Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Corinthians 7:16
I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all [things.]
16. I rejoice therefore ] Our translation follows the Geneva version here. There is no ‘therefore’ in the best MSS. and versions. It is found neither in Wiclif, Tyndale, nor Cranmer. And the somewhat abrupt conclusion is in harmony with St Paul’s style. Cf. 1Co 5:13, where a similar attempt has been made by some copyist to soften down the abruptness.
that I have confidence in you ] Tyndale and Cranmer translate that I may be bolde over you. Our version here again follows the Geneva Bible. Wiclif renders trist. But the word is not that usually rendered ‘have confidence’ in the N. T. The Apostle’s meaning is rather, that in every thing I am of good courage in consequence of your conduct. From this chapter, says Robertson, we learn “the value of explanations. Had St Paul left the matter unsettled, or only half settled, there never could have been a hearty understanding between him and the Corinthians. Whenever there is a misunderstanding between man and man, the true remedy is a direct and open request for explanation.” Cf. Mat 18:15-17.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I rejoice, therefore, that I have confidence … – I have had the most ample proof that you are disposed to obey God, and to put away everything that is offensive to him. The address of this part of the Epistle, says Doddridge, is wonderful. It is designed, evidently, not merely to commend them for what they had done, and to show them the deep attachment which he had for them, but in a special manner to prepare them for what he he was about to say in the following chapter, respecting the collection which he had so much at heart for the poor saints at Jerusalem. What he here says was admirably adapted to introduce that subject. They had thus far showed the deepest regard for him. They had complied with all his directions. All that he had said of them had proved to be true. And as he had boasted of them to Titus 2Co 7:14, and expressed his entire confidence that they would comply with his requisitions, so he had also boasted of them to the churches of Macedonia and expressed the utmost confidence that they would be liberal in their benefactions, 2Co 9:2. All that Paul here says in their favor, therefore, was eminently adapted to excite them to liberality, and prepare them to comply with his wishes in regard to that contribution.
Remarks
1. Christians are bound by every solemn and sacred consideration to endeavor to purify themselves, 2Co 7:1. They who have the promises of eternal life, and the assurance that God will be to them a father, and evidence that they are his sons and daughters, should not indulge in the filthiness of the flesh and spirit.
2. Every true Christian will aim at perfection, 2Co 7:1. He will desire to be perfect; he will strive for it; he will make it a subject of unceasing and constant prayer. No man can be a Christian to whom it would not be a pleasure to be at once as perfect as God. And if any man is conscious that the idea of being made at once perfectly holy would be unpleasant or painful, he may set it down as certain evidence that he is a stranger to religion.
3. No man can be a Christian who voluntarily indulges in sin, or in what he knows to be wrong, 2Co 7:1. A man who does that cannot be aiming at perfection. A man who does that shows that he has no real desire to be perfect.
4. How blessed will be heaven, 2Co 7:1. There we shall be perfect. And the crowning glory of heaven is not that we shall be happy, but that we shall be holy. Whatever there is in the heart that is good shall there be perfectly developed; whatever there is that is evil shall be removed, and the whole soul will be like God. The Christian desires heaven because he will be there perfect. He desires no other heaven. He could be induced to accept no other if it were offered to him. He blesses God day by day that there is such a heaven, and that there is no other: that there is one world which sin does not enter, and where evil shall be unknown.
5. What a change will take place at death, 2Co 7:1. The Christian will be there made perfect. How this change will be there produced we do not know. Whether it will be by some extraordinary influence of the Spirit of God on the heart, or by the mere removal from the body, and from a sinful world to a world of glory, we know not. The fact seems to be clear, that at death the Christian will be made at once as holy as God is holy, and that he will ever continue to be in the future world.
6. What a desirable thing it is to die, 2Co 7:1. Here, should we attain to the age of the patriarchs, like them we should continue to be imperfect. Death only will secure our perfection; and death, therefore, is a desirable event. The perfection of our being could not be attained but for death; and every Christian should rejoice that he is to die. It is better to be in heaven than on earth; better to be with God than to be away from him; better to be made perfect than to be contending here with internal corruption, and to struggle with our sins. I would not live always, was the language of holy Job; I desire to depart and to be with Christ, was the language of holy Paul.
