Bible Commentaries

SECTION 20. — FAREWELL. CH. 13:11-13.

As to the rest, brothers, rejoice, be fully equipped, receive exhortation, mind the same thing, be at peace. And the God of love and of peace will be with you: Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the participation of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.

2 Corinthians 13:11-12. Concluding and cheerful words, the more welcome after severe reproof.

As to the rest: suggesting much else which Paul would like to say. In spite of many defects he still recognizes them as brethren in Christ.

Rejoice: Philippians 3:1; Philippians 4:4 : eight times in this sad epistle. All children of God we may bid rejoice, whatever be their circumstances: for all have abundant reason for joy.

Be-fully-equipped, or restored: more fully “undergo from day to day restoration or equipment.” [The present imperative seems to imply that only gradually are the depraving inward effects of sin removed and we fitted for the work of God.] It recalls the same word in 2 Corinthians 13:9; 1 Corinthians 1:10. While bidding them rejoice Paul cannot forget their great deficiencies, which must be removed before their joy can be full.

Exhortation; includes the ideas of encouragement and comfort. See under Romans 12:1. “Yield to my entreaty to be fully restored, an entreaty full of encouragement and comfort.”

Mind the same thing: a restoration which (1 Corinthians 1:10) had been greatly needed. Cp. Philippians 2:2; Romans 12:16; Romans 15:5.

Be-at-peace: same word in Romans 12:18. It is a pleasant result of being of the same mind.

God of love and peace: of whose nature love and peace are essential elements, and from whom they flow forth to His people’s hearts. Love is put first, as being itself the inmost essence of God and the source of peace. If we obey Paul’s exhortation to peace, the Eternal Fountain of peace, and of love the source of peace, will dwell with us. Cp. Romans 15:33; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 1 John 4:7-13; John 14:23.

Greet etc: as in 1 Corinthians 16:20; Romans 16:16.

2 Corinthians 13:13. Parting benediction, the most full in the New Testament, embracing conspicuously each Person of the Trinity.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 Corinthians 8:9; 2 Corinthians 12:9 : put first because Christ’s favor towards men is the immediate source of all blessing, and the channel through which flows our salvation which has its ultimate source in the love of God. These last words trace up the channel to its source.

Participation of the Holy Spirit: cp. 1 Corinthians 10:16 : partnership with others in possessing the Holy Spirit. This is the inward result of the grace of Christ and the love of God, and the means through which they become practically known to us and thus abide with us. Cp. Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 2:12.

Participation; reminds us that the Holy Spirit is the common possession of all the children of God, uniting all in one. What others have, Paul desires his readers to share.

All of you: emphatic, including those now unrepentant. The smile which ever beams from the face of Christ the eternal love which fills the heart of God, and the Holy Spirit who fills the hearts of the children of God with consciousness of His eternal love, are to be our companions along the pilgrimage of life. And, if so, the sunshine of Christ’s smile, the unchanging love of God, and the guidance and strengthening of the Holy Spirit, will make our path, be it ever so rough, a path of peace and joy.

REVIEW OF THE EPISTLE. We notice at once that the matter of chs. viii., ix., viz. the collection for Jerusalem, is quite different from the rest of the Epistle, which is almost entirely apologetic. The Epistle thus falls into the three broadly marked divisions which I have adopted, and which may be called, the First Apology, the Collection, the Second Apology. The matter of the collection was inserted between the Apologies probably because Paul preferred to pass to it at once while full of the joy with which he concludes the First Apology, rather than after the warnings and threatenings and sorrow of the Second. The Apologies differ in that the First is general, addressed to the whole church, while the Second is directed against certain gross offenders, many of them of long standing, and against certain foreign and deceitful opponents. Each of the Apologies contains a long boast, which is its kernel. And the difference just mentioned between DIV. I. and DIV. III. is seen in that the earlier boasting (2 Corinthians 2:14 to 2 Corinthians 6:10) sets forth chiefly the grandeur of the office faithfully filled by Paul and his colleagues; whereas the second boasting (2 Corinthians 11:1 to 2 Corinthians 12:18) sets forth, with evident reluctance, Paul’s own personal conduct and hardships and claims, and this in direct contrast to specific opponents.

