Joseph MacRory’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians 6:1-10

Text in red are my additions.

2 Cor 6:1. AND we helping do exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.

The exhortation begun in 2 Cor 5:20 is continued. “ And we helping ” (Συνεργοῦντες = synergountes), i.e., co-operating (1 Cor. 3:9) with God (who in 5:20 was said to exhort), we also exhort you that you receive not, etc. They would receive it in vain, if it failed to influence their lives or if they allowed themselves to be involved again in the idolatry and defilements of paganism.

2 Cor 6:2 For he saith: In an accepted time have I heard thee and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time: behold, now is the day of salvation.

The reference is to Isa 49:8, where God is represented as addressing His Servant, the Messias, and through Him His people, and summarising the blessings of the Messianic age. The passage of Isaias points to a time of God’s special mercy, and the Apostle reminds the Corinthians that it is now come. The words referred to the Messianic age, and St. Paul quotes them in their literal sense.

2 Cor 6:3 Giving no offence to any man, that our ministry be not blamed.

Giving no offence to any man.” The Greek rather means “giving no offence in anything” (ἐν μηδενὶ = en medeni). The words are to be connected with v. 1, v. 2 being parenthetical, and are spoken of St. Paul and his companions, not of the Corinthians. They cooperated with God (v. 1), giving no offence in anything (v. 3), but in everything commending themselves (v. 4), etc.

“That our ministry be not blamed.” μωμηθῇ = momethe (“our”) is possibly to be omitted ; but it gives the sense, for the ministry or ministration is that of the preachers of the Gospel. St. Paul evidently felt, what every priest ought to feel, that the success of his ministry depended on the general character of his life.

2 Cor 6:4 But in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses,

Render: But in everything exhibiting (rather  “commending,” 2 Cor 3:l) ourselves.” All the Greek MSS. and all the other versions agree against the Vulgate here in reading a participle. Many Latin commentators, misled by the Vulg. “exhibeamus,” took the passage 3-10 as an exhortation to the Corinthians how to behave in the time of salvation. But clearly the Apostle continues to speak of the ministers of the Gospel, showing how they co-operated with God, giving no offence, but in everything commending themselves as ministers of God ought. The Vulg. in reading ” ministros,” is again opposed to practically all the other evidence, which supports the nominative διακονοί = diakonoi (ministri). What the Apostle says, therefore, is that he and his companions, as ministers of God ought, commended themselves by (ἐν = en of the instrument) much patience in everything: in tribulation, in necessities, etc. Nine classes of things which tried their patience are now mentioned in this and the next verse; the first three are general; of the remaining six, which are particular, three come unsought from without, three are taken up voluntarily by themselves.

“In tribulations, in necessities, in distresses.” There seems to be a gradation; the prevailing idea is of pressure or confinement, increasing till in the end, humanly speaking, no way out is left.

2 Cor 6:5 In stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labours, in watchings, in fastings,

For instances of “stripes and prisons ” case, see 2 Cor 9:23-25; Acts 16:23.

“Seditions ” (or “tumults”), e.g., Acts 19:23 ff. Some, with St. Chrysostom, take  ἀκαταστασίαις = akatastasiais, to mean “‘tossings about,” being hunted, as we say, “from post to pillar,” so that the ministers of the Gospel could not rest in a place and complete their mission.

In the third triplet he alludes to the ”labours ” undertaken to spread the Gospel and earn their living (2 Cor 11:27; Acts 18:3) ; to the ” watchings ” devoted to manual toil or prayer or preaching (e.g., Acts 20:7); and to the ” fastings,” by which they chastised their bodies, lest when they had preached to others they themselves should become castaways (1 Cor. 9:27). That Christ meant His followers to fast, see Matt. 9:15 and parallels; and that they did fast sometimes in Apostolic days, see Acts 13:3 ; 14:22; so that even if the present verse and 11:27, were interpreted, as most Protestants interpret them, of hunger induced by want, the New Testament would still supply sanction for the practice of fasting (cf. Matt. 4:2).

2 Cor 6:6 In chastity, in knowledge, in longsuffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned,

From the virtue of patience (and various occasions for its exercise) the Apostle passes on to mention, in this and the next verse, nine other ways by which they commended themselves.

“Chastity”; possibly the Greek word is to be taken in a wider sense, including indeed chastity, but also purity from every sin, as far as human weakness permits. But see McCarthy, Epistles of the Sundays, p. 157 ff.

“Knowledge.” Some understand of the wisdom that comes from God, as opposed to mere human wisdom; others of prudence others, as Estius, of the charism referred to in 1 Cor 12:8.

“In long-suffering,” of those who were hostile; “ in sweetness,” i.e, kindness, towards all; “in the Holy Ghost,” is taken by  many as explaining the source of the preceding virtues, as if he said, it is through the grace and help of the Holy Ghost we commend ourselves by these virtues. But it seems more likely that if that were the meaning, the clause would stand at the beginning or the end of the enumeration, explaining the source of all the evidences by which they commended themselves. Hence it is best to understand of some special evidence, taking the clause as co-ordinate with the others, and the reference may be to the Holy Ghost as shining in and influencing their life generally.

2 Cor 6:7 In the word of truth, in the power of God: by the armour of justice on the right hand and on the left:

The first clause refers to the true doctrine they preached sincerely (2 Cor 2:17; 4:12); the second to the miracles that accompanied it (Mark 15:20); by both they commended themselves.— “By the armour, etc.” Note that the preposition here changes from ἐν = en to διά = dia, as in the next two clauses.

Most moderns understand the metaphor to allude to the fact that offensive arms, as the sword or spear, were carried in the right hand and the defensive shield in the left; so that the meaning would be: we commend ourselves by all kinds of virtues, offensive and defensive—all the virtues being weapons by which righteousness was promoted in others or maintained in themselves. In this view the clause sums up and completes the previous enumeration, and ought to be translated: ”By the arms of justice, the right-hand and the left-hand (ones).” This seems a probable view, yet if St. Paul meant it, it is hard to see why he changed the preposition, for ἐν = en might have been used, as in the preceding clauses. The change, together with the fact that διά = dia is used in the next two clauses, seems to connect this clause not with what precedes but with what follows, and so the Fathers and earlier commentators connected it. They took the sense to be: We commend ourselves in (διά = dia of the state in which they found themselves) prosperity and adversity, while we use both as instruments (ὅπλων = hoplon) of righteousness. The clause is then a general statement, particular instances of ”prosperous” and ” adverse ” things being given in what follows. ” Dextera vero et sinistra convenienter intelliguntur prospera et adversa . Unde et in extremo judicio oves a dextris, hoedi autem a sinistris collocandi dicuntur” — Estius. Translation: The right and the left respectively mean good and bad things. Hence also in the last judgment the sheep are said to be placed on the right, but the children on the left. It should be noted that, contrary to a popular misconception, the left hand–or left-handedness–is never identified as evil in the Bible.

2 Cor 6:8 By honour and dishonour: by evil report and good report: as deceivers and yet true: as unknown and yet known:

” Dishonour ” refers to acts in their presence; “ evil report,” to words spoken in their absence.—”As deceivers, and yet true.” Seven clauses are now introduced by ὡς = hos (the rendering of which is needlessly varied in the Vulg.: “ut,” ‘”‘sicut,” “quasi” “tanquam “); and the sense is that they were spoken of as being such and such, while in reality they were far different. The varied rendering of ὡς = hos in the Vulg. seems meant to suggest that some of the evil conditions referred to were not merely reputed but actual, which is true in a certain sense; but the Apostle appears to attend throughout rather to the view his enemies took of those conditions. Our English version correctly gives καὶ the sense of ” and yet” here, for there is opposition between what they really were and what they were reputed, and hence in the fifth and sixth members καὶ = kai = “and” is replaced by δέ = de = “yet” (see verse 10).

“As unknown ” ; they were spoken of by their enemies as if they were obscure and of no account; yet, de facto, they were well known (ἐπιγινωσκόμενοι = epiginoskomenoi) in the churches.

2 Cor 6:9 As dying and behold we live: as chastised and not killed: 

“As chastised,” i.e., by God, 1 Cor. 11:32; Heb. 12:6; Rev 3:19. Their enemies ascribed this to the fact that they were great sinners

2 Cor 6:10 As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing: as needy, yet enriching many: as having nothing and possessing all things.

“As needy”, literally, “beggars.” To the world’s estimate that they were beggars and had nothing, the Apostle opposes the reality, namely, that they enriched many and possessed abundantly (κατέχοντες = katechontes) all things. The reference is chiefly to imparting and possessing spiritual riches, for the alms which they conveyed to others might meet their wants, but would certainly not be enough to enrich them.

St Edmund’s College’s Scripture Handbook on 2 Corinthians 6:1-10

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Context: 

2 Cor 5:20–6:10. In this passage (which is unfortunately broken by the commencement of a new chapter) St. Paul concludes that portion of the Epistle which is devoted to the magnifying of his ministry, by urging the Corinthians to take advantage of it. For he has exercised it with much suffering, and with great power of God.

Commentary:

 2 Cor 6:1. and we helping.… There is no break here in the subject-matter. This verse follows immediately on 2 Cor 5::20 (v. 21 being parenthetical). We beseech you, be reconciled to God.… We exhort you that you receive not the grace of God in vain.

helping—that is, either “helping Christ,” whose ambassadors we are (2 Cor 5:20), by forwarding the work of reconciliation which He has on His side accomplished; or “helping God,” acting as His coadjutors in the work of reconciliation (cf. 1 Cor. 3:9).

in vain, i.e., by not corresponding with grace.

2 Cor 6:2. for he saith.… This verse is parenthetical. It is quoted from Isa. 49:8, where God addresses these words to the Messiah pleading and suffering for sinful humanity. The moment is now come of which we were assured by the prophet. The Messiah has appeared. God has heard His prayers, and has supported Him in the day of His suffering, which is the day of our salvation.

he saith, that is, God, speaking in the Scriptures.

accepted … acceptable: rather, “accepted” … “most accepted.” It means the time which is accepted and approved of by God.

2 Cor 6:3. giving no offence (cf. 1 Cor. 9:12; 10:32-33), that is avoiding everything that might offend any one. These words resume what was said in verse 1, and the participle to therefore dependent on the verb “exhort.”

2 Cor 6:4. let us exhibit. (cf. 2 Cor 4:2). The Greek (συνιστάνοντες ἑαυτοὺς) means “exhibiting,” or “commending ourselves,” so that it is parallel with “helping” (v. 1), and “giving no offence” (v. 3).

as the ministers of God. In the Greek the word “ministers” is in the nominative case. The meaning therefore is, commending ourselves, as ministers of God should do.

2 Cor 6:4–10. These verses bring out various marks of the true ministers of God.

2 Cor 6:4. in much patience. Patience is a mark of the minister of Christ. St. Paul points to nine occasions on which it is exercised. The first three are general, the next three are particular cases of trials from without, and the last three are occasions of voluntary suffering.

tribulations, necessities, distresses. Each of these words is stronger than the preceding. The word distresses is an apparent, though, of course, not a real, contradiction of 2 Cor 4:8.

