2 Corinthians 7

2 Corinthians 7:2

The apostle farther expresses his affections to the Corinthians, as illustrated by the pleasure with which he received good tidings from them by Titus, and by the part he took in the sorrows which his necessary reproofs had occasioned, and his present joy in that these sorrows had issued in their reformation. 2 Cor. VII. 2, to the end.

2 CORINTHIANS VII. 2.

BUT to return from this digression, to the xii. attempt I was making to remove some 3 Cor. prejudices, which, much to your own detrivii. 2 ment, I know that some of you have imbibed against my person and ministry. Give me leave, my brethren, to entreat you, that ye receive us with that affection which is due to the faithful servants of Christ, and to those who have been instruments in your conversion and edification; for, whatever may have been insinuated by ill designing persons to the contrary, we have injured no man in his person, we

Cor. VII. 2.

RECEIVE us: we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man,

ventions the anxiety they had given him:

have corrupted no man in his morals, we have defrauded no manᵃ in his property, by any of those artifices which covetousness sometimes practises under very solemn forms. I speak not [this] to condemn [you] of ingratitude, or infidelity, though I have been obliged to find some fault with you; for I have told you before, that ye are in our hearts with such tenderness, that if it were the will of God, we could be glad both to live and to die with [you;] to spend the remainder of our lives at Corinth, or to end them there, did not the purposes of our master’s glory call to other, and many of them less grateful and agreeable scenes.

Great, as you see, [is] my freedom of speech to you, upon this subject; and great is also my boasting concerning you, as to the assurance which I have of your regards for me; and, on this account, I am filled with consolation at the remembrance of you; I do exceedingly aboundᵇ in joy, in the midst of all our affliction, when I think how well you behave, and how happy an alteration is prevailing among you.

An instance of this affectionate regard I have lately had an opportunity deeply to feel, and very naturally to manifest: for when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted in every [place] and circumstance, through the rage and malice of our enemies; yet these alarms could not cause us to forget you; but while without there [were] continual fightings, with the most furious and cruel opposition, within there were fears and anxieties on your account. But the blessed God, who is pleased to wear it among his other titles, that he is the Comforter of those who are brought low by affliction and distress, and owns it as his prerogative, to bear up the human heart, comforted us by the coming of Titus; who arrived so seasonably at Macedonia, at a time when both our circumstances and frame of spirit needed all the assistance that so pious and

ᵃ Defrauded no man.] The word συνεκτασμένη, signifies to indulge a covetous temper, and make a prey of others by it; and perhaps intimates, that the false teachers, of whom he had so much reason to complain, had done it.

ᵇ Exceedingly abound.] The word υπερσυγκησις, has an inexpressible energy and is, if I mistake not, a word of the apostle’s own making.

Though he now rejoiced that they had been brought

delightful a friend could give. And indeed it was not merely by his coming, that I was thus comforted; but with the consolation with which he was comforted by you, when he told us particularly of your earnest desire to rectify whatever was amiss, and of your grief for what had been matter of offence to God, and sorrow to me, and of your affectionate zeal for me, so that I rejoiced much more than in other circumstances I could have done. Because now I can take the liberty to say, that if I grieved you in the epistle which I formerly wrote, in which indeed I was obliged to treat some subjects with greater severity than I could have wished, I do not repent of it, however anxious I might before have been; for the regret I at first felt on that account, is now swallowed up in that superior pleasure with which I see the happy effects of it; for I now have the satisfaction to find, that this epistle, however for a little while it might have grieved you, hath by the blessing of God, been productive of great good. And now I rejoice, not that ye were grieved, for that will always give me concern when I reflect upon it; but that ye grieved to such happy purpose, and were by that means brought to true repentance, to a change of mind; for this was indeed the case, as ye were grieved with a penitential and humble regard to the honour of the blessed God, which is so immediately and peculiarly affected by the irregularities of those that profess themselves his people. So that on the whole, ye were not in any degree endamaged by us; but on the contrary received, as we intended, great benefit by the severity we were compelled to use. For this is indeed the natural effect of a sorrow like yours; that grief, which regards the honour of God, and takes its rise from such tender and grateful views of him, as we before hinted, worketh a repentance, which leads to sal-

However anxious I might before have been: u xxi μιζιμαςμην.] So I choose to render the word, as μιζιμαςμην strictly expresses an after care and anxiety for anything that has been done, whereas the word repent always signifies a wish it had not been done. Now as what St Paul did, in writing the former epistle, was proper,

and done under the direction of the Divine Spirit, it does not seem reasonable to suppose that he really repented of it. It may also signify a kind of misgiving of heart, natural, when the reproof, however necessary, is given to a person one tenderly loves, where the event is dubious, as in this instance it might be.

