Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 1:19
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, [even] by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.
19. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ ] St Paul now labours to impress the Corinthians with the weight of the commission with which he had been entrusted to them. It was nothing less than Jesus, the Promised and Anointed One, the Son of God, Whom he had preached.
was preached ] Literally, proclaimed, as by a herald. The word has come usually to mean an exposition of God’s Word in the Christian congregation.
Silvanus ] Called Silas in the Acts. He was sent with Paul and Barnabas, as ‘a chief man among the brethren,’ to guarantee the authenticity of the Apostolic letter which the former brought back with them from Jerusalem to Antioch after the discussion recorded in Acts 15, since, had Paul and Barnabas returned alone, their opponents might not improbably have disputed its genuineness. See Act 15:22; Act 15:25; Act 15:27. He was a prophet, Act 15:32 (see 1 Corinthians 14), and was chosen by St Paul, after his dispute with St Barnabas, as his fellow-traveller, by the advice of the Churches. Some have thought that he was the brother mentioned in ch. 2Co 8:18, 2Co 12:18. He is mentioned by St Paul with himself in the opening of each of the Epistles to the Thessalonians. He was with the Apostle at Philippi (Act 16:19-40), at Thessalonica (Act 17:1; Act 17:4; Act 17:10), at Berea (Act 17:10), at Corinth ( not at Athens, Act 17:15, Act 18:5). He is not mentioned again in Scripture save by St Peter in his first Epistle (ch. 2Co 5:12), in which he speaks of him as one with whom he has little personal acquaintance, but much confidence. Silas is contracted from the fuller form Silvanus as Lucas from Lucanus. The similar signification of the two words Lucas and Silvanus have led some to suppose that St Luke and St Silas were the same person. But a perusal of the narrative in Acts 16, 17, especially Act 16:4-8; Act 16:10-17; Act 16:19-20, will shew that they were two distinct persons. See Alford, Prolegomena to Acts of the Apostles, for a fuller investigation of this point. We may observe that not only does St Paul, in his humility, identify himself with the Corinthians ( 2Co 1:14) but he takes care to associate his subordinates with him as fellow labourers in a common work. Paley, Horae Paulinae, remarks on the undesigned coincidence between this verse and Act 18:5. The two books are not written by the same person. There is no particular stress laid on the fact of Silas and Timotheus having been with the Apostle in either book, but the reference to them slips out quite accidentally. But both declare in this accidental way that Silas and Timotheus were with the Apostle at Corinth. Such minute agreement is beyond the power of the compiler of fictitious narrative. See a fuller discussion of this subject in the Introduction.
was not yea and nay, but in him was yea ] The Son of God, the subject-matter of the Gospel, was no uncertain conception, sometimes affirmed and sometimes denied. The preaching of Him was the constant affirmation of a truth, an unchangeable blessing vouchsafed in Him to mankind. For ‘ in Him was yea;’ the original has the perfect, ‘in Him i.e. in God, 2Co 1:18) hath been (or become) yea.’ For in Him ‘is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.’ Num 23:19; Jas 1:17. How then could the change of purpose in His minister be ascribed to the capricious infirmity of the mere human will? Cf. also Rom 15:8; Heb 13:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the Son of God – In this verse, and the following, Paul states that he felt himself bound to maintain the strictest veracity for two reasons; the one, that Jesus Christ always evinced the strictest veracity 2Co 1:19; the other, God was always true to all the promises that He made 2Co 1:20; and as he felt himself to be the servant of the Saviour and of God, he was bound by the most sacred obligations also to maintain a character irreproachable in regard to veracity on the meaning of the phrase Son of God, see the note, Rom 1:4.
Jesus Christ – It is agreed, says Bloomfield, by the best commentators, ancient and modern, that by Jesus Christ is here meant his doctrine. The sense is, that the preaching respecting Jesus Christ, did not represent him as fickle, and changeable; as unsettled, and as unfaithful; but as true, consistent, and faithful. As that had been the regular and constant representation of Paul and his fellow-laborers in regard to the Master whom they served, it was to be inferred that they felt themselves bound sacredly to observe the strictest constancy and veracity.
By us … – Silvanus, mentioned here, is the same person who in the Acts of the Apostles is called Silas. He was with Paul at Philippi, and was imprisoned there with him Acts 16, and was afterward with Paul and Timothy at Corinth when he first visited that city; Act 18:5. Paul was so much attached to him, and had so much confidence in him, that he joined his name with his own in several of his epistles; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1.
Was not yea and nay – Our representation of him was not that he was fickle and changeable.
But in him was yea – Was not one thing at one time, and another at another. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. All that he says is true; all the promises that he makes are firm; all his declarations are faithful. Paul may refer to the fact that the Lord Jesus when on earth was eminently characterized by truth. Nothing was more striking than his veracity. He called himself the truth, as being eminently true in all his declarations. I am the way, and the truth, and the life; Joh 14:6; compare Rev 3:7. And thus Rev 3:14 he is called the faithful and true witness. In all his life he was eminently distinguished for that. His declarations were simple truth; his narratives were simple, unvarnished, uncolored, unexaggerated statements of what actually occurred. He never disguised the truth; never prevaricated; never had any mental reservation; never deceived; never used any word, or threw in any circumstance, that was suited to lead the mind astray. He himself said that this was the great object which he had in view in coming into the world. To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth; Joh 18:37. As Jesus Christ was thus distinguished for simple truth, Paul felt that he was under sacred obligations to imitate him, and always to evince the same inviolable fidelity. The most deeply felt obligation on earth is that which the Christian feels to imitate the Redeemer.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 19. For the Son of God, &c.] If I could have changed my purpose through carnal or secular interests then I must have had the same interest in view when I first preached the Gospel to you, with Silvanus and Timotheus. But did not the whole of our conduct prove that we neither had, nor could have such interest in view?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The apostle here glveth a reason why he had made truth and sincerity so much his business (which reason obligeth us also, who are as much bound as he to study a conformity to Christ); saith he:
The Son of God, who was preached among you, that is, Jesus Christ; who, though (as some observe) he is in these Epistles no where called God, but Lord, is here called
the Son of God; which can be understood in no other sense, than by eternal generation; for those who are only the sons of God by adoption, are not the subjects of ministers preaching. We read of this Silvanus, 1Th 1:1; 1Pe 5:12; some think that he was the same person who is called Silas, Act 16:19.
Of
Timothy we have heard before. They were both ministers who (as well as Apollos before mentioned) had laboured in the gospel amongst the Corinthians.