2 Cor 6:5. stripes, cf. 2 Cor 11:23–25.

prisons. We only have the record of one imprisonment of St. Paul previous to this time, namely, that at Philippi (Acts 16:23), but, no doubt, there had been many others. Pope St. Clement, in his epistle to the Corinthians, says that St. Paul was imprisoned seven times.

seditions, or tumults—that is, popular riots like that at Ephesus (see Acts 19; cf. Acts 13:50; 14:5, 18; 17:5–8, 13; &c.).

laours, voluntarily undertaken in the exercise of his ministry.

fastings (νηστείαις). Some Protestant commentators have supposed that St. Paul here means involuntary fasting through want of food; but, in the first place, this is not the natural meaning of the Greek word, and secondly, it seems to be excluded by 2 Cor 11:27, where he speaks of hunger and thirst undergone through necessity, as well as of voluntary fasting.

2 Cor 6:6. in chastity (ἐν ἁγνότητι). Some commentators would translate the Greek by “purity of mind,” or by “detachment” from creatures: but it is more in accordance with the meaning of the Greek to take it as meaning chastity in the stricter sense.

in knowledge, that is, the knowledge he had acquired for the glory of God in the exercise of his ministry.

in sweetness, that is, benignity or considerateness for others (cf. 1 Cor. 9:22).

in the Holy Ghost, that is, in the various gifts of the Holy Ghost, but particularly in those special gifts called Charismata, which were common in the apostolic times, and would be another confirmation of the apostolic authority (cf. 1 Cor. 12 and 14).

in charity unfeigned, cf. 1 John 3:18.

7. in the word of truth, i.e., the preaching of the Gospel, which is the very Truth (cf. 2 Cor 2:17; 4:2; Col. 1:5).

in the power of God, i.e., in all that shows our work to be divine, whether the working of miracles (which are commonly called “powers” in the New Testament), or the superhuman zeal and courage of the apostles in their labours.

by the armour of justice, that is, the weapons used in the cause of justice (cf. 2 Cor 10:4; Eph. 6:11–17; 1 Thess. 5:8).

on the right hand and on the left, that is either, (1) armour protecting the whole body on all sides; or (2) offensive arms in the right hand, such as sword or spear; and the shield for defence on the left.

2 Cor 6:8. by honour and dishonour. He commends his ministry by the way in which he endures being reviled, and slandered, &c., as well as by his conduct in the opposite case.

as deceivers, and yet true, i.e., regarded as impostors, but in reality true (cf. Matt. 27:63).

as unknown …, i.e., despised as poor and obscure, but really well known to all true Christians.

2 Cor 6:9. as dying …, i.e., often reported to be at the point of death, if not actually dead: but still preserved in life by God.

as chastised …, i.e., seeming to be chastised by God, because of the great afflictions we undergo unjustly from men, and yet in reality protected by Him from being put to death.

2 Cor 6:10. as sorrowful …, i.e., looked upon as wretched because of our sufferings, but really rejoicing in them (cf. Acts 5:41).

as needy, yet enriching many … i.e., appearing to be in want; (1.) temporally, yet really provided for by the faithful in all his necessities, and enriching many by collecting alms (2 Cor 8:1-9:15); (2.) spiritually, seeming to be deserted by God, who allowed Him to suffer, yet really receiving grace for the benefit and consolation of others (2 Cor 1:4, 6).

as having nothing, and possessing all things, i.e., having given up all for Christ, but possessing and enjoying all goods both spiritual and temporal, because he possessed Christ, who included them all.

Father de Piconio’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians 11:16-33

Text in red, if any, are my additions.

2 Cor 11:16. I say again, let no one think me a fool; or else, as a fool receive me, that I also may glory for a little.
2 Cor 11:17. What I speak, I speak not according to God, but as if in folly, in this confidence of glory.
2 Cor 11:18. Since many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.

I repeat what I said before: my boasting ought not to be considered a mark of folly, for I have good reasons for the course I am now pursuing. But if you will not grant me this, then grant me the privilege of a fool, the licence of boasting for a while. If my words do not sound like Christian humility, yet my intention in speaking them springs from charity, and is according to God, for my object is to prevent you despising a minister of Christ, and listening to the ministers of Satan. Others are fond of boasting of external claims to respect, and if I seem to imitate their folly, you will bear with me, as you bear with them. A modern Protestant commentator insists that the words, I say again, in verse 16, signify I retract or withdraw what I said before, and say the opposite; but this seems an unnecessary refinement, for the Apostle after all repeats very much the same thing as he said in verse 1. The Apostle’s humility and charity are very conspicuous in this passage. Humility, in repeating so often his excuse for speaking of himself, which shows how unwillingly he did so; and his charity in doing what was evidently distasteful to him, for the salvation of the. Corinthians.

2 Cor 11:19. For you willingly bear with fools, being wise yourselves.
2 Cor 11:20. You bear it, if one reduces you to slavery, if one devours you, if one takes presents from you, if one exalts. himself, if one strikes you in the face.
2 Cor 11:21. I speak to your dishonour, as if we were weak in this respect. What any dares (I speak in folly), I also dare.

(19) I do not deny your wisdom; but it is certain that you do submit, without remonstrance, to the proud and arrogant self-assertion of others, far worse than anything you have had, or will have, to put up with from me; and indeed to absolute outrage and insult at their hands. (20) allow them to sell you into slavery, probably for money advanced; to seize and appropriate your goods; to exact heavy contributions from you under the name of gifts; to treat you as inferiors; sometimes to strike you in the face. These are unquestionably allusions to incidents which the Apostle knew to have occurred at Corinth, in the conduct of the heretical teachers or their influential supporters and allies. Some writers think that the expression, strike you in the face, is metaphorical; but there is no difficulty in supposing that it may, in some case or cases, have occurred literally. 2 Cor 11:21, Saint Chrysostom says, is obscure, and apparently refers to: some occurrence of a still more serious nature, which the writer does not choose to particularise more exactly. (21) Whatever it was, it did not redound to the honour of the Corinthian Christians. And because I do not behave in the same way, you put it down, or are told to put it down, to weakness or cowardice on my part. I must protest, foolish as the remark may sound, that I am as bold as others, in cases where boldness is required, or would be honourable and right. Of the truth of this statement he proceeds to give ample proof in the following verses.

It is, however, observed by Cornelius à Lapide, from Lalmeron, that what the Apostle here complains of, is the custom of the world, and has been so in all ages, and will be to the end of time. The servants of God are resisted and defied. On the smallest provocation, or appearance of provocation, men will murmur against them, cry out against them, complain of their measured and moderate severity, reject the very idea or appearance of ecclesiastical discipline; while at the same time they will exhibit the most abject and servile submission to teachers of heresy, give them full licence, submit to whatever exactions they lay upon them; as the people of Israel, rejecting the modest and gentle government of the Prophet Samuel, preferred the yoke of a haughty and tyrannical king (see 1 Sam 8). | And an ecclesiastical superior, who attends to, and discharges faithfully, the duties of his office, if he finds himself despised and looked down upon on that account by his own flock, may comfort himself by the example of the Apostle Saint Paul, to whom the Corinthian Christians preferred the false apostles of their day, although these last tyrannised over them, robbed and insulted them, and crushed them under the weight of worldly influence and power. Another, who neglected the duties of his office, and the salvation of his flock, might very possibly find himself spoken of with honour, and valued and respected by the selfish and the worldly. If so, he should bestow a thought on these false teachers of the Corinthians, and consider whether, in partaking their worldly honour, he may not also be partaker of their guilt. At any rate, he cannot reasonably congratulate himself upon distinction at the hands of the world, which he shares with the ministers of Satan.

2 Cor 11:22. They are Hebrews, and I; they are Israelites, and I; they are the seed of Abraham, and I.

It appears from this verse that his opponents were Jews, or Judaizers. They may, however, possibly have sought to introduce, under the guise of Judaism, heresies, which were of foreign origin. The term Hebrews included originally all the descendants of the patriarch Heber, who lived at the time of the dispersion (Genesis 11:15). I am a Hebrew, and speak the Hebrew language. The Israelites, God’s chosen people, were a branch of the: Hebrew race. The seed of Abraham, not converts or proselytes.

2 Cor 11:23. They are ministers of Christ, I speak as one not quite wise; I am more; in labours very many, in prison more often, in stripes beyond measure, in deaths frequently.

They are ministers of Christ, or say they are. In 2 Cor 11:13, he calls them ministers of Satan. It may be a foolish thing to say, but I am much more a minister of Christ than they. The proof he adduces of this statement is not, perhaps, exactly what we should have expected, for he does not refer to the cities, provinces, and kingdoms he had evangelised and converted, but to the labours, blows, and imprisonment he had suffered for the cause of Christ. I have certainly undergone toil, imprisonment, blows, peril of death, to a much greater degree than they.

2 Cor 11:24. From the Jews five times I received forty less one.

Forty less one (Deut 25:3). If he who has sinned is found worthy of beating, let them lay him down and beat him in presence of the judges. But the number of blows must be in proportion to the crime, and never exceed forty, lest thy brother go away cruelly torn before thine eyes. Forty was therefore the maximum number of stripes allowed, and the Jews never inflicted more than thirty-nine, lest they should inadvertently exceed it. There is no record in the Acts of the Apostles of this punishment being inflicted on Saint Paul, nor is it known where it occurred.

2 Cor 11:25. Thrice I have been beaten with a rod, once I was stoned, thrice I have been shipwrecked, I have been a night and day in the deep sea.

Thrice I was beaten with a rod, by the Gentile magistrates. It may be inferred that the Jews used a whip. Only one of these three beatings is mentioned in the Acts. It occurred at Philippi (Acts 16:22), and on this occasion the magistrates apologised when they learned that he was a Roman citizen Saint Paul was stoned at Lystra, in Lycaonia (Acts 14:19-20), on which occasion his life seems to have been saved by miracle. Of the

three shipwrecks, there is no account in the Acts; the shipwreck at Malta, described in Acts 27, occurred some years later. A night and day in the deep. The word sea is not in the Greek, and Baronius thinks it refers to a deep dungeon at Cyzicus, in Asia Minor, in which he was once immured. But he has already spoken of prisons, the word before is shipwrecked, and the Vulgate is most probably right in saying the depth of the sea. Theodoret says it was in an unseaworthy boat, in which he was tossed for a night and a day. The Syriac has: Thrice I have been in shipwreck, a day and night I have been in the midst of the sea without a vessel. It is clear from these verses that many circumstances have been omitted by Saint Luke in his narrative in the Acts, which gives principally those events of which the writer was himself a witness.

2 Cor 11:26. Often in journeys, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in peril from my countrymen, in peril in the city, in peril in the solitude, in peril on the sea, in peril among false brethren.

Theodoret: Everywhere dangers are scattered in his path. Dangers in crossing and navigating rivers, at the hands of robbers, of Jewish conspirators, of Gentile persecutors, in the city, in the desert, by land, by sea. Everywhere plots laid against his life; and this sometimes from false brethren, or pretending believers. For from the beginning the devil has sown the tares. The number of attempts against Saint Paul’s life is very remarkable. (See Acts 9:23; 13:50; 14:5; 17:5; 20:13; 21:31; 23:10-12; 25:3, etc.).

