Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 12:11
I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
11 18. Continuation of the Defence
11. I am become a fool in glorying ] Or perhaps, with some, Have I become a fool? The words in glorying are not in the best MSS. and versions. Thus Wiclif, following the Vulgate, translates, I am made unwitti, ye constreineden me.
ye have compelled me ] Literally, ye compelled me, as Wiclif above. The word ye is emphatic. It was not my desire, but your conduct that led me to boast. See notes on ch. 11.
for I ought to have been commended of you ] See ch. 2Co 3:1, 2Co 5:12 , 2Co 10:12; 2Co 10:18. The word I is emphatic. The reason is given in the next verse. They had had abundant evidences of his true Apostleship, and yet they needed that he should himself recal them to their minds.
the very chiefest apostles ] See note on ch. 2Co 11:5.
though I be nothing ] Cf. 1Co 15:8-10. Chrysostom connects these words with what follows, and the meaning certainly then comes nearer to the passage just cited from the First Epistle. The Apostle arrogates no greatness to himself, but nevertheless that mighty deeds had been wrought by his means was undeniable.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I am become a fool in glorying – The meaning of this expression I take to be this. I have been led along in speaking of myself until I admit I appear foolish in this kind of boasting. It is folly to do it, and I would not have entered on it unless I had been driven to it by my circumstances and the necessity which was imposed on me of speaking of myself. Paul doubtless desired that what he had said of himself should not be regarded as an example for others to follow. Religion repressed all vain boasting and self-exultation; and to prevent others from falling into a habit of boasting, and then pleading his example as an apology, he is careful to say that he regarded it as folly; and that he would by no means have done it if the circumstances of the case had not constrained him. If, anyone, therefore, is disposed to imitate Paul in speaking of himself and what he has done, let him do it only when he is in circumstances like Paul, and when the honor of religion and his usefulness imperiously demand it; and let him not forget that it was the deliberate conviction of Paul that boasting was the characteristic of a fool!
Ye have compelled me – You have made it necessary for me to vindicate my character and to state the evidence of my divine commission as an apostle.
For I ought to have been commended of you – By you. Then this boasting, so foolish, would have been unnecessary. What a delicate reproof! All the fault of this foolish boasting was theirs. They knew him intimately. They had derived great benefits from his ministry, and they were bound in gratitude and from a regard to right and truth to vindicate him. But they had not done it; and hence, through their fault, he had been compelled to go into this unpleasant vindication of his own character.
For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles – Neither in the evidences of my call to the apostolic office (see 1Co 9:1 ff); nor in the endowments of the Spirit; nor in my success; nor in the proofs of a divine commission in the power of working miracles; see the note on 2Co 11:5.
Though I be nothing – This expression was either used in sarcasm or seriously. According to the former supposition it means, that he was regarded as nothing; that the false apostles spoke of him as a mere nothing, or as having no claims to the office of an apostle. This is the opinion of Clarke, and many of the recent commentators. Bloomfield inclines to this. According to the latter view, it is an expression of humility on the part of Paul, and is designed to express his deep sense of his unworthiness in view of his past life – a conviction deepened by the exalted privileges conferred on him, and the exalted rank to which he had been raised as an apostle. This was the view of most of the early commentators. Doddridge unites the two. It is not possible to determine with certainty which is the true interpretation; but it seems to me that the latter view best accords with the scope of the passage, and with what we have reason to suppose the apostle would say at this time. It is true that in this discussion (2 Cor. 10ff) there is much that is sarcastic. But in the whole strain of the passage before us he is serious. He is speaking of his sufferings, and of the evidences that he was raised to elevated rank as an apostle, and it is not quite natural to suppose that he would throw in a sarcastic remark just in the midst of this discussion. Besides, this interpretation accords exactly with what he says, 1Co 15:9; For I am the least of all the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle. If this be the correct interpretation, then it teaches:
(1) That the highest attainments in piety are not inconsistent with the deepest sense of our nothingness and unworthiness.
(2) That the most distinguished favors bestowed on us by God are consistent with the lowest humility.
(3) That those who are most favored in the Christian life, and most honored by God, should not he unwilling to take a low place, and to regard and speak of themselves as nothing. Compared with God, what are they? – Nothing. Compared with the angels, what are they? – Nothing. As creatures compared with the vast universe, what are we? – Nothing. An atom, a speck. Compared with other Christians, the eminent saints who have lived before us, what are we? Compared with what we ought to be, and might be, what are we? – Nothing. Let a man look over his past life, and see how vile and unworthy it has been; let him look at God, and see how great and glorious he is; let him look at the vast universe, and see how immense it is; let him think of the angels, and reflect how pure they are; let him think of what he might have been, of how much more he might have done for his Saviour; let him look at his body, and think how frail it is, and how soon it must return to the dust; and no matter how elevated his rank among his fellow-worms, and no matter how much God has favored him as a Christian or a minister, he will feel, if he feels right, that he is nothing. The most elevated saints are distinguished for the deepest humility; those who are nearest to God feel most their distance; they who are to occupy the highest place in heaven feel most deeply that they are unworthy of the lowest.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Co 12:11-21
I am become a fool in glorifying; ye have compelled me.
Pauls state of mind concerning his connection with the Church at Corinth
I. In the past.
1. He remembers the ill-treatment which forced him to speak with apparent boastfulness of himself (2Co 12:11). The words are partly ironical, partly speak of an impatient consciousness, that what he had been saying would seem to give colour to the opprobrious epithets that had been flung at him.
2. He remembers the work which he had done amongst them, and which raised him above all the apostles (2Co 12:21). Paul possessed supernatural power, and wrought supernatural results. This they could not deny (1Co 2:4). Can a man who was conscious of such power as this be charged with egotism in proclaiming it in the presence of his detractors? Does he become a fool in glorying?
3. He remembers that for his labours amongst them he had not sought any temporal assistance (2Co 12:13). Probably it had been insinuated that Paul cared less for the churches at Corinth than for those at Macedonia, because he had maintained his independence and sought no gifts.
II. Prospectively. Here are–
1. Loving resolves (2Co 12:14). He resolves that he would not be burdensome to them, but pursue the same independency and act as a father laying up for them, not they for him, etc. And all this, whether they love him or not. What noble generosity breathes in all these resolves!
2. Painful memories (2Co 12:16). This, again, is ironical. You say that although I made no demand on your purses for myself, that I did want a collection for the saints, and that out of that I would craftily take what I wanted. He seems to fling back upon them their accusation of his being crafty, and catching them with guile (2Co 12:17-18). Neither Titus, etc., nor he had ever sponged on them, but had maintained their high independency. In saying this, he deprecates the idea that he was amenable to them for his conduct, but to God only (verse 19).
3. Anxious apprehensions (verse 20). His tender nature seemed to shrink at the supposition of the old evils still rampant there (verse 21). The great thing to be dreaded is sin. It is the abominable thing, the soul destroyer of humanity.
Conclusion:
1. Do not judge any minister by the opinions of his brethren. Paul was the best of men; but in the opinion of his brethren he was the worst.
2. Do not cease in your endeavours to benefit men because they calumniate you. The worst men require your services most, the whole need not a physician.
3. Do not sponge on your congregation. Do not seek theirs, but them.
4. Do not cower before anything but sin. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Though I be nothing.
A sermon upon one nothing by another nothing
1. The Divine discipline had succeeded well with Paul. There was danger of his being exalted above measure, and therefore there was given him a thorn, etc. His humility comes out in the incident before us. He was compelled to defend himself, and in the midst of strong expressions of self-assertion, every one of them severely truthful, his true humility is manifest.
2. Although Paul was undoubtedly humble, yet there is not a particle of cant in any of his expressions. There is no humility in such self-depreciation as would lead you to deny what God has wrought in or by you: that might be wilful falsehood. Mock humility creeps around us, but every honest man loathes it, and God loathes it too. Now, the apostle says that he is not a whit behind the very chief of the apostles, etc., and yet for all that he finishes his detail of experience by saying, Though I be nothing.
I. This was other mens estimate of him. You may be starting the Christian life full of zeal; but you dwell among a people who count you hot-headed and self-conceited, and do their best to thwart you. Be comforted, for if Paul heard that, in the judgment of many, his personal presence was weak, etc., you need not wonder if the like thing happens to you. The case is harder with older servants of God. After a long life of usefulness the churches often forget all that a man was and did in his vigorous times, and now they treat him with indifference. You must not marvel. The apostle of the Gentiles, when he was such an one as Paul the aged, knew that to many he was nothing. Paul was nothing–
1. In the estimation of hatred. His Jewish brethren, when he was an advocate of their principles, thought him some great one; when he went over to the hated sect he was nothing. Such is, in a measure, the case when men become thoroughly followers of Jesus. If a scientific man is of infidel principles he is cried up as an eminent thinker; but should he be a Christian, he is antiquated and narrow.
2. In the valuation of envy. There arose even in the Church certain brethren who loved pre-eminence, and found the apostle already in the highest place. They strove to rise by pulling him down. It is an unfortunate thing for some men, if they love their own ease, that they have risen to conspicuous usefulness, for in a middle place they might have been allowed to be something, but jealousy is now resolved to rate them at nothing.
3. To those who desired that Christianity should make a fair show in the flesh. Certain brethren had thought to adorn the doctrine of Christ with human wisdom. Our apostle abhorred this. We use, saith he, great plainness of speech, and therefore they retaliated by declaring that he was not a man of great mind–that, in fact, he was nothing. Other teachers arose who took the way of tradition and ritualism. To which Paul replied, If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. Straightway the High Churchmen discovered that Paul was nothing.
II. His own estimate of himself.
1. This is a very great correction upon his original estimate of himself.
2. This corrected estimate resulted from the enlightenment which he received at his conversion. What a flood of light does the Lord pour in upon a mans soul when He brings him to Himself! Then great Saul dwarfed into little Paul, and the learned rabbi shrivelled into a poor brother, who was glad to learn from humble Ananias.
3. The force of that estimate had increased by a growing belief in the doctrine of grace. In proportion as he learned the fulness, freeness, richness, and sovereignty of Divine grace did he see, side by side with it, the nakedness, the filthiness, the nothingness of man, and so he who could best glory in the grace of God thought less and less of himself.
4. His own internal experience had very much helped him to feel that he was nothing, for he had experienced great spiritual struggles. Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
5. When the apostle said this he meant that he was–
(1) Nothing in comparison with his Lord.
(2) Nothing to boast of. Albeit he had been a faithful sufferer for Christ, that he had preached the gospel in the regions beyond. If we rise very near to God, and conquer open sin, we shall still have to look within, and say, I am nothing. Boasting is a sure sign of failure. Gilded wood may float, but an ingot of gold will sink.
(3) Nothing to trust in. I am strong in the Lord when He strengthens me, but I am as weak as an infant without His aid. In me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.
(4) Nothing worth considering. If there is any good thing for me to do, I never calculate whether I shall be a loser by it or a gainer, for I am not worth taking into the account. If Christs kingdom will but come, it does not matter whether Paul lives or dies. Christs kingdom will go on without me.
Conclusion–
1. May we all be made by Divine grace to say Though I be nothing.
(1) It will prevent pride. It will prevent our being mortified, because notice is not taken of us. No man will look for honour among his fellows when he owns that he is nothing.
