, Gal 6:10, Jud 1:22, Jud 1:23
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Co 2:8. Paul would not tell them to confirm their love toward the man, if they had not granted him any love at all. But sometimes brethren are too indifferent about certain matters, and expect others to take too much for granted. In as serious a case as the present one, they should not act in that way, but should so conduct themselves that the brother would have no doubt of the love of the church.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Co 2:8. Wherefore I beseech you to confirm your love towards himby as public a restoration to fellowship as publicly he had been banished from it.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Wherefore I beseech you to confirm your love toward him.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 8
Confirm; restore and establish.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would {g} confirm [your] love toward him.
(g) That at my entreaty you would declare by the consent of the whole church, that you take him again as a brother.