2 Cor 11:27. In labour and care, in many vigils, in hunger and thirst, in many fasts, in cold and nakedness. 

The Greek has toil and misery. Watching, for prayer, preaching, labouring. Hunger and thirst for want of food and water in long journeys, in the burning heat of the summer of the south. Fasting voluntarily undertaken for religion. Cold and nakedness, from insufficient clothing in winter.

2 Cor 11:28. Besides those things that are without, my daily preoccupation, the solicitude of all the churches.

Besides these things which are without, and affect the body, there are the cares and anxieties of the mind. The Greek word ἐπίστασίς (epistasis, translated above as preoccupation) means conspiring or combined  assault and tumult; and Saint Chrysostom, taking it literally, refers it to the frequent conspiracies and seditions which threatened the Apostle’s life. But he has already spoken of this in verse 26, and from the following words, the solicitude of all the Churches, it is reasonable to suppose he alludes to the tumult and whirl of business in which he is continually involved, and which is always distressing to a man whose delight is in communion with God. The case of all the Churches, says Erasmus, continually weighed and pressed upon him.

2 Cor 11:29. Who is weakened, and I am not weakened? Who is scandalised, and I learn not?
2 Cor 11:30. If I must glory, I will glory of what is my weakness.
2 Cor 11:31. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is blessed for ever, knows I do not lie.
2 Cor 11:32. In Damascus the chief of the people of King Aretas, guarded the city of the Damascenes, to take me.
2 Cor 11:33. And through a window, in a basket, I was let down over the wall, and thus escaped his hands.

(29) If any is weakened in faith or virtue, I am, in a degree, weakened too. Any scandal arising tortures me. (30) I will glory, if I glory, not as my opponents do, in worldly greatness—he had very high prospects of worldly greatness once—but in the suffering and humiliation which I share with Christ. The City of Damascus, with Arabia Petroea, in the division of Syria, made by the Romans among the family of Herod, fell to Aretas, whose daughter was married to Herod Antipas, the King of Galilee. Herod dismissed her to marry Herodias, wife of his brother Philip. Arctas had placed a governor in the town of Damascus. The occurrence related by the Apostle happened in A.D. 31, six-and-twenty years before the Epistle was written. It is recorded in the Acts 9:24-25.

COROLLARY OF PIETY

What a spectacle is exhibited to us in this brief narrative of the labours and sufferings of Saint Paul! The Legate of Jesus Christ beaten with clubs, whips, rods, as if he were a guilty and worthless slave; the herald of God’s message of salvation stoned, almost  to death, as a blasphemer; the faithful servant and minister of the Almighty shipwrecked at sea, tossed on the stormy waves, as if he were a wretch whom God’s very providence had abandoned to death and destruction! A sight to cause scandal, if looked at with the eyes of the flesh. Is there knowledge on high? But edifying to the last degree, regarded with the eyes of faith. For we learn from it, not to shrink, as from real evils, from care, suffering, and humiliation, but to esteem these as precious gifts of God, which He has ready for His faithful servants. It is given you, for Christ’s sake, not to believe in Him only, but also to suffer for His sake. And we learn not to shrink from and avoid the ordinary ills of life, but to prefer and choose them, as sources of eternal glory; to rejoice in them as means and principles of true glory. Our life, for the most part, has little resemblance to that of the Apostles. Theirs was a life of labour, ours of ease; theirs of suffering, ours of softness and indulgence; theirs of poverty, slight, contempt; ours of wealth, consideration, pride. Yet ought we to differ from those of whom we boast as the fathers of our faith? Should we not be ashamed to suffer nothing, for ourselves, of all the Apostles underwent for us? Affliction is the mother of glory. By affliction Christ and the Apostles entered into glory. It is to affliction that God predestined us, as the means of making us like the image of His Son, that He might be the eldest born of many brethren; and the Cross is the inheritance He shares with us, and which it is our privilege to partake with Him.

Father de Piconio’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians Chapter 13

Text in red, if any, are my additions.

2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 12

In this chapter the Apostle threatens the impenitent with the visible judgment of God, to urge them to penance; and concludes the Epistle with his salutation and benediction.

2 Cor 13:1. BEHOLD, the third time I am coming to you: in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand.
2 Cor 13:2. I have said beforehand, and I say beforehand, as present and now absent, to those who have sinned before, and to all the others, that if I come again, I will not spare.
2 Cor 13:3. Are you seeking a proof by experiment of Christ who speaks in me, who is not weakened towards you, but is powerful among you.
2 Cor 13:4. For though he was crucified out of infirmity, yet he lives by the power of God: for we also are weak in him, but we Shall live with him by the power of God in you.

(1) The third time I am coming. I am certainly coming now, although on the last occasion when I proposed doing so, I was unable to carry out my intention. In the mouth of two or three witnesses is a reference to Deut. 19:15. Either he meant to hold a formal judicial enquiry into the charges brought against the heretical leaders and their followers at Corinth, and obtain testimony against them; or he used the phrase in allusion to his two or three visits to Corinth. This last is the opinion of St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Ambrose, and St. Anselm. St Chrysostom says: I have threatened twice, and now for the third time; you will find that I have not done so in vain. The faithful prelate will always warn before he strikes. (2) I warned you when present, l warn you absent: when I come I will not spare. What he threatens is the visible judgment of God upon the impenitent, such as overtook Ananias and Sapphira, and the impenitent fornicator in 1 Cor. 5:5. (3) Are you seeking proof by experiment that the power of Christ dwells in me? The Greek and Syriac read, in continuation of the sense of the previous verse: since you ave making trial of Christ, who speaks by me. (4) As Christ, crucified in weakness, now lives by the power of God; so you shall find that we, the Apostles, feeble in his mortal weakness, exercise nevertheless his divine power, which will be exhibited in vobis (in you), towards you.

2 Cor 13:5. Try yourselves, whether you are in the faith; yourselves make proof of yourselves. Do you know yourselves that Christ Jesus is in you? Unless perchance you are reprobate.
2 Cor 13:6. But I hope you will know that we are not reprobate.
2 Cor 13:7. But we pray God that you do no evil, not that we may appear approved, but that you may do what is good, and we be as reprobate.
2 Cor 13:8. For we cannot do anything against truth, but for truth.

(5) I advise you not to make trial of the power of God committed to my hands; but rather try yourselves, whether you are in the true faith. ‘The test of orthodox faith in those days, as St. Chrysostom points out, was the power of working miracles, and this test the Apostle urges his opponents at Corinth to apply. By this means you will know for certain whether Christ Jesus—the real and true Christ, the Son of Mary, not some vague metaphysical abstraction whom you call by that name—dwells among you and in your communion. Otherwise you are reprobate. The word reprobi is not used here in opposition to predestimati, but to probi, honest and sincere; and the reference is, according to St. Chrysostom and Theophylact, to the secret corruption of life which the heretics justified and practised. The Greek has: unless in any respect you are reprobate. Christ is in you, for he dwells not in Apostles and prelates only, but in all the faithful. (6) At any rate I hope you will find that we are not rejected by Christ. The word is here applied in a slightly different sense, excluded from the grace of God. This sounds like a threat, and we may be surprised that St. Paul uses the word hope, with the prospect of inflicting punishment on the Corinthians in his view; but his mind was directed to the great danger from which the Church was to be delivered, and the benefit the example would bring to so many Christian souls. (7) It is not for my own vindication; rather I would pray to be reprobate or rejected myself, if only you would sincerely turn to God. (8) It is evident that miraculous power, such as I claim, and mean to exercise, since it comes from God, cannot be used against the truth of God, but only in support of it.

2 Cor 13:9. For we rejoice that we are weak, and you are powerful. And this we pray for, your consummation.
2 Cor 13:10. Therefore I write this being absent, that I may not when present act with severity, according to the power which the Lord gave me, for edification, and not for destruction.
2 Cor 13:11. For the rest, brethren, rejoice, be perfect, exhort one another, be of one mind, be at peace, and the God of peace and love shall be with you.  

(9) I shall be only too glad to find no occasion for the exercise of any such power, if you are strengthened in God’s grace, for what I most desire is your complete restoration to true faith and sanctity. (10) It is in the hope of this that I have used language of such apparent severity in this epistle, written from a distance, that I may be spared the necessity of acting with severity when I am among you. For God’s end and object in conferring miraculous power is attained by your edification, and he did not give them to destroy. (11) For the rest, and passing by the matters to which I have been referring, I desire you to rejoice in your Christian privileges and hopes; study daily to improve, and thus make progress towards perfection (St. Thomas); exhort, or as the Syriac reads, console one another in affliction or trouble, or otherwise, be consoled, for by God’s help all will in the end be well; try to be at concord in your views and sentiments; and live at peace with one another. God, who is the author of charity and peace, will be with you through His grace and charity. For God is charity, and who dwells in charity, dwells in God, and God in him. He is the God of peace, both as the author and proclaimer of peace between heaven and earth, pardon and reconciliation, to men of goodwill ; and because his Gospel promotes peace among mankind, and his people live at peace with one another. And the God of charity, because he is charity himself, and love continually flows forth from the fountain of his sacred heart to ours; charity between God and man, and charity between Christians to one another.

2 Cor 13:12. Salute one another with a holy kiss. All the saints salute you, 

Salute one another with a holy kiss, the symbol of a holy affection. Saint Chrysostom says: We are the temple of God, and of this temple the mouth is the vestibule, because by the visible channel of this vestibule Christ enters into us when we communicate. Therefore we kiss the threshold of the temple. St. Chrysostom. All the Saints, the Christians at Philippi in Macedonia, where this epistle was written.

2 Cor 13:13. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Spirit, be with you all; Amen.

The grace of salvation was sent us by the charity of God, and communicated to us by the Holy Spirit. All the elements of salvation are therefore included in this blessing. Ambrose.

COROLLARY OF PIETY

When Christ comes again, he will not spare. He promised to return, and the Church has expected the fulfilment of that promise ever since. This third time he is preparing to come, and will come in earnest. And heaven and earth bear witness against us that to spare the guilty race of man he has not yet returned. But return he will. At his first coming his bodily presence was like other men, in the weakness of mortality, his demeanour gentle and humble, and we despised and rejected him. We gave him a stable for his palace, a manger for his cradle, a cross for his throne. He came in the spirit of meekness ; he will return with a rod (1 Cor. 4:21). Those who have refused to believe him the Creator of the world, because he was not proud, as they foolishly and blasphemously suppose the Creator of the world ought to be; those who have thought so little of the promises he set before them, as to scoff at them and pass them by; those who have disregarded his warning that the great torrent of human life, unguided by any other wisdom than that of man, uncleansed from evil which men are only half conscious of because it is common, is hastening downwards into hell; and those who, after deliberate choice, have consciously made their election for the ambitions of this life, or its pleasures, rather than the hope of heaven; will find their error then, but find it too late. He warned, but they put his warning to the test. They will have their answer. Nor can they plead that they did not believe; for the root of unbelief is in the will, and they did not believe because they would not. Those who have believed, and taken him at his word, will have their triumph then, for it will be shown that they were wiser than the wise men of this world, saw what was coming more clearly that its most clear-sighted statesmen, understood the problems of life better than its acutest and most learned philosophers. Human history had its beginning, and will have its end, in Christ; and those who have trusted in him he will know how to save.

