King James Version
2 Corinthians 12
21 verses with commentary
Paul's Visions and Revelations
It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I will come: Gr. For I will come
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.</strong> Paul reluctantly shifts to <em>apokalypseis</em> (ἀποκαλύψεις, "revelations")—divine unveilings received directly from Christ. The phrase <strong>not expedient</strong> (<em>ou sympheron</em>, οὐ συμφέρον) signals his discomfort: boasting contradicts gospel humility, yet the Corinthi...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
**XII.**
(1) **It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come . . .**—The English “doubtless” corresponds to a Greek illative particle. *To boast, then, is not expedient for me.* The MSS., however, present a considerable variety of readings. The best-authenticated text is probably that which would be represented in English by, *I must needs glory. It is not, indeed, expedient, but* *I*...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 4
2Co 4:1-18. His Preaching Is Open and Sincere, though to Many the Gospel Is Hidden.
For he preaches Christ, not himself: the human vessel is frail that God may have the glory; yet, though frail, faith and the hope of future glory sustain him amidst the decay of the outward man.
**1. Therefore--**Greek, "For this cause": Because we have the liberty-giving Spirit of the Lord, and wi...
Read full commentary →I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.</strong> Paul's transparent third-person reference—"a man in Christ"—demonstrates the humility he's arguing for: even recounting the most exalted experience, he distances himself from self-promotion. The ph...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago.**—Better, *I know a man.* The Greek verb, though a perfect tense in form, is invariably used with the force of a present. It is all but impossible to connect the facts that follow with any definite point of time in the Apostle’s life as recorded in the Acts. The date of the Epistle may be fixed, without much risk of error, in A.D. 57. Reckonin...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. renounced--**literally, "bid farewell to."
**of dishonesty--**rather, "of shame." "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ" (Ro 1:16). Shame would lead to hiding (2Co 4:3); whereas "we use great plainness of speech" (2Co 3:12); "by manifestation of the truth." Compare 2Co 3:3, "manifestly declared." He refers to the disingenuous artifices of "many" teachers at Corinth (2Co 2:17; 3:1; 11:13...
Read full commentary →And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)</strong> The repetition intensifies both Paul's humility (maintaining third-person distancing) and his epistemological honesty. The phrase <strong>God knoweth</strong> (<em>ho theos oiden</em>, ὁ θεὸς οἶδεν) acknowledges divine omniscience while confessing human limitation—even in receiving revela...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **And I knew such a man.**—Better, as before, *I know.*
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**3. But if--**Yea, even if (as I grant is the case).
**hid--**rather (in reference to 2Co 3:13-18), "veiled." "Hid" (Greek, Col 3:3) is said of that withdrawn from view altogether. "Veiled," of a thing within reach of the eye, but covered over so as not to be seen. So it was in the case of Moses' face.
**to them--**in the case only of them: for in itself the Gospel is quite plain.
**that ar...
Read full commentary →How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. lawful: or, possible
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.</strong> <em>Paradeison</em> (παράδεισον, "paradise") is a Persian loanword meaning royal garden or park—used in the LXX for Eden (Genesis 2:8) and here synonymous with "third heaven" (v. 2). Jesus used it promising the thief "today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4)**That he was caught up into paradise.**—The stress laid on this second vision hinders us from thinking of it as identical with the former, either in time or in object-matter. Paradise (see Note on Luke 23:43) was emphatically the dwelling-place of the souls of the righteous, the reproduction in the unseen world of the lost beauty of the Garden of Eden—the “paradise of joy,” as the LXX. in Gene...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**4. In whom--**Translate, "In whose case."
**god of this world--**The worldly make him their God (Php 3:19). He is, in fact, "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that ruleth in the children of disobedience" (Ep 2:2).