Was not yea and nay, but in him was yea: now (saith the apostle) that Christ, whom both I, and other ministers of the gospel, have preached to you, is not uncertain and unconstant, one thing at one time, and in one place, another thing at another time, and in another place. He was only one and the same; his doctrine was always certain and uniform, and consistent with itself; and our conversation ought to be suitable to him and his doctrine.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. Proof of theunchangeableness of the doctrine from the unchangeableness of thesubject of it, namely, Jesus Christ. He is called “the Son ofGod” to show the impossibility of change in One who is co-equalwith God himself (compare 1Sa 15:29;Mal 3:6).
by me . . . Silvanus andTimotheusThe Son of God, though preached by differentpreachers, was one and the same, unchangeable. Silvanus iscontracted into Silas (Ac15:22; compare 1Pe 5:12).
in him was yeaGreek,“is made yea in Him”; that is, our preaching of theSon of God is confirmed as true in Him (that is, through Him;through the miracles wherewith He has confirmed our preaching)[GROTIUS]; or rather, bythe witness of the Spirit which He has given (2Co 1:21;2Co 1:22) and of which miracleswere only one, and that a subordinate manifestation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,…. The apostle having asserted that the Gospel preached by them was not yea and nay, variable and different, or what was affirmed at one time was denied at another, proceeds to point out the subject of the Gospel ministry,
the Son of God, Jesus Christ; that Christ is “the Son of God”: this article he began his ministry with, Ac 9:20, and all the apostles affirmed the same thing; and which is of the greatest moment and importance, and ought to be abode by, insisted on, and frequently inculcated; as that he is the eternal Son of God, existed as such from everlasting, is of the same nature, and has the same perfections with his Father; and therefore is able to destroy the works of the devil, for which he was manifested in the flesh, and every way equal to the business of redemption, which he has finished; and having passed into the heavens under this character, is a powerful advocate with the Father; and which renders him a sure foundation for the church, and a proper object of faith: that the Son of God is Christ, anointed to bear and execute the office of a mediator in the several parts and branches of it; a prophet to teach his people, a priest to make atonement and intercession for them, and a King to govern and protect them: and that the Son, who is become the Lord’s Christ, is Jesus, a Saviour; and that salvation is alone by him, to which he was appointed from eternity, and was sent in the fulness of time to effect it; and by his obedience, sufferings, and death, is become the author of it, and is the only able, willing, and suitable Saviour for poor sinners. This is the principal subject and strain of the Gospel ministry; and which makes it good news, and glad tidings to lost perishing sinners. The agreement between the faithful ministers of the Gospel is here plainly hinted,
who was preached among you by us, even by me, and Silvanus and Timotheus. These ministers being mentioned by the apostle with himself, shows his humility in putting them on a level with himself; and his modesty and candour in not monopolizing the Gospel to himself, but allowing others to be preachers of it as well as he: and his design herein seems to be for the confirmation of the Gospel, and to show that he was not singular and alone, and could not be blamed by them, without blaming others; and chiefly to express the harmony and unanimity of Gospel preachers. The prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles of the New, agreed in all the doctrines and truths of the Gospel; so did the apostles themselves; and so all faithful dispensers of the word have in all different times and places agreed, and still do agree; which serves greatly to corroborate the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel being faithfully preached by these persons,
was not yea and nay; it had no contradiction in it; each part agreed together, was entirely harmonious, and consistent. Their doctrine was, that Christ is the Son of God, truly and properly God; that he took upon him the office of a Mediator, and executes it; that he is the only Saviour of sinners; that God has chosen a certain number of men in Christ before the foundation of the world, has made a covenant with them in Christ, and blessed them in him; that Christ has redeemed them by his blood; that these are regenerated by the Spirit and grace of Christ, are justified by his righteousness, and shall finally persevere, and be partakers of eternal life; which is all of a piece, and in it no yea and nay. Yea and nay doctrines are particular election, the possibility of the salvation of the non-elect, the salvability of all men, and universal redemption; justification by faith, and, as it were, by the works of the law; conversion, partly by grace, and partly by the will of man; preparatory works, offers, and days of grace; and final perseverance made a doubt of: but such is not the true ministry of Christ and his apostles,
but in him was yea; the Gospel, as in Christ, and as it comes from him, and has been preached by his apostles, and faithful ministers, is all of a piece; its constant and invariable strain, and by which it may be known and distinguished, is, to display the free, rich, and sovereign grace of God, to magnify and exalt the person and offices of Christ, to debase the creature, and to engage persons to the performance of good works, on Gospel principles, and by Gospel motives, and for right ends. The apostle using those words, “yea and nay”, conforms to the language of the Jews, his countrymen, who to magnify their doctors and Rabbins, and to raise their credit, say such things of them;
“”yea, yea”, are the words of the house or school of Shammai; , “yea, yea”, are the words of the school of Hillell b.”
And in another place c;
“the receiving and giving, or the dealings of a disciple of a wise man, are in truth and faithfulness. He says,
, “concerning nay, nay, and concerning yea, yea”.”
But what is here said better agrees with the principles and practices of the disciples and followers of Christ.
b T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 20. 1. c Maimon. Hilch. Dayot, c. 5. sect. 13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Was not Yea and Nay ( ). “Did not become Yes and No.”
But in him is yea ( ). Rather, “But in him Yes has become yes,” has proved true. So Paul appeals to the life of Christ to sustain his own veracity.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Was not [ ] . Rather, did not prove to be, in the result. In Him was yea [ ] . Lit., yea has come to pass in Him. He has shown Himself absolutely the truth. Compare Joh 14:6; Rev 3:7, 14.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,” (ho tou theou gar huios Christos lesous) “For the Son of God;” This certifies who JESUS IS – THE SON OF GOD, not merely a Son. Joh 3:16; Act 8:37; Gal 4:4-6. As such He is the unchangeable Savior, Heb 13:8.
2) “Who was preached among you by us,” (ho en humin di’ hemon keruchtheis) “the one among you (Jesus) proclaimed through us;” Jesus Christ and Him crucified was the theme of Paul, Silas, and Timothy to the Corinth brethren, 1Co 1:17-18; 1Co 1:23; 1Co 2:1-8; Gal 6:14.
3) “Even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus,” (di’ emou kai Silouanou kai Timotheou) through (1) Me, (2) Silvanus, and (3) Timothy;” These three carried the gospel story to Corinth, Act 18:5. Silvanus is the longer name for Silas who was a prophet closely laboring with Paul. Perhaps he was also a Roman citizen, Act 15:32; Act 16:37. He also shared Paul’s perils thru his second missionary journey, Act 15:40; Act 18:18; 1Pe 5:12.
4) “Was not yea and nay,” (ouk egeneto nai kai ou) was not yes and no,” in uncertainty, nor should there be in his saints, Mat 7:29; Joh 12:50.