Father de Piconio’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians Chapter 12

Text in red, if any, are my additions.

2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 12

In this chapter the Apostle refers to the wonderful secret revelations which had been made to him, as a proof of his authority ; and announces his intention to pay another visit to Corinth.  

2 Cor 12:1. If I must boast, this indeed is not expedient, but [ will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 

If I must boast. Under protest, and because you require this proof of my divine commission, I will tell you that I have received this wonderful favour from heaven, although the nature of the revelation made to me is not to be communicated to mortal man. So the Vulgate and the Syriac. The Greek text differs slightly. Boasting is not good for me; and Theodoret says that as the Greek fathers understand it, he means to say that my relation of this occurrence is of no advantage to myself, but may be useful to you.

Visions and Revelations. Visions may be granted without revelations, when the meaning is not understood, as to Pharaoh, Gen. 41:17, to Nabuchodonosor, Dan. 2:31. The revelation adds to the vision the intelligence of the meaning of what is seen. Of the Lord, not of the devil, who also is able to send visions and revelations. St. Thomas.  

2 Cor 12:2. I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows), such an one caught up to the third heaven. 

I know a man in Christ. He suppresses his own name, out of modesty. A man in Christ. That is, a Christian.  

Fourteen years ago. He had concealed all knowledge of this wonderful event for fourteen years, and would have continued to do so till the end of his life, if the Corinthians had not compelled him to refer to it. St. Thomas thinks the vision here referred to was seen at the time of Saint Paul’s conversion, during the three days when he could neither see nor eat, Acts 11:9. Baronius and modern writers calculate more accurately that it must have happened about eight years after his conversion, probably at the time he went to Antioch with Barnabas, Acts xii. Baron. Ann. 44 and 58. See also Estius. 

The third heaven is a Hebrew phrase for the highest heaven. We have in the Scriptures mention of three heavens; the aerial heaven, where the clouds float; the sidereal heaven, where are the planets and the stars; and the empyreal heaven, or world of the angels, into which last Saint Paul was rapt. Whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell. The words seem to imply that the Apostle’s own impression was that he had actually been taken up to heaven in the body, but was not absolutely certain. This is the opinion of Saint Chrysostom, Ambrose, Grotius, Fromond, and others. Cornelius à Lapide thinks it the more probable opinion that he was conveyed to heaven in the body, as well as in spirit ; and Father George Ambianus is decidedly of that opinion, De conditione vaptus. Among modern writers the more general view is that the Apostle was rapt up to heaven only intellectually and in an ecstasy, not physically or corporeally ; but that the soul remained still united with the body, as St. Thomas thinks, and was not separated from it by death. As the body is said to be rapt, when violently removed from its place by an external force, so the soul is rapt when taken from the shadows and symbols on which its knowledge of external things depends, and raised to the unclouded vision and clear intelligence of the angels in heaven. 

In support of the first opinion it may be observed that the verb used in the Greek is not ἐξέστη (exeste), visited with an ecstasy, but ἁρπαγέντα (harpagenta), which seems to suit better with the idea of a bodily transportation. And as Saint Chrysostom remarks, it was in a sense due to Saint Paul that he should receive a favour not inferior to that which was granted to the other Apostles, who conversed with Christ in the body. As Saint Peter saw his glory on Mount Thabor, so did Saint Paul in the third heaven. And as Moses conversed with God in the mountain, before he came forth to promulgate the law, so Saint Paul conversed with Christ in heaven before he went forth as the teacher of the nations. But after all, a question with regard to which the Apostle was himself uncertain, must remain uncertain for us. 

2 Cor 12:3. And I know such a man (whether in the body or out of the body I know not; God knows):
2 Cor 12:4. That he was rapt into Paradise, and heard secret words, which man may not speak.
2 Cor 12:5. On behalf of such an one I will boast; but for myself I will not boast but in my infirmities. 
2 Cor 12:6. For though I were willing to boast, I shall not be a fool; but I spare, lest any one esteem me above what he sees in me, or hears from me.  

Secret words, (Latin: arcana verba), is in the Greek ἄρρητα ῥήματα (arreta rhemata), unutterable utterances, things so great that man cannot explain them, and transcending all power of speech. He recurs to this in verse 6. The mention of paradise suggests to some ancient writers, and among them Ambrose, St. Anselm, and Theophylact, that this is a distinct vision from that referred to in verse 2, where he says he was rapt into heaven. But it seems more probable that whereas in the heavenly vision his intellect was enlightened by the knowledge of sublime mysteries of truth, he intends by the use of the word paradise to denote the sweetness and delight with which his heart was filled and overflowed. Heaven denotes the perfection of knowledge, paradise the perfection of joy. He heard unutterable things, because he was instructed by another, for instruction comes by hearing. St. Thomas. This doctor, as. well as St. Chrysostom, St. Anselm, and St. Augustine (xii. 28 de Gen.) consider that Saint Paul beheld the divine essence in this vision; but a contrary opinion is maintained by modern writers. But the Apostle then adds, if I were able, or if I were permitted, to tell what I saw and heard, all doubts would be removed, all cavils silenced. I should not then be a fool. I refrain, lest you should think me an angel, or a god, like the people of Lystra, Acts 14:10, or the people of Maltaat a later date, Acts 17. If they offered bulls in sacrifice when he wrought a miracle, what would they not have done, had he revealed all he knew? Theophylact. The example of Saint Paul in concealing this divine favour for fourteen years, is worthy of observation and imitation. When compelled to speak of it he does so as briefly as possible, and in ambiguous and enigmatical terms, and at once proceeds to record the humiliation that followed. God’s gifts are secret. If compelled to speak, say as little as possible, and recur at once to thy own nothingness. 

2 Cor 12:7. And lest the greatness of the revelations should lift me up, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me.
2 Cor 12:8. On account of which I thrice besought the Lord, that it might depart from me.
2 Cor 12:9. And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for virtue is perfected in infirmity.  

The Apostle here changes the person, and shews that he has been speaking of himself. Should lift me up. For he also was human. Theophylact. The sting is in the Vulgate stimulus, in the Greek σκόλοψ (skolops), which, according to Grotius, signifies a thorn, according to Erasmus a sharp stake. A stimulus is properly a stake shod with iron to drive oxen when at work. This affliction Saint Paul ascribes to Satan, but nevertheless says it was given to him by the overruling goodness of God. The verb rendered buffet, or bruise, might either infer pain or humilation, or both together. As to the nature of this infliction, there is great variety of conjecture among ecclesiastical writers. The Greek fathers, Saint Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Theophylact, and Ambrose among the Latins, think it signifies persecution from enemies of the faith, urged on by the Devil. This is also the opinion of Erasmus. F. George Ambianus, quoted by Grotius, thinks it was an acute pain in the head or ears. Saint Thomas, that it was a painful disorder of the intestines. Some of the authorities cited by Cornelius à Lapide consider that it was a weakness of the stomach; others that the devils assailed him literally with blows and violence, as in the case of Saint Antony. The modern opinion now most commonly received is that it was a motion of concupiscence suggesting impure ideas to the imagination, and exciting rebellion and tumult in the flesh. In support of this latter view there is urged, 1, the metaphorical terms in which the Apostle describes it; 2, he says it was in his flesh, which hardly agrees with persecution from without; 3, it was occasioned by an angel of Satan, which would scarcely have been said of any ordinary form of disease; 4, the word colaphizat (in Greek: κολαφίζῃ) seems to imply humiliation; whereas persecution for God’s sake brings glory, and disease inflicts pain, not shame; and 5, if it had been persecution or disease, he would not so earnestly have prayed for deliverance from it. Erasmus rejects the idea altogether, as unworthy of so great a man, and one so far advanced in age. (Hammond, i loc. suggests that the affliction referred to by Saint Paul was an affliction of the eyes, which impaired his sight, and from which there are other grounds for believing that he suffered. He dictated all his epistles to an amanuensis, adding only a few words in his own handwriting at the end, for identification, and these written in very large characters. You see in what large letters I write in my own hand, Gal. 6:11. In support of this conjecture it may be observed that he refers to his infirmity as if it were already well known; and if it were of the kind suggested above, and known only to himself, it seems hardly likely that he would have alluded to it at all; while the urgency with which he prayed for deliverance would imply that it was something he thought likely to occasion hindrance to the exercise of his ministry).  

I besought the Lord thrice. Doubtless at these different oblations of the Holy Sacrifice. But Saint Chrysostom thinks that thrice means simply often. That it, that is the angel of Satan, might leave me. The prayers of the just are often heard, when not heard; heard for their good, unheard for their wishes. God is good, and often withholds what we want,to give what we want still more. St. Jerome. The patient under the knife will call out for mercy, but the operator does not listen. St. Augustine. Virtue is made perfect in weakness. Virtue is not here opposed to vice, but to weakness. The Greek has my power. The power of God is shown forth most conspicuously through the infirmity of man. 

2 Cor 12:9. Willingly therefore I will glory in my infirmities, that the virtue of Christ may dwell in me.
2 Cor 12:10. On that account I please myself in my infirmities, in insults, in destitution, in persecutions, in distress for Christ: for when I am weak, then am I powerful. —
2 Cor 12:11 I am become a fool: you have compelled me: for I ought to be commended by you; for I am in nothing inferior to those who are Apostles beyond measure: though I am nothing.
2 Cor 12:12. Yet the signs of my apostolate were done upon you in all patience, in signs, and miracles, and powers. 

Since the power of Christ is most manifest in the weakness of man, I will willingly glory (the Greek text has, I will most willingly glory more) in my infirmities, whether of nature or coming upon me by God’s permission from without, than in the fullness of divine revelation which has been accorded me, because the power of Christ dwells in me; according to the Syriac, overshadows and protects me. And this being the case, my own weakness and infirmities, the insults to which I am exposed, the poverty and destitution in which I live, the persecutions I endure, the troubles and perplexities I undergo, all for Christ’s sake, are to me actually a source of joy and pleasure, because through all these things the power of Christ, which dwells in me, is more conspicuously manifest. And if in saying this I have used language which sounds like boasting, this is your fault. It is you who have compelled me, for I have only done what you ought to have done for me. It was for you to stand up for me, your Apostle. In no sign or character of the Apostolate am I inferior, I will not say to the heretical teachers who are endeavouring to mislead you, and constantly depreciating my work, but even to the first and greatest of the Apostles of Christ. You have compelled me to make this assertion, not for the sake of my own dignity, but out of regard to your salvation, which is imperilled by the false teachers to whom you listen. Saint Anselm thinks the words supra modum, apostoli (“apostles beyond measure”) refer to St. Peter, St. John, and St. James; and the Syriac has the very great Apostles. The first character of the Apostolate mentioned by St. Paul in verse 12 is patience, the suffering persecution and poverty for Christ’s sake. The second is the exercise of miraculous powers, which he distinguishes into signs, miracles, and powers, greater, lesser, and more ordinary. You know this, and you ought not to have left it to me to assert and defend my apostolic commission, and you might have spared me the necessity of doing so.

2 Cor 12:13. For what is there that you have had less of than the other churches, except that I personally put you to no expense? Forgive me this wrong. 