(2) It will also prevent severe censures of others. We are all very handy at picking holes in our brethrens coats; but when we are nothing we shall draw back our hand. I wish that those who criticise ministers would think of this.
(3) It will help us to avoid all self-seeking. A man who feels himself to be nothing will be easily contented.
(4) It will inspire gratitude. Though I be nothing, yet infinite grace is mine.
2. When the apostle says, Though I be nothing, that word shows that there was a fact in the background.
(1) He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had enjoyed a special revelation of Christ. We, too, have been very near the Beloved, and He has manifested Himself to us as He does not unto the world. All this you know, and I also know it, though I be nothing.
(2) The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad, by enabling us to serve His cause. This we are right glad of, though we heartily add, though I be nothing.
(3) We can also believingly say, though I be nothing, yet the Spirit of God dwells in me. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. I am become a fool in glorying] It is not the part of a wise or gracious man to boast; but ye have compelled me-I have been obliged to do it, in order to vindicate the cause of God.
I ought to have been commended of you] You should have vindicated both myself and my ministry against the detractors that are among you.
The very chiefest apostles] See 2Co 11:1.
Though I be nothing.] Though I have been thus set at nought by your false apostle; and though, in consequence of what he has said, some of you have been ready to consider me as nothing-what we call good for nothing. This must be the meaning of the apostle, as the following verses prove.
A kind of technical meaning has been imposed on these words, of which many good people seem very fond. I am nothing-I am all sin, defilement, and unworthiness in myself; but Jesus Christ is all in all. This latter clause is an eternal truth; the former may be very true also; the person who uses it may be all sin, defilement, c., but let him not say that the apostle of the Gentiles was so too, because this is not true it is false, and it is injurious to the character of the apostle and to the grace of Christ; besides, it is not the meaning of the text, and the use commonly made of it is abominable, if not wicked.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am become a fool in glorying; I may amongst some of you (who interpret all things I say into the worst sense) gain nothing but the reputation of a weak man, wanting understanding, for speaking so much in my own commendation (contrary to the rules of modesty in ordinary cases).
Ye have compelled me; but it is not matter of choice, but of necessity to me; the ill-will which some amongst you have to my honour and reputation, and continual defaming me as a vile and contemptible person, hath constrained me, for the honour of Christ, (whose apostle I am), and the vindication of my own reputation, to boast in this manner; at least to relate what God hath done for, and in, and by me.
For I ought to have been commended of you; it was your duty to have vindicated me from the aspersions cast upon me; so others mouths should have praised me, and not my own: I must speak, because you hold your peace, or do worse in calumniating me.
For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing; for you cannot but say that I, neither in my apostolical call and commission, nor yet in my gifts and graces, nor in my labours, nor in my sufferings, come behind those that are commonly thought to be the chiefest of the apostles; though (in some of your opinions) I be nothing; or indeed, of or from myself, am nothing; doing all that I do through Christ that strengtheneth me, and by the grace of God being what I am.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. in gloryingomitted in theoldest manuscripts. “I am become a fool.” He sounds aretreat [BENGEL].
yeemphatic. “Itis YE who have compelled me; for I ought to have been commended byyou,” instead of having to commend myself.
am I behindrather asGreek, “was I behind” when I was with you?
the very chiefestrather,as in 2Co 11:5, “thoseovermuch apostles.”
though I be nothinginmyself (1Co 15:9; 1Co 15:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I am become a fool in glorying,…. This is either to be understood conditionally, if he had acted as a fool in commending himself, or was to be reckoned and called so by others, for glorying of himself, his visions and revelations; or as an ironical concession, allowing himself to be a fool for so doing, as he knew he should be traduced by his enemies; which concession he makes with a view to remove the blame from himself, and cast it upon the Corinthians: ye have compelled me: they were not only the occasion of his glorying, but they had forced him to it by their conduct; for he was obliged either to take this method for the vindication of his character, and preserve his future usefulness, or else to suffer the false apostles to triumph over him, to the great detriment of the Gospel, and of this church at Corinth particularly; whereas both might have been prevented, had they acted the part that became them:
for I ought to have been commended of you; when the false apostles reproached him, and insinuated things among them to his disadvantage, they ought not only to have turned a deaf ear to them, and to have checked and reproved them, and so have put a stop to their calumnies; but they should have spoke in commendation of him, and have declared how faithfully he had preached the Gospel to them; how useful he had been to their souls, for conviction, conversion, edification, and comfort; how laborious and indefatigable he had been in his ministry; what success attended him, and what wonderful things were done by him in proof of his divine mission; all which they were conscious of, and could with the utmost safety have affirmed of him:
for in nothing, says he,
am I behind the very chiefest apostles; meaning either the false apostles, who set themselves upon an equality with the true ones, and above him; or rather the real apostles of Christ, and those that were of the greatest note among them, as Peter, James, and John; for though he was behind them in time, yet not in gifts, labour, and usefulness: but lest this should be thought to savour of vain boasting, he adds,
though I be nothing; which may be considered either as a declaration of his own thoughts of himself, and an humble acknowledgment of his own nothingness; that he was nothing as a man, as an Hebrew, a Pharisee, with respect to his external privileges and righteousness, not more and better than others; and nothing as an apostle and a Christian of himself, but was wholly and entirely what he was by the grace of God; or as the judgment and opinion of the false apostles concerning him, who spoke of him, and treated him as a worthless man, of no account, and not to be regarded.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Paul’s Expostulations. | A. D. 57. |
11 I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. 12 Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. 13 For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong. 14 Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. 15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. 16 But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. 17 Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? 18 I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? 19 Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. 20 For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: 21 And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
In these verses the apostle addresses himself to the Corinthians two ways:–
I. He blames them for what was faulty in them; namely, that they had not stood up in his defence as they ought to have done, and so made it the more needful for him to insist so much on his own vindication. They in manner compelled him to commend himself, who ought to have been commended of them v. 11. And had they, or some among them, not failed on their part, it would have been less needful for him to have said so much on his own behalf. He tells them further that they in particular had good reason to speak well of him, as being in nothing behind the very chief apostles, because he had given them full proof and evidence of his apostleship; for the signs of an apostle were wrought among them in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. Note, 1. It is a debt we owe to good men to stand up in the defence of their reputation; and we are under special obligations to those we have received benefit by, especially spiritual benefit, to own them as instruments in God’s hand of good to us, and to vindicate them when they are calumniated by others. 2. How much soever we are, or ought to be, esteemed by others, we ought always to think humbly of ourselves. See an example of this in this great apostle, who thought himself to be nothing, though in truth he was not behind the greatest apostles–so far was he from seeking praise from men, though he tells them their duty to vindicate his reputation–so far was he from applauding himself, when he was forced to insist upon his own necessary self-defence.
II. He gives a large account of his behaviour and kind intentions towards them, in which we may observe the character of a faithful minister of the gospel. 1. He was not willing to be burdensome to them, nor did he seek theirs, but them. He says (v. 13) he had not been burdensome to them, for the time past, and tells them (v. 14) he would not be burdensome to them for the time to come, when he should come to them. He spared their purses, and did not covet their money: I seek not yours but you. He sought not to enrich himself, but to save their souls: he did not desire to make a property of them to himself, but to gain them over to Christ, whose servant he was. Note, Those who aim at clothing themselves with the fleece of the flock, and take no care of the sheep, are hirelings, and not good shepherds. 2. He would gladly spend and be spent for them (v. 15); that is, he was willing to take pains and to suffer loss for their good. He would spend his time, his parts, his strength, his interest, his all, to do them service; nay, so spend as to be spent, and be like a candle, which consumes itself to give light to others. 3. He did not abate in his love to them, notwithstanding their unkindness and ingratitude to him; and therefore was contented and glad to take pains with them, though the more abundantly he loved them the less he was loved, v. 15. This is applicable to other relations: if others be wanting in their duty to us it does not follow therefore that we may neglect our duty to them. 4. He was careful not only that he himself should not be burdensome, but that none he employed should. This seems to be the meaning of what we read, v. 16-18. If it should be objected by any that though he did not himself burden them, yet, being crafty, he caught them with guile, that is, he sent those among them who pillaged them, and afterwards he shared with them in the profit: “This was not so,” says the apostle; “I did not make a gain of you myself, nor by any of those whom I sent; nor did Titus, nor any others–We walked by the same spirit and in the same steps.” They all agreed in this matter to do them all the good they could, without being burdensome to them, to promote the gospel among them and make it as easy to them as possible. Or, this may be read with an interrogation, as utterly disclaiming any guile in himself and others towards them. 5. He was a man who did all things for edifying, v. 19. This was his great aim and design, to do good, to lay the foundation well, and then with care and diligence to build the superstructure. 6. He would not shrink from his duty for fear of displeasing them, though he was so careful to make himself easy to them. Therefore he was resolved to be faithful in reproving sin, though he was therein found to be such as they would not, v. 20. The apostle here mentions several sins that are too commonly found among professors of religion, and are very reprovable: debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults; and, though those who are guilty of these sins can hardly bear to be reproved for them, yet faithful ministers must not fear offending the guilty by sharp reproofs, as they are needful, in public and in private. 7. He was grieved at the apprehension that he should find scandalous sins among them not duly repented of. This, he tells them, would be the cause of great humiliation and lamentation. Note, (1.) The falls and miscarriages of professors cannot but be a humbling consideration to a good minister; and God sometimes takes this way to humble those who might be under temptation to be lifted up: I fear lest my God will humble me among you. (2.) We have reason to bewail those who sin and do not repent, to bewail many that have sinned, and have not repented, v. 21. If these have not, as yet, grace to mourn and lament their own case, their case is the more lamentable; and those who love God, and love them, should mourn for them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
I am become foolish ( ). Perfect active indicative of . In spite of what he said in verse 6 that he would not be foolish if he gloried in the other Paul. But he feels that he has dropped back to the mood of 2Cor 11:1; 2Cor 11:16. He has been swept on by the memory of the ecstasy.
For I ought to have been commended by you ( ‘ ). Explanation of “ye compelled me.” Imperfect active of , to be under obligation, and the tense here expresses an unfulfilled obligation about the present. But is present passive infinitive, not aorist or perfect passive. He literally means, “I ought now to be commended by you” instead of having to glorify myself. He repeats his boast already made (11:5f.), that he is no whit behind “the super-extra apostles” (the Judaizers), “though I am nothing” ( ). Even boasting himself against those false apostles causes a reaction of feeling that he has to express (cf. 1Cor 15:9; 1Tim 1:15).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I am become a fool in glorying. Ironical. By the record I have presented I stand convicted of being foolish.
I ought to have been commended of you. You ought to have saved me the necessity of recounting my sufferings, and thus commending myself as not inferior to those preeminent apostles (ch. 11 5).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “I am become a fool in glorying,” (gegona aphron) “I have become foolish,” in boasting thus you may say, Mat 12:36-37.
2) “Ye have compelled me,” (humeis me enagkasate) “You all compelled me; therefore the blame is yours, Gal 2:6.
3) “For I ought to have been commended of you,” (ego gar opheilon huph’ humon sunistasthai) “For I ought to be commended by you all,” on higher grounds or on higher plane, for my works sake, Gal 6:2. You should not have left it to me to speak my own praise, 1Co 3:1; 1Co 9:1.