7. It is often painful to be compelled to use the language of reproof, 2Co 7:8. Paul deeply regretted the necessity of doing it in the case of the Corinthians, and expressed the deepest anxiety in regard to it. No man, no minister, parent, or friend can use it but with deep regret that it is necessary. But the painfulness of it should not prevent our doing it. It should be done tenderly but faithfully. If done with the deep feeling, with the tender affection of Paul, it will be done right; and when so done, it will produce the desired effect, and do good. No man should use the language of reproof with a hard heart, or with severity of feeling. If he is, like Paul, ready to weep when he does it, it will do good. If he does it because he delights in it, it will do evil.
8. It is a subject of rejoicing where a people exercise repentance, 2Co 7:8. A minister has pleasure not in the pain which his reproofs cause; not in the deep anxiety and distress of the sinner, and not in the pain which Christians feel under his reproofs, but he has joy in the happy results or the fruits which follow from it. It is only from the belief that those tears will produce abundant joy that he has pleasure in causing them, or in witnessing them.
9. The way to bring people to repentance is to present to them the simple and unvarnished truth, 2Co 7:8-9. Paul stated simple and plain truths to the Corinthians. He did not abuse them; he did not censure them in general terms; he stated things just as they were, and specified the things on account of which there was occasion for repentance. So if ministers wish to excite repentance in others, they must specify the sins over which others should weep; if we wish, as individuals, to feel regret for our sins, and to have true repentance toward God, we must dwell on those particular sins which we have committed, and should endeavor so to reflect on them that they may make an appropriate impression on the heart. No man will truly repent by general reflections on his sin; no one who does not endeavor so to dwell on his sins as that they shall make the proper impression which each one is suited to produce on the soul. Repentance is that state of mind which a view of the truth in regard to our own depravity is suited to produce.
10. There is a great difference between godly sorrow and the sorrow of the world, 2Co 7:10. All people feel sorrow. All people, at some period of their lives, grieve over their past conduct. Some in their sorrow are pained because they have offended God, and go to God, and find pardon and peace in him. That sorrow is unto salvation. But the mass do not look to God. They turn away from him even in their disappointments, and in their sorrows, and in the bitter consciousness of sin. They seek to alleviate their sorrows in worldly company, in pleasure, in the intoxicating bowl; and such sorrow works death. It produces additional distress, and deeper gloom here, and eternal woe hereafter.
11. We may learn what constitutes true repentance, 2Co 7:11. There should be. and there will be, deep feeling. There will be carefulness, deep anxiety to be freed from the sin; there will be a desire to remove it; indignation against it; fear of offending God; earnest desire that all that has been wrong should be corrected; zeal that the reformation should be entire; and a wish that the appropriate revenge, or expression of displeasure, should be excited against it. The true penitent hates nothing so cordially as he does his sin. He hates nothing but sin. And his warfare with that is decided, uncompromising, inexorable, and eternal.
12. It is an evidence of mercy and goodness in God that the sorrow which is felt about sin may be made to terminate in our good, and to promote our salvation, 2Co 7:10-11. If sorrow for sin had been suffered to take its own course, and had proceeded unchecked, it would in all cases have produced death. If it had not been for the merciful interposition of Christianity, by which even sorrow might be turned to joy, this world would have been everywhere a world of sadness and of death. Man would have suffered. Sin always produces, sooner or later, woe. Christianity has done nothing to make people wretched, but it has done everything to bind up broken hearts. It has revealed a way by which sorrow may be turned into joy, and the bitterness of grief may be followed by the sweet calm and sunshine of peace.
13. The great purpose of Christian discipline is to benefit the whole church, 2Co 7:12. It is not merely on account of the offender, nor is it merely that the injured may receive a just recompense. it is primarily that the church may be pure, and that the cause of religion may not be dishonored. When the work of discipline is entered on from any private and personal motives, it is usually attended with bad feeling, and usually results in evil. When it is entered on with a desire to honor God, and to promote the purity of the church, when the whole aim is to deliver the church from opprobrium and scandal, and to have just such a church as Jesus Christ desires, then it will be prosecuted with good temper, and with right feeling, and then it will lead to happy results. Let no man institute a process of discipline on an offending brother from private, personal, and revengeful feelings. Let him first examine his own heart, and let him be sure that his aim is solely the glory of Christ, before he attempts to draw down the censure of the church on an offending brother. How many cases of church discipline would be arrested if this simple rule were observed! And while the case before us shows that it is important in the highest degree that discipline should be exercised on an offending member of the church; while no consideration should prevent us from exercising that discipline; and while every man should feel desirous that the offending brother should be reproved or punished, yet this case also shows that it should be done with the utmost tenderness, the most strict regard to justice, and the deepest anxiety that the general interests of religion should not suffer by the manifestation of an improper spirit, or by improper motives in inflicting punishment on an offending brother.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. I have confidence in you, in all things.] It appears that the apostle was now fully persuaded, from the accounts given by Titus, that every scandal had been put away from this Church; that the faction which had long distracted and divided them was nearly broken; that all was on the eve of being restored to its primitive purity and excellence; and that their character was now so firmly fixed, that there was no reason to apprehend that they should be again tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.
