What Does 2 Corinthians 5:12 Mean?

(12) **For we commend not ourselves again** **unto you.**—The better MSS. omit “For,” which may have been inserted for the sake of an apparent sequence of thought. In reality, however, what follows is more intelligible without it. He has scarcely uttered the words that precede this sentence when the poison of the barbed arrow of the sneer to which he had referred in 2Corinthians 3:1 again stings him. He hears his enemies saying, “So he is commending himself again;” and these words are the answer to that taunt. “No,” he says, “it is not so, but in appealing to the witness of the work done in your consciences we give you an ‘occasion’ (or *starting-point*) of a boast which we take for granted that you, the great body of the Church of Corinth, will be ready to make for us.” **That ye may have somewhat to answer.**—The opponents, of whom we are to hear more hereafter (see Notes on 2Corinthians 10:7-18; 2Corinthians 11:12-33), rise up once more in his thoughts. “That such as these should be boasting of *their* work and *their* success!” What did they glory in? *In appearance.* The words may apply to anything external—claims of authority, training, knowledge, and the like. The use of the word, however, in 2Corinthians 10:1 seems to imply a more definite meaning. Men contrasted what we should call the dignified “presence” of his rivals with his personal defects, the weakness of his body, the lowness of his stature. “Take your stand,” he seems to say, “against that boast, on the work done by us in your consciences.”