4) “For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles,” (ouden gar husteresa ton huperlian apostolon) “For I lacked nothing of the super-apostles, the twelve,” or I am behind in nothing, 1Co 3:7; as regards the more preeminent apostles; Gal 2:9-14; 1Co 15:9. He would not in the least admit superiority to the Corinthian Judaizers.
5) “Though I be nothing,” (ei kai ouden eimi) “Though even I be nothing;” he had done, as a servant, only that which was required of him, his duty, Luk 17:10; 1Co 3:7; 1Co 4:2; Eph 3:8. He was nothing as he saw himself, in God’s eyes, Joh 8:54.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
11. I have become a fool Hitherto he had, by various apologies, solicited their forgiveness for what was contrary to his own custom and manner of acting, and contrary, also, to propriety, and what was due to his office as an Apostle — the publishing of his own praises. Now, instead of soliciting, he upbraids, throwing the blame upon the Corinthians, who ought to have been beforehand in this. (916) For when the false Apostles calumniated Paul, they should have set themselves vigorously in opposition to them, and should have faithfully borne the testimony that was due to his excellences. He chides them, however, thus early, lest those, who were unfavorably disposed towards them, should put a wrong construction upon the defense which he brought forward, in consequence of his being constrained to it by their ingratitude, (917) or should persist in calumniating him.
For in nothing We are ungrateful to God, if we allow his gifts, of which we are witnesses, to be disparaged, or contemned. He charges the Corinthians with this fault, for they knew him to be equal to the chiefest Apostles, and yet they lent an ear to calumniators, when they slandered him.
By the chiefest Apostles some understand his rivals, who arrogated to themselves the precedence. (918) I understand it, however, as meaning — those that were chief among the twelve. “Let me be compared with any one of the Apostles, (919) I have no fear, that I shall be found inferior.” For, although Paul was on the best of terms with all the Apostles, so that he was prepared to extol them above himself, he, nevertheless, contended against their names when falsely assumed. (920) For the false Apostles abused this pretext, that they had been in the company of the twelve — that they were in possession of all their views (921) — that they were fully acquainted with all their institutions, and the like. Hence Paul, perceiving that they falsely gloried in these masks and counterfeit titles, and were successful, to some extent, among unlearned persons, (922) reckoned it necessary to enter upon a comparison of that nature. (923)
The correction that he adds — though I am nothing, means, that Paul was not disposed to claim any thing as his own, but simply gloried in the Lord, (2Co 10:17,) unless, perhaps, you prefer to consider this as a concession, in which he makes mention of what is thrown out against him by adversaries and slanderers. (924)
(916) “ Qui deuoyent les premiers faire cet office — ascauoir de le loyer;” — “Who ought to have been the first to discharge that office — that of praising him.”
(917) “The Apostle, in defending himself, was aware how near he approached the language of a fool, that is, a man desirous of vain glory, and how liable what he had written was to be attributed to that motive. It is on this account that he obviates the charge which he knew his adversaries would allege. ‘Yes,’ says he, ‘I speak as a fool […] but ye have compelled me.’ This was owning that, as to his words, they might, indeed, be considered as vain glorying, if the occasion were overlooked: but, if that were justly considered, it would be found that they ought rather to be ashamed than he, for having reduced him to the disagreeable necessity of speaking in his own behalf.” — Fuller s Works, volume 3. — Ed.
(918) “ Qui s’attribuoyent le premier lieu et souuerain degre;” — “Who claimed for themselves the first place and highest rank.”
(919) “ Qu’on m’accompare auec lequel qu’on voudra des Apostres;” — “Let them compare me with whom they choose among the Apostles.”
(920) “ Faussement vsurpez et controuuez;” — “When falsely claimed and counterfeited.”
(921) “ Qu’ils entendoyent bien toute leur intention;” — “That they understood well their entire design.”
(922) “ Et par ce moyen ils acqueroyent credit enuers les simples et idiots “ — “And by this means they gained credit among the simple and unlearned.”
(923) “ Ne pouuoit faire autrement qu’il ne veinst a faire ceste comparaison de soy et des plus excellens Apostres;” — “Could not do otherwise than enter upon this comparison between himself and the most eminent of the Apostles.”
(924) “ Ce que les malueillans et detracteurs gazouilloyent de luy;” — “What malevolent persons and slanderers chirped respecting him.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Appleburys Comments
Admission of Foolishness
Scripture
2Co. 12:11-13. I am become foolish: ye compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I am nothing. 12 Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, by signs and wonders and mighty works. 13 For what is there wherein ye were made inferior to the rest of the churches, except it be that I myself was not a burden to you? forgive me this wrong.
Comments
I am become foolish.Paul did not hesitate to remind the Corinthians that he should have been commended by them. Their very position in relation to Christ depended upon the gospel which he had preached to them. Through his preaching and their obedience he had become their father in Christ and they were his children. His credentials as an apostle were well known to them. Through them they had been given spiritual gifts involving the word of wisdom and knowledge as well as the powers by which these were proven to be the revelation from God. See 1Co. 12:8-10. It is difficult to understand how they could have forgotten all this and gladly listened to the claims of false teachers in the absence of Paul.
though I am nothing.Paul readily admitted that in himself he was nothing. The favor that God had granted him had enabled him to do the work of an apostle. He had therefore refused to boast in anything save his own weakness. But though he was nothing, he maintained that he was in no way inferior to the super-apostles who had attacked him in order to gain power over those whom he had converted to Christ.
by signs and wonders and mighty works.These were the credentials of the apostles through which the Lord demonstrated His approval on their ministry. They were guided by the Holy Spirit into all the truth pertaining to life and godliness. What credentials could the super-apostles present? Empty claims and boastful pretensions!
inferior to the rest of the churches.The Corinthians knew that they had been in everything enriched in him, in all utterance and all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed among them (1Co. 1:5-6). They lacked no gift that would enable them to conduct themselves as true followers of Christ while awaiting the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had preached the same gospel to them that he had preached to all the churches. He had performed the same apostolic signs in their midst that he had shown in all the churches.
except it be that I myself was not a burden to you?This is an ironical thrust at those teachers who were seeking, if indeed they had not already been receiving, support from the church at Corinth.
forgive me this wrong.In the height of irony, Paul begged for their forgiveness! They knew that there was nothing to forgive. Did they burn with shame when they remembered how he had labored in their midst while insisting on preaching the gospel of Christ to them for nothing?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Butlers Commentary
SECTION 2
Weakness in Bearing (2Co. 12:11-18)
11 I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these superlative apostles, even though I am nothing. 12The signs of a true apostle were performed among you in all patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. 13For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!
14 Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you; for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls, If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less? 16But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by guile. 17Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? 18I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?
2Co. 12:11-13 Spiritual Signs: Pauls opponents (the Judaizers) had tried to convince the Corinthian Christians that Paul did not have the bearing of a true apostle. His appearance, his attitude was not commensurate with the popular idea of how a true apostle would display himself.
Pauls answer: My opponents idea of a true apostle is foolishness! They think only in terms of worldly signs and worldly attitudes. They think a true apostle would go about boasting of his miraculous powers and showing them off at every opportunity.
Everything Paul had gloried in was true! But the foolishness of having to glory in things which were his only by the grace of God bothered him. So he says, I have been a fool! They had forced (Gr. enagkasate, compelled, constrained see Mat. 14:22; Luk. 14:23; Gal. 2:3; Gal. 2:14) him into the foolish game of comparing and glorying. They should have commended (Gr. sunistasthai, literally, stood beside him) him. They should have defended his apostleship and his personal integrity. Even if his bearing made him to appear to be nothing (Gr. ouden, unsophisticated, unschooled, and unpleasant to look at, he was in no way inferior (Gr. husteresa, behind, destitute, English prefix hyster- comes from this word and means, loss of) to these pseudo-apostles who think they are super-duper (note his sarcasm). Bearing or appearance is outward and may be faked. The Pharisees were very religious in their bearing but it was all hypocritical. Modern image-makers have produced a number of men in the religious market who have the bearing of minister of God. But what message do they preach? How does their personal life measure with the Bible? The Corinthians, of all people, should have defended Paul.
First, the signs (Gr. semeia, that which points to, signals, evidences) of a true (Gr. men, indeed, actual, truly) apostle were performed (Gr. kateirgasthe, worked) among these Corinthian Christians. Paul endured (Gr. hupomone, remained under, was patient) much immaturity and stubbornness by the Corinthians in order to win them to Christ and build them up in the faith. He confirmed the gospel message with signs and wonders and mighty works (Gr. semeiois te kai terasin kai dunamesin) to bring them to faith. And then he imparted to them wonderful miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit (see I Cor. chapters 1214) to build them up in their faith and to preserve the true apostolic gospel since there were probably no inspired documents containing the gospel readily available to the churches at that point in time. They came behind no church in possessing miraculous gifts by which to be edified. They came behind no church in receiving the services of a true apostle. Paul wrote them three or four letters and visited them at least three times. He sent his most prized co-laborers (Timothy, Apollos, Titus) often to work with the Corinthians (see Act. 18:1; Act. 18:5; 1Co. 4:17; 1Co. 16:10; Rom. 16:21; 1Co. 3:5; 1Co. 4:6; 1Co. 16:12; 2Co. 2:13; 2Co. 7:5-16; 2Co. 8:16-24; 2Co. 12:18). They should have commended him. Instead, they defamed him, and were about to repudiate his ministry among them.
Even though he had imparted to them miraculous powers no one but a true apostle could give, they were ready to reject his spiritual leadership. Their rationalization for rejecting him may be found in their attitude toward the spiritual gifts (see I Cor. chapters 1214). While Paul directed them to desire the gift of prophecy (inspired teaching) which would edify everyone, they were so spiritually immature they clamored for the showy gift of speaking in a foreign language (tongues) which edified no one but the person speaking. Paul showed the Corinthians signs, but he emphasized the spiritual, the practical, the teaching signs. They wanted the spectacular, the worldly, the ostentatious. Pauls opponents, the pseudo-apostles, were probably telling the congregation that a true apostle would bear himself more spectacularly than a mere teacher. They probably challenged Pauls claim that he was able to speak in tongues more than you all (1Co. 14:18) and mocked his preference to speak five words with the mind, in order to instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue (1Co. 14:19).
Paul had given the Corinthians all the spiritual advantage he could. The only favor he had not done for them was burden them. He means he had not taken financial support from them (see comments 2Co. 11:7-15). Does Paul mean to ask their forgiveness for an actual wrong (2Co. 12:13)? Had he really wronged them (Gr. adikian, an injustice)? While it is altogether possible that a congregation may be wronged or even do itself an injustice by not having the opportunity to financially support the preaching of the gospel, we think Paul is using sarcasm here. Paul clearly believed he was benefiting the Corinthian church by taking no financial remuneration from them although he took it from others (Php. 4:15-18). But someone had convinced the Corinthians that the bearing of a true apostle would require being a financial burden on the congregation. This issue must have been very significant for Paul to keep mentioning it!
2Co. 12:14-18 Sacrificial Service: The signs of a true apostle are (1) having seen the risen Lord Jesus; (2) performance of miracles; (3) preaching a gospel of grace. But what Paul is dealing with here, in context, is another important sign of a true apostlesacrificial service. Humility, dependence on Gods grace, working to edify Christians and congregationsthese are what a true apostle does. How much edifying had the pseudo-apostles done? None! They were tearing apart. What had the pseudo-apostles given to the Corinthians? Nothing! They were taking.