1. THUS a happy termination was put to an affair that seemed likely to ruin the Christian Church, not only at Corinth, but through all Greece; for, if this bad man, who had been chief in opposing the apostle’s authority, bringing in licentious doctrines, and denying the resurrection of the dead, had ultimately succeeded at Corinth, his doctrine and influence might soon have extended over Greece and Asia Minor, and the great work of God which had been wrought in those parts would have been totally destroyed. This one consideration is sufficient to account for the apostle’s great anxiety and distress on account of the divisions and heresies at Corinth. He knew it was a most pernicious leaven; and, unless destroyed, must destroy the work of God. The loss of the affections of the Church at Corinth, however much it might affect the tender, fatherly heart of the apostle, cannot account for the awful apprehensions, poignant distress, and deep anguish, which he, in different parts of these epistles, so feelingly describes; and which he describes as having been invariably his portion from the time that he heard of their perversion, till he was assured of their restoration by the account brought by Titus.
2. A scandal or heresy in the Church of God is ruinous at all times, but particularly so when the cause is in its infancy; and therefore the messengers of God cannot be too careful to lay the foundation well in doctrine, to establish the strictest discipline, and to be very cautious whom they admit and accredit as members of the Church of Christ. It is certain that the door should be opened wide to admit penitent sinners; but the watchman should ever stand by, to see that no improper person enter in. Christian prudence should ever be connected with Christian zeal. It is a great work to bring sinners to Christ; it is a greater work to preserve them in the faith; and it requires much grace and much wisdom to keep the Church of Christ pure, not only by not permitting the unholy to enter, but by casting out those who apostatize or work iniquity. Slackness in discipline generally precedes corruption of doctrine; the former generating the latter.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That I can write and speak to you with confidence that you will hearken to my admonitions and exhortations, and that I can confidently boast and glory concerning you.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. thereforeomitted in theoldest manuscripts. The conclusion is more emphatical without it.
that I have confidence in youin all thingsrather, as Greek, “that in everythingI am of good courage concerning (literally, ‘in the case of’)you,” as contrasted with my former doubts concerning you.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things. That I can speak freely and boldly to you, reprove, admonish, and advise you, since you take it all in good part, as I design it; that I can confidently speak in your favour, boast of your love and obedience, which is found upon trial and by experience to be truth; and that I can promise myself every good thing from you, that is proper to ask of you, and lies in your power to perform; which he says partly to commend them for their past conduct, and partly to pave the way for what he had to say to them, concerning making a collection for the poor saints.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
I am of good courage (). The outcome has brought joy, courage, and hope to Paul.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
I have confidence in you [ ] . Wrong. Rev., correctly, I am of good courage. In you expresses the ground of his encouragement as lying in them.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “I rejoice therefore,” (chairo) “I rejoice,” regarding the matters named. Had Paul not dealt squarely with sins in the Corinth church, the matter may never have been straightened up. Every church should accept and follow this doctrine of Christ, exemplified here, Mat 18:15-17; Gal 6:1.
2) “That in all things,” (hoti en panti) “that in all things,” or all matters, about which I wrote you ail in the previous letter of 1Corinthians.
