Bible Commentaries

Meekness and gentleness of Christ; which Paul wished them to imitate.

Base-bold; weak and contemptible, as my enemies say, in my bodily presence; but assuming great boldness in my absence. See verse 2 Corinthians 10:10. Meekness and gentleness were distinguishing characteristics of Jesus Christ, which should be habitually imitated by his disciples. All who learn of him will find rest to the soul, and may be instrumental of imparting this blessing to others.

Be bold; called to exercise his apostolical authority and enforce painful discipline.

As if we walked according to the flesh; were governed by a worldly policy, after the manner of selfish men.

In the flesh; in the body, and subject to human frailty.

Not war after the flesh; are not governed by worldly or selfish considerations.

Not carnal; not such as worldly and selfish men use or rely on for success, as external force, wealth, talent, cunning, and fraud.

Through God; by his power.

Pulling down of strong-holds; overcoming strong opposition to truth and duty. Those who pretend to be ministers of the meek and lowly Jesus, and yet enforce their authority by guns, swords, and prisons, are deceivers, and show this by using such means as were never used by Christ or his apostles, and such as are suited to make not Christians, but hypocrites and infidels.

Casting down imaginations-every high thing; all the proud and lofty thoughts of men, which lead them to exalt themselves against the gospel.

To revenge; punish by virtue of our apostolic authority.

Your obedience is fulfilled; when you, who are true to Christ and his cause, have had opportunity to approve yourselves by your obedience.

Look on things after the outward appearance; regard men simply according to their outward condition and relations.

Our authority; as inspired apostles.

I should not be ashamed; for the result will show that I have power to do according to my words.

That I may not seem; supply at the beginning of this verse, And this I say, in respect to my not being ashamed.

Terrify you by letters; by empty threats in my letters, which I have no power to fulfil.

Say they; his opposers.

Men who think highly of themselves, and boast of their talents, excellence, and usefulness-who compare themselves not with the law of God, but with their own defective ideas of the characters of their fellow-men, are living exhibitions of pride, weakness, and folly.

Without our measure; beyond the measure of our actual labors, as was done by the opponents of Paul, who intruded themselves upon the field of other men’s labors, and took to themselves the credit of what other men had done.

The measure of the rule; the limits of labor which God had assigned them.

A measure to reach; a measure appointed by God to reach.

We stretch not ourselves; boast not ourselves beyond the sphere of our actual labors.

Enlarged; in respect to our field of labor.

By you; by your cooperation.

According to our rule; according to the field assigned us by God, which has lain without the field of other men’s labors. An earnest desire to make known Christ to those who have never heard of him, and a readiness to labor and suffer to induce men to believe on him, are truly apostolic, and make his ministers in the highest and noblest sense successors of apostles.

To preach; that is, so as to preach, as the result of this enlargement.

Beyond you; to the heathen farther west, who had never heard the gospel.

In another man’s line; in another man’s field of labor.

Of things made ready to our hand; of labors that we find already performed.

In the Lord; acknowledging him as the Author of all good.

Not he that commendeth himself; man is not his own judge, but the Lord; and by His decision every one must stand or fall. As men are to stand or fall, not by their own judgment or that of their fellow-men, but the judgment of God, they should be most careful to secure his approbation; and as their qualifications for usefulness and their success come from him, they should give him all the glory.