5) “But in him was yea,” (alla nai en auto gegonen) “But has been yes in him;” This emphasizes the positive, certain character of the character of Jesus Christ who frequently used the double positive term (amen, amen) or truly, truly, verily, verily, etc. – Jesus Christ, the Son of God is preached to be unchangeable, Heb 13:8; True, and the truth, Joh 14:6; Gk. “ho amen,” the amen, Rev 3:14. He is the eternal “yea,” positive, optimist – one of true hope in every believer, who anchors the Soul thru every storm Heb 6:18-19.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19. For the Son of God Here we have the proof — because his preaching (283) contained nothing but Christ alone, who is the eternal and immutable truth of God. The clause preached by us is emphatic. For, as it may be, and often does happen, that Christ is disfigured by the inventions (284) of men, and is adulterated, as it were, by their disguises, he declares that it had not been so as to himself or his associates, but that he had sincerely and with an integrity that was befitting, held forth Christ pure and undisguised. Why it is that he makes no mention of Apollos, while he mentions by name Timotheus and Silvanus, does not exactly appear; unless the reason be, as is probable, that the more that individuals were assailed by the calumnies of the wicked, (285) he was so much the more careful to defend them.
In these words, however, he intimates that his whole doctrine was summed up in a simple acquaintance with Christ alone, as in reality the whole of the gospel is included in it. Hence those go beyond due limits, who teach anything else than Christ alone, with whatever show of wisdom they may otherwise be puffed up. For as he is the end of the law, (Rom 10:4,) so he is the head — the sum — in fine, the consummation — of all spiritual doctrine.
In the second place, he intimates that his doctrine respecting Christ had not been variable, or ambiguous, so as to present him from time to time in a new shape after the manner of Proteus; (286) as some persons make it their sport to make changes upon him, (287) just as if they were tossing a ball to and fro with their hand, simply for the purpose of displaying their dexterity. Others, with a view to procure the favor of men, present him under various forms, while there is still another class, that inculcate one day what on the next they retract through fear. Such was not Paul’s Christ, nor can that of any true apostle (288) be such. Those, accordingly, have no ground to boast that they are ministers of Christ, who paint him in various colors with a view to their own advantage. For he alone is the true Christ, in whom there appears that uniform and unvarying yea, which Paul declares to be characteristic of him.
(283) “ Il dit donc que sa parolle n’a point este oui et non, c’est à dire variable; pource que sa predication,” etc.; — “He says, then, that his word had not been yea and nay, that is to say, variable; because his preaching,” etc.
(284) “ Et mensonges;” — “And fallacies.”
(285) “ Des calomniateurs et mesdisans;” — “By calumniators and slanderers.”
(286) “ En sorte qu’il l’ait transfiguré, maintenant en vne sorte, tantost en vne autre, comme les Poëtes disent que Proteus se transformoit en diuerses sortes;” — “So as to present him in different shapes, now in one form, then in another, as the poets say that Proteus transformed himself into different shapes.” The following poets (among others) make mention of the “shape — changing” Proteus: — Virgil, (Georg. 4:387); Ovid, (Met. 8:730); Horace, (Sat. 2:3, 71, Ep. I. 1:90.) See Calvin on John, vol. 2, p. 256, n. 1. — Ed.
(287) “ En toutes manieres;” — “In every way.”
(288) “ Celui de tous vrais et fideles ministres;” — “That of all true and faithful ministers.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(19) By me and Silvanus and Timotheus.We note an undesigned coincidence with Act. 18:5, where Silas (whose identity with Silvanus is thus proved) is related to have come with Timotheus to join St. Paul at Corinth. The three names are joined together in the same order in 1Th. 1:1, and 2Th. 1:1.
Was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.From the forensic point of view, this was, of course, hardly an adequate defence against the charge of inconsistency. The argument was, so to speak, one of ethical congruity. It was infinitely unlikely that one who preached Christ, the absolutely True Christ, who enforced every precept with the emphatic Amen, Amen (the word occurs thirty-one times in St. Matthew, fourteen times in St. Mark, seven times in St. Luke, and in its reduplicated form twenty-five times in St. John), Verily, verily, should afterwards be shamelessly untruthful, and use words that paltered with a double sense.
But in him was yea.Better, but in him Yea has been and still is so, as His great characterising word.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. For Paul exemplifies this denial of selfish fickleness, first, 2Co 1:19-22, in regard to his preaching, and then, 2Co 1:23 to 2Co 2:4, in regard to the case in question, his change of journey-plan.
The Son of God. The great theme and soul of all our preaching, Christ, is the ever changeless affirmative, the immutable yea.
Silvanus and Timotheus The true Pauline preachers, in distinction from the Judaizers and other factionists.
Not yea and nay Fickle and contradictory; sometimes affirmative and sometimes negative.
But in him was yea God’s blessed gospel affirmation resided in him.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Co 1:19 . ] or, as Lachmann, Rckert, and Tischendorf, following preponderating testimony, have it rightly: ( in the fourth place; see Fritzsche, Quaest. Luc . p. 100; Ellendt, Lex. Soph , I. p. 339; Hermann, ad Philoct . 1437), marks the as emphatic, in order to make what is to be said of Christ, . , felt at once in its divine certainty. To be God’s Son and yet . would be a contradiction. In the whole . . there lies a solemn, sacred emphasi.
] reminds the readers of the first preaching of Christ among them, of which Paul could not but remind them, if they were to become perfectly conscious, from their experience from the beginning, that Christ had not become . . But in order to make this first preaching come home to them with the whole personal weight of the preachers, he adds, in just consciousness of the services rendered by himself and his companions as compared with the later workers, a more precise definition of the , with more weighty circumstantiality: . . . For the two latter had been his helpers in his first labours in Corinth. See Act 18:5 . From this it is obvious why he has not named others, as Apollos, but simply these (Calvin thinks, that these had been most calumniated ); hence also there is no need to suppose any intention of making his assurance more credible (Chrysostom, Theophylact, and many others). A side glance at the Christ preached by Judaistic opponents (2Co 11:4 ) is here quite foreign to the connection (in opposition to Klpper, p. 86 f.).
] Universally so with Paul (1Th 1:1 ; 2Th 1:1 ); also in 1Pe 5:12 . In the Acts of the Apostles only the shortened name appears. Silvanus is here placed before Timothy, because he was an older apostolic helper than the latter. See Act 15:22 ff.
