2 Corinthians 7:2

Receive us,.... Into your affections, let us have a place in your hearts, as you have in ours: Gospel ministers ought to be received with love and respect, both into the hearts and houses of the

Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man. Receive us - with enlarged hearts (2 Corinthians 6:13). We have wronged ... corrupted ... defrauded no man (cf.

Receive us; let us have a room in your hearts and esteem, or (more generally) accept us, as you ought to receive and accept the ministers of Christ. As our heart is enlarged towards you, so let your hearts be enlarged towards us; we have done nothing to alienate your hearts from us. We have wronged no man; we have done no harm to any of you, we have not been like the shepherds that merely take the fleece, and eat the flesh of the flock: : I have coveted no man’ s silver, or gold, or apparel. We have corrupted no man; we have corrupted none by any false doctrine, or by flattering speeches, or by bribes or gifts. We have defrauded no man; we have cheated or defrauded no man. By which vindication of or apology for himself and his fellow labourers, it is not improbably judged, that the apostle reflecteth upon those false apostles and teachers that were crept into this church, who had wronged him, corrupted them, and been too busy in other ways to pick their pockets. Nothing becometh more a minister of the gospel, than innocency and righteousness; nothing more commends him unto his people: for though they are easily persuaded that an innocent and just man must be a pious man, yet they are difficultly persuaded, (and there is no reason for it), that an unjust or mischievous man can be so. Men are so mad of their lusts, that ofttimes teachers who will favour them in them, though never so unjust and unrighteous in their actings, shall find more favour with them, than the most righteous person that will not spare them as to their Herodias: But he who will entertain the least hopes to bring men off from their lusts and sinful practices, is concerned above all men to be innocent and righteous.

2 Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man. Ver. 2. Receive us] Gr. χωρησατε, Locum date. Make room for us in your hearts and houses. Set wide open the everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in triumphantly, riding upon us, his white horses, Revelation 6:2. We have wronged no man] Ministers must so live that they may, if need be, glory of their innocence and integrity, as did Moses, Samuel, Paul, Melancthon. We have corrupted no man] viz. As the false apostles had done with their leaven of false doctrine, which eateth as a canker, 2 Timothy 2:17, or a gangrene, which presently overruns the parts, and takes the brain. Protagoras in Plato boasted that of those sixty years that he had lived, he had spent forty in corrupting of youth. We have defrauded no man] We have cunningly made sale of no man, as those old impostors that made prize of their prisoners, 2 Peter 2:3. And as those Popish Muscipulatores, or mice catchers, as the story calleth them, that raked together their Peter’ s pence and other monies here in England by most detestable arts. Polydore Virgil was one of these ill officers, that left not so much money in the whole kingdom sometimes as they either carried with them or sent to Rome before them.

(2) Receive us; we have wronged no man.—Better, Make room for us; we wronged no man: with the same change of tense in the verbs that follow. There is an almost infinite pathos in that entreaty, uttered, we may well believe, as from the very depths of the soul—“Make room for us.” The under-current of thought flows on. He had complained of their being straitened in their affections, had entreated that they would enlarge their hearts towards him, as his heart was enlarged towards them. He has travelled on—his thoughts turning now to the party of license, with whom he had pleaded so earnestly in 1 Corinthians 8-10—to the terribly unutterable contaminations to which they were exposing themselves by their companionship with idolaters. He now, almost, as it were, with sobs, entreats once more: “You can find a place for such as these in your heart. Have you no place for me?” In the words “we wronged no man” we find reference to charges of greed of gain and self-interested motives that had been whispered against him, and to which he refers again in 2 Corinthians 8:20; 2 Corinthians 12:18. Perhaps, also, he contrasts himself with others, who “did wrong and defrauded” (1 Corinthians 6:8). We have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.—The word for “corrupt” is the same as that translated “defile” in 1 Corinthians 3:17, and is used with manifest reference to sensual impurity in 2 Peter 2:12; Jude 1:10; Revelation 19:2. The word for “defrauded” is not the same as that in 1 Corinthians 6:8, and though meaning literally “to make a gain,” or “seek a gain,” had, with its cognate nouns, acquired a darker shade of meaning. The verb is used in obvious connection with impurity in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6, where see Note. The nouns often appear in closest companionship with those which indicate that form of evil (1 Corinthians 5:10-11; Ephesians 5:5; 2 Peter 2:14; Romans 1:29; Colossians 3:5). Mere greed of gain is commonly described by another word, which we translate “the love of money” (Luke 16:14; 1 Timothy 6:10; 2 Timothy 3:2). There seems, then, sufficient reason for connecting this verb also with the same class of sins. It would seem as if the word had colloquially acquired a secondary meaning, and was used of those who sought gain by ministering to the vice of others—who became, as it were, purveyors of impurity. The words, so understood, give us a momentary glimpse into a depth of evil from which we would willingly turn our eyes. But they leave no room for doubt that, in the infinite pruriency of such a city as Corinth, even such things as these had been said of the Apostle in the cynical jests of the paganising party of license. They tolerated such things themselves. They welcomed those who practised them to their friendship (1 Corinthians 5:11). They whispered, we may well believe, of private interviews in lonely lodgings, of public gatherings at night of men and women, and of the kiss of peace.