This Epistle was evidently prompted by (2 Corinthians 7:6 ff) the arrival of Titus and by the tidings he brought about the church at Corinth, tidings on the whole, but not altogether, very good. The earlier severe letter, which Paul wrote (2 Corinthians 2:4) in tears and afterwards (2 Corinthians 7:8) regretted having written, had produced most excellent results. The whole church (2 Corinthians 7:11) was moved to repentance for tolerating the gross criminal, and to an outburst of loyalty to the apostle. But there was still (2 Corinthians 12:21) among some church-members gross sin, which Paul feared would make his visit to Corinth humiliating to himself and painful to his readers: and there were false and boastful men who, though deliberate and probably professed enemies of the Apostle, yet had influence in the church. And the collection for Jerusalem was not making satisfactory progress. Paul must therefore write again; to express his joy at their repentance, to urge forward the collection, and if possible by warnings from a distance to bring the impenitent ones to repentance, so as to prevent the severity which he still fears he will be compelled to use when he arrives. And, now that he is sure of the repentance of the more part, he can tell them the reason of the postponement of his visit.

Paul writes under the influence of recent deadly peril. But to this he refers only in a song of exultant gratitude. Coming next to his change of plan, he appeals to his own straightforwardness; and then gives the reason of the change. He bids the Corinthian Christians receive back the now-repentant sinner condemned in the earlier letter. In glowing language he depicts the grandeur of the apostolic ministry. Then, preparing beforehand as usual a way to DIV. III., he urges his readers to separate themselves from all sin; and concludes DIV. I. by an outburst of joy at the tidings about the Corinthians which Titus has brought. This joy suitably prepares the way to the collection for the poor believers at Jerusalem. This he urges them, for their honor among the churches, to have ready in abundance when he arrives. And he concludes his reference to it by pointing out its great and good spiritual results.

Paul comes now to the most painful matter of his letter, reserved to the last. He quietly threatens punishment to some whose names he forbears to mention; and after doing so refuses to compare himself with his boastful and deceitful opponents. He then sets forth in contrast to them his own disinterested labors, his many hardships, and his wonderful revelations. As a counterpart to these last he mentions a severe personal affliction, and Christ’s promise in the midst of it. He appeals to his miraculous credentials, and strengthens his appeal by an expression of tender love for his readers; and concludes his long self-defence by rebutting an insinuation about his colleagues. From the vantage thus gained, he speaks again, rather by way of suggestion than of direct threatening, about the punishment he fears he shall be compelled to inflict; and begs his readers to make needless by self-examination this proof of his apostolic authority. He concludes his letter with a cheering salutation and a beautiful benediction.

This epistle preserves for us an episode in the life of Paul otherwise unrecorded, viz. a visit to Corinth, probably during his three years’ sojourn at Ephesus. It was to him (2 Corinthians 2:1; 2 Corinthians 12:21) a painful and humiliating visit. For he found in the church men guilty of gross sensuality. He contented himself with warning them to repent, and threatening punishment at his next visit in case of continued sin. We are not surprised to find that some time after this visit he wrote (1 Corinthians 5:9 ff) a letter of warning against sensuality, and against intercourse with professed Christians who were guilty of it. At the time of this letter he intended probably (2 Corinthians 1:15) to go direct from Ephesus to Corinth, and then to Macedonia, and then back to Corinth. He changed his plan (2 Corinthians 1:23) because of bad tidings about the state of the church; for above all things he wished to avoid another painful visit to his beloved but unfaithful children. Instead therefore of coming at once, he wrote, in the spring of the year in which he left Ephesus, his First Epistle: and a few months later, with the purposes expounded above, he wrote the Second Epistle, which we now reluctantly close.

More than any other, this Epistle reveals to us the heart of the Apostle, the kind of life he lived, and the sort of people with whom he had to do. The hand which writes it trembles with fear, a fear which reveals the heroism of the man who in spite of it goes forward without a moment’s hesitation along his path of peril. We feel the tender love which prompts forbearance towards unfaithful ones, and fills his eyes with tears while he writes the condemnation of an outrageous offender and makes him afterwards regret the letter he has written, but which did not prevent him from writing it. Now love has its joys as well as its sorrows: and Paul’s joy at the good news brought by Titus has no bounds. Yet., in spite of his intense love and deep sympathy, he is still resolved to punish those who continue obstinate.

Upon these, though with a sad heart, his strong hand will fall. We have also in this Epistle the darkest picture extant of the continual and deadly peril of the apostle. That his life is prolonged, is little less than a constant miracle. Once it seemed to him that there was no way of escape: and the hero, saved so often before from imminent peril, prepared to die. The Epistle reveals also the irregular life of many of those lately gathered out of heathenism, and the gross sin of some who nevertheless continued to be members of the church; and the unscrupulous and deceitful hostility to Paul of others who had influence in the church. In short, we have here a picture, in most vivid colors, of an Apostle and his converts.