**minds--**"understandings": "mental perceptions," as in 2Co 3:14.
**them which believe not--**the same as "them that are lost" (or "are perishing"). Compare 2Th 2:1...
Read full commentary →Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.</strong> Paul finally drops pretense—"such an one" is himself—but immediately pivots from the vision to his <em>astheneiais</em> (ἀσθενείαις, "infirmities," "weaknesses"). The contrast is stark: he <em>will</em> boast about the man caught to paradise (because that glorifies God's sovereign grace), but reg...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Of such an one will I glory.**—There is, if we rightly understand it, an almost exquisite sadness in the distinction which is thus drawn by the Apostle between the old self of fourteen years ago, with this abundance of revelations, and the new self of the present, feebler and sadder than the old, worn with cares and sorrows, the daily rush of life and its ever-growing anxieties. Then he saw ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5. For--**Their blindness is not our fault, as if we had self-seeking aims in our preaching.
**preach ... Christ ... the Lord--**rather, "Christ as Lord," and ourselves as your servants, &c. "Lord," or "Master," is the correlative term to "servants."
For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.</strong> Paul insists that boasting in the paradise vision wouldn't be <em>aphron</em> (ἄφρων, "foolish")—because it's objectively true ("I will say the truth")—yet he <strong>forbears</strong> ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **For though I would desire to glory . . . **He had said in the preceding verse that he will glory only in his infirmities. He is about to lay bare to their gaze the greatest of all those infirmities. “If I should boast of that,” he says, “I shall not be acting as a madman does” (the thought of insanity is throughout dominant in the words “fool” and “folly”), “for I will confine myself to a si...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. For--**proof that we are true servants of Jesus unto you.
**commanded the light--**Greek, "By speaking the word, commanded light" (Ge 1:3).
**hath shined--**rather, as Greek, "is He who shined." (It is God) who commanded light, &c., that shined, &c., (Job 37:15): Himself our Light and Sun, as well as the Creator of light (Mal 4:2; Joh 8:12). The physical world answers to the spiri...
Read full commentary →Paul's Thorn in the Flesh
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.</strong> The phrase <strong>lest I should be exalted above measure</strong> (<em>hina mē hyperairōmai</em>, ἵνα μὴ ὑπεραίρωμαι) appears twice—bookending the verse—revealing God's purpose...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **There was given to me a thorn in the flesh.**—The vague mystery with which St. Paul thus surrounds the special form of “infirmity” of which he speaks, has given rise to very different conjectures, which will require to be treated with more or less fulness. It will be well to begin with getting as closely as we can at the idea of the central word. The Greek word for “thorn,” then, might bette...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
7. "Lest any should say, How then is it that we continue to enjoy such unspeakable glory in a mortal body? Paul replies, this very fact is one of the most marvellous proofs of God's power, that an earthen vessel could bear such splendor and keep such a treasure" [Chrysostom, Homilies, 8.496, A]. The treasure or "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." The fragile "earthen vessel" is the b...
Read full commentary →For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.</strong> Paul's <em>pareklaesa</em> (παρεκάλεσα, "I besought," "I pleaded") echoes Jesus in Gethsemane, who prayed <em>three times</em> for the cup to pass (Matthew 26:39, 42, 44). The parallel is deliberate: like Christ, Paul prayed earnestly for relief; like Christ, God answered not by removing suffering but by prov...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **For this thing I besought the Lord thrice.**—We are reminded of our Lord’s three-fold prayer in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36; Luke 22:42-45). Was St. Paul himself reminded of it? There also the answer to the prayer was not compliance with its petition, but the gift of strength to bear and to endure.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
8. Greek, "BEING hard pressed, yet not inextricably straitened; reduced to inextricable straits" (nominative to "we have," 2Co 4:7).
**on every side--**Greek, "in every respect" (compare 2Co 4:10, "always"; 2Co 7:5). This verse expresses inward distresses; 2Co 4:9, outward distresses (2Co 7:5). "Without were fightings; within were fears." The first clause in each member of the series of contrast...
Read full commentary →And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.</strong> This is one of Scripture's theological summits. Christ's answer to Paul's three-fold plea isn't thorn removal but a promise: <strong>My grace is sufficient</strong> (<em>arkei soi hē charis mou</em>, ἀρκεῖ σοι ἡ χάρις μου)—present tense, ongoing sufficiency. The Greek <em>arkei</em> ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee.**—The words fit in, more or less, with each of the two views that have been discussed above. From one point of view, however, it seems infinitely more in harmony with our thoughts of God, that the prayer to be relieved from pain should be refused, because it was working out a higher perfection than was attainable without it, than that a d...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**9. not forsaken--**by God and man. Jesus was forsaken by both; so much do His sufferings exceed those of His people (Mt 27:46).