3) “I have confidence in you,” (tharro en humin) “I am confident in you all,” or have my confidence sustained in you all, because of your obedience to the Word of God. They had been “doers of the Word,” and not “hearers only,” in this matter, Jas 1:22; 1Co 11:1-2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(16) I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.Most of the better MSS. omit therefore, which may have been inserted for the sake of connecting the verse. I have confidence in you, though, in one sense, a literal translation of the Greek, fails to give its exact meaning. He does not mean, I trust you, but I am of good cheer, I take courage in you, being what you are. With this expression of thankfulness he leaves the painful subject of which he had been compelled to speak, and passes, probably after a pause of greater or less length, to another.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Confidence In this word is the final seal of settlement of all misgivings between St. Paul and his Corinthians. The agonies of suspense and distrust are all over, and their hearts are one. He will meet them again as their assured apostle. And he will now exhibit his confidence in their fidelity by moving them to open their pockets, and give a generous lead in furnishing funds for the poor saints at Jerusalem.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I rejoice that in everything I am of good courage concerning you.’
Thus Paul himself rejoices in that he is assured in his heart concerning them in every way.
So ends this section of his letter, a combination of rejoicing over their response, which is how it finishes, yet including the clear indication of his fears that nevertheless there was much still to be put right, not mainly in regard to their response to him, although there is some question about some, but with regard to their daily living and their attitudes to life. They have a need for a closer identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, a more complete separation of themselves to God, a releasing of themselves from the yoke of the idolatrous world, and an avoidance of such things as can hinder their love for Him (2Co 6:14-18), and then they will see Him fully, with the veil removed (2Co 3:18), and will become more like Him day by day.
Sadly it was not to be long before news reached him that somewhat altered his confidence, even before he had completed the letter (10–13).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2Co 7:16. I rejoice therefore, &c. The address of all this part of the epistle is striking and excellent: this verse in particular finely introduces what he had to say in the following chapter, and is strongly illustrated by ch. 2Co 9:2-4.
Inferences drawn from 2Ci 2Co 7:6-11.From the consideration of the different effects of worldly and of religious sorrow here recorded, the Apostle with no less truth than holy art insinuates to the Corinthians, how really he had acted the part of a friend towards them, in bringing them through divine grace to a due sense of sorrow for the sins they had committed.But it is the part of a friend to ease our minds of grief, to step in between us and sorrow, and to make us, as far as it is possible, forget our misfortunes. Why then, it may be asked by many, do the ministers of Christ perpetually suggest new fears to us, and still labour to awaken our souls to a sense of their misery, and to fill us with sorrow, by continually representing to us the greatness of our loss?To this let the Apostle answer for himself, and for all, (as in 2Co 7:9.) I rejoiced, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance.
If from worldly sorrow there can arise nothing but certain woe and misery; if the anguish of mind springing therefrom produces feebleness of body, and the lamenting our past misfortunes renders us incapable of the enjoyments which are present; happy is the man who can bear up against afflictions, and with an undisturbed mind submit to those evils which no sorrow can either alleviate or prevent. But, if in godly sorrow the effects are just the contrary; if penitential grief brings us to a knowledge of ourselves; if it brings us to Jesus Christ, the only refuge for the wounded spirit; and thereby we are at peace with God and ourselves; if now life is rendered comfortable, and death not terrible; if we are rid of fear for the present, and filled with hope of future glory; how happy are we, who through conviction of and sorrow for sin, are thus led to Christ, holiness, and happiness!
How these blessed fruits grow out of godly sorrow, will appear from the words in question; whence we may observe,
1. That sorrow is distinguished from repentance; for godly sorrow is said to work repentance,and is therefore supposed to have the same relation to it, that the cause has to its effect. In common speech we are apt to speak of sorrow for sin under the name of repentance, and to ascribe to it that effect which belongs only to repentance. But the Apostle here has plainly another notion of repentance, since the common notion would create an absurdity: for if by repentance we understand sorrow for sin, the Apostle must then be understood to say, “That godly sorrow produces sorrow for sin; that is, that godly sorrow produces itself,” since that only is godly sorrow, which is upon the account of sin. Repentance therefore is distinct from sorrow, as it is wrought by it; and properly denotes “such a change of mind, as leads us ardently to pant after Christ, forgiveness, and spiritual things, instead of the world and the things which are in the world.”
Sorrow then is not repentance, though it be the cause of repentance in very many cases. The alliance between them will be best explained by considering the nature of sorrow in general, and the impressions it makes upon every man’s mind. Whatever is the cause of sorrow, must needs be the cause of aversion too; since to take pleasure in the thing that grieves us, and causes us pain, is a contradiction in nature. Sin especially cannot be the cause of our sorrow, but it must be likewise of our aversion; the natural consequence of which is repentance. Thus we see how consequentially repentance arises from godly sorrow, or sorrow for sin.