Other churches, planted in other places by other Apostles, have enjoyed no privileges you have not equally received, whether in the full announcement of the truths of the Gospel, or their confirmation by miracle. ‘The only difference in your case is that whereas the other Apostles usually accept offerings for their maintenance and expenses, I would not do so at Corinth. , St. Paul’s motive for acting in this way possibly arose from the condition of pagan society at Corinth, to which he preferred not to be, even indirectly, under any obligation. This resolution to live at my own expense, he adds satirically, is an injury which I should think you might easily forgive. It is to be wished that all Christian missionaries were, like St. Paul, chargeable with no other error than this.

2 Cor 12:14. Behold, this third time I am prepared to come to you: and I shall not burden you. For I seek not what is yours, but you. For sons should not lay up treasure for their parents, but the parents for the sons.
2 Cor 12:15. But I will most willingly spend and then be spent myself for your soul; though the more I love the less I may be loved.
2 Cor 12:16. But be it so; I did not burden you: but as I am crafty, I caught you by artifice.
2 Cor 12:17. I requested Titus to go to you, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus cheat you? Did we not walk in the same spirit, in the same footsteps? 

(13) This third time I am prepared to come to you. Saint Paul had in fact only visited Corinth once, but he had intended to do so a second time a few months previously, and was prevented by circumstances. On this account he says, I am coming the third time. See 2 Cor 1:15-17 of this Epistle. But when I come I shall continue to live at my own charge, and cost you nothing. For, he adds (14), what I seek is not your goods, but yourselves; not what is yours, but you. An apostle is a fisher of men, and a hunter of souls. The words are intended to soften his sarcasm in verse 13. There may also be an allusion to the heretical teachers, as if he would imply that they apparently acted on a different principle. I am in the place of your father (14); and would gladly give all I have for you, and my life at last (15); and this with the ardent and disinterested affection which seeks no return; though the more I love, the less I may be loved. He proceeds to reply to a most ungrounded calumny brought against him by his opponents at Corinth, who could not deny that he lived there at his own expense, but they asserted that he only did so ostensibly and in pretence (16), and meanwhile surreptitiously accepted contributions collected by his agents. Titus and Luke (17. See 2 Cor 7:18) came to you at my request; did either of these act or teach in any way differently from myself? We were all animated by the same spirit, and followed the same course of life. 

2 Cor 12:19. Do you still think we are excusing ourselves to you? Before God and in Christ we speak; but all, most beloved, for your edification.
2 Cor 12:20. For I fear lest perhaps when I come I shall not find you such as I wish, and may be found by you such as you wish not. Lest there be among you contentions, emulations, animosities, dissensions, detractions, whispers, inflations, seditions;
2 Cor 12:21. And that when I come again God may humble me among you; and I may have to mourn for many of those who sinned before, and have not done penance for the uncleanness and fornication and immodesty which they have done. Note: in modern translation this chapter has 21 verses, whereas in the version used by de Piconio there were 22 verses because the second half of verse 20 (“Lest there be among you….seditions”) was given its own verse number. I changed it to the modern practice to avoid confusion.

(19) Are you still unconvinced, and inclined to ascribe all I have said to the solicitude of a guilty conscience, as if I was anxious to clear myself in the sight of men? Am I a defendant on trial, trying to find excuses for myself? The Vulgate begins verse 19 with olim putatis (“think you of old”), as if the translator had read παλαι (palai = long ago, formerly, etc.) in the Greek, but the present text has πάλιν (palin), which seems to give a more intelligible meaning, as above (Actually, most modern translations opt for palai. Father de Piconio was writing in the late 17th century. “Have you been thinking all along” is a common translation~NABRE; NIV; ESV; NRSV). The Syriac has do you still think? Yet surely you may trust me when I speak, as I now speak, in presence of God, who sees the heart, and in the spirit of Christ, which is sincerity and truth. All I have said, I have said not for my own glory, or in my own defence, but for your edification ; from desire for your salvation, fear for your danger of falling from the faith. I fear that I shall not find the faults corrected, which I have pointed out ; that you will find in me a severe judge, rather than a kind and loving father. The faults are those I endeavoured in the former epistle to correct ; verbal controversies, personal rivalry, angry feelings, calumnious charges, party spirit, discord, pride, tumult, sedition. This is not all, nor the worst ; Iam afraid I shall find, to my grief and humiliation, many persons whom I have been compelled to censure for an openly flagitious course of life, persisting in their wickedness, and refusing to do penance. Ambrose remarks that this passage proves, against Novatian, that fornicators might, in the days of the Apostles, be admitted to penance.  

CORROLARY OF PIETY

Certainly it is disappointing to find Saint Paul, carried up to the third heaven among the holy Angels, admitted to the joys of Paradise, and this, as he himself thought probable, in bodily presence as well as in spirit, unable or not permitted to reveal to us the great and glorious things he heard and saw. Both because it would have given him a more powerful and effectual argument in his controversy with his opponents; but still more, because for our own sake we cannot but wish to know what he knew, and hear what he heard. But for some reason, it cannot be so. The words he heard were unutterable by mortal lips. Saint John, like Saint Paul, was in spirit taken up to heaven, and saw the Throne of God, and Him who sat thereon. All was gleaming with splendour, with the iris of emerald above, the Seniors, clothed in white and crowned with gold, enthroned around; and from the Throne of God proceeded lightnings, and voices, and thunders. But what these voices said, he has not told us. Even in our experience of earth we find enough to prove that the secrets of heaven cannot be rendered intelligible to mortal man. Who, but a Christian, understands the motives of the Christian life? The wind blows where it will, and we hear it, yet know not whence it comes or whither it goes. Who, outside the Church of Christ, can form the faintest conception of the motives of the Religious Life? And this, the ludicrous mistakes made by Protestant writers on the subject, evidently prove. Heaven and heavenly things are an enigma to the mind which is not enlightened by the Spirit of God. Whatever may have been the tenor of the arcana verba (secret words) which Paul heard in heaven, they did not make him more in love with earth, nor make him less desirous to attain his heavenly home. The secrets of heaven are withheld from us, because they are too glorious for our weakness to endure. I have many things to say, our Lord said to His Apostles, but you cannot bear them now. Only eternity will be long enough to say them, only immortality strong enough to endure them. And the joy and delight of God’s presence, when we are admitted to it, will come upon us as an endless, boundless, and glorious surprise. 

Father de Piconio’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians 11:1-15

Text in red, if any are my additions.

In this chapter the Apostle asserts and proves his own authority as a teacher of the faith, in contrast to his opponents, whose real character he exposes.

2 Cor 11:1. I WOULD you could endure my folly a little while; yet also bear with me.

It is a mark of folly for a man to praise himself, but yet I wish you could be persuaded to put up with this _ folly in me for a little while, for I do it only under the pressure of absolute necessity. Therefore bear with me, and you will find that in my case self-assertion is in this instance wisdom, and not folly.

2 Cor 11:2. For Iam jealous of you with a jealousy of God. For I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ.

I am jealous of you. I have contracted you in marriage to Christ, and am jealous for His sake. God also uses this language: The Lord thy God ts jealous (Ex 20:5). But Saint Paul is not jealous for himself, but for God, with a jealousy of God.

2 Cor 11:3. But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his craft, so your senses be corrupted, and fall away from the simplicity which is in Christ.

I fear that as Satan, concealed under the figure of the serpent, tempted Eve, and led her astray by his great craft and cunning; so he may also corrupt your faith and fill your minds with error, by means of his false apostles, the teachers of heresy, and thus you may fall away from the pure faith which I have delivered to you, unmixed with error, and which alone is, in truth and reality, faith in Christ. The words, and fall away, are not in the Greek, and appear to have been added by the translator of the Vulgate for the sake of clearness.

2 Cor 11:4. For if he who comes, preaches another Christ, whom we preached not; or you receive another Spirit, whom you received not; or another Gospel, which you accepted not; you will rightly bear with him.
2 Cor 11:5. For I think I did nothing less than the great Apostles.

(2 Cor 11:4) If the new teacher who has replaced me, and intruded into my labours, tells of another Saviour than the Saviour we preached to you; if under his instruction you receive another Holy Spirit, and a better Gospel than you received from us, you would in such a case be right in listening to him. But this is not so. The Saviour I made known to you, the Spirit I was the means of imparting to you, the Gospel I taught you, were all the same whom the great Apostles, Peter, John, James, proclaim and serve. (2 Cor 11:5) You cannot point to any circumstance in what I said and did in which I am inferior to them. In the former Epistle (1 Cor 15:9) he had said: I am not worthy to be called an Apostle; for which reason he here explains that in office and administration he was not inferior to the others. This is the interpretation which St. Chrysostom and all the ancient writers put upon the words. Many modern writers consider the great Apostles, or Apostles in the highest degree, as in the Greek, to be said in irony, of the heretical teachers.

2 Cor 11:6. For though I am unskilful in speaking, yet not in knowledge, and in all we were made manifest to you.

Though I am unskilful in speaking, or am said to be; at any rate, I am not without experience in the knowledge of God. He implies here that his opponents. were, however fluently they discoursed in the language of the Greek philosophy, which Saint Paul evidently despised. And I have dealt openly with you, and kept nothing in reserve; whereas they had concealed the poison of their heresy, and unfolded it only by degrees. Saint Paul’s skill in the use of the Greek language to convey his thoughts is questioned by Origen and Saint Jerome, who acknowledge from his writings that he was rude of speech, though his style is undoubtedly nervous, forcible, and expressive in a very high degree. Saint Augustine fully acknowledged and admired his wonderful eloquence. There seems no ground for the impression some have derived from this verse, that he stammered, or was afflicted with any physical impediment of speech.

2 Cor 11:7. Or have I done any sin, humbling myself, that you may be exalted? Because I taught you the Gospel of God for nothing.
2 Cor 11:8. I spoiled other Churches, taking pay for your service.
2 Cor 11:9. And when I was with you, and in want, I was a burden to no one; for what I wanted, the brethren supplied who came from Macedon; and throughout I kept myself, and will keep myself, from being a burden to you.

The heretics made it matter of offence that Saint Paul had not, as they did, lived upon the alms of the Christians of Greece. Is this, he asks, a sin in me? He was perfectly free in this respect, and his determined resolution to take nothing from the Greeks was perhaps founded on his knowledge of the wealth of the residents of Corinth, and the sources whence the riches of the city were in great measure derived; lest it should be said he was attracted to that country by hope of gain. I was a burden to no one. In Greek, κατενάρκησα (katanarkao), said by Saint Jerome to be a Cicilian idiom, of Saint Paul’s native land. (Quast ad Algas, 10 = The reference is to a letter from Jerome to a lady named Algasia, and is a response to a series of questions regarding Scripture she had sent to him).

2 Cor 11:10. There is truth of Christ in me, that this boast shall not be checked in me, in the climes of Achaia.
2 Cor 11:11. Why? Because I love you not ? God knows.
2 Cor 11:12. But what I do, and will do, that I may cut off the occasion of those who seek occasion, that wherein they boast, they may be found even as me.