**cast down--**or "struck down"; not only "persecuted," that is, chased as a deer or bird (1Sa 26:20), but actually struck down as with a dart in the chase (He 11:35-38). The Greek "always" in this verse means, "throughout the whole time"; in 2Co 4:11 the Greek is dif...
Read full commentary →Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.</strong> Paul lists five categories of suffering: <em>astheneiais</em> (ἀσθενείαις, "infirmities," physical weaknesses), <em>hybresin</em> (ὕβρεσιν, "reproaches," insults), <em>anankais</em> (ἀνάγκαις, "necessities," distresses), <...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities.**—The thoughts of the Apostle go back to the sufferings of which he had spoken fully in 2 Corinthians 11 and elsewhere. One new word is added, “reproaches” (better, *insults*)*, *which elsewhere in the New Testament meets us only in Acts 27:10; Acts 27:21, in the sense of material damage. Here the reference is probably to the taunts and sneers to wh...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**10. bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus--**that is, having my body exposed to being put to death in the cause of Jesus (the oldest manuscripts omit "the Lord"), and having in it the marks of such sufferings, I thus bear about wheresoever I go, an image of the suffering Saviour in my own person (2Co 4:11; 2Co 1:5; compare 1Co 15:31). Doubtless, Paul was exposed to more dangers t...
Read full commentary →Concern for the Corinthian Church
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.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>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.</strong> Paul concludes his "fool's speech" (begun at 11:1) with gentle rebuke: <strong>ye have compelled me</strong>—their tolerance of false apostles forced him into self-defense he finds distasteful. The phrase <stro...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(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 insane*—*it was you* (emphatic) *who compelled me.* 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. T...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**11. we which live--**in the power of Christ's "life" manifested in us, in our whole man body as well as spirit (Ro 8:10, 11; see on 2Co 4:10; compare 2Co 5:15). Paul regards his preservation amidst so many exposures to "death," by which Stephen and James were cut off, as a standing miracle (2Co 11:23).
**delivered unto--**not by chance; by the ordering of Providence, who shows "the excellency ...
Read full commentary →Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.</strong> Paul identifies three categories of apostolic authentication: <em>sēmeiois</em> (σημείοις, "signs," miraculous indicators), <em>terasin</em> (τέρασιν, "wonders," awe-inspiring acts), and <em>dynamesin</em> (δυνάμεσιν, "mighty deeds," displays of power). This triad appears...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) **Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you.**—The passage is remarkable for using the word “signs,” first, in the general sense, as “notes” or “tokens,” and then more specifically for works of supernatural power. On the special meaning of the three words, “signs,” “wonders,” “power,” see Note on Acts 2:22. The passage is noticeable as being one of those in which St. Paul distinctl...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
12. The "death" of Christ manifested in the continual "perishing of our outward man" (2Co 4:16), works peculiarly in us, and is the means of working spiritual "life" in you. The life whereof we witness in our bodily dying, extends beyond ourselves, and is brought by our very dying to you.
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.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>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.</strong> Paul's irony cuts deep: the only way Corinth was "inferior" to other churches was his refusal to accept financial support—which they somehow twisted into evidence of second-class apostleship. The phrase <strong>I myself was not burdensome</strong>...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **What is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches?**—His mind travels back to the insinuation that he cared less for them than he did for the churches of Macedonia, because he had maintained his independence and had received no gifts from them. If they complained of this, they should, at least, remember that this was the only point of inferiority. They had experienced fully all the adva...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
13. Translate as Greek, "BUT having," &c., that is, not withstanding the trials just mentioned, we having, &c.
**the same spirit of faith, according as it, &c.--**Compare Ro 8:15, on the usage of "spirit of faith." The Holy Spirit acting on our spirit. Though "death worketh in us, and life in you" (2Co 4:12), yet as we have the same spirit of faith as you, we therefore [believingly] ...