J.B. Phillips translates 2Co. 12:14-15 : Now I am all ready to visit you for the third time, and I am still not going to be a burden to you. It is you I wantnot your money. Children dont have to put by their savings for their parents; parents do that for their children. Consequently, I will most gladly spend and be spent for your good, even though it means that the more I love you, the less you love me. Paul is not contradicting the rest of the Bible saying that children have no responsibility to honor (support financially) their aged parents who may need it. Paul is the one who told children that supporting (honoring) their parents was the first commandment with a promise (Eph. 6:2). Paul is referring here to young children at home who are not mature enough to work and support their parents. Paul is not going to ask the Corinthian church (his baby) to support him. They still need to be matured, built up, strengthened. He will support them! Like a father, his hearts desire is to give of himself so that his children may grow into adulthood.
Whatever it takes to accomplish that Paul is glad (Gr. hedista, sweetly) to give. His children are sweet to him. He loves them with all his being. He will sweetly spend (Gr. dapaneso, expend, consume, squander, see Luk. 15:14) and be spent (Gr. ekdapanethesomai, first person, singular, future, indicative passive, allow myself to be consumed, exhausted)for your souls (Gr. huper ton psuchon, on behalf of your souls). He is willing to be completely used up, depleted of energy, strength and worldly possessions for their spiritual good (souls). A man who would be willing to be anathema from Christ for the sake of his Jewish brethren (Rom. 9:1-2) would be sincere in this promise as uncommon as it may be even among Christians.
If Paul had shown more love for the Corinthians than he had for other churches, this would not be strange. Love must necessarily be more often shown to problem children than to others. This does not mean he loved the Corinthians more. He is trying to cajole them or chide them and call them back to their devotion to him. Abundant love to the problem child is often repaid by rebuff and rejection (see the prophet Hosea).
They (opponents and the few Corinthians they had seduced) were saying Paul was being crafty by not taking financial support from the congregation. They were probably accusing Paul of some ulterior scheme, some nefarious plan to really defraud the congregation, setting them up by faking humility and sacrificial service. They were saying that if he had been a true apostle he would have taken their money and bossed them around and made a spectacular show of his miraculous powers. The Greek phrase alla huparchon panourgos dolo humas elabon is a participial phrase, and, literally translated is, But being cunning with guile, you I took and means, being thoroughly unscrupulous. They accused Paul of snaring, trapping or baiting the Corinthians like one who hunts animals.
His answer is four straightforward, rhetorical questions: (1) Did I take advantage (Gr. epleonektesa, defraud, lead astray) of you through any of those whom I sent to you? (2) Did Titus take advantage of you? (3) Did we not act in the same spirit? (4) Did we not take the same steps? Evidently they were saying Paul had taken no support from the Corinthians, but that the offering he took for Judea was going to go into his pocket. They knew Titus had not taken advantage of them. They knew Titus had not acted dishonestly. Timothy and Titus and Apollos had ministered among them for many months. They were Pauls children in the faith. They had not defrauded the Corinthians. Now, Paul asks, Was my behavior among you any different than theirs? How can they believe a man who could produce such exemplary Christian servants as these would be dishonest with them? How the great heart of this selfless servant of Christ must have ached! What stress it must have caused, what sadness, what temptation he must have had to quit the ministry to leave the Corinthians to their fate! But he didnt. He exhausted himself for them.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(11) I am become a fool in glorying.The two last words are wanting in the better MSS., and the verse opens with a somewhat thrilling abruptness,I am become insaneit was you (emphatic) who compelled me. The words are partly ironicalpartly speak of an impatient consciousness that what he had been saying would seem to give colour to the opprobrious epithets that had been flung at him. The passage on which we now enter, and of which we may think as begun after a pause, is remarkable for the reproduction, in a compressed form, of most of the topics, each with its characteristic phrase, on which he had before dwelt. The violence of the storm is over, but the sky is not yet clear, and we still hear the mutterings of the receding thunder He remembers once more that he has been called insane; that he has been taunted with commending himself; that he has-been treated as nothing in comparison with those apostles-extraordinary who were setting themselves up as his rivals. I, he says, with an emphatic stress on the pronoun, ought to have had no need for this painful self-assertion. You ought to have acknowledged my labour and my love for you.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. I a fool in glorying The last allusion of Paul, after a back glance, over what he has said, to his glorying.
I have become well, they will say a fool; even though I have gloried only in my sufferings, passive revelations, and disgraces.
Ought of you For all the folly of my self-assertion, even thus much, I am justified, and the responsibility rests with you. You ought, by your bold, magnanimous assertion of me against my detractors, to have made my self-assertion unnecessary. But for even this un-trueness the apostle would not have reprehended them were it not that their untrueness to him was, in the case, an untrueness to Christ.
For Giving reason why they ought to have asserted him. Am Was, Greek aorist, namely, was in my apostolate at Corinth.
Chiefest apostles The overmuch apostles. Note, 2Co 11:5; same as the false apostles, 2Co 11:13.
Be nothing In myself, though something in Christ; as they are nothing in themselves, and something in nothing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I am become foolish, you compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you. For in nothing was I behind the very highest ranking apostles, though I am nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, by signs and wonders and mighty works.’
Having bared his soul to them he now declares once again that all this boasting has been foolishness. He feels he has become foolish. But only because they had forced him to it. It was their fault. They should have been commending him because of what he was, as the chosen Apostle of Christ by the will of God, but they had not. Instead, as they had at the painful visit, they were failing to give him support. Yet who should know better than they that in nothing had he fallen short of the highest ranking Apostles, the Twelve. As much as any he had patiently wrought signs and wonders and mighty works among them.
Miracles were performed in virtually every city that Paul visited. In Paphos (Act 13:6-12); in Iconium (Act 14:3); in Lystra (Act 14:8-10); in Philippi (Act 16:16-18); in Thessalonica (1Th 1:5); in Corinth (1Co 2:4 ]; in Ephesus (Act 19:11-12); in Troas (Act 20:9-12); and in Malta (Act 28:1-10). In fact, Paul in his letters says repeatedly that his preaching was not merely one of word but of “power and the Spirit” (see for example, Rom 15:19; 1Co 2:4; Gal 3:5; 1Th 1:5).
‘Though I am nothing.’ But he does not want them to think that he has turned to boasting again. Ei with the indicative denotes what is fact in someone’s eyes. So Paul is saying that in the eyes of the world, and certainly of the pseudo-apostles and some of the Corinthians he counts for nothing, and he does not deny that they are right. It is not he who counts for anything, but God. The opposition has already alleged that he lacks formal letters of commendation, that his speaking amounts to nothing and that he is unimpressive in his person (2Co 3:1-3; 2Co 10:10).
Or it may reflect his own self-recognition. While he can say that he is not the least bit inferior to the other apostles in signs and wonders, he always attributes his success to the grace of God within him (1Co 15:10). In and of himself he is aware that the “least of the Apostles” and the “chief of sinners,” because he had persecuted the church of God (1Co 15:9; 1Ti 1:15).
‘Signs and wonders and mighty works among them.’ An all-inclusive description covering every type of miracle.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Paul’s Final Plea In 2Co 12:11-13 Paul makes a final plea for the Corinthians to accept his apostleship. He summarizes the qualifications of the office on an apostle of Jesus Christ by saying, “the signs of an apostle were wrought (through Paul) among (the Corinthians) in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds,” (2Co 12:12).
2Co 12:11 I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
2Co 12:11
“ye have compelled me” Comments – He immediately rolled the blame upon the Corinthians. This next statement is emphatic in the Greek, “You (yourselves) have compelled me.”
“for I ought to have been commended of you” Comments – Paul supports this accusation by explain that the Corinthians should have never tolerated the negative remarks towards him made by the Judaizers in their midst. They should have stood up and defended their leader against such discredit. The word “ought” ( ) (G3784) implies a debt that was owed him by the Corinthians. It means, “to owe (pecuniarily),” and figuratively, “to be under obligation.” ( Strong) They should have recognized their obligation to defend him, but they had not done so. For this reason, Paul had to defend himself. Again, the Greek is emphatic, “for I (myself) ought to have been commended by all of you.”
“for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles” Comments – Paul recognizes the fact that his calling is equal in importance to the leading apostles of the Church. The phrase “in nothing” is emphatic because it opens this statement. Thus, Paul is saying, “For in no single thing can you find me less qualified than the leading apostles: (I was called by Christ Himself, as the Twelve were called; I was sent out by the Church as they were; I operate in the gifts of the Spirit and miracles as they do; I am persecuted and suffer hardship as they do; I preach the same Gospel that they preach.)” In fact, the next verse (2Co 12:12) will refer to the miracles in his ministry that justify this statement that he is equal to the chief apostles.
“though I be nothing” Comments – Despite his high calling, Paul recognizes that he is nothing apart from Christ. We find Paul making a similar statement in 1Co 15:10, “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Another place where Paul refers to his humble status is in Eph 3:8, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;” Paul recognized that everything he has achieved was by the grace of God. He gives no credit to himself. Yet, he recognizes that Christ has called him into an office and ministry that equals in importance the calling of the apostles in Jerusalem.
2Co 12:12 Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.
2Co 12:12
1Co 2:4, “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:”
2Co 12:13 For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.
What Paul Expects of the Corinthians.
Their love should have commended him in his love for them:
v. 11. I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you; for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
v. 12. Truly, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.
v. 13. For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!
v. 14. Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you; for I seek not yours; but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
v. 15. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
v. 16. But be it so, I did not burden you; nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
Paul here turns the fact of his boasting against the Corinthians, to their reproach, saying that his becoming foolish in that way, in a manner which he personally considers scandalous, was occasioned by their having omitted commendation of him: For I should have been commended, praised, of you; for in nothing do I fall behind those superfine, those very superior, apostles to whom you have yielded obedience so readily, that is, the Judaizing teachers, the false prophets who had disturbed the Corinthians. And this in spite of the fact that, in the low estimate which he places upon himself, he is nothing, just as he calls himself the least of the apostles, 1Co 15:9. He realized fully that he was nothing, that nothing depended upon his person, upon his ability, upon his talents, that he was not indispensable to the work, that he was merely an instrument of grace in the hands of his Lord, that Christ was all in all.
But so far as the false apostles are concerned, against whom the present passage is directed, he will not for one moment admit their superiority: The signs of an apostle indeed were wrought among you in all patience, by signs as well as by wonders and powers. The special indications of his apostolic authority, the signs which marked him at once as an apostle of the Lord, the miracles and powers which had been given to the Lord’s servants as a seal of their calling, Mar 16:17-18, had been wrought in Corinth through his agency. What greater proof did they desire? Why did they withhold from him the proper acknowledgment?