. ] He has not become affirmation and negation , has not showed Himself as untrustworthy, as one who affirms and also denies (the fulfilment of the divine promises, 2Co 1:20 ), as one who had exhibited such contradiction in himself. This Paul says of Christ Himself , in so far as in the personal objective Christ, by means of His appearance and His whole work, the in reference to the divine promises, the affirmation of their fulfilment, is given as a matter of fact . Wrongly most expositors (comp. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact) understand as doctrina de Christo (“our gospel of Christ is not changeable, sometimes one thing, sometimes another, but it remains ever the same”), an interpretation here specially precluded by verses 20 and 21. This may be urged also against the similar interpretation of Hofmann, that, with the very fact that Christ has come to the readers through preaching , there has gone forth a Yea (the affirmation of all divine promises), without any intervention of Nay. Olshausen and Rckert take it rightly of Christ Himself; but the former puts in place of the simple meaning of the word the thought not quite in keeping: “Christ is the absolute truth, affirmation pure and simple ; in Him is the real fulfilment of the divine promises; in Him negation is entirely wanting;” and the latter arbitrarily limits merely to the experience of the Corinthians (“ among you He has not shown Himself untrustworthy”). Paul, however, uses the words . of Christ in general, and by . directs the attention of the Corinthians to the recognition of the truth on their part and out of their own experienc.
] of the two only the former, i.e. affirmation (that the divine promises are fulfilled and shall be fulfilled) is established in Him: in Christ is actually given the yea , that, etc. In the perfect (different from the previous aorist ) is implied the continuance of what has happened. Comp. on Col 1:16 ; Joh 1:3 . Grotius, in opposition to the context (see 2Co 1:20 ), referred . to the miracles , by which Christ confirmed the apostolic preaching. And Beza awkwardly, and, on account of 2Co 1:20 , erroneously, took of God , whose Son is “ constantissima Patris veritas .”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
2Co 1:19-22 . Paul furnishes grounds in 2Co 1:19 f. for the assurance he had given in 2Co 1:18 ; then refers his veracity to the stedfastness bestowed on him by God, 2Co 1:21 f.; and finally, 2Co 1:23 , makes protestations as to the reason why he had not yet come to Corinth.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
The Everlasting Yea
2Co 1:19
This is the very finest conception of the personality and the purpose, the kingship and the rule of the Son of God. We may get at the meaning of these words by paraphrase rather than by translation. Any translation is rugged. In him was Amen. That “Amen” was his own word. No man used it so frequently. It was only his own word because it was his own self. That is one of his names: “These things saith the Amen.” When did Jesus say Amen? I answer by putting another inquiry When did he ever say anything else? He said it thirty-one times in the Gospel according to Matthew; in the Gospel according to Mark we have fourteen instances of it; in the Gospel according to Luke he says Amen seven times, and in the Gospel according to John we find this same Amen, single and double, five-and-twenty times. Now we see what the text is: In him was So-be-it Yes Amen. That is the Christ of God. Not a double-minded man, not here and there, not going east and west, but the same yesterday, to-day, for ever; not the empty mocking No, but the everlasting satisfying Yes. Christ has well been called the incarnate Amen of God. In him all the promises are Yea and Amen; in him God says, Now take what you will: you call for my promises, there they are; you ask for my redemption, here it is; you have been praying to me for centuries for some great positive answer, behold it: this Son of Mary, Son of Man, is the Amen of God.
How did he use the Amen so frequently? for we do not remember to have heard it, unless it be at the close of what is known as the Lord’s Prayer; then the word Amen does occur. But the word Amen is not a word to be used in prayer only, unless we make prayer the greatest exercise of the soul, which it ought to be made, the finest and completest expression of life, thought, purpose, and design. Jesus Christ began his speeches with Amen: “Amen, amen, I say unto you.” In our old quaint English we have it, “Verily, verily:” what Christ said was in our English pronunciation, Amen, amen, So-be-it, Yes, the everlasting affirmation. That is our Saviour. We know what it is to have to deal with some people who never can be brought to Yes. They speculate, they doubt, they wonder, they conjecture, they make hypotheses, they invent theories; you can bind them down to nothing. It is so with all the other teachers of the world; they have a genius in the matter of conjecture; they guess well, they reason strongly, but they are always afraid of their own reason; throughout their strongest asseverations there runs a tone hesitant, double, equivocal, it may be so or thus, and some other man may be right when he suggests the contradiction of this theory. In Christ on the contrary is “Yea” that which is decisive, definite, positive, complete, unchangeable. “Other men have said unto you… but I say unto you; other men have brought you proverbs, I bring you philosophies; other men have been liberal in conjectures, I am the revelation of God.” That is his tone; that is the standard by which he wishes to be judged.
We cannot live on negations. Yet we are deluded into the belief that negation is at least one aspect of cleverness. Negations have never done the best work in the world. They have been useful, but in a limited and measurable degree. We have known negations in arithmetic. Arithmetic is not the art of doubting. Arithmetic has its points, lines, conclusions, but if you do not accept them you cannot be an arithmetician, you cannot calculate, you cannot reckon upon this planet. Euclid has his axioms. He would not talk to us if we did not accept them all at once. He says, You have no business in this book if you doubt the axioms; they must be accepted. They are no negations, they are affirmations; they are the everlasting Yes in geometry. Law aims to be definite, positive, conclusive. It has to struggle its way up very far before it reaches the point of settlement; yet law is always aiming at finality. It begins a long way down, before the well-meaning magistrate, who is glad to hand it on to the next court, which in its turn is very thankful to get rid of it so that it may be discussed in the Court of Appeal, which mumbles over it, and clouds about it, and stupefies itself over it, and says silently, Thank God, it must go to the House of Lords. But when it gets there it is written in the books, and there it is. That was the object from the beginning, to get at definiteness, to get at Yes. Christ begins where all other men begin, and whilst they end hesitantly he ends positively, as he began positively: Verily, verily, Amen, amen, Yes, yes, I say unto you.