2. This godly sorrow, secondly, is not said to work salvation immediately, and of itself, but through divine grace by means of that repentance which it produces, and that conversion which follows. So many are the sad effects of sin, with respect to this world, that the sinner who has no fear of God before his eyes, has reason enough, even in respect to his state here below, to be sorry for his sins. But sorrow arising from these motives is mere worldly sorrow: one man laments the decay of his health; another the loss of his reputation; and a third the ruin of his fortune; and very often one laments the loss of all; and equally would they have lamented these losses, had they come from any other cause besides sin. He that is sorry for his sin, merely because it has destroyed his health, would have been as sorry had a fever destroyed it; and he that grieves for the loss of his fortune, would have grieved in the same manner, if fire, or the raging sea, had been his undoing. Whence it is plain, that in such sorrow as this, no regard is had to God; whom yet we are principally to respect in our repentance, as being the person against whom we have offended, and whose mercy and pardon through Jesus Christ we must obtain, or be undone for ever.
In true sorrow, which produces repentance, the sense of our guilt is a great ingredient, as well as the sense of our misery. The very hopes we have of obtaining pardon at the hand of God through the infinite merits of the Redeemer, will fill our minds with indignation at ourselves, for having offended so gracious a Master; for if we can think him so good as to be willing to forgive us through the Son of his love, we must needs think ourselves exceedingly wicked, and lost to all sense of gratitude and goodness, that we could offend so kind and compassionate a Lord. In short, fear, zeal, indignation, every passion will be roused to act its part in making us hate ourselves and our iniquities, and will never let us be at peace with our own hearts, till we have found pardon in Jesus Christ, and through his Spirit have purged ourselves of every evil lust, and consecrated ourselves entirely to the service of our Master:and this is that true repentance unto salvation never to be repented of.
Fear may sometimes prevail against the power of lust; and the wretch who hates to think of God, may yet not be able to exclude the servile dread of him. When the flames of hell play before the sinner’s eyes, and guilt, conscious of its own deserts, fills the imagination with all the horrors of damnation; in this case there will never be a want of some kind of sorrow, though perhaps there be no signs of genuine repentance. Thus Judas grieved; in his grief he died; and in his death he found the pains of hell.
In the Gospel there are no promises made to grief and sorrow; the mercies of God are offered to the genuine penitent, on the condition of faith in the Redeemer’s blood. Sorrow which produces not real repentance and living faith, is of no account in the sight of God. Such sorrow forms a trifling part of the sinner’s due; if he suffer under it, he has but a part of his reward: it is the punishment of his iniquity, but can never be a preparation for pardon.
One would think this were too plain a case to be mistaken; and yet, so commonly is it mistaken, that repentance is grown, in the Christian world at large, almost into a form and method; and instead of reforming from their sins through divine grace, these people only see themselves so many days to be sorry for them. Alas! it is a fruitless grief; and they may assure themselves their hopes of pardon will be as empty and delusive as their sorrow. Were men once truly sensible of their guilt, there would need no art to produce sorrow, no rules whereby to limit their grief; they would fly to the only refuge, and to the only fountain, for sin and for uncleanness, with unsought tears and groans. Were we sincere, we should of course through grace fly the viper that had stung us, and not cherish and caress the venomous animal, while with false tears we bathe the wound that we have received.
3. The nature of this godly repentance will be better understood, by comparing it with worldly sorrow, and shewing the difference between them. Now, worldly sorrow is said immediately to work death: it brings forth nothing analogous to repentance, but does rather confirm the evil dispositions from which it grows.
There is such a connection between the passions, that one cannot be powerfully set on work, but it must move and engage the others in their several spheres. Thus 2Co 7:11 the Apostle tells us, that the godly sorrow of the Corinthians produced fear, indignation, zeal, and vehement desire and revenge. And thus it must be: whatever afflicts us, is in some sense the object of our aversion; whatever we lament the loss of, that we must needs vehemently desire and long after; and our grief for the loss will rouse us to recover, if possible, the thing we lament for: and thus it always is in respect to religion through the grace of God.