having sorrowed a ter a go. ly sort;

vation, and issues in it; and therefore is never afterwards to be repented of; whereas the sorrow that arises merely from a regard to the things of the world, is often a foolish excess, productive of fatal consequences, and sometimes worketh death; either breaking the heart, arming men against their own lives, or otherwise producing that rebellion against God, by which the soul is finally destroyed. But it is pleasant to trace the happy effects of that better principle which hath influenced you; for behold, this same thing, that is, your being grieved for your sins out of a pious respect to God, and the dishonour it brought upon him, what diligence it wrought in you to reform what had been amiss; yea, [what] a solicitous care, to make the best apology you could for what you had done; and of the sounder part, to make their innocence appear; yea, [what] indignation did it produce against those who had given the offence; yea, [what] fear, lest any thing of that sort should be encouraged and repeated; yea, [what] earnest desire of seeing me again, and confirming our friendship in surer bonds; yea, [what] zeal in every method that could be subservient to these views; yea indeed, if I may so express myself, [what] revenge, against yourselves for those things, which, all circumstances considered, you could not but condemn; against sin, as your great enemy; so that upon the whole, considering you as a society, you have approved yourselves to be pure in this matter, and there is no farther stain remaining on the church, where I was so much afraid of lasting infamy and reproach. Let it not therefore be the cause of any farther distress; but assure yourselves, that if I have written [any thing] to you, different from what I could wish to write, and you to receive, [it was] not so much with any personal views, on his account, who had done, or his who had received the injury,

d Yea, [what] revenge.] Mr. Gataker has very well observed here, that Calvin and Reynolds, and some other divines of note, have been misled, by taking it for granted, that these verses contain seven distinct marks of true repentance, to be found in every sincere penitent; whereas indeed this a c not characters of the tem er of

each, but of different persons in different circumstances, according to the part they respectively acted in the affair in question. e Received the injury.] Hence some infer, and it seems reasonable, that the father of the incestuous person was still living; which must be a great aggravation of his crime.

I hich had refreshed the spirit of Titus as well as but for the sake of manifesting our diligence and care for you, which through the Divine goodness hath now been made apparent, though by so severe and painful a trial, before God, [and] unto you. Therefore we were greatly comforted in your consolation, and we rejoiced more exceedingly in the joy of good Titus, which gave me a pleasure yet greater than he himself could derive from it; because we find your temper and state so good, that his spirit was refreshed by you all. So that on the whole, if I had boasted any thing of you to him, that I was confident my Corinthian friends would approve themselves worthy of the figure they had formerly made in religion, I was not ashamed of that boasting; but as we have always spoken in the exactest regard to truth, when addressing ourselves to you, so also our boasting [concerning you] to Titus, that all would be well again at Corinth, has been verified, greatly to our satisfaction: So that his tenderest affections are now engaged towards you exceedingly, which he expresses in the most genuine manner, whenever he mentions, or recollects the obedience of you all in general to those apostolical injunctions which I sent you by him: [and] how you received him as my messenger, and the minister of Christ, with fear and trembling, expressing always the most solicitous concern, that he might see nothing which it might grieve him to observe, or me to hear reported by him. I rejoice therefore, that in every respect I have confidence in you, and am encouraged to renew that honourable testimony which it has always been my pleasure to bear to your character, and which, I assure myself, you will continue more and more to deserve.

IMPROVEMENT.

How great is the boldness of a good conscience! and Hosea 3 much does it promote that freedom, that authority, with whic the ministers of Christ address themselves to their hearers

f Confidence in you.] The address of all what he had to say in the followin this part of the epistle is wonderful, chapter, and is strongly illustrated b This, in particular, finely introduces cha .ix. 2-4.

Reflections on the joy their repentance gave St. Paul.

when they can thus appeal to them as to the uprightness, integrity, and disinterestedness of their conduct! Frequently do we, in some degree, share the trials of the apostle; and while we may be surrounded with fightings without, are exercised with fears within; but we have a God, who assumeth it to himself as one of his titles, that he comforteth those that are cast down, and brought low. May every sincere lover of Christ, and of souls, be filled with consolation from him, and amidst all his tribulations, whatever they may be, be made to rejoice exceedingly in the joy of his Christian friends and converts! May he trace in them the marks of that true repentance which is never to be repented of, and which is represented in such genuine language, as no heart could have dictated, but one that had felt what is here described. And since there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not; and consequently none who needeth not repentance, may we all know by experience, that diligence, that indignation, that fear, that zeal, that desire, that revenge, which the apostle saw in his Corinthian brethren, and which he rejoiced so much to see! There is not a surer office of friendship, than to endeavour to promote this godly sorrow. And O, how blessed, how divine a principle is religion, whose most painful operation is productive of so much inward and substantial happiness! whereas the sorrow of this world, to which they who fondly love the world, and eagerly pursue it, are most exposed, is attended with such fatal consequences, as even to work death.

Let us observe with pleasure the address of St. Paul, to make the Corinthians what they ought to be, by representing to them that pleasing confidence he reposed in them, the manner in which he had even boasted of them, and the satisfaction he found in all their first tendencies towards a reformation of remaining defects. And let us earnestly pray for the spirit of wisdom, that our hearts may be happily attempered to such due mixtures of faithful inspection, resolute sincerity, and endearing tenderness, with respect to all who are committed to our care, whether in offices of a public or private nature, as may most effectually promote their advancement in the Divine life, and our own abundant joy.

He praises the Macedonians’ liberality to the saints in Judea,