Paul refers also to that moot question as to his supporting himself while preaching in Corinth: For what is it wherein you were inferior to the other congregations, except that I myself did not burden you? Had they reached such a point in their critical attitude that they felt insulted and set back because he had insisted upon earning his own means of subsistence, and had saved them the money which they really owed him? If this was really their attitude, then, as he ironically adds, they should forgive him that wrong; he humbly craves their pardon for having slighted them. But instead of changing his method, he expressly declares: Behold, this is the third time that I am ready to come to you, and I shall not be a burden. His first visit was that related in Act 18:1-28; of his second we have no account, although he refers to it, chap. 13:1-2; 2:1. In carrying out his intention of visiting them, he has decided to abide by his practice and not to demand money for his support from them: For I seek not yours, but you. No one should be able to make the charge against him that he is seeking their money, their goods. His only motive is to gain them for Christ and keep them in fellowship with Christ. In support of this principle he quotes a proverbial saying: For the children are not bound to gather treasures for the parents, but the parents for the children. See Pro 29:14. He was their spiritual father, and as such he was concerned about gathering spiritual treasures for them, making them the heirs of the wonderful spiritual gifts which had been entrusted to him for their benefit.
In this spirit his attitude toward them is: But I very gladly will spend, and be wholly spent, for your souls. Such is the apostle’s love for the Corinthians that not only was every thought of gain for himself excluded, but he was also ready, with a hearty good will, to give up all that he had in the world for them, yea, to sacrifice his life, if he could thereby promote their spiritual welfare. It is the same unselfish devotion which he exhibited also at other times, 1Th 2:8; Php_2:17 ; 2Ti 2:10. But he is obliged to add, with melancholy sadness: If I loved you more abundantly, am I loved the less? or: Although the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. He was willing to go to the utmost in overcoming their prejudice and hostility, but he was not meeting with success in proportion, rather in inverse ratio, a fact which he felt very keenly. Yet his love is able to make even this sacrifice: But be it so! He at least has the satisfaction that he has not burdened them with his maintenance, and this the Corinthians must concede. Now, however, his opponents made another insinuation: But being crafty, I caught you with guile. They insinuated that he was keen enough to take care of his own advantage, that he did not accept any means of support directly, but that he was not above suspicion in the matter of the collection alleged to be for the poor in Judea. This matter he now takes up, in the last part of the chapter.
2Co 12:11 . Paul now comes to a stand, and surveys how much he has said in commendation of himself from chap. 11 onward. This retrospect extorts from him the admission: , but as respects its contents he at once proceeds to justify himself, and to impute the blame to the readers. It is not to be taken either as a question or in the sense of a hypothetical protasis (Hofmann gives a choice between the two). The . . ., asyndetic, but all the more striking, gives no ground for such a weakening of the meanin.
] ironical exclamation; for it is clear from 2Co 11:16 , 2Co 12:6 , that Paul did not really regard his apologetic hitherto as a work of folly. But the opponents took it so! In the emphatically prefixed (comp. 2Co 5:17 ) there is implied: it has come to pass that I am a fool! This now subsists as accomplished fact! “Receptui canit,” Benge.
. . .] This justifies him and blames the Corinthians for that . The emphatic , and afterwards the , the emphasis of which Rckert failed to perceive, correspond to each other significantly: you have compelled me; for I had a claim to be commended by you , instead of commending myself. The stress is on , next to the , in which there is a side-glance at the pseudo-apostles, boastful themselves, and boasted of by their partisan.
. . .] Reason assigned for . See, moreover, on 2Co 11:5 . The aorist refers to the time of his working at Corinth. The negative form of expression is a pointed litote.
] although I am quite without value and without importance. The same humility as in 1Co 15:8-10 . But how fraught with shame for the opposing party, with which those false apostles were of so great account! And in this way the significant weight of this closing concessive clause is stronger and more telling than if it were attached as protasis to what follows (Hofmann). It is more striking .
In regard to , see on 1Co 13:2 ; Gal 6:3 .
(11) I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. (12) Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. (13) For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong. (14) Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. (15) And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. (16) But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. (17) Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? (18) I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? (19) Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. (20) For I fear, lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: (21) And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
I have already observed, that everything as relating to the Apostle’s person, hath been, as much as could be, avoided enlarging upon. The Church of Corinth, (of whose infirmities and unkindness to him Paul complained,) and Paul himself, (with all those complaints,) have long since ceased. Our improvements of those sweet scriptures, are to be directed to such parts of them as are detached from all matters of a private, transient nature, and are of public and everlasting usefulness its the Church of Christ. And these are very sweet and precious. It will be our mercy to be looking unto the Spirit for grace, while perusing those holy records concerning the Church, that the improvements the Lord intended for them may not be overlooked by us, but that Christ’s grace to us, as it was to the Apostle, may be suited in all departments, and with all-sufficiency, that we may find cause, as Paul did, to give Jesus all the glory, when his strength is made perfect in our weakness, and we find more strength’ in the Lord, when discovering greater weakness in ourselves.
11 I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
Ver. 11. For in nothing am I behind ] And yet there were a sort of silly souls (that thought themselves jolly fellows) in the days of Zuinglius, A. D. 1519, that talked thus at Zurich: Quis tandem Paulus? nonne homo est? Apostolus est, sed suburbanus tantum, non Exo 12:1-51 viris, non cum Christo est conversatus, articulum fidei non composuit. What was Paul? but a man. An apostle he was, but of an inferior rank; he was not of the twelve; he conversed not with Christ; he composed not any of the 12 articles of the Creed. We would as soon believe Thomas of Scotus, as Paul, &c. “I am as much an apostle as they, who are more than much apostles,” saith St Paul here (for so the Greek runs); but ( contra sycophantae morsum non est remedium ) he cannot be heard.
11 18. ] He excuses his boasting, and is thereby led to speak of the signs of an Apostle wrought among them, and to reassert his disinterestedness in preaching to them, on occasion of his past and intended visits .
11. ] I am BECOME (the emphasis on , I am verily become a fool, viz. by this boasting, which I have now concluded. ‘Receptui canit:’ Bengel. But it is still ironical, spoken from the situation of his adversaries) a fool: ye compelled me ( emphatic). For I ( also emphatic, but more with reference to what has passed: ‘ ye compelled me , it was no doing of mine , for I &c.’ The meaning is not, as De W., “ I , not mine adversaries,” who are an element foreign to the present sentence) ought to have been recommended by you (emphatic, by you, not by himself ): for I was nothing behind (when I was with you) these overmuch Apostles (see on ch. 2Co 11:5 ; but here even more plainly than there, the expression cannot be applied to the other Apostles, seeing that the aor. would in that case be inconsistent with the fact the Corinthians never having had an opportunity of comparing him with them), even though I am nothing (see similar expressions of humility, 1Co 15:9-11 ).
2Co 12:11-13 . THE FOREGOING TESTIMONY TO HIS CLAIMS OUGHT TO HAVE COME FROM THE CORINTHIANS WHO WITNESSED HIS APOSTOLIC LABOURS.
2Co 12:11 . . . .: I am become foolish, sc. , boasting thus: ye compelled me, i.e. , it was your doing; for I ought to have been commended by you ( cf. 2Co 3:1 , 1Co 9:1 ), i.e. , you should not have left it to me to speak my own praises: for in nothing was I behind the superfine Apostles , whom you trust so readily, although I am nothing, sc. , in God’s eyes ( cf. Joh 8:54 , 1Co 3:7 ). Of the Apostles properly so called, St. Paul calls himself (1Co 15:9 ); but he will not admit for a moment the superiority of the Corinthian Judaisers.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 2Co 12:11-13
11I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. 12The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles. 13For in what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not become a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!
2Co 12:11 “I have become foolish” This is a perfect active indicative. Some faction (i.e., 1 Corinthians 1-4) or some group of itinerant false teachers (i.e., 2 Corinthians 10-13) have attacked Paul, his leadership, his authority, his style of speaking, and the gospel. So, Paul had to defend himself. He did this in several ways.
1. compared his life with theirs
2. used their style of rhetoric, but with humility
3. used sarcasm to make his points
See SPECIAL TOPIC: TERMS FOR FOOLISH PEOPLE at 1Co 15:36.
“I” The emphatic “I” (i.e., eg) is used in 2Co 12:11; 2Co 12:13; 2Co 12:15-16.
“commended” See full note at 2Co 3:1.
“in no respect was I inferior to the most eminent apostles” See full note at 2Co 11:5.
“if” This is a first class conditional sentence used for literary purposes to make his point, not reality. Paul was not inferior to them in any sense.
“I am a nobody” Paul knew and understood his position in grace alone (cf. 1Co 15:9; Eph 3:8; 1Ti 1:15). He also knew his position as a called, gifted Apostle (cf. Acts 8, 22, 26)!
2Co 12:12 “by signs and wonders and miracles” Paul’s ministry was evidenced by the power of God (cf. 1Co 2:4; 1Co 4:20; Rom 15:19). However, it was not just in miracles, but in his attitude and actions toward this church which proved he was from God.
2Co 12:13 “I myself did not become a burden to you” Paul would not allow this factious church to help him. He did let the churches at Philippi (Php 4:15) and Thessalonica (1Th 3:6), but only after he had left the cities. It hurt the church at Corinth’s feelings (cf. 2Co 12:13 a), but Paul would not budge because of the accusations of the false teachers (cf. 2Co 11:8-20). However, Paul did support (as a principle) the church’s financial assistance for ministers (cf. 1Co 9:3-18).
“churches” See Special Topic at 1Co 1:2.
“Forgive me this wrong” This is biting sarcasm.
in glorying, The texts omit.
Commended. Greek. sunistemi. See 2Co 3:1,
of = by. Greek. hupo. App-104.
nothing. Greek. oudeis.
am I behind. Greek hustereo. See Rom 3:23, and Compare 2Co 11:5 and 1Co 1:7.
very chiefest. See 2Co 11:5.
apostles. App-189.
though = even if. Greek. ei (App-118. a) kai.
11-18.] He excuses his boasting, and is thereby led to speak of the signs of an Apostle wrought among them, and to reassert his disinterestedness in preaching to them, on occasion of his past and intended visits.
2Co 12:11. , I am become) He sounds a retreat.-, I ought) An interchange of persons, i.e., you ought to have commended me [instead of my having to commend myself].- ) by you, among you.- , though I am nothing) of myself.
2Co 12:11
2Co 12:11
I am become foolish:-He had said that glorying was foolishness, and painful to his feelings; but he was forced to do it.
ye compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles,-All the fault of this foolish boasting was theirs. They knew him intimately. They had derived great benefit from his ministry, and they were bound in gratitude, and from a regard to right and truth to vindicate him. But they had not done so; and hence through their fault, he had been compelled to go into this unpleasant vindication of his own character.
though I am nothing.-[He felt that what was the effect of grace, or free gift of God, was no ground of self-exultation. (1Co 4:7; 1Co 15:8-10). There was therefore united in himself a deep sense of his own unworthiness and impotence, with the conviction and consciousness of being full of knowledge, grace, and power, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.]
I Seek not Yours, but You
2Co 12:11-21
The long burst of passionate self-vindication has now at last expended itself, says Dean Stanley, and Paul returns to the point whence he diverged at 2Co 10:7, where he was avowing his intention to repress the disobedience of those who still resisted his authority at Corinth. Now, he says, my folly is over. That I should have indulged in it is your fault, not mine. What a comfort it is that he lays such repeated stress on his weakness! Instead of complaining of it, he used it as an argument with Christ that He should put forth more grace, and as an argument with his converts, that the results of his work had been granted as the divine endorsement of his apostolate.