Why this tone of decision and clearness? Why this pomp of definiteness? Because the Lord Christ is not a speculator but a Saviour. When the life-boat goes out it does not go out to reason with the drowning men but to lay hold of them. When the sea is sunny, when the air is a blessing, then boats may approach one another, and talk to one another more or less merrily and kindly, and as it were upon equal terms; but when the wind is alive, when the sea and sky seem to have no dividing line, and death has opened its jaws to swallow up, as if in a bottomless pit, all its prey, then the life-boat says, We have not come out here to reason and to conjecture and to bandy opinions with you, but to seize you and save you. That is what Christ has come for, The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost: God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life: I am not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. You never can save a man by saying no to him; the only thing that can save the soul is the everlasting Yes, the Verily of everlasting love. There were two classes of men in the Middle Ages, both about as busy as they could be. The one class was called the Crusaders. They were up early in the morning, they were up late at night; they handled their weapons well, they had keen ears for the approach of the enemy; they were fighters, they were inflamed with an infatuated enthusiasm. The other men were not fighters, they were cathedral-builders. Where are the Crusaders? I do not know. Where are the other men? At Canterbury, at Westminster, at York; all through the area of Europe. But the Crusaders were stalwart men and made a noise whenever they went from home; but they were “No” men, they were men who put down, they were aggressive, they were soldiers, in a sense they were madmen: destruction was their accompanying evil angel. The other men were builders, and the builders last longer than the fighters. Blessed be God, this is true. Why not build more? Why not do the positive, constructive, edifying work? All this red-coated demonstration, all this thirst for glory and for blood, is, for the moment, very dazzling and very wonderful, and constitutes in posse a magnificent newspaper property; but building slow, stately, tranquil building it abides when the mere mechanical assistants and contractors have passed away. It is even so with this Christ of God. He is a cathedral-builder; he has his fighting times; none can fight like Christ: but he only fights that he may have room to build in; he is building the cathedral of manhood, he is putting up the temple of regenerated human nature; he is the everlasting Yes: and as we work for him and work with him a great voice fills the air like music poured out from some larger world, Verily, verily, I say unto you. Christ is a builder. The Church is a building. There are very clever men who are doing nothing. They are reading very able papers to most reverential audiences of wood audiences which never stop nor interrupt them or find fault with them, and which care nothing about them. They can prove to demonstration that if x be multiplied by x, and the whole be squared up by y and w, no power in the universe can tell what the end will be: and the wood stands there, and so the matter ends. This is no Gospel; it is a kind of intellectual quarrel with some other intellectual thing, both invisible, both anonymous, both fighting in the dark, both stone-blind: and thus it comes to nought multiplied by nought, equal to nought. Jesus Christ comes in with definite offers, special promises, with an eternal affirmation, Yes, yes, is the music-speech of Christ. See if this be not so. Hear him; never man spake like this Man. Why art thou here, thou Son of God, an angel far from home? Listen: “I am come that they might have life.” That is the everlasting Yea, the eternal Positive. Why art thou here, thou Son of God? this world is not for thee; we have spoiled it hence 1 Listen: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” It is the eternal constructive, the donation positive. Other men will give me a new argument, will turn the subject round and ask me to view it in various phases; they will try to alleviate my disquietude by changing its points and its balances, but never reducing its solid quantity. This Man, come whence he may, says he will give me what I want “rest.” Let us go and see what he is about What is he giving? Bread. But if there be no more bread? That is impossible; when he touches it he multiplies it; when he gives it away he has more of it. But if the bread in a literal sense should fail, he will give us his flesh; and as for wine, he will tap the fountain of his heart that we die not for want of sustenance. This is his scheme; this is his way of doing things; this is the everlasting Yea, the Verily, Verily of God. But death will overcome us, death will take us away; what will Jesus do then? He has provided a Yes with which to oppose the negative of death. What is the Yes of Christ in relation to the No of death? It is hear it a long word, long as the duration of God, it is resurrection! He hunts negation out of its last den, robs it of its last prey, and sits himself down at the right hand of God, the Amen the everlasting Yes. Why do we not seek for the positive, the constructive, and the eternal? You hear a discourse, and what is the suggestion of the enemy to your soul? It is to disagree with it. Satan lives in negation; he would have no ministry but for denial; he began by contradicting, and his whole genius is limited to that meanest of ministries. Instead of retiring from the service, saying, “I had bread to-day, my soul feasted bountifully at the table of the Lord,” the enemy says, Now, how far did you agree with it? and you say, I did not agree with that view There you are lost. It is not what you do not agree with, but what you accept, that is going to save you. Ye are saved by faith.
Here then we stand. This is how Christ must be preached. He must be preached in his own spirit. Christ is not yea and nay; Christ is not hesitant, variable, uncertain, double-minded. Yet Christ is being preached negatively to-day. We want the Gospel offered, not the Gospel defended. We want the Gospel preached, and not preached about. The word “about” is the pit that swallows up many a ministry. All that Jesus asks of us is to tell positive truth, to offer positive blessing, to call men to the positive Christ, which means the positive pardon, the positive peace, and the positive heaven. So the Apostle preached Christ, the positive Christ, the living Christ, the present Christ, the Christ of the Cross, the Christ who shed his blood to save the world.
Nothing is easier than to suggest doubts and difficulties, and to ask questions. There are some lines of inquiry along which it is right to ask questions because only by asking them can we make progress; there are other questions of an elementary kind which can be asked with a sincere, simple heart; the Lord invites us to put such inquiries to him, and he will answer us; but there are other questions which are born of conceit and intellectual pedantry and mere vanity of soul, and these vex and torment the mind, and heaven will not condescend to answer them. Heaven has nothing to say to pride, heaven only speaks to humbleness of soul. From contrition of heart heaven will withhold no blessing, no good thing will the Lord withhold from them that walk uprightly. This holds good in the communication of spiritual truth and spiritual blessing, as well as in the conferring of physical comfort and physical protection. Think of Christ as a great Yes. When you lay your case of distress before your friend what you want from him is not a critical argument upon your imprudence in having brought yourself into a state of destitution, you want his genial, generous Yes. There are many men wonderfully able in telling other people that they ought not to have come into trouble. If rebukes could feed the world such men would make gluttons of the universe. They point out where the man got wrong; they tell him with a tongue sharper than a two-edged sword that he ought not to have got wrong at that point; they lacerate him, scalp him, and vivisect him, and turn him out into the cold. They represent the everlasting No. One little loaf of bread would have been better than all the lecturing; it would have prepared the way for the right sort of exhortation. This is Christ’s representation of himself to the world, and this is his representation of God. He says that, if we will go back with a prayer of confession upon our lips, the Lord will not allow us to get through it; he will allow us to begin it, but before we have ended it he will smother us in his arms. Blessed be God for the eternal verity!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.
Ver. 19. For the Son of God ] What is that to the purpose? Thus: if the gospel that Paul preached be not yea and nay, then neither are Paul’s promises yea and nay. This is his intendment, else his inference is nothing. And by that which follows, it reacheth all Christians; q.d. Look what a Christian doth promise, he is bound by the earnest penny of God’s Spirit to perform. He dares no more alter his words to the discredit of his profession than the Spirit of God can lie. (Mr Cotton on the Seven Vials.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
19 .] Confirmation of the last verse , by affirming the same of the great Subject of that doctrine, as set before them by Paul and his colleagues.
, personal not for ‘ doctrina de Christo ’ HE HIMSELF is the centre and substance of all Christian preaching: see 1Co 1:23 , and note at 2Co 2:2 .
is prefixed for solemnity, and to shew how unlikely fickleness or change is in Christ, being such as He is . Cf. 1Sa 15:29 , ‘the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent.’