There is truth of Christ in me. This is an oath! As Christ’s truth is in me. This boast shall not be checked, stopped, or dammed up, like the course of a river. My boast shall flow forth unchecked through the provinces of Achaia. It is not because I do not love you that I refuse your gifts, God knows. But those who blame me shall either cease their invective, or they shall do as I do, preach their doctrine at their own expense. Saint Chrysostom thinks they made a pretence of doing so, but received large presents secretly from the more wealthy of their adherents and supporters. It seems, however, more probable from verse 20 (i.e., 2 Cor 11:20) that they received this assistance openly, and were vexed with the Apostle because he would not do the same.

2 Cor 11:13. For false apostles of this kind are cheating workmen, transfiguring themselves into Apostles of Christ.
2 Cor 11:14. And no wonder ; for Satan transfigures himself into an angel of light.
2 Cor 11:15. Therefore, it is not a great thing, if his ministers are transfigured as ministers of justice, whose end shall be according to their works.

They profess to be what we are, and assume the name and appearance of Apostles of Christ. They are like workmen who manufacture goods to sell, but whose work is hollow and worthless, only painted on the outside. They are in truth ministers of Satan, disguised as ministers of justice, or preachers of the holiness of God;

at which we need not be surprised, since Satan himself is transfigured as an angel of light. It does not appear whether the Apostle here refers to any special incident, or to the general character of the doings of the Evil One,as shown, for instance, in his temptation of Eve. His ministers are wolves in the clothing of sheep—teachers of error, going about masked as Apostles. God will one day tear the masks from their faces, and expose them, and their end shall be according to their works. This prediction the denunciation of the Apostle in the text undoubtedly helped to hasten and fulfil, for we find in many other passages of the New Testament ample evidence that the dreadful doctrines of these sectaries were known to, and exposed by, the Apostles, and they were shown in their true light as open enemies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is probable that many of them perished in the Jewish War.

Father de Piconio’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians Chapter 10

Text in red, if any, are my additions.

In this chapter, and the two that follow, the Apostle proceeds to defend himself from the charges brought against him by his opponents at Corinth.

2 Cor 10:1. AND I Paul myself, beseech you by the gentleness and modesty of Christ; who in face indeed am humble among you; but absent confide in you.
2 Cor 11:2. I entreat you that I may not be daring when present, with the confidence with which I am considered to be daring, against some, who judge us as if we walk according to the flesh.

(2 Cor 10:1) I Paul myself. The Apostle here abandons the use of the plural, as he is no longer speaking of himself in conjunction with his companions and colleagues. I have an earnest entreaty to address to you, by the gentleness and meekness of Christ. I am accused of being humble and retiring in bodily presence, but bold and lofty in the language I address to you at a distance. (2 Cor 10:2)My request is that you will not compel me, when I come among you, to assert in my own person, and when present, the Apostolic authority I profess, and which is supported by miraculous power for the confusion of the guilty, against the base and unworthy traducers who bring against me the charge of using worldly craft and cunning in my dealings with you. I Paul, the Apostle. There is great emphasis and gravity in this use of his name, says St. Chrysostom, and it is used to carry dignity and authority. St. Thomas, on the other hand, sees in it an expression of his humility, as in reference to the etymological meaning of the name. The gentleness of Christ was one of the best known and most striking of His attributes; and He refers to it Himself as generally known, in the words, Learn of Me, for I am gentle and humble. It is said that the Apostle Saint Peter could never speak of his Master without tears. This quality Saint Paul imitated, both in manner and disposition, and this gave rise to the ill-natured charge against him that he pretended to be meek and holy when present, but was full of arrogance and assumption when he expressed himself in writing.

2 Cor 10:3. For walking in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
2 Cor 10:4. For the arms of our warfare are not carnal, but powerful through God to the destruction of fortresses, overthrowing systems of philosophy.
2 Cor 10:5. And every height that exalts itself against the science of God, and leading every intellect captive into obedience of Christ
2 Cor 10:6. And always ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience shall have been fulfilled.

(2 Cor 10:3) I live, like other men, in the body, but my mode of warfare is not by force of arms. The life of man is warfare, says Job 7:1, but the Apostle refers especially to the assault upon the world and the devil, its prince, which he carried on under the command of Christ. (2 Cor 10:4) The arms used in this war are spiritual, not carnal. Not riches, fame, cleverness, equivocation, facility of talk, and the like, such as are used by men of the world, but the Word of God, patience, gentleness, humility, prayer, charity. With these, to be used in case of necessity, there was an appeal to the miraculous power of the Spirit of God, such as he had exercised in the case of Elymas, the sorcerer (Acts 13). These arms have proved, and will prove again, effectual to the destruction of all the fortresses in which our opponents entrench themselves. (2 Cor 10:5) However high the tower may be reared, and supported by any plausible arguments of philosophy, and of worldly influence, it must come down before the assault of the Gospel of Christ. The highest intellect of man must be led captive, and made submissive to Christ; a prophecy wonderfully fulfilled in later ages, and exemplified even in the time of the Apostles, in the cases of Dionysius the Areophagite, the pro-consul Paulus, Clement of Rome, and many others, who have submitted to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:6), which is man’s highest happiness and freedom. Think of those who burned the books of their magic art, and you will see how Paul made prisoners.—Theophylact. See Acts 19:19. These weapons, the most powerful of which is excommunication, we hold in readiness, if wanted, for the punishment of the disobedient. And these I intend to use against the impostors at Corinth, and those who have been misled by them, when time has elapsed sufficient to show who among you will accept the warning, and submit to the appointments of God.

2 Cor 10:7. Look at that which is before your face; if any trusts to himself that he is Christ’s, let him think again with himself this, that as he is of Christ, so also are we.
2 Cor 10:8. For even if I should boast somewhat amply of our power, which the Lord gave us for edification, and not for your destruction, I shall not blush.
2 Cor 10:9. And that I may not be thought as it were to frighten you by letters.
2 Cor 10:10. Because indeed his letters, they say, are grave and strong; but his presence of body is infirm, and speech contemptible.
2 Cor 10:11. Let him who is of this sort think this, that what we are in word through letters when absent, such also present in act.

(2 Cor 10:7) Look at what is before your eyes. Judge for yourselves, from the facts which are evident and patent to your observation. But the Greek and the Syriac, followed by St. Chrysostom, take the words as a question, which gives a different sense. Do you look no further than merely outward appearances, and believe only what you see? If any of those to whom I am referring boasts of being a minister of Christ, he must at least acknowledge the same of me, and that we are so far on an equality. (2 Cor 10:8) I might say a great deal more of the special powers of the Apostolate, which Christ has entrusted to me. This power God has given me for the edification or building up of His spiritual temple, the Catholic Church, or the Christian doctrine. But it is a two-edged weapon, and might in extreme necessity be turned to the destruction of those who pertinaciously oppose it. If I am called upon to draw the sword from its sheath, I am not at all afraid of having to blush for any failure in the efficacy of the weapon. (2 Cor 10:9) But I refrain from enlarging on this (Syriac, I close my eyes), lest they should say, as usual, that I am thundering in the upper sky, and trying to frighten you at a distance with the sound and terror of my words. (2 Cor 10:10)mHis letters, they acknowledge, are weighty and strong, in power of argument and expression. But his bodily presence is insignificant, and his power of speaking contemptible. It is very difficult to imagine on what this last impression or opinion can possibly have been founded, for the Acts of the Apostles contain unmistakable evidence that St. Paul’s power of persuasive oratory was extremely great. (See his address at Antioch, Acts 12; that before Agrippa, Acts 26, and the effect of his presence and teaching at Corinth, Ephesus, in Cyprus, Macedonia, Malta, and many other places.) He was, however, it is believed, little of stature, and St. Chrysostom, in whose time some traditions of his aspect and appearance may easily have been preserved, calls him a man of three cubits, a little over five feet high, who towered above the skies (Cornelius à Lapide), and this account of him is confirmed by Nicephorus. He had also, as is inferred from something he says further on in this Epistle, a weakness of sight which gave him an appearance of infirmity. He was at this time, probably, nearly sixty years of age. But he adds (2 Cor 10:11), Whoever says these things of me will find, when I come, that my presence in the body corresponds to what he finds and acknowledges in my letters; words weighty and powerful enough to be terrible to those who persist in their opposition to the Gospel I am commissioned to announce, and the Apostolic authority which is entrusted to my hands.

2 Cor 10:12. For we venture not to include or compare ourselves with some, who commend themselves; but measuring ourselves with ourselves, and comparing ourselves with ourselves.

We venture not. This is said in irony. I do not presume to compare myself with my opponents, who so loudly proclaim their own praise, and look down upon me and my companions. I do not compare myself with others at all, but have my own standard and measure of action—namely, the commission God has entrusted to me. The Greek reads the passage as follows: They, measuring themselves by their own measure, and comparing themselves with one another, have no understanding. This is followed by the Syriac version, and by St. Augustine. It implies that the heretical teachers, having no other standard but their own, and looking down upon all the rest of the world, are lifted up with pride and vain-glory to a degree inconsistent with common sense. It is scarcely too much to say that these words would describe equally the mental attitude of some modern teachers of heresy.

2 Cor 10:3. And we will not glory immeasurably, but by the measure of the rule which God marked out for us, a measure extending also to you.

I abstain from all boasting and self-glorification, and keep within the limits God has for the present assigned me, which are wide enough, for they extend from the frontier of Judea to Greece, inclusively. The figure is from the cord used in measuring plots of land, to assign to each proprietor his due share. God gives to each labourer in His vineyard his own piece of ground to cultivate: and the portion assigned to Saint Paul included Greece within its limit, the proof of which was that he had actually planted the Church in Corinth.

2 Cor 10:14. For we do not overpass our boundary, as though we reached not to you ; for we have arrived to you also in the Gospel of Christ.

We do not overpass our boundary. My opponents are always boasting of their diligence in spreading their Gospel, but they cannot point to any city they have converted, or any Church they have planted, and their boasting is of the labours of others. But I very lawfully boast of you, who are my spiritual children, my vineyard, and the product of my labour.

2 Cor 10:15. Not boasting immeasurably of the labours of others; but having hope of your increasing faith; to be magnified in you according to our rule into abundance.
2 Cor 10:16. To preach the Gospel also in those lands which lie beyond you; not to boast of what has been prepared in the rule of another.
2 Cor 10:17. And who glories, let him glory in the Lord.
2 Cor 10:18. For not he who commends himself is approved; but whom God commends.

(2 Cor 10:15) My opponents are in the habit of boasting, and boasting beyond all measure, of what are really the results of the labours of others. This I will not do. But I entertain the hope that as your faith is confirmed and increased, and the numbers of the Christian Church in Greece increase, two results will follow: First, I shall have due credit and honour, and that fully and abundantly, in proportion to the labour I have expended in the conversion of the people of your land; (2 Cor 10:16) and, also, I shall thereby be encouraged and set free to extend hereafter my Apostolic labours in lands still further west, without entering the limits of countries which have been already prepared for the reception of the faith of Christ by the preaching of any of the other Apostles. It is clear, as St. Chrysostom observes, that the Apostle regarded the rule or limit assigned him by God’s decree, as having no end or boundary than that of the world itself; and on this splendid inheritance he was prepared to enter, in all its full extent. And secondly, that he ascribed the grace which animated all his efforts, as well as the success which attended them, to God alone. For this reason he adds: (2 Cor 10:17) Whoever wishes to glory or triumph, let him Glory in the Lord, from Whom, through Whom, and to Whom, all good things come and return. (2 Cor 10:18) God alone gives honour, and he is approved and shown to be truly great, not who is so by his own suffrage and commendation of himself, but to whom God accords the proof of greatness, and the presence of His Spirit, in the work he is empowered and privileged to do.