Paul felt that his paternal relation to this church gave him the right to rebuke them, as a father rebukes his children. But he realized that they did not reciprocate his love, probably because they permitted the evil things enumerated in the closing verses. Often moral obliquity accounts for the decline and failure of love. Among other things, they had even accused him of getting money, if not directly, yet through Titus. But there were worse things still that needed to be dealt with, 2Co 12:20-21. Would that we were more often humbled to the dust by the sins of our brethren!
Helping Or Hindering Christian Testimony
2Co 12:11-21
I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong. Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: and lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. (vv. 11-21)
The church of God is the holiest thing there is on earth, and yet there are a great many imperfections in that church. It is absolutely the best thing in the world today. If you were suddenly to take the church of God out of this world, what a mixed, conglomerate mass of iniquity would be left behind! You can realize that better if you stop to consider what the church of God has meant throughout the centuries. People often debate the question as to whether the world is better or worse than it was nineteen hundred years ago. Some insist that the world is worse, and that it is constantly getting worse. They quote the Scripture, Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived (2Ti 3:13). Others insist that the world is better, and they point to the millions of Christian people, to the kindliness and the interest in the poor and needy that prevail in many lands where once the vilest cruelty existed. But, in my judgment, both are wrong.
The world is no worse than it was nineteen hundred years ago. When Scripture says that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, it is simply telling us what has always been true, and always will be true of people who turn away from God. As men give themselves up to evil, certainly they get worse and worse as time goes on. That was always so; it is so today. Wherever you find evil men, they grow worse and worse. But the world is not worse today than it was when our blessed Lord Jesus was here. The greatest crime that has ever been committed was committed nineteen hundred years ago in the murder of the Son of God. Now the world continues to condone that crime, and as long as it continues to reject the Lord Jesus Christ it will never get any better. Therefore the world is not getting any better. It is not improving. But, you say, think of the Christians, of the churches all over the land, of the kindliness and interest in the needy that prevail in many places. Yes, we take all that into consideration, but the question is this, Is the world getting any better? If you want to find out if the world is getting any better, you must subtract the church. If you could imagine this scene with every Christian gone, you would have the world, and you would find that world just as corrupt, just as vile, just as wicked as it was nineteen hundred years ago. It is true that this globe is a much more comfortable place on which to have a home than it was nineteen hundred years ago. We enjoy a great many inventions, and have benefited by a great many things that minister to human need and comfort that were unknown then, but these things do not change the hearts of men. Men are just as wicked with electricity, with radios, with streamline trains, with motorboats, with airplanes, as they were before these things were known.
In this world there is something very dear to the heart of the Son of God. He called it, my church. When Peter made his great declaration, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock [the Rock that thou hast confessed] I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Mat 16:16-18). The Holy Spirit has likened that church to Christs body, His bride-Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word (Eph 5:25-26).
The church is looked at in two aspects. In the first place it includes all believers everywhere at any time since the day of Pentecost. Now, whether these people have intimate church relationship with others or not, they belong to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all (Eph 1:22-23). But the Scripture also contemplates churches. You read of the churches of Galatia, the churches of Judea, the seven churches of Asia, etc., and these local churches are groups of confessed believers. Not always are all of them real believers, but presumably, they all profess to be believers, and so gather together for worship, for praise, for prayer, and for Christian testimony. This has been so from the beginning. Those that received [the] word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers (Act 2:41-42). We need this fellowship, we need this outward expression of Christian testimony, and so God by His Spirit forms local churches in various places where His people gather together thus to worship Him. There are some who say, I am a Christian and belong to the church, the body of Christ, and I do not need to be associated with any local body of Christians. If I could find one absolutely perfect, I would join it. But then, it would be spoiled after you got in, for you would be the first bad thing in it, because you would go in with that critical spirit of yours, and that would spoil the whole testimony. It is never contemplated in Scripture that local churches will be perfect companies of believers. From the beginning you find a great many imperfect people in local assemblies, but that is no reason why they should be disbanded. Therefore, you and I as Christians are responsible to walk in fellowship with other Christians. They need us and we need them. Some people who find it very difficult to get along with others get a great blessing for putting up with them. The hardest thing, if endured for Christs sake, will bring blessing. It drives us to our knees to self-examination, leads us to ask ourselves, What is the matter with me that I find it so hard to please such absolutely good people? We are all just poor sinners saved by grace, but someday we are going to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ, and as He is so patient with us, we can afford to be patient one with another.
We find from this epistle that there was a great deal in the early church that was far from satisfactory. We have seen the difficulties the apostle Paul had even with his own converts. He would go into a certain place and lead people to Christ, and it would not be long before they thought they knew more than he did, and some of them, in their own estimation, became so much holier than he that they no longer wanted to have fellowship with him!
As he comes to the last part of the portion of the epistle, in which he has attempted to justify his own ministry, Paul shows us that there are both helpers and hinderers in the church of God. You can settle it in your own mind as to which you are, whether a helper or a hinderer. You are one or the other. You are either helping the testimony, spreading the gospel, commending Christ to other people, or you are hindering, by leading people to question whether there is anything real in the salvation of which we speak.
Let us notice first of all how grace wrought in the apostle Paul. He did not like to speak of himself, but the Holy Spirit made him do so. For the fourth or fifth time he says that he is a fool as he speaks of himself, I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you. God had given him this mission and he could not think lightly of it. Because he had led them to Christ he should have been commended of them. It was like little children trying to tell a father what to do and how to behave. Not so very many months ago I was in a home and something was going on upstairs while I waited in the car. A young lady of about seventeen years of age came down the stairs, and said to me, You must excuse me, I do get so angry. I have an awful job making father behave! That is the spirit of the day, and these Corinthians were trying to regulate their father in Christ.
Paul now says that he has to tell them something of the mission entrusted to him, which was not given to any other man. He says, For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing. You have here a wonderful combination of the importance of the mission committed to him and of Christian humility. He would have been false to his commission had he failed to recognize the fact that he was indeed in nothing behind the very chiefest apostles. The Lord Jesus Christ had committed to him such a ministry as no other apostle had fully entered into, but he to whom this ministry was committed said, Though I be nothing. In his first epistle to them he rebuked the Corinthians for making too much of leaders and saying, I am of Paul; and I am of Apollos; and I am of Cephas, and says, Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed? (1Co 1:12; 3:5). But the minister is nothing, Christ is all, and so he sets the example of true Christian humility. One who would be a helper in the work of the Lord must be a humble man. God refuses to identify His name for long with those that walk in pride. Those that walk in pride he is able to abase (Dan 4:37). If we have not the mind of Christ, we will not be used of God as He would like to use us. Let us search our own hearts and see whether we are cherishing that unholy pride which goes before destruction. There is many a man of remarkable ability whom God has to put to one side because a proud, haughty spirit comes in continually to interfere with the work of the Lord. May God teach us to be lowly, and help us to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing (Col 1:10).
Notice in the third place, the devotedness of this man. In verse 12 we read, Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. The miracles he wrought proved he was divinely approved and accredited. For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong. Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. He was out in the work of the Lord and he was unequaled as a teacher and a preacher. Did he set a price upon his ministry? Did he say, I refuse to preach, to teach, unless you pay me a certain salary? No, he said, I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. And when he found there was a wrong spirit among them he decided that he would take nothing from them, and all the time he was ministering to them he had received his support from other churches who sent their offerings to him. These Corinthians did not understand it, and so said, He cannot be a real apostle or he would be taking money for his services. But he says, The very fact that I am here to serve you freely ought to be to you the evidence that I have no selfish motive. He was an unselfish man, a devoted man, there was something so frank, so childlike, so wholehearted about him, that it should have commended him to their love and confidence. I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved-I am willing to lay myself out for you whether you think much of me or not, I am here to do you good. And yet they tried to see some hidden motive behind it all and said, He is crafty, he is putting on this appearance of humility, he is pretending to be meek and lowly in order to have influence over us and exercise authority over us. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile! Is he saying that he did this? No, he is quoting what they said about him, for they said, He is deceitful, his apparent disinterestedness is just craft, and he is pretending to be so humble and lowly in order that he may hold us under his thumb. The apostle repudiates anything of the kind and says, My preaching was hot with enticing words of mans wisdom (1Co 2:4). Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? He had sent Titus to receive their gift for the needy saints, and with him another to count the money, that there might be no misunderstanding. Walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?-showing that our entire service was absolutely unselfish.
Then notice, his own life was summed up in living for others, Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. Although you and I are far from being apostles, yet we can all be characterized by the same spirit of humility, of devotedness to Christ, of unselfish service for others.
Now look at the contrast. See what has been manifested in these Corinthians as this evil spirit of fault-finding took hold of them. I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults. Let us face this passage honestly, and see whether we have fallen under the power of any of these unholy things. Lest there be debates. What does that mean? It is what you so often see when two or three people get to fussing about this and that. What a childish spirit this is, and yet how it hurts the work of the Lord. And then in the second place, envyings. How few people there are who can rejoice in what others are accomplishing, who can delight to see others honored and recognized. In the third place, wrath, for envy cherished leads to wrath. And how easy it is to be censorious and bitter. That which begins in a small faultfinding way, if not judged, soon degenerates into positive ill-will toward others. And then, strife. How often there is strife between Gods people. Backbitings. You know the sister who comes to you and says, Did you hear about Brother So-and-So?
No.
Well, I dont know that I ought to tell you.
Oh, yes, do.
Well, it is really awful.
And just then Brother So-and-So walks in the door, and the sisters say, Why, how do you do? We were just talking of you. Speak of an angel, and hes sure to appear! It isnt always the sisters who do this. It is often the brothers too.
Miserable hypocrites! Backbiting, saying things behind the back that they would never dare to say to the face! If every time someone said something evil or unkind behind anothers back the other person would say, Is that so? Well, let us go and talk to him about it, this thing would soon be stopped. Then, whisperings. A meeting breaks up, and a little group over here is whispering and fault-finding, and there a group is together whispering and complaining. Judge whether you have ever been guilty of anything of the kind. Swellings. I do not recall what that Greek word is, but this word always makes me think of a bullfrog sitting on a log puffing, puffing, puffing. Throw a stone at him, and he goes down to a very small size. And then, tumults. How many churches have been wrecked when at last these evil things have resulted in tumults, internal troubles that divide and destroy the work. We can be very grateful to God that through the Holy Spirit He has indicated these dangerous things so that we can avoid them and be helpers instead of hinderers.
Why did they find fault with the apostle Paul? He had to be very strict about some wicked things that had been tolerated by some people in the church at Corinth, and he says, Lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. Some of these people had fallen into unclean and unholy things, and in order to cover up their own pollution they were finding fault with Christs servant because of his faithfulness. That is always the effect of sin. Hidden sin in the life will result in unfair criticism of the servants of God who stand against things of that kind and seek to lift up a standard of holiness and purity.