Read full commentary →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.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not your's, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.</strong> Paul announces his <strong>third</strong> planned visit (previous: founding visit Acts 18:1-11; "painful visit" 2:1). He maintains his policy: <strong>I will not be burdensome<...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you.**—The visit to Corinth of Acts 18:1. followed by a long sojourn, may perhaps be reckoned as the first occasion; then came the projected journey from Ephesus to Corinth and thence to Macedonia (2Corinthians 1:16); now he was preparing for the third journey, announced in 1Corinthians 16:5-7, from Macedonia to Corinth. (See, however, the Note o...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**14. Knowing--**by faith (2Co 5:1).
**shall raise up us also--**at the resurrection (1Co 6:13, 14).
**by Jesus--**The oldest manuscripts have "with Jesus."
**present us--**vividly picturing the scene before the eyes (Jude 24).
**with you--**(2Co 1:14; 1Th 2:19, 20; 3:13).
And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you ; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. for you: Gr. for your souls
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.</strong> Paul intensifies: beyond refusing Corinthian money, he'll <strong>spend</strong> (<em>dapanēsō</em>, δαπανήσω, "expend resources") and <strong>be spent</strong> (<em>ekdapanēthēsomai</em>, ἐκδαπανηθήσομαι, "be utterly exhausted," "be poured out")—active giving plus passiv...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(15) **And I will very gladly spend and be spent.**—The pronoun is emphatic, *I, for my part.* The latter verb implies spending to the last farthing. As he sought not *theirs,* but *them,* so he is ready to spend for them not only all that he has, but even, as if to the verge of exhaustion, all that he is. And yet with all this there was the painful consciousness of toiling without adequate return...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**15. For--**Confirming his assertion "with you" (2Co 4:14), and "life ... worketh in you" (2Co 4:12).
**all things--**whether the afflictions and labors of us ministers (2Co 4:8-11), or your prosperity (2Co 4:12; 1Co 3:21, 22; 4:8-13).
**for your sakes--**(2Ti 2:10).
**abundant grace, &c.--**rather, "That grace (the grace which preserves us in trials and works life in you), being made t...
Read full commentary →But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.</strong> Paul quotes his opponents' accusation: while he didn't take money directly (avoiding the "burden"), he allegedly used <strong>guile</strong> (<em>dolos</em>, δόλος, "deceit," "trickery") to extract funds indirectly—perhaps through the Jerusalem collection (chapters 8-9) or through Titus and ot...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(16) **But be it so, I did not burden you.**—The pronoun is again emphatic. The word for “burden” is not the same as in 2Corinthians 12:13-14, but puts the fact less figuratively. The abruptness of the sentence requires us to trace between the lines the under-currents of unexpressed thoughts. The extreme, almost jealous, sensitiveness of the Apostle’s nature leads him to imagine the cynical sneer ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**16. we faint not--**notwithstanding our sufferings. Resuming 2Co 4:1.
**outward man--**the body, the flesh.
**perish--**"is wearing away"; "is wasted away" by afflictions.
**inward man--**our spiritual and true being, the "life" which even in our mortal bodies (2Co 4:11) "manifests the life of Jesus."
**is renewed--**"is being renewed," namely, with fresh "grace" (2Co 4:15), and "faith" ...
Read full commentary →Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you?
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you?</strong> Paul's rhetorical question demands self-examination: examine the co-workers I've sent—did <em>any</em> of them exploit you financially? The Greek <em>epleonektēsa</em> (ἐπλεονέκτησα, "I made gain," "I defrauded") implies greedy advantage-taking. Paul's defense rests on empirical evidence: review the conduct of <em>every...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) **By any of them whom I sent unto you?**—The English expresses the meaning of the Greek, but does not show, as that does, the vehement agitation which led the writer, as he dictated the letter, to begin the sentence with one construction and finish it with another. *Did any of those I sent* . . . *did I by this means get more out of you than I ought?* He has in his mind, as far as we know, Ti...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**17. which is but for a moment--**"Our PRESENT light (burden of) affliction" (so the Greek; compare Mt 11:30), [Alford]. Compare "now for a season ... in heaviness" (1Pe 1:6). The contrast, however, between this and the "ETERNAL weight of glory" requires, I think, the translation, "Which is but for the present passing moment." So Wahl. "The lightness of affliction" (he does not express "burden" a...