This being agreed, we need only consider the causes from which worldly sorrow and godly sorrow arise, to see the workings of both, and the different effects which they must produce. In all godly sorrow we grieve for having enjoyed too much of the world, to the hazard of losing the infinitely more valuable pleasures of immortality: in worldly sorrow we lament our having had too little of the world. It is evident then that sorrow in one case will, through grace, make us fly from the world and its allurements; in the other it will render us but the more eager to pursue and overtake them. In the one case, sorrow, by the divine blessing, gives us new desires, and rouses us to seek new joys and comforts, to which before we were strangers. In the other case, grief confirms the old habits, quickens the old desires, and makes a man ten times more worldly-minded than he was before: so that his last state is even worse than his first. Which will further appear by considering,
4. That the death which is wrought by worldly sorrow is opposed by the salvation which follows repentance, and may therefore signify eternal death, as well as temporal; the truth of the proposition admitting either or both of these explications: only that repentance must be followed by persevering faith and holiness, if we be eternally saved.
The natural effect of grief, considered as such, is, to waste and impair the strength, to deaden the faculties of the mind, and to make a man useless to himself and his friends. But then here lies the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. The first, in every step, tends to peace and joy; and its most obvious effect, through divine grace, is, to destroy itself, and leave the mind, by faith in Jesus, in perfect ease and tranquillity. The sinner’s tears, though they spring from grief, do, like flowers in summer, portend a cooler and more refreshing air. But worldly sorrow knows no rest, has no period; it still urges men to new pursuits after the world; and the world has new disappointments in reserve to baffle all their eager care. Every disappointment is a new occasion of grief; and the whole gain of this passion for the world, being fairly computed, amounts to this,Vanity and vexation of spirit.
Thus the case stands, if we regard only the comforts of this life. Godly sorrow for sin produces, through faith in the Redeemer, the pleasure of righteousness, which is a perpetual spring of joy and spiritual consolation; while the worldly man, pursuing false enjoyments, is ever reaping real torments. But if we change the scene,if we look into the other world, the difference grows wider still. The time is coming, when all tears shall be for ever wiped away from the eyes of the faithful. Whereas worldly sorrow will then have a heavy account to pass: those tears, those guilty tears, which were fixed for the transitory pleasures of mortality, will rise up in judgment against the sinner’s soul, and fearfully exclude him from the joys of that divine life, which endureth for evermore.The sorrow of the world worketh DEATH.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Having mentioned the amazingly rich and gracious promises of God, the Apostle,
1. Draws an inference from them. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, avoiding every kind of intemperance or uncleanness which would pollute our bodies; and mortify the inward abominations of pride, malice, falsehood, &c. which defile the soul; perfecting holiness in the fear of God, growing in grace unto perfect love, increasing with all the increase of God, till ultimately our course be completed in endless glory.
2. He returns from the digression that he had made, to vindicate himself and his fellow-labourers from the slanders of the false teachers. Receive us with cordial regard: we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man; our principles have been according to God’s word, and our practice upright and unblamable. I speak not this to condemn you, reflecting on you as a body, as having traduced us: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you; such confidence have we in you, and such warm affection towards you. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, in censuring the disorders among you; great is my glorying of you, as, in general, obedient children, and ornaments to your profession. I am filled with comfort in you; I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation, to hear the late gracious accounts from you. For when we were come into Macedonia, in search of Titus, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side, not only with the opposition of our enemies, but with the anxiety of our minds on your account; without, were fightings from our foes; within, were fears for you, lest you should be removed from the simplicity which is in Christ. Nevertheless, God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus, whose arrival revived our drooping hearts; and not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, by the affectionate and respectful reception he met with at Corinth; when he told us your earnest desire to obey our injunctions, your mourning for the offences which had been committed, your fervent mind toward me, vindicating with zeal my character against the false teachers, and longing for my coming; so that I rejoiced the more, and his report exceedingly heightened the pleasure of his arrival. For though I made you sorry with a letter, wherein I was constrained to use sharp rebukes, I do not repent, though I did repent, and grieved exceedingly, even at the time, that I should be necessitated to use such severity: for I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though it were but for a season, and engaged you immediately to correct what was amiss. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry: in that I could have no satisfaction, and sympathized tenderly with you; but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, mourning over your unfaithfulness, and returning in deep humility to God, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing, but contrariwise be abundantly profited. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of; and what has such a gracious effect, cannot but in the issue prove matter of the most solid satisfaction: but the sorrow of the world, which men of earthly minds feel, on account of the losses and crosses here below, worketh death, driving them to despair, impairing their health, and sometimes even causing them to lay violent hands on themselves. For behold, this self-same thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what a blessed influence it had upon you! What carefulness it wrought in you to remove the cause of offence, yea, what clearing of yourselves from any connivance at iniquity; yea, what indignation against what was evil in yourselves, or in the notorious delinquent; yea, what fear of God, and jealousy for yourselves; yea, what vehement desire to make a thorough reformation of all disorders; yea, what zeal for God’s glory, and the honour of your holy profession; yea, what revenge, punishing with due severity the criminal. In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter, by your ready amendment. Note; (1.) Godly sorrow is the most profitable physic for the soul. (2.) Whatever bitterness we may have tasted, we shall never at last repent of that which worketh repentance unto salvation.