COROLLARY OF PIETY

The preceding chapter contains so many principles applicable to prelates and ecclesiastical superiors, in the discharge of their high office, that it seems reasonable to note them down successively.

1. A lofty view and firm maintenance of the high dignity of their office is not inconsistent with the most perfect personal humility.

2. The Prelate, imitating the gentleness of Christ, punishes unwillingly.

3. Whether strict or indulgent, whether he punishes or pardons, he must equally, in either case, expect that some one or other will find fault with him. He must, therefore, act as in God’s presence, and disregard the censure of men.

4. The ecclesiastical Superior is a general officer in Christ’s army. The arms he wields are patience, gentleness, humility, prayer, charity. With these arms the Apostles conquered kingdoms, overthrew the strongholds of error and false philosophy, and brought the world to the obedience of Christ. Upon the weapons of carnal warfare, money, influence, position, worldly greatness, he is not to rely, nor will they advance the kingdom of Christ.

5. Ecclesiastical authority is appointed to edify, not to destroy. Therefore the aim of the ecclesiastical Superior should continually be to edify, sanctify, and save the souls of his subjects; and never do what will hurt or hinder their salvation, even in inflicting punishment or censure. He is their healer, patron, father.

6. He is to keep within the limits of his jurisdiction.

7. He is to expect and look for the commendation of God, not that of man. For in looking for the praise of man he becomes subject to man; nor can it avail him in the great day of account.

Father de Piconio’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians 8:16-24

Text in red, if any, are my additions. 

2 Cor 8:16. But thanks to God, who gave the same solicitude for you, in the heart of Titus.
2 Cor 8:17. Because indeed he accepted the exhortation; but since he was very earnest, of his own will he set out to you.
2 Cor 8:18. We have sent also with him the brother whose praise is in the Gospel through all the Churches.
2 Cor 8:19. And not that only, but also was ordained by the Churches as a companion of our pilgrimage, for this grace which is ministered by us, to the glory of the Lord, and our destined good will.
2 Cor 8:20. Avoiding this, lest any blame us in this plenitude which is ministered by us.
2 Cor 8:21. For we provide what is good, not only before God, but also before men.

(2 Cor 8:16-17) I thank God that Titus was as zealous as myself to engage in your service, and did not need exhortation to do so, for he goes of his own accord. He (Titus) was one of the bearers of this letter, and though the Apostle says he set out, he must have written before Titus had actually left. This is the opinion of St. Chrysostom. (2 Cor 8:18) One of his companions is the well-known Evangelist, whose praise is in all Churches, for the Gospel he has written, and preaches; and who has been especially commissioned to accompany me with a view to this special service, the administration of the fund for the Christians of Judea. (2 Cor 8:19) Our destined good will,  or purpose and resolution to this effect, is in the Greek, for the glory of the Lord and the exhibition or declaration of your readiness and zeal. (2 Cor 8:20) And also because, being entrusted with the care of very large sums of money, I am anxious to avoid all suspicion or calumny, and do not choose to encounter alone the responsibility of conveying it. (2 Cor 8:21) For we should regard, not our conscience only, but the eyes of the world, and avoid suspicion. Our conscience is our own affair, says Saint Augustine, but our good fame affects our neighbours.

The brother referred to in 2 Cor 8:18 is by Theodoret supposed to be St. Barnabas. But it is certain that St. Barnabas was not now the companion of St. Paul. Baronius thinks it was Silas; but the majority of writers agree in the received opinion, which is that of St. Jerome, that it means the Evangelist St. Luke. St. Ignatius, writing to the Ephesians, uses the same phrase, in referring to St. Luke, which is here used by St. Paul; whose praise is in the Gospel.

2 Cor 8:22. And we have sent with them also our brother, whose zeal we have proved on many occasions; and now is much more zealous, from his great confidence in you.
2 Cor 8:23. Whether for Titus, who is my companion, and coadjutor towards you, or our brethren, they are Apostles of the Churches, a glory of Christ.
2 Cor 8:24. Exhibit to them, therefore, the attention which belongs to your charity, and our glory for you, in the face of the Churches.

(2 Cor 8:22) Together with Titus and Luke, we have sent another, who is not named, but is characterised as habitually — diligent in any business entrusted to him, and most anxious to undertake this commission, from his confidence in you. In the Greek, these last words are simply with great confidence in you, and are by some interpreters considered to refer to what follows. I send these three in perfect confidence that you will accord them a suitable and honourable reception. (2 Cor 8:23) Titus is my colleague or companion in my apostolical journey; the other two are Apostles of the Churches, who must be distinguished from the Apostles of Christ; and are worthy of the splendid title which St. Paul further adds. (2 Cor 8:24) I am sure you will accord them such a reception as may be expected from your charity, and such as will bear out all I have said to them in your praise; and in doing so you will be paying a mark of attention and respect, not to them only, but to the Churches from whom they are sent.

COROLLARY OF PIETY

The Christians of Macedon were a model and pattern for the Christians of all time; first, because they were joyful under tribulation, which is certainly, from the nature of the case, a supernatural grace; and secondly, that in their poverty, they were liberal in giving. They gave to the full extent of their power to give. They gave beyond the full extent of their power to give, if that is possible. They gave of their own accord, not waiting to be asked. They entreated to be allowed to give. And they gave, not their goods only, but themselves, ready in all things to obey the will of God. This is true charity, and what we should endeavour to imitate. Give to God your heart, yourself, your life, and all you have, offering and consecrating all these, of your own free will, to the Church and to the poor. And when about to give alms, like the Macedonians, first offer your heart to God: them ratify and confirm that gift by free and generous almsgiving to the poor. Look upon almsgiving as a tribute and acknowledgment of God as your Lord, and Lord of all that is yours; give therefore humbly and with reverence. So will God accept you, and accept your gift. God looked first upon Abel, and then upon the offerings he brought (Gen. 4:4). He regards the heart of the giver, before He looks at the gift. And do not despise the person you relieve. He may be richer than you. The Lord of the universe mendicavit (begged), says Erasmus. He was Lord of the universe still, but poor in outward things, for your sake. And therefore he condescends to be represented by the poor, because it was among them that, when on earth, he chose to take his lot.

Father de Piconio’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Text in red, if any, are my additions.

In this chapter the Apostle earnestly requests the Christians of Greece to contribute liberally to the relief of the destitute Christians of Judea, urging the noble example set by the Macedonians in this respect.

2 Cor 8:1. AND we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God, which is given in the churches of Macedonia:

The grace of God in the churches of Macedonia. Given to the churches of Macedonia; but since the whole Church shares in the graces and gifts of God, he regards this grace as a blessing and happiness bestowed upon the whole Church of Christ. He proceeds to explain what it was.

2 Cor 8:2. That in much experience of tribulation there was great abundance of their joy; and the depth of their poverty abounded unto the riches of their simplicity.
2 Cor 8:3. Because according to their strength, I bear them witness, and beyond their strength, they were ready and willing.
2 Cor 8:4. With much exhortation entreating of us, the grace and communication of the ministry made for the saints.
2 Cor 8:5. And not as we hoped, but gave themselves first to the Lord, then to us by the will of God.
2 Cor 8:6. So that we requested Titus, that as he began, so he would complete in you also this grace.

(2 cor 8:2) First, that in great affliction and persecution they were favoured with overflowing and abundant joy. This. is not an unusual accompaniment of persecution, as is noted in the lives of many saints. Saint Chrysostom says that the joy experienced in persecution is deeper than imagination can conceive, and cannot be described in human language. The nature of the sufferings endured by the Christians of Macedon is not told us in detail, but that it was very great appears from 1 Thess. 1:6; You received the word in great tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost. Secondly, that in the midst of great poverty and destitution, not unlike that which had fallen upon the Christians of Judea, and was owing to similar causes (see 1. Thess. 2:14) their poverty, deep and extreme as it was, overflowed in a large, wealthy, and generous liberality, which was offered in complete sincerity and simplicity of heart. Joy and exultation in trouble, munificent liberality in deep poverty, are evident signs and proofs of the omnipotence of God, operating in the midst of human frailty. This wonderful grace of God, conferred upon one portion of the Church, is a just subject of admiration, thankfulness, and rejoicing to the Church at large. (2 Cor 8:3) They did not even wait to be asked, but volunteered of their own accord, presenting gifts not only to the full extent of their means, but even beyond them, as I can testify, being on the spot and witnessing it. (2 Cor 8:4) With great earnestness and many entreaties they implored me to permit them, and arrange for them, to have a part in this ministry of grace and communication for the relief of the saints, as the Christians of Judea were called par excellence. According to the Greek text, which is followed by Theodoret, but not by the Syriac version, or the Vulgate, they implored me to receive and take charge of the ministry of grace and communication, that is, of the sums of money they collected. (2 Cor 8:5) They did, further, what I did not expect, for they offered themselves first to the Lord, and to us by God’s will; that is, they appointed some of their number to be at my disposal, and to go with me, or for me, to Jerusalem to convey the sums collected. (2 Cor 8:6) And this splendid example has encouraged me to make it a particular charge to Titus, who is one of the bearers of this letter, to urge you to similar liberality, thus completing the task he began among you during his recent visit to Greece.

2 Cor 8:7. But as in all things you abound in faith, and words and science; and in all solicitude, and further in your charity towards us, so you may abound also in this grace.

You are already well known and conspicuous, on account of the wonderful graces which God has so largely and liberally bestowed upon you; the gift of faith, the gift of languages, the gift of divine knowledge, the gift of diligence in administration, and the gift of charity, which last you have specially and abundantly manifested in your conduct towards me. I would have you, therefore, abundant also in the grace of liberality towards the poor.

2 Cor 8:8. I do not speak as though in command; but through the solicitude of others proving the good disposition also of your charity.

I am not saying this as giving you an explicit command, though it might be within my power to do so; but by calling your attention to the diligence and fervour which have been exhibited by others, I wish to make trial of the practical reality of your charity, and the sincerity of your good dispositions. The Greek word γνήσιον (gnesion) signifies ‘genuineness, ingenuousness, generosity, sincerity. To prove it, to make it more conspicuous and illustrious.— Theophylact.

2 Cor 8:9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that on your account He became poor, when He was rich, that by His indigence you might be rich.

For you need not be reminded that our Lord Jesus ‘Christ, though He was rich, became poor for you, was born in a stable, had no home in which to lay His head, and dying, was buried in another’s sepulchre, that by His poverty in temporal things you might be enriched ir spiritual things, in faith, piety, justice, grace, in glory in the eternal and enduring riches that are in the life to come. There is no possible or conceivable degree of liberality to others which that example will not cover or out-distance.