] so 1Pe 5:12 ; = Silas, see Act 18:5 and al. He names his companions, as shewing that neither was he inconsistent with himself, nor were they inconsistent with one another. The Christ was the same, whether preached by different persons or by one person at different times.
. . ] ‘Christus prdicatus, i.e. prdicatio nostra de Christo, facta est n in Ipso Christo .’ Bengel. This seems to me far better than with De Wette, al., to make the subject, and predicatory. The absence of the art. before , as well as the sense, stamps it as the predicate. ‘Christ preached as the Son of God by us, has become yea in Him ,’ i.e. has been affirmed and substantiated as verity by the agency of the Lord Himself.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Co 1:19 . He has appealed to the faithfulness of God, and this suggests the thought of the unchangeableness of Christ. . . .: for the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was proclaimed among you by us . The position of before (as in the true text) brings out the sequence of thought better, as it brings (the connecting word) into prominence. : even by me and Silvanus and Timothy . These three brought the Gospel to Corinth (Act 18:5 ), and were closely associated during the Apostle’s labours in that city (1Th 1:1 , 2Th 1:1 ). Silvanus is only another form of the name Silas ; he was a prophet (Act 15:32 ), and apparently, like St. Paul, a Roman citizen (Act 16:37 ), and shared the Apostle’s perils during the whole of his second missionary journey (Act 15:40 to Act 18:18 ). We hear of him again at Rome (1Pe 5:12 ). , : was not Yea and Nay, but in Him is ( sc. , has been and continues to be) Yea . There is no doubtfulness or vacillation in the words of Christ (Mat 7:29 , Joh 12:50 ); and He continually emphasised the positive and certain character of His teaching by the introductory formula , . More than this, however, is involved here. Christ, who is the Object and Sum of St. Paul’s preaching, is unchangeable (Heb 13:8 ), for He is not only “true” (Rev 3:7 ), but “the Truth” (Joh 14:6 ): He is, in brief, (Rev 3:14 ), and so it may be said that an Eternal “Yea” has come into being ( , through His incarnate Life) in Him.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Son. Greek. huios. App-108.
preached. Greek. kereseo, App-121.
among. Greek. en. App-104.
Silvanus = Silas. Compare 1Th 1:1, 2Th 1:1. 1Pe 5:12. See Act 18:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
19.] Confirmation of the last verse, by affirming the same of the great Subject of that doctrine, as set before them by Paul and his colleagues.
, personal-not for doctrina de Christo-HE HIMSELF is the centre and substance of all Christian preaching: see 1Co 1:23, and note at 2Co 2:2.
is prefixed for solemnity, and to shew how unlikely fickleness or change is in Christ, being such as He is. Cf. 1Sa 15:29, the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent.
] so 1Pe 5:12; = Silas, see Act 18:5 and al. He names his companions, as shewing that neither was he inconsistent with himself, nor were they inconsistent with one another. The Christ was the same, whether preached by different persons or by one person at different times.
. .] Christus prdicatus, i.e. prdicatio nostra de Christo, facta est n in Ipso Christo. Bengel. This seems to me far better than with De Wette, al., to make the subject, and predicatory. The absence of the art. before , as well as the sense, stamps it as the predicate. Christ preached as the Son of God by us, has become yea in Him, i.e. has been affirmed and substantiated as verity by the agency of the Lord Himself.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Co 1:19. , , for the Son of God, Jesus Christ) who is the principal subject of our discourse. We should observe the joining together of the three appellations, thereby showing forth firmness;[7] as also their position in the natural order; for the first is evidently not the same as the third.- , and Silvanus) Luke calls him Silas; Act 15:22 note.- ) but yea pure and unmixed, on our part and yours.- , in Himself) Christ preached, i.e. our preaching of Christ became yea in Christ Himself. So the reason assigned [aetiologia, end.] in the following verse is in consonance. All the promises in Christ are yea. Therefore truly also the testimony concerning Christ Himself is yea in Christ.
[7] For union is strength.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Co 1:19
2Co 1:19
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy,-These persons are likely mentioned because Paul refers to his first visit to Corinth when they were his fellow workers. (Act 18:5).
was not yea and nay, but in him is yea.-Christ was not yea and nay, variable and changeable. His yea meant yea-was unchangeable. [Those who accepted Christ found him to be the way, and the truth, and the life. (Joh 14:6). He had been made unto them wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption. (1Co 1:30). Christ had not been manifested among them and experienced by them to be uncertain, but he proved himself to be all that was affirmed of him, and continued to be all they had been led to expect.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the Son: Psa 2:7, Mat 3:17, Mat 16:16, Mat 16:17, Mat 17:5, Mat 26:63, Mat 26:64, Mat 27:40, Mat 27:54, Mar 1:1, Luk 1:35, Joh 1:34, Joh 1:49, Joh 3:16, Joh 3:35, Joh 3:36, Joh 6:69, Joh 19:7, Joh 20:28, Joh 20:31, Act 8:37, Act 9:20, Rom 1:3, Rom 1:4, 2Pe 1:17, 1Jo 1:3, 1Jo 5:9-13, 1Jo 5:20, 2Jo 1:9, Rev 2:18
even: Act 18:5, Silas
was not: Exo 3:14, Mat 24:35, Joh 8:58, Heb 1:11, Heb 13:8, Rev 1:8, Rev 1:11, Rev 1:17
Reciprocal: Joh 14:6 – the truth Act 20:4 – Timotheus Rom 16:21 – Timotheus 2Co 4:5 – Christ Phi 1:15 – preach 1Th 1:1 – Silvanus 1Th 3:2 – our brother 2Th 1:1 – General 1Pe 5:12 – Silvanus
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
IN HIM WAS YEA
In Him was yea.
2Co 1:19
This is an uncommon passage of Scripture; there is not another quite like it in the whole range of the New Testament. Apparently it came to be written in this way: Certain Corinthian Christians called in question the authority of St. Paul, and not only his authority as an Apostle, but even his veracity as a man. The personal question the Apostle felt he could afford to treat with disregard, allowing the facts and events to speak for themselves; but his consistency as a teacher was another and a more important matter. Because the Apostle felt, and frequently expressed himself to the effect, that in his teaching he spoke as the oracles of God. The Son of God, he says in this chapter, preached among you by us, even by me and Sylvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea. In other words, the trumpet which I sounded gave no uncertain sound.
It is on the affirmation of the Apostle with regard to his Divine Master that I should wish to dwell on the present occasion.