Read full commentary →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?
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>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?</strong> Paul specifies: Titus (who delivered the "severe letter," 7:6-7, and organized the Jerusalem collection, 8:6, 16-17) and an unnamed <strong>brother</strong> (possibly Luke or another trusted co-worker). The rhetorical question <strong>Did...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(18) **I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother.**—Better, *the brother.* The Greek has the article, and he refers definitely to the first of the two unnamed brethren alluded to in 2Corinthians 8:18-22. The Greek idiom of what is known as the “epistolary aorist,” hinders the English reader from seeing that St. Paul is referring to what was being done at the time when the letter was written. ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**18. look not at--**as our aim.
**things ... seen--**"earthly things" (Php 3:19). We mind not the things seen, whether affliction or refreshment come, so as to be seduced by the latter, or deterred by the former [Chrysostom].
**things ... not seen--**not "the invisible things" of Ro 1:20, but the things which, though not seen now, shall be so hereafter.
**temporal--**rather, "for a time"; i...
Read full commentary →Final Warnings
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.
View commentary (2 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>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.</strong> Paul anticipates misunderstanding: his self-defense (chapters 10-12) might seem like <strong>excuse ourselves</strong> (<em>apologoumetha</em>, ἀπολογούμεθα, "making defense," "apologizing")—mere self-justification. He corrects this: <strong>we...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(19) **Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you?**—Many of the best MSS. present the reading *palai* (long ago), instead of *palin* (again). In this case the sentence is better taken as an assertion, not as a question—”You are thinking, and have been thinking for a long time, that it is to you that we have been making our defence.” The Greek verb for “excuse,” is that which is always used...
Read full commentary →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:
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>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:</strong> Paul voices pastoral anxiety about his upcoming third visit: mutual disappointment. <strong>I shall not find you such as I would</strong>—he fears finding them u...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) F**or I fear, lest, when I come . . .**—Something of the old anxiety which had led him to postpone his visit (2Corinthians 1:23; 1Corinthians 4:21) comes back upon his spirit. He and some of those Corinthians are likely to meet under very unfavourable conditions, neither of them acceptable to the other, severity meeting with open or masked resistance.
**Lest there be debates . . . .**—The lis...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 5
2Co 5:1-21. The Hope (2Co 4:17, 18) OF Eternal Glory in the Resurrection Body.
Hence arises his ambition to be accepted at the Lord's coming judgment. Hence, too, his endeavor to deal openly with men, as with God, in preaching; thus giving the Corinthians whereof to boast concerning him against his adversaries. His constraining motive is the transforming love of Christ, by whom God ...
Read full commentary →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.
View commentary (3 sources)
KJV Study Commentary
<strong>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.</strong> Paul's fear deepens: his third visit might bring <strong>humbling</strong> (<em>tapeinōsei</em>, ταπεινώσει)—not honor but shame when he must publicly grieve over...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(21) **And lest when I come again . . .**—The words do not imply more than one previous visit (Acts 18:1), but it can scarcely be said that they exclude the supposition of another. (See Note on 2Corinthians 13:1.)
**My God will humble me among you.**—We lose the force of the Greek verb by not seeing that it reproduces the word which has been so prominent in the Epistle, and which has appeared in 2...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. For in this--**Greek, "For also in this"; "herein" (2Co 8:10). Alford takes it, "in this" tabernacle. 2Co 5:4, which seems parallel, favors this. But the parallelism is sufficiently exact by making "in this we groan" refer generally to what was just said (2Co 5:1), namely, that we cannot obtain our "house in the heavens" except our "earthly tabernacle" be first dissolved by death.
**we groa...
Read full commentary →