2 Cor 8:10. And in this I am giving you a counsel; for this is. useful to you, since you have not only begun to do it, but also desired it last year.
2 Cor 8:1111. Now, therefore, complete it also in fact; that as the mind of the will is ready; so there may also be readiness. in bringing it to completion from what you possess.
2 Cor 8:12. For if the will is prompt, according to what everyone has, it is accepted, not according to that he has not.
2 Cor 8:13. Not that there may be to others remission, and to you tribulation, but by equality.
2 Cor 8:14. That at the present time your abundance may supply their want; and that their abundance may be the supplement of your want; that there may be equality.
2 Cor 8:15. As it is written: Who much, abounded not; and who little, was not deficient.

(2 Cor 8:10) I give you, not a command, but a counsel, and one useful to yourselves, for the eternal reward you will obtain. St. Chrysostom says that if there were no poor, our salvation would be in a great part prevented, scattered, overthrown; for we should have nowhere to invest our money. (2 Cor 8:11) You formed the intention last year, or a year ago, and have since actually begun to put it in execution; now, therefore, complete it without further delay, that the zeal of the intention may ripen into performance of the deed. (2 Cor 8:12) Where there is good will, God accepts it, regarding the quality of the will that gives, rather than the amount of the gift given, and asking, not for what we have not, but for what we have. (2 Cor 8:13) Not that others should live in luxury and you be starved. The Thessalonians gave beyond their power; I do not ask of you this; but, St. Chrysostom adds, he asked it not, as knowing their weakness. (2 Cor 8:14) Yet there should be some balance and equalisation, even of this world’s goods, among those who have the same hope of immortality. Your abundance in temporal things will supply their temporal wants; their abundance of spiritual grace will, through their progress, increase your spiritual grace and consolation. (2 Cor 8:15) Thus there will be balance and equality in another sense, as among the people of Israel when they gathered the manna (Ex 16:18).

Father de Piconio’s Commentary on 2 Corinthians Chapter 7

Text in red, if any, are my additions.

In this chapter the Apostle expresses the lively satisfaction and joy which he experienced in receiving from Titus the intelligence of the repentance of the Corinthian Christians, and of their favourable reception.of his former letter.

2 Cor 7:1. Having, therefore, these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from the defilements of flesh and spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God.

This verse properly belongs to the last chapter, and forms the conclusion of the argument there maintained. Having these promises, that we are to be for ever the temple of God, and have God’s presence dwelling within us, for ever His sons and daughters, and have Him for ever for our Father, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement, either of the flesh, as luxury, gluttony and the like; and of the spirit, pride, envy, heresy. Making perfect, and cultivating to its true development, the sanctification we received in. Baptism; and doing so in the fear of God. For the fear of God is not the beginning only, but the end of true sanctification. Filial fear is not inconsistent with love, but the contrary; for in the earthly relation they always go together. Be ye cleansed, who bear the vessels of the Lord (Isaiah 52:11). The Christian priest is in a certain. sense the Father of Christ, by consecration; and the: Temple of Christ, whom he receives daily in the Mass.

2 Cor 7:2. Receive us. We have injured no one, we have corrupted no one, we have defrauded no one.
2 Cor 7:3. I am not saying it to your condemnation: for we have said before that you are in our hearts, to die with you, and live with you.
2 Cor 7:4. Much is my trust in you, much is my glorying for you, I am filled with consolation, with superabundant joy in all our tribulation.

(2 Cor 7:2) Receive us. The Greek word is Χωρήσατε (choresate): make room for, contain, or hold us. The Vulgate, Capite nos, receive us without reserve, scruple, or suspicion, into your fullest confidence and affection. After the brief digression at the conclusion of the last chapter, the Apostle here returns to his defence of himself. The calumnies circulated against me are groundless and untrue. We have done wrong to none, corrupted none by false teaching, taken no profit or advantage from any. There are others who do, and are less worthy of your regard than we. (2 Cor 7:3) I do not use this language in complaint of you, as if you suspected or accused me. It is not you, but those who seek to mislead you, who are my accusers. For you I entertain the fullest and most sincere affection, so that I would gladly die with and for you, gladly spend the rest of my life with you. (2 Cor 7:4) It is my confidence in you that leads me to speak thus freely. I frequently speak of you to others as attached and devoted to me. The thought of you fills me, not with consolation only, but with a joy so deep that it outweighs all the troubles and annoyances I endure, and obliterates the recollection of it.

2 Cor 7:5. For, when we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, and we suffered every tribulation, fightings without, fears within.

Those troubles and annoyances were anything but trifling and insignificant. From my first arrival in Macedonia (from Ephesus) they left me no rest, outwardly and in the flesh. His spirit reposed, says Saint Anselm, in the hope of a reward to come, while his flesh felt the pain of present affliction. The soul of Paul was invincible, says Theophylact. Without were struggles with our persecutors, and fears within of fresh persecutions to come; or of possibly occasioning scandal to the faith; or for the faith of his new converts, as St. Anselm thinks; or from false brethren within the Church. There are false brethren; sons, but bad sons, who do not blaspheme Christ or oppose us openly, but who worship Christ with us, and persecute Him in us, as Absalom his father. Of such the Church is afraid lest they lead others astray, for they are a source of great and real danger.—Saint Anselm. It is observed that St. Luke makes no mention of these persecutions in Macedonia in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 20.

2 Cor 7:6. But He Who consoles the humble, God, consoled us in the coming of Titus.
2 Cor 7:7. And not only in his coming, but also in the consolation by which he was consoled in you, reporting to us your desire, your weeping, your emulation for me, so that I the more rejoiced.
2 Cor 7:8. So that although I made you sad in my letter, I do not repent: though I repented when I saw that the epistle, though only for an hour, made you sad.

(2 Cor 7:6) God, the consoler of the downcast, consoled us by the arrival of Titus; (2 Cor 7:7) not by his presence only, though, as you now know, this was in itself no slight encouragement, but especially by the report he brought of you; your earnest desire of amendment, your grief for your sins, your zeal in my defence, so that I had consolation greater than the sorrow I felt in writing such a letter. (2 Cor 7:8) I almost repented having written it, knowing the sorrow it must cause you, and hearing of that which it did in effect cause you. The Greek reads: I repent no longer, because I see the Epistle really made you sorry, though only for an hour; but the sense of the Vulgate, as given above, seems clearer.

2 Cor 7:9. Now I rejoice, not that you are saddened, but that you were saddened to penance; for you were saddened according to God, so that in nothing you suffer loss from us.
2 Cor 7:10. For the sorrow which is according to God operates penance to salvation which endures; but the sorrow of the world operates death.
2 Cor 7:11. For behold this very thing, that you were saddened after God, how great solicitude it operates in you; but defence, but indignation, but fear, but desire, but emulation, but revenge, in all you have shown yourselves pure in the matter.
2 Cor 7:12. Therefore, though I wrote to you, it was not on his account who did wrong, nor on his who suffered ; but to make evident the solicitude which we have for vou in the presence of God.

(2 Cor 7:9) Now I have no regret, but only gladness, not because you grieved, but because your grief was occasioned by the offence you gave to God, and such sorrow not only does no harm, but is of infinite advantage to the soul. (2 Cor 7:10) Sorrow that springs from love of God produces salutary and durable repentance; sorrow occasioned by love of this world, and of the creature, kills the soul. He who mourns lost riches, does not recover them; he who sorrows for a lost friend, does not restore him to life; he who grieves for the pain of disease, does not thereby cure it. And he has his mental sorrow in addition to his pain. But he who sorrows for his sins alone sorrows to any purpose, for he obtains remission of them.—-Saint Chrysostom. (2 Cor 7:11) Your sorrow first made you solicitous to remove the scandal, then anxious to defend yourselves from participation in it; then indignant with the offender; then afraid of the recurrence of such cases; then desirous of making satisfaction; then zealous for God’s honour, or for mine; them determined to punish the guilty. Thus you have cleared. yourselves from participation in guilt. (2 Cor 7:12) And this was the real reason I wrote to you on the subject; not simply for the salvation of the sinner, or for satisfaction to the person: injured (a father whose second wife had been taken away from him by his son), but in discharge of my pastoral duty: and solicitude towards you, and for the protection of the: Church from evil example. But the Syriac reads: To make known in God’s presence your diligence, or respect and affection for me. The meaning of the Greek appears: to be: That your zeal for me may become known publicly to yourselves, before God.

2 Cor 7:13. Therefore we were consoled: and in our consolation we were abundantly rejoiced at the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.
2 Cor 7:14. And if I boasted of you to him, I am not confused but as we spoke to you all things in truth, so also our glorying, which was to Titus, became truth.
2 Cor 7:15. And his affection is more abundantly in you; remembering the obedience of you all: how with fear and trembling you received him.
2 Cor 7:16. I rejoice that in all I confide in you.

The consolation which was imparted to me by the report: which Titus brought of you from Corinth, was greatly augmented by witnessing his own joy and satisfaction at all that he had seen and heard in Greece, and perceiving how greatly it had refreshed his soul. I had spoken much to him in your praise, and should have been put to shame if he had not found you all that my report had prepared him to expect. As you found I was right, and all things. true I said to you; so he acknowledged that I did not exaggerate in all I had said to him of you. The respect and affection with which he regarded you were increased by the recollection of the reception you gave him, as my representative, and the reverence and awe with which you listened to him. I acknowledge with joy that I can trust you in all things, and that there is nothing good and noble which I may not expect and ask from you. And I am now about to put this expectation to the test.

COROLLARY OF PIETY

Sorrow is the lot of all mankind, and various in its: causes as the multifarious objects of desire from which they hope to derive pleasure and satisfaction. For all end. in disappointment. Riches elude our grasp, friends die or are estranged, animosities, inexplicable and apparently causeless, encounter us; suffering or poverty is the lot of the greater number in their path through life. And it is wisely so ordained. It was not so in the Garden of Eden, for the sense of God’s presence, and the vision or conception of His glory, raised the thoughts and hearts. of man above this world, and there was no danger of too great attachment to created things, even amid the sunshine and flowers of Paradise, withdrawing the heart of man from God. But that vision, all but a far-off reflection of it, has passed from the sight of men, and in its absence, in the fulness of our longing for joy, and affection, and appreciation of beauty, which is the attribute of the human soul, we should be in danger of falling down and worshipping the creature, rather than the Creator, were it not for the attendant footsteps of sorrow and disappointment, which follow us day by day from the cradle to the grave. So we learn that the satisfaction of our desires cannot be here. But there arc two ways of meeting sorrow. The sorrow of the world worketh death. At first, like children, who beat the

thing that hurts them, we turn round upon the earthly instrument, whoever it may be, through whom God chastens us, and upbraid or hate it. When we learn better than this, we turn round upon God, and upbraid or hate Him, as the real author of our misery. And so, in hopeless despondency, and gloomy sullenness, refusing the kindness which would reconcile us, and repulsing the aid of the hand that would console us, we go despairing and wrathful to our graves. But it need not be so, and God does not so intend it. Sorrow is part of our lesson of life: part of our conformity and assimilation to Christ: part of our penance for our sins. Accepted generously, it fits us for immortality, becomes the cross which leads to glory, procures for us forgiveness of sin. Sorrow according to God, taken as God sends it, operates penance, does penance for us, in salutem stabilem (steadfast in safety).