I. It is a great and rich and suggestive statement, In Him was yea. The self-consciousness of Christ has often been observed upon; is indeed in itself quite unique and without parallel in the whole history of man. Men in our time, as in His own, have come to doubt about Christ. But whatever the doubts are or have been, Christ had no doubt whatever about Himself. His whole being was as the body of heaven in its clearness. There was about His utterance an absolute asseveration, a sublime dogmatism which was as unmistakable as it was irresistible. The people who heard Him, we are told, were astonished at His doctrine, for He spake as one having authority, and not as the Scribes. And again, on the memorable occasion, some who heard Him returned exclaiming, Never man spake like this Man. In Him was yea.
II. Let us take some illustrations of a practical kind of the truth set before us in the text.
(a) Man from the beginning has asked questions like these, Is there a God? and if there be, may I approach Him? Has He any knowledge of us, His poor, sorrowful, sin-stricken children here upon earth? Is He accessible? Is He mindful of us who live here below? To such questions our Lord brought the most positive affirmative answers to men. Yes, there is a God, and He is your Father in heaven, and you may draw nigh unto Him and make known your requests unto Him, for He loves you with an infinite love. Of course we may not know all that is to be known of God, or all that we may know of Him yet in a future state of being; the revelation of God which we have in Christ Jesus is in one sense an imperfect revelation; that is to say, it is not without its difficulties and mysteries; it contains much which the mind of man cannot grasp; but why should we be surprised at that, because mystery may be said to be omnipresent.
(b) Men have the sense of sin overshadowing them; that sense of sin in one form or another we all feel; it causes to some of us occasional twitches of pain; in other instances it causes the most acute agonies of distress. O sin, sin, cries the weary heart, the remembrance of it is grievous unto me, the burden is intolerable. Is the pardon of my sin possible? To this deepest and often most agonising question of the human spirit the Lord brings strong affirmative answer. The Son of Man, He says, has power on earth to forgive sins.
(c) Men from the beginning have asked questions like these: Is there a life beyond the life that now is? Is there another world? Is there anything beyond the sphere of sense which we see? the world to comelife everlasting. But Christ brought life and immortality to light; In Him was yea. And therefore, for you and me as Christians, death is no terrible enemy, no ghastly spectre, no impending shadow, death is for us the gate of life. An heir of heaven, I fear not death; in Christ I live, in Christ I draw breath of the true life; let earth, sea, and sky combine against me; in vain they strive to end my life, who can but end my woe; is that a deathbed where a Christian dies? Yes, but not his, tis Death himself that dies. In Him was yea.
(d) The material world is full of mysteries. Humboldt it was who said that a child might ask more questions in five minutes than the philosophers could answer in a century. A great man of science, lately departed, asked us if we ever thought what would happen if we were to be lifted off the surface of this earth and to proceed vertically ad infinitum, where should we arrive at last? Depend upon it, there is no refuge under such terrible trials; no refuge but simply to try and rest in a belief, in the infinite love, in the absolute wisdom, in the unchanging goodness of God.
III. We must have our hope in what is yet to be revealed, up in the glory of God, in Whose light we shall see light; resting meanwhile in His promises, exceeding great and precious, which are all yea and Amen in Christ Jesus our Lord. So let us be at peace, let us seek to rejoice and be happy as we put our trust in the revelation of God which we have in Christ Jesus our Lord, for In Him was yea.
Dean Forrest.
Illustration
Lifes mystery, deep, restless as the ocean,
Has surged and wailed for ages, to and fro;
Earths generations watching ceaseless motion
As in and out its hollow moanings flow;
Trembling and yearning by that unknown sea,
Let my soul calm itself, O Christ, in Thee.
2Co 1:20
AN AFFIRMATIVE LIFE
For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us (A.V.).
For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea: wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us (R. V.)
2Co 1:20
The Authorised Version puts before us Christ, as the Faithful Witness for God, in Whom all Gods promises are affirmed and ratified.
The Revised Version has a slight alteration in the text, and puts the same picture before us with more emphasis. It suggests the idea of the response of a true Christian life to the assurance of faith with which the Christian rests on Christ, and realises the preciousness and the permanence of Gods saving love, as revealed and proffered in Jesus. For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea, wherefore also through Him is the Amen, etc.
How can a man (this is the Apostles implied argument)How can a man who rests on and proclaims a Saviour like this lead an insincere life, or be a vacillating, unfaithful, selfish, timeserving person? The Christian believers life is (so far as it is really Christian) throughout honest and faithful; it is animated by an assured hope; it takes a straightforward course, it maintains a persistent and consistent truthfulness; it is carried on (2Co 1:12) in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God. It is a life, which is not confounded of contradictions, not a varying between yea and nay, but an affirmative life which rests on, and is moulded by the unshaken faithfulness of God Himself.
Let me endeavour to show you this positive aspect of a truly Christian life, i.e. the life of one who, seeing that all the promises of God have their yea in Christ, says Amen to the message of Divine love, and glorifies God thereby.
I. Such a life is (in the first place) an affirmative one in its general character.
(a) There are those who try to live a double-minded lifeto serve God and mammonto reconcile the purpose according to the flesh with the profession of respect for spiritual realities. They affirm nothing for Godtheir life is of a neutral tintthey do not set such an example in their family, in society, and in their whole manner of life, as to commend the religion of Christ as a reality, and to say in effect: Come with us, for the Lord has spoken good concerning us.
(b) Again, there are those who seem to have no certain standing-place of moral judgment. They are like children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine; they sometimes say Yes when they should say No, and sometimes say No when they should say Yes.
(c) There are somewell-meaning, and in some respects earnestly religious personswho have not sufficient moral courage to say Amen to Christs Yes, who are apt to be either afraid or ashamed when it is needful to give a bold testimony on behalf of Christ and Christian truth. They shrink from the sneers of their companions, or the general opinion of society.
The true Christian life is not double-minded, is not vacillating, is not timidit is opposed to that which is negative, dubious, fearful; it is, in its whole character, affirmative.
II. But it is, moreover, affirmative in its particular principles. And what does it affirm?
(a) It affirms the reality of Gods love as manifested in Christ Jesus. A Christian cannot be an agnostic, in the sense in which this term is now used.
(b) The true Christian life also affirms the faithfulness of Gods Word. How many soever be the promises, they are true in Christ, and the Christian responds to them with a life of sustained trust in what God has thus spoken.
(c) There is another thing affirmed by the life of Christs true disciples, and that is, that Gods glory is the final cause of all human development, the very topstone of all religious faith (unto the glory of God through us).