2nd, Since his admonition had so good an effect, the Apostle cannot but rejoice. Wherefore, though I wrote unto you with some sharpness, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, not merely that the incestuous person should be punished, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, out of any partial favour to his injured father, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you, and the church be preserved from scandal. Therefore we were comforted in your comfort, the peace and purity of your society being restored: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all, by the kind, obedient, respectful, and affectionate behaviour which you shewed towards him. For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed of the character I gave you; but as we spake all things to you in truth, in simplicity and godly sincerity, even so our boasting which I made before Titus, is found a truth, and the commendation that I gave you has been proved to be but just. And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all to my apostolic injunctions, how with fear and trembling you received him, with deepest reverence and holy jealousy, lest you should not duly profit by his advice. I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things, that you will continue to obey my admonitions, and to refresh my spirit by your dutiful and becoming conduct on every occasion. Note; It is a singular comfort to a minister, that he has confidence in the fidelity of his people.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Co 7:16 . Concluding result of the whole section, introduced vividly (without , comp. 2Co 7:12 ): I am glad that in every respect I have confidence on you .
] not as to you , which would have been expressed prepositionally by , , , , ( , 2Co 10:1 , is in an adverse sense), but Paul knows his consolation as closely resting on the readers; that is the causal nexus, in which his joyous frame of mind depends on them. Comp. Winer, p. 218 [E. T. 291 f.]; Soph. Aj. 1294: ,1071: , Eurip. Or. 754: , Sir 38:23 ; Mat 3:17 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
REFLECTIONS
How very encouraging it is to the true believer in Christ, to behold where his security is, and in whom is his strength found! Lord! thou knowest, and thou hast in some measure taught me to know, that I can do nothing of myself, and all my sufficiency is of thee. I bless thee, my gracious God, that I have these sweet promises of thy indwelling abode, in my heart. Keep me therefore, by thy Almighty power; and by faith, give me daily, hourly, to see, and know, that thou art cleansing me, and I am cleansed: thou hast perfected holiness, yea, thou art thyself the holiness of thy people; and, by faith, I am made the blessed partaker of it, in the fear of God.
And, oh! thou risen and exalted Savior! send down thine ascension gifts in holy profusion, upon Churches, ministers, and people. Sweet will it be to my soul, and to every child of God, to receive from thine own hand, the genuine grace, which worketh godly sorrow, in a true, and sincere repentance, not to be repented of. Lord keep open this spring in our souls. Divorce us from all self-righteousness. Let everything tend to hide pride from our eyes; and open the Lord Jesus to our view. And let a daily sense of our nothingness, and creatureship, and unworthiness, endear our Lord, more and more to our apprehension; that we may behold Jesus, and Jesus alone, as the whole of salvation. Not tears, not prayers, not repentance, no, nor faith, as an act of ours. These are effects, not the cause. Neither anything wrought by us, or anything wrought in us; but Christ himself; and his own Personal, incommunicable work, the whole of salvation! Oh! for grace, daily, hourly to know, and as often to sing; the words of him of old: The Lord is my strengths and my song, and he is become my salvation!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