Verse 2. Receive us] χωρησατεημας. This address is variously understood. Receive us into your affections-love us as we love you. Receive us as your apostles and teachers; we have given you full proof that God hath both sent and owned us. Receive, comprehend, what we now say to you, and carefully mark it. We have wronged no man] We have never acted contrary to the strictest justice. We have corrupted no man] With any false doctrine or pernicious opinion. We have defrauded no man.] Of any part of his property. But what have your false teachers done? They have beguiled you from the simplicity of the truth, and thus corrupted your minds. 2 Corinthians 11:3. They have brought you into bondage; they have taken of you; devoured you; axalted themselves against you, and ye have patiently suffered all this. 2 Corinthians 11:20. It is plain that he refers here to the false apostle or teacher which they had among them.

2–16. Exhortation to set aside all suspicion and to confide in the Apostle’s love and zeal for their spiritual well-being2. Receive us] Literally, Make room for us (‘capaces estote nostri,’ Erasmus and Calvin. Tyndale and Cranmer, incorrectly, understonde us). The word here used is to be found in the sense of having room for in Mark 2:2; John 2:6; John 21:25. These words have reference to ch. 2 Corinthians 6:12; 2 Corinthians 6:14, where see notes. The connection of what follows with what has just preceded is to be found in the thought which underlies the whole, that St Paul’s only desire is the spiritual advancement of his flock.we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man] Perhaps these words should be rendered ‘we wronged, corrupted, defrauded no man,’ i.e. during the course of our ministry at Corinth. St Paul here refers to the charges brought against him. He had been accused of wronging the Corinthians by claiming an authority to which he had no right, and which he turned to his own account (see 1 Corinthians 9:1-6; 2 Corinthians 1:12-17; 2 Corinthians 5:12; 2 Corinthians 6:3-4; 2 Corinthians 6:12; 2 Corinthians 10:7-11; 2 Corinthians 11:7; 2 Corinthians 12:14); of corrupting them by preaching false doctrine, 2 Corinthians 2:17, 2 Corinthians 4:2 (unless, with Thomas Aquinas, we interpret it of bad example); of defrauding them, 2 Corinthians 12:17-18, where the word here used is translated ‘make a gain of.’ To this he replies by challenging them to prove their assertions, to name a single instance in which he had done either. Dr Plumptre regards the words ‘corrupted’ and ‘defrauded’ as referring to sensual sin, and illustrates by the revolting charges of immorality brought against the Christians by those who misinterpreted their brotherly and sisterly affection. It is true that the word here translated ‘defrauded’ seems to have a reference to something more than mere greed of gain. See note on 1 Corinthians 5:10-11. Still, the word translated ‘corrupted’ and its derivatives do not appear to have had any such restricted sense in St Paul. See, for instance, 1 Corinthians 3:17, ch. 2 Corinthians 11:3 of this Epistle; and, in a less degree, Ephesians 4:22. And, however common such charges were in the days of Minucius Felix and Tertullian, they are not hinted at elsewhere in Scripture, but rather the contrary. See 1 Peter 4:4; 2 Peter 2:2.

Receive us - Tyndale renders this: “understand us.” The word used here (χωρήσατε chōrēsate) means properly, give space, place, or room; and it means here evidently, make place or room for us in

2. Paul’s exhortation to acceptance of his apostleship, 2 Corinthians 7:2-16.a. From his purity and tender affection, 2 Corinthians 7:2-4.2. Receive us—Accept and acknowledge me (with my co-labourers) as your founder-apostle.