These affirmations of the Christian life are, you will see, compatible with many varieties of Christian opinion. They are not invalidated by the fact that Christians differ much and widely on points both of dogma and of discipline. All Christians, just in proportion as they act according to their professed belief in Jesus Christ as Revealer of God and Redeemer of men, affirm the reality of Gods love, the faithfulness of Gods Word, and the final goal of things to be Gods glory.
III. And these affirmations comprise a practical hope which is the mightiest moral motive which can stimulate and direct conduct.It is the hope of perfection, the hope of a completed and full salvation from sin, sorrow, and death, and of an harmoniously adjusted universe in which there shall be no more curse, a city of God, where there shall enter nothing that defileth. No man who has not faith in God can sustain hope, or calmly face, either perplexities of the present world or the mysteries beyond it. But what says the Christian believer? (2 Corinthians 1 :1Pe 1:1-5.) I say this hope is practical. Some would call it mystical. And so, indeed, it is; for without mystery of some sort life can neither exist, nor make progress, nor have anything for us of hope or joy. But the Christians hope is no dreamy, unreal, speculative mysticism. It is found in elevating ideas which are based upon historic revelation of God, whose Gospel of peace and goodwill in Christ Jesus again and again says to those who will listen, Lift up your hearts! Rejoice in the Lord, again I say rejoice. The Christians ideal of beauty, and purity, and wisdom, and joy is not a mere product of poetic imagination. It is the reflex of Gods righteousness and love, manifested in Christ Jesus for mans deliverance; and having this idea, we reach forth unto those things that are in store, for all who press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Will men tell me that this is unpractical, because it transcends our ordinary life, and goes beyond the range of physical science, and is connected with what we term the supernatural? My answer is that there can be no reasonable limitation of our thoughts, and plans, and hopes to the ordinary and actual present conditions of our being if we believe in God, and in a Divine purpose, and in Divine promises. And for the Christian there is no doubt of a Divine interposition in the affairs of men, whereby the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, has given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace.
Such a hope is a very practical thing in a world of sin, and sorrow, and suffering, and death.
Archbp. W. Saumarez Smith.
Illustrations
(1) Some there are who proclaim a kind of Gospel of fatalism. Everything must be what it must, therefore it is no good to complain. Evolution results in the survival of the fittest. We are the product of our antecedents and shaped by our environment. When the Divine will is thus put out of sight, the human will is dwarfed and degraded until it drifts with the stream of circumstance instead of striving after highest ideals and contending against moral evil, and in this struggle laying hold, through faith which is in Christ, upon the eternal life. If there is no Divine purpose there can be no Divine promises. But there are promisesof guidance, help, enlightenment, pardonand their Yea is in Christ, and we know them to be true, feel them to be precious, and assert their faithfulness by living as those to whom belongs a happy and a holy future in the more immediate presence of God.
(2) See how this affirmation contravenes that materialistic philosophy which would confine mans attention to the things of earth and to the life of our present body. It is, indeed, quite right that we should use the world, but we do not use it as if there were nothing beyond it, knowing that the fashion of this world passeth away. Secularism has important elements of truth in it; and the mere visionary who neglects his body, and his business, and his relations of duty and social intercourse among his fellow-men for an alleged higher life, is not wisely religious. But the common danger is that this world should engross too much care; and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in choke the word, which God would sow in the heart and conscience, and it becometh unfruitful.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
2Co 1:19. Paul was serving and preaching for the Son of God, and hence he could not consistently manifest a fickle spirit in his preaching. In him was yea. The promises and other statements coming from Jesus were always positive, leaving no room for doubt that He always meant what He said and would make His word good. Silvanus and Timotheus are other forms for Silas and Timothy.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Co 1:19. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy. It has been observed (by Paley), as an undesigned coincidence between the history in the Acts and this Epistle, that both there (Act 18:5) and here we find both Silas (or Silvanus) and Timothy at Corinth with the apostle, all ministering there together, and it has been noted that in both Epistles to the Thessalonians (1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1), these three are found associated at that time in the work of the Gospel,was not yea and nay, but in him is yea. The argument is this: When we were with you, was it vacillating, fickle preachers that preached to you the unchanging One, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and for ever? Did we hold Him forth to you as stability itself, while we ourselves were the reverse? Were ye assured that He was the faithful and true Witness by men in whose own word no trust could be placed? It is an appeal to the incongruity of the thing, and to their whole bearing at Corinth as men, like their message, honest and true; and conscious of this himself, there is a certain hurt feeling in the appeal, as what ought not to have been extorted from him.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
This verse contains a new argument for the constancy and immutability of St. Paul’s doctrine, drawn from the subject matter of his preaching; namely, Jesus Christ. As Christ is always one and the same, whom himself and other ministers did preach, so is our doctrine one and the same also.
Note here, 1. The subject matter of St. Paul’s preaching, what was the sum of his own and his companion’s sermons, (Sylvanus and Timotheus,) it was not his own imagination, or the Jewish rites and ceremonies, but Christ in his nature and offices; The Son of God, Jesus Christ, was preached among you by us.
Note, 2. The happy unity and accord which was found among all these ministers, St. Paul, Sylvanus, and Timotheus, in preaching Christ.
O blessed agreement! when all the ministers of God with one consent conspire and agree to advance and extol our Lord Jesus Christ.
Note, 3. That the course of St. Paul’s and his assistants’ preaching; Christ Jesus, fixedly and unchangeably the same; not yea at one time, and nay at another.
Learn hence, That it is a proper note of God’s truth, and the true preachers thereof, that they are always one and the same, always yea, and not nay; there is no change or contrariety in their doctrines.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy [Paul’s fellow-laborers in founding the church at Corinth], was not yea and nay, but in him is yea.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 19
Silvanus; Silas, who is often mentioned in the Acts as Paul’s companion in labor and suffering.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1:19 {11} For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, [even] by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, {s} was not yea and nay, but in {t} him was yea.
(11) He adds also with himself his companions, as witnesses with whom he fully consented in teaching the same thing, that is, the same Christ.
(s) Was not different and wavering.
(t) That is, in God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Consistency is not only a mark of God the Father but also of God the Son.
"The truth asserted is that Christ, the Son of God, had not been manifested among them, or experienced by them to be unsatisfying or uncertain; but in him was yea. That is, he was simple truth. In him, i.e., in Christ, was truth. He proved himself to be all that was affirmed of him." [Note: Hodge, p. 21.]
"Nothing could be more incongruous than to suspect of insincerity the Apostle whose entire being was dedicated to the service and proclamation of Him who is the Truth and the Same yesterday, today, and forever." [Note: Hughes, p. 35.]
Silvanus was Silas who with Timothy joined Paul in Corinth shortly after his arrival there and helped him found the church along with Priscilla and Aquila (Act 17:14-15; Act 18:1-2; Act 18:5).