16 I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things .
Ver. 16. I rejoice therefore ] Thus by praising them, he further winneth upon them, whom before he had more sharply handled. Sour and sweet make the best sauce.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
16. ] I rejoice (more expressive than with a connecting particle) that in every thing I am ( re )- assured by you; ‘am of good courage, in contrast to my former dejection, owing to your good conduct.’ The ordinary rendering, ‘ I can have confidence in you ,’ is wrong in not giving the indic. , and still more, in making mean ‘ to have confidence in ,’ which is unexampled. Meyer, who remarks this, does not notice, that the strongest reason against it is not mere want of usage, but the psychological meaning of , which is not like , descriptive of a relative, but of an absolute state of mind, to be of good courage: and this admits only of qualification as to the ground of that good courage; thus we have , , in the sense of ‘rejoicing at,’ ‘feeling confident concerning:’ but for ‘to trust in,’ as , would, I think, be inadmissible. Meyer quotes , Soph. Aj. 519, where, as here, gives the ground of the verb as in the person spoken of.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
2Co 7:16 . . . .: I rejoice that in everything I am of good courage (not as A.V. “I have confidence,” which would be ) concerning you .
11. The Collection for the Judan Christians (2Co 8:1 to 2Co 9:15 ). We have now come to the second main topic of the Epistle, viz. , the collection to be made at Corinth, as in all the Christian communities which the Apostle had founded, on behalf of the poor Christians at Juda (chaps. 8 and 9). We first hear of this great undertaking at 1Co 16:1 , but it is plain from that passage as well as from 2Co 8:10 ; 2Co 9:2 , that it had been organised some time before 1 Cor. was written. (See Introd. , p. 6.) The poverty of the Christians at Jerusalem, however caused, was evidently acute; and when St. Paul first parted from the Twelve on his mission to the Gentiles, one of the stipulations made with him was that he should “remember the poor” (Gal 2:10 ). This stipulation he faithfully observed, and it was to convey the money thus entrusted to him to its proper recipients that he paid his last visit to Jerusalem (Act 24:17 ). See further the excellent discussion in Stanley’s note on 1Co 16:1 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
therefore. Omit.
have confidence. Greek. tharreo. See 2Co 5:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
16.] I rejoice (more expressive than with a connecting particle) that in every thing I am (re)- assured by you; am of good courage, in contrast to my former dejection, owing to your good conduct. The ordinary rendering, I can have confidence in you, is wrong in not giving the indic. , and still more, in making mean to have confidence in, which is unexampled. Meyer, who remarks this, does not notice, that the strongest reason against it is not mere want of usage, but the psychological meaning of , which is not like , descriptive of a relative, but of an absolute state of mind,-to be of good courage: and this admits only of qualification as to the ground of that good courage; thus we have , , in the sense of rejoicing at, feeling confident concerning: but for to trust in, as , would, I think, be inadmissible. Meyer quotes , Soph. Aj. 519, where, as here, gives the ground of the verb as in the person spoken of.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
2Co 7:16. , in every thing) This is applicable in the antecedent and consequent [in the context which precedes and that which follows]. He says, if I reprove you, you take it well; if I promise for you, you perform what is promised. So he prepares a way for himself with a view to what follows in 2Co 8:1 and 2Co 10:1, where the very word , I have confidence, is resumed.- , in you) on your account.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
2Co 7:16
2Co 7:16
I rejoice that in everything I am of good courage concerning you.-His confidence in them as Christians had been completely restored by Titus and that caused him true joy.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
that: 2Th 3:4, Phm 1:8, Phm 1:21
Reciprocal: Gal 5:10 – confidence Phi 1:6 – confident
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Co 7:16. Confidence in our brethren is helpful in the struggle against the common enemy, for it strengthens our faith to see that the Gospel has its influence for good upon others.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2Co 7:16. I rejoice that in everything I am of good courage concerning you.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 16 Paul’s confidence in them had also been strengthened. He was assured that they would strive to do what was right in God’s eyes.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
I rejoice that in everything I am of good courage concerning you. [The affections which the Corinthians had awakened in the heart of Titus, who had come among them and had been received as Paul’s messenger, greatly established the confidence of the apostle in that church, as he here tells them. Having thus led up to a well-grounded expression of confidence, Paul makes it a basis on which to rest the second division of his epistle–a division in which he appeals to them to fulfill their promises with regard to the collection for the poor at Jerusalem.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Paul was now completely confident of the Corinthians’ continuing submissive obedience to him as their spiritual father and apostle. Consequently he proceeded to appeal to them again (2Co 8:1 to 2Co 9:15).
"This brief verse, indeed, provides a perfect transition to all that follows. It is the delicate pin around which the whole of the epistle pivots." [Note: Ibid., p. 282.]