And so, may we face the question, Am I a hinderer or a helper? God has committed to His church the business of making known the gospel of His grace to a lost world. I want by His help to carry it on and not to hinder. May God impress on our hearts the importance of devoted living for the blessing of others.
become: 2Co 1:6, 2Co 11:1, 2Co 11:16, 2Co 11:17
for in: 2Co 12:12, 2Co 11:5, 1Co 3:4-7, 1Co 3:22, Gal 2:6-14
though: Luk 17:10, 1Co 3:7, 1Co 15:8-10, Eph 3:8
Reciprocal: Gen 32:10 – not worthy of the least of all Num 12:3 – above Job 13:2 – General Job 27:6 – my heart Pro 20:6 – proclaim Pro 25:27 – so Pro 27:2 – General Isa 34:12 – nothing Isa 40:17 – as nothing Joh 8:14 – yet Act 16:15 – And she Rom 1:1 – called Rom 15:17 – whereof 1Co 1:28 – things which 1Co 7:40 – I think 1Co 9:1 – I not an 1Co 10:19 – that the 1Co 13:2 – I am 1Co 15:9 – the least 1Co 15:10 – but I 2Co 2:3 – I ought 2Co 2:16 – who 2Co 3:1 – begin 2Co 5:12 – we 2Co 5:13 – we be beside 2Co 10:7 – even 2Co 11:18 – I will 2Co 11:23 – I am 2Co 11:30 – must Gal 2:11 – I withstood Gal 6:3 – when Gal 6:14 – that I Phi 4:15 – in the
2Co 12:11. We often hear it said that “overindulgence will result in a spoiled child.” That is what Paul is admitting has occurred from his treatment of the Corinthian brethren. They seemed to have taken his kindness for granted, and as a result had failed to recognize the greatness of the apostle; at least they had not expressed their appreciation. That induced him to make up for it with his own glorying, which has been explained in several preceding verses. Their selfish attitude had even implied that he was an inferior apostle, and some of his personal enemies even called in question whether he could rightfully claim to be an apostle. (See 1Co 9:1-2.) Against such an attitude he asserts that he was not only an apostle, but was not inferior to the chiefest of them. Though I be nothing. Paul gives all credit to the Lord for what he was accomplishing, otherwise he could not have performed the evidences of his apostleship that they had seen.
Self-Vindication resumed, 11-21.
2Co 12:11. I am become foolish: ye compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I am nothing. See on chap. 2Co 11:5, In myself I am nothing, but as an apostle of Christ, I am compelled to affirm, in face of the detraction to which I am subjected, that not even the chiefest of the apostles has outstripped me. Stronger language still is used in the First Epistle, yet along with the most affecting expressions of utter unworthiness in himself (1Co 15:9-11).
Here again does our apostle excuse his boasting, and tells the Corinthians that they had compelled him to it, and ought to have saved him the labour of it, by defending him themselves. For he had done and suffered as much as any of the most eminent apostles, though he looked upon all as nothing: and consequently his services and sufferings, his miracles, signs, and wonders, were sufficient arguments, and undeniable demonstrations, that he was indeed an apostle of Jesus Christ.
He farther adds, That the church at Corinth had as great and excellent gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon them, by his ministry, as any church whatsoever; all the difference was, that whatever was done for them was done freely: he spared their purses, and put them to no charge. Now, says he, if that be a wrong, I hope you can easily forgive it. Corinth was a very rich and wealthy city, but they loved a cheap gospel; the apostle spared their purses, not because they were unable, but unwilling to draw them.
Here observe, That the people ought to give testimony to their minister’s integrity, and do all that in them lies to support and maintain the honour of his ministry: I ought, says the apostle, to be commended of you.
Observe farther, That when the people omit and neglect this necessary part of their duty towards their ministers, it is lawful, and not discommendable, for the ministers of Christ themselves, in a modest humble manner, to declare both what they have been, and what they have done. In nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
As if the apostle had said, “Verily, I am as much an apostle saw they who think themselves more than apostles; though you and they through envy count me nothing, and though I in humility account myself nothing.”
Thus the ministers of Christ may stand upon terms of credit with any who lay their persons low, that they may disparge their work, and lay that service low to which God hath called them. Though the ministers and members of Christ ought in lowliness to submit to one another, yet must they not submit to the pride or lusts of any, how high soever in their own or other’s account.
Verse 11 Since they would not defend him, the Corinthians forced Paul into boasting. Paul knew that he was nothing without God. Even at that, he was greater than those false teachers who set themselves up as the chiefest of apostles.
I am become foolish: ye compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I am nothing. [You, who should have spoken in my defense and commendation, by keeping silence have compelled me to boast, and to show that, nobody as I am, I am at least equal to these overmuch apostles.]
2Co 12:11-21. Retrospect of the Boasting.This paragraph is marked by rapid oscillation of feeling. Now that he has made and proved his claim, the same doubt seizes him as when he began (2Co 11:1, 2Co 11:16). Has he not been foolish? It was the duty of the Corinthians to testify to his legitimate authority. And they had quite sufficient ground for doing so in what they had seen (2Co 12:12; cf. 2Co 12:6), the signs of an apostle (cf. Act 2:22*), wrought by Paul. Corinth had enjoyed all the privileges conferred by him on any churchexcept the privilege of supporting him (cf. 2Co 11:7). Once more, he can make no alteration in that policy. He will act in the same way on his approaching third visit as he has done on the previous ones. He will set no limits to his self-sacrifice on their behalf. Once more (cf. 2Co 11:6), is it reasonable that he should receive less affection from those to whom he shows affection even in excess? In 2Co 12:16 ff. he waives this criticism as disposed of, and deals with a subtler insinuation, viz. that in accordance with his native deceitfulness of character he has indeed abstained from drawing reward from the Corinthians, but has done it nevertheless indirectly through his agents. But where was the evidence? Had not Titus and the unnamed brother[106] shown the same spirit as their master?
[106] [For the theory that Luke and Titus were actual brothers see ET, 18285, 335, 380 against it, Exp., May 1917.A. J. G.]
Once more the old anxiety seizes him, lest in thus defending himself he should seem to be submitting himself to the Corinthians and to their judgment. So far from that, his fear is that when he comes he may find such a situation, such evidence of moral unfaithfulness, that he will be himself humiliated before God through the failure of his work and compelled in Gods name to exercise severe discipline on the backsliders.
12:11 I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: {5} for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
(5) Again he makes the Corinthians witnesses of those things by which God had sealed his apostleship among them, and again he declares by certain arguments how far he is from all covetousness, and also how he is affectionate towards them.
5. Paul’s supernatural miracles and paternal love 12:11-18
In this pericope Paul concluded his claims to be a genuine apostle by citing the miracles that God had done and the love that He had manifested to the Corinthians through Paul. He did this to dispel any lingering reservations any of his readers might have had concerning his apostolic credentials.
Paul’s previous conduct in Corinth 12:11-13
Again Paul reminded his readers that he had spoken of his own qualifications as an apostle as he had only because the Corinthians required such proof. He had not done so because he wanted to commend himself or because his critics boastfully commended themselves. The majority in the church should have defended him before the critical minority.
"If any Christian community was qualified to write Paul’s testimonial, it was the Corinthian church. They had remained silent, forcing Paul to speak up. His action had been excusable, but not theirs. Commendation was what he deserved and they owed." [Note: Harris, p. 398.]
They knew he was just as qualified as the "super-apostles" (Gr. huperlian apostolon, i.e., whether the false apostles or the Twelve, cf. 2Co 11:5). Paul considered himself a "nobody" in the sense that he had received everything that made him an apostle. Apart from the grace and calling of God he was not superior to any other believer. Another possibility is that when Paul called himself a nobody he was speaking ironically, using a description of himself that his critics employed.
Chapter 27
NOT YOURS, BUT YOU.
2Co 12:11-21 (R.V)
EXPOSITORS differ widely in characterising the three or four brief paragraphs into which this passage may be divided:
(1) 2Co 12:11-13;
(2) 2Co 12:14-15, and 2Co 12:16-18;
(3) 2Co 12:19-21.
What is clear is, that we feel in it the ground-swell of the storm that has raged through the last two chapters, and that it is not till the beginning of 2Co 13:1-14. that the Apostle finally escapes from this, and takes up an authoritative and decisive attitude to the Corinthians. When he does reach Corinth, it will not be to explain and justify his own conduct, either against rivals or those whom rivals have misled, but to take prompt and vigorous action against disorders in the life of the Church.
(1) A review of what he has just written leads to a burst of indignant remonstrance. “I have become foolish.” The emphasis is on the verb, not on the adjective; it is the painful fact that the eleventh chapter of Second Corinthians is a thing that no wise man would have written if he had been left to himself and his wisdom. Paul, who was a wise man, felt this, and it stung him. He resented the compulsion which was put upon him by the ingratitude and faithlessness of the Corinthians. The situation ought to have been exactly reversed. When he was defamed by strangers, then they, who knew him, instead of hearkening to the calumniators, ought to have stood up in his defense. But they basely left him to defend himself, to plead his own cause, to become a fool by “glorying.” This kind of compulsion should never be put upon a good man, especially a man to whom, under God, we ourselves have been deeply indebted. The services he has rendered constitute a claim on our loyalty, and it is a duty of affection to guard his character against disparagement and malice.
Paul, in his deep consciousness of being wronged, presses home the charge against the Corinthians. They had every reason, he tells them, to act as his advocates. When he was among them, he was in nothing inferior to the “superlative” Apostles-this is his last flout at the Judaist interlopers-nothing though he was. The signs that prove a man to be an apostle were wrought among them (the passive expression keeps his agency in the background) in all patience, by signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Their suspicions of him, their willingness to listen to insinuations against him, after such an experience, were unpardonable. He can only think of one “sign of the apostle” which was not wrought among them by his means, of one point in which he had made them inferior to the other Churches: he had not burdened them with his support. They were the spoilt children of the apostolic family; and he begs them, with bitter irony, to forgive him this wrong. If they had only been converted by a man who stood upon his rights!
“The signs of an apostle” are frequently, referred to in Pauls Epistles, and are of various kinds. By far the most important, and the most frequently insisted on, is success in evangelistic work. He who converts men and founds Churches has the supreme and final attestation of apostleship, as Paul conceives it. It is to this he appeals in 1Co 9:2 & 2Co 3:1-3. In the passage before us Calvin makes “patience” a sign – primum signum nominat patientiam. Patience is certainly a characteristic Christian virtue, and it is magnificently exercised in the apostolic life; but it is not peculiarly apostolic. Patience in the passage before us, “every kind of patience,” rather brings before our minds the conditions under which Paul did his apostolic work. Discouragements of every description, bad health, suspicion, dislike, contempt, moral apathy and moral license-the weight of all these pressed upon him heavily, but he bore up under them, and did not suffer them to break his spirit or to arrest his labors. His endurance was a match for them all, and the power of Christ that was in him broke forth in spite of them in apostolic signs. There were conversions, in the first place; but there were also what he calls here “signs [in a narrower sense], and wonders, and mighty deeds.” This is an express claim, like that made in Act 15:12, Rom 15:19, to have wrought what we call miracles. The three words represent miracles under three different aspects: they are “signs” (), as addressed to mans intelligence, and conveying a spiritual meaning; they are “wonders” (), as giving a shock to feeling, and moving nature in those depths which sleep through common experience, and they are “mighty works” or “powers” (), as arguing in him who works them a more than human efficiencyd. But no doubt the main character they bore in the Apostles mind was that of , or gifts of grace, which God ministered to the Church by His Spirit. It is natural for an unbeliever to misunderstand even New Testament miracles, because he wishes to conceive them, as it were, in vacuo, or in relation to the laws of nature; in the New Testament itself they are conceived in relation to the Holy Ghost. Even Jesus is said in the Gospels to have cast out devils by the Spirit of God; and when Paul wrought “signs and wonders and powers,” it was in carrying out his apostolic work graced by the same Spirit. What things he had done in Corinth we have no means of knowing, but the Corinthians knew; and they knew that these things had no arbitrary or accidental character, but were the tokens of a Christian and an apostle.
(2) In the second paragraph Paul turns abruptly () (“behold!”) from the past to the future. “This is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not burden you.” The first clause has the same ambiguity in Greek as in English; it is impossible to tell from the words alone whether he had been already twice, or only once, in Corinth. Other considerations decide, I think, that he had been twice; but of course these cannot affect the construction of this verse: for the third time he is in a state of readiness-this is all the words will yield. But when he makes the new visit, whether it be his third or only his second, one thing he has decided: he will act on the same principle as before, and decline to be a burden to them. He does not speak of it boastfully now, as in 2Co 11:10, for his adversaries have passed out of view, but in one of the most movingly tender passages in the whole Bible. “I will not lie on you like a benumbing weight, for I seek not yours, but you.” It is not his own interest which brings him to Corinth again, but theirs; it is not avarice which impels him, but love. In a sense, indeed, love makes the greater claim of the two; it is far more to demand the heart than to ask for money. Yet the greater claim is the less selfish, indeed is the purely unselfish one; for it can only be really made by one who gives all that he demands. Pauls own heart was pledged to the Corinthians; and when he said “I seek you,” he did not mean that he sought to make a party of them, or a faction, in the interest of his own ambition, but that the one thing he cared for was the good of their souls. Nor in saying so does he claim to be doing anything unusual or extraordinary. It is only what becomes him as their father in Christ. {1Co 4:15} “I seek you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.” Filial duty, of course, is not denied here; Paul is simply bringing himself as the spiritual father of the Corinthians under the general rule of nature that “love descends rather than ascends.” If this seems a hard saying to a childs heart, it is at least true that it descends before it ascends. It all begins from God: in a family, it all begins from the parents. The primary duty of love is parental care; and nothing is more unnatural, though at a certain level it is common enough, than the desire of parents to make money out of their children as quickly and as plentifully as possible, without considering the ulterior interests of the children themselves. This kind of selfishness is very transparent, and is very naturally avenged by ingratitude, and the Apostle for his part renounces it. “I,” he exclaims, with all the emphasis in his power-“I have more than a natural fathers love for you. I will with all gladness spend, yes, and be spent to the uttermost, for your souls! I will give what I have, yes, and all that I am, that you may be profited.” And then he checks that rush of affection, and dams up the overflowing passion of his heart in the abrupt poignant question: “If I love you more abundantly, am I loved less?”
This is not the first passage in the Epistle, nor, near as we are to the end, is it the last, in which Paul shows us the true spirit of the Christian pastor. “Not yours, but you,” is the motto of every minister who has learned of Christ; and the noble words of 2Co 12:15, “I will very gladly spend and be spent to the last for your souls,” recall more nearly than any other words in Scripture the law by which our Lord Himself lived-not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. Here, surely, is a sign of apostleship-an unmistakable mark of the man who is specially called to continue Christs work. That work cannot be done at all except in the spirit of Him who inaugurated it, and though love like Pauls, and love like Christs, may be mocked and trampled on, it is the only power which has the right to speak in Christs name. The joy of sacrifice thrills through the Apostles words, and it is joy in the Holy Ghost; it is a fellowship with Christ in the very life of His life that lifts Paul, for the moment, to the heavenly places. This is the spirit in which wrong is to be met, and suspicion, calumny, and contempt; it is in this, if at all, that we can be more than conquerors. Nature says, “Stand upon your rights; vindicate your position; insist on having all that you conceive to be your due”; but love says, “Spend and be spent, and spare not till all is gone; life itself is not too much to give that love may triumph over wrong.”
It is not possible to write long as Paul writes in these two verses (2Co 12:14-15). The tension is too great both for him and for his readers. With -“But be it so”-he descends from this height. He writes in the first person, but he is plainly repeating what he assumes others will say. “Very well, then, let that pass,” is the answer of his enemies to his friends when that passionate protestation is read. “He did not himself prove burdensome to us, but being crafty he brought us into his net by guile. He exploited the Church in his own interest by means of his agents.” This charge the Apostle meets with a downright denial; he can appeal to the knowledge which the Corinthians themselves possess of the manner in which his agents have conducted themselves. He had no doubt had occasion, far oftener than we know, to communicate with so important and restless a Church; and he challenges the Corinthians to say that a single one of those whom he had sent had taken advantage of them. He instances-perhaps as the last of his deputies, who had but just returned from Corinth when he wrote this letter; perhaps as the one on whom scandal had chosen to fasten – his “partner” and “fellow-laborer toward them,” Titus; and he refers to an unknown brother who had accompanied him. They cannot mean to say () that Titus took advantage of them? “Walked we not in the same Spirit?” A modern reader naturally makes “spirit” subjective, and takes it as equivalent to “the same moral temper or principle”; an early Christian reader would more probably think of the Holy Spirit as that which ruled in Paul and Titus alike. In any case the same Spirit led to the same conduct; they walked in the same self-denying path, and scrupulously abstained from burdening the Corinthians for their support.
(3) We feel the meanness of all this, and are glad when the Apostle finally turns his back on it. It is an indignity to be compelled even to allude to such things. And the worst is, that no care a man can take will prevent people from misunderstanding his indignant protest, and from assuming that he is really on his trial before them, and not improbably compromised. Pauls mind is made up to leave the Corinthians no excuse for such misunderstanding and presumption. In 2Co 12:19 he reads their ignoble thought: “Ye have long been thinking”-i.e., all through the last two chapters, and, indeed, more or less all through the Epistle; see 2Co 3:1 -“that we are making our defense at your bar. Far from it: at Gods bar we speak in Christ.” He will not endure, with his visit to Corinth close at hand, that there should be any misapprehension as to their relations. His responsibility as a Christian man is not to them, but to God; He is the Master to whom he stands or falls; it is He alone to whom he has to vindicate his life. The Corinthians had been seating themselves in imagination on the tribunal, and they are summarily set on the floor. But Paul does not wish to be rude or unkind. “You are not my judges, certainly” he seems to say, “but all I have said and done, beloved, all I say and do, is for your building up in Christian life. My heart is with you in it all, and I sincerely intend your good.” We cannot sufficiently admire the combination in the Apostle, or rather the swift alternation, of all those intellectual and emotional qualities that balance each other in a strong living character. He can be at once trenchant and tender; inexorable in the maintenance of a principle, and infinitely sympathetic and considerate in his treatment of persons. We see all his qualities illustrated here.
Their edification is the governing thought on which the last verses of the chapter turn, and on which eventually the whole Epistle rests. {see 2Co 13:10} It is because he is interested in their edification that he thinks with misgivings of the journey in prospect. “I fear lest by any means when I come to find you not such as I would, and on my part be found of you not such as ye would.” What these two fears imply is unfolded in due order in the remainder of the letter. The Corinthians, such as Paul would not have them, are depicted in 2Co 12:20-21; Paul, in a character in which the Corinthians would prefer not to see him, comes forward in 2Co 13:1-10. It is with the first only of these two fears, the bad condition of the Corinthian Church, that we are here concerned. This first fear has two grounds. The first is the prevalence of sins which may perhaps be summarized as sins of self-will. Strife, jealousy, passions, factions and low factious arts, back-bitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: such is the catalogue. It illustrates what has been well described as “the carnality of religious contention.” Almost all the sins here enumerated are directly connected with the existence of parties and party feeling in the Church. They are of a kind which has disgraced the Church all through its history, and the exceeding sinfulness of which is not yet recognized by the great mass of professing Christians. People do not consider that the Church, as a visible society, more or less naturalized in the world, is as capable as any other society of offering a career to ambition, or of furnishing a theatre for the talents and the energies of self-seeking men; and they have a vague idea that the willfulness, the intriguing and factious arts, the jealousy and conceit of men, are better things when put to the service of the Church than when employed in mere selfishness. But they are not. They are the very same, and they are peculiarly odious when enlisted in His service who was meek and lowly in heart, and who gave Himself for men. Pauls first list of sins is only too life like, and the fear grounded on it is one which many a modern minister can share. The second list is made up of what might be called, in contrast with sins of self-will, sins of self-indulgence-“uncleanness, fornication, and lasciviousness that they wrought.” Both together make up what the Apostle calls the works of the flesh. Both together are the direct opposite of those fruits of the spirit in which the true life of the Church consists. Paul writes as if he were more alarmed about the sins of the latter class. He puts (“lest”) instead of (“lest by any means”: 2Co 12:20), marking thus the climax, and something like the, certainty, of his sad apprehension. I fear, he says, “lest when I come again my God should humble me before you”-or, perhaps “in connection with you.” Nothing could more bow down a true and loving heart like Pauls than to see a Church that he had regarded as the seal of his apostleship-a congregation of men “washed, sanctified, and justified”-wallowing again in the mire of sensual sins. He had been proud of them, had boasted of them, had given thanks to God on their behalf: how it must have crushed him to think that his labor on them had come to this! Yet he writes instinctively “my God.” This humiliation does not come to him without his Father; there is a divine dispensation in it, as far as he is concerned, and he submits to it as such. He dare not think of it as a personal insult; he dare not think of the sinners as if they had offended against him. He fears he will have to mourn over numbers of those who have before sinned, and who will not have repented of these sensualities before he reaches Corinth. In 2Co 5:2 of the First Epistle he sums up his condemnation of the moral laxity of the Church in the presence of such evils in the words: “Ye did not mourn.” He himself will not be able to avoid mourning: his heart grows heavy within him as he thinks of what he must see before long. This, again, is the spirit of the true pastor. Selfish anger has nothing healing in it, nor has wounded pride; it is not for any man, however good or devoted, to feel that he is entitled to resent it, as a personal wrong, when men fall into sin. He is not entitled to resent it, no matter how much he may have spent, or how freely he may have spent himself, upon them; but he is bound to bewail it. He is bound to recognize in it, so far as he himself is free from responsibility, a dispensation of God intended to make him humble; and in all humility and love he is bound to plead with the lapsed, not his own cause, but Gods. This is the spirit in which Paul confronts the sad duties awaiting him at Corinth, and in this again we see “the signs of the apostle.” The two catalogues of sins with which this chapter closes remind us, by way of contrast, of the two characteristic graces of Christianity: self-will or party spirit, in all its forms, is opposed to brotherly love, and self-indulgence, in all its forms, to personal purity. There is much in this Epistle which would be called by some people theological and transcendent; but no one knew better than Paul that, though Christianity must be capable of an intellectual construction, it is not an intellectual system in essence, but a new moral life. He was deeply concerned, as we have repeatedly seen, that the Corinthians should think right thoughts about Christ and the Gospel; but he was more than concerned, he was filled with grief, fear, and shame, when he thought of the vices of temper and of sensuality that prevailed among them. These went to the root of Christianity, and if they could not be destroyed it must perish. Let us turn our eyes from them to the purity and love that they obscure, and lift up our hearts to these as the best things to which God has called us in the fellowship of His Son.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary