2 Corinthians 10
DOYLY—and bringing into captivity every thought &c.] This likewise is a military term; but it is often applied to the mind, to represent the thralldom of the affections. See 2 Tim. iii. 6. The empty reasonings and foolish imaginations of the human mind being thrown down, every thought, which arises in it, is made as subservient to the obedience of Christ, as slaves are to the will of their lords. In this passage the Apostle with great energy describes the method, in which wicked men fortify themselves against the Gospel, raising as it were one barrier behind another, to obstruct its entrance into their minds. But when these are all thrown down, the Gospel is received, and Christ is obeyed implicitly; every thought and reasoning taking its direction from Him. Dr. Macknight.
2 Corinthians 10:2
2.—for I have espoused you to one husband.] As the Jews say, that Moses espoused Israel to God in mount Sinai, when he made them enter into covenant with Him there; so the Apostle saith, by converting you to the Christian faith, I have espoused you to one husband, even Christ. Dr. Whitby, Burkitt.
2 Corinthians 10:3
3.—from the simplicity that is in Christ.] From that singleness of affection, which you ought to have towards Christ and the Gospel, without any regard to the law, so as to mix Judaism and Christianity together. Dr. Wells.
2 Corinthians 10:4
4.—another Jesus,—another spirit.] That is, a more true Messiah than we preach; a better and more powerful Spirit than ye have received from us. Bp. Hall. —ye might well bear with him.] And allow his pretensions of being a new and greater Apostle. Dr. Wells.
2 Corinthians 10:5
- For I suppose I was not a whit behind &c.] But this you cannot say. For, not to compare myself with the deceivers, I may justly compare with the most eminent of the true Apostles, St. Peter, and St. James, and St. John. Pyle, Dr. Hammond.
2 Corinthians 10:6
- —to revenge all disobedience.] To punish with severity those that remain refractory. Dr. Hammond. The Apostle’s love for the Corinthians, whom he desired to spare, and the infirm state of their church, made him choose to defer the punishment of these offenders, till he had brought off the affections of the Corinthians from their false apostles, and made them more unanimous in their regards to him. Dr. Whitby.
6.—rude in speech.] The Apostle probably means, that his discourses were not composed with that art, which the Greeks shewed in the choice and arrangement of their words, and in the disposition of their periods. Neither were they delivered with those modulations of voice, and with those studied gestures, with which the Greeks set off their orations. Dr. Macknight. That St. Paul was an eloquent and powerful speaker, see Acts xiv. 12, where he was called Mercury for it. See also Acts xxii. 1; xxiv. 10; xxvi. 2; xvii. 23. But not thinking fit in his ministry to use the Greeks’ artificial way in ostentation of his eloquence, that so the power of the Gospel might not seem to be placed in human wisdom, 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5; he was therefore contemned by the curious Greeks. Especially perhaps being liable to some adiectisms and behinisms in the Greek, being not his national language; as also being apt to make sudden transitions, as is seen in his Epi- Anno DOMINI 60.
2 Corinthians 10:7
- —after the outward appearance:] Judging of me from my outward person, and the infirmities of my body. Dr. Whitby.
—let him of himself think this again.] Let him consider; and by all those arguments, by which he will be able to conclude that he is the disciple or apostle of Christ, he will be able to conclude it of me also. Dr. Hammond.
2 Corinthians 10:8
- —of our authority.] St. Paul seems to refer to the authority peculiar to the Apostles, of inflicting corporal
2 Corinthians 10:10
- —his bodily presence is weak.] This seems plainly to refer to what some of the ancients relate of St. Paul, that his stature was low, his body crooked, and his head bald. Dr. Whitby.
2 Corinthians 10:13
- But we will not boast of things without our measure.] Or, beyond the province allotted to us. Dr. Wells. —but according to the measure of the rule] That is to say, the boundary of the province, in which the Apostle was sent by God to preach. Dr. Hammond.
—a measure to reach even unto you.] The Apostle means, that, according to his Apostolical commission, he had come gradually preaching the Gospel to the several countries, till he reached Corinth. Pyle.
2 Corinthians 10:14
- —In preaching the gospel of Christ:] In all countries as we went along. Dr. Wells. St. Paul, following his prescribed rule, preached in all the countries of the lesser Asia, beginning at Jerusalem. From Asia he passed into Macedonia, where he preached in many of the chief cities. Then he preached in Greece, and particularly at Athens; and at last came to Corinth in a regular course of preaching the Gospel, which had not been preached there before. Dr. Macknight.
2 Corinthians 10:15
- —that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly.] That your progress in Christianity will be so good as to enable me to keep my course on beyond your country, and convert still more people to the Gospel. Pyle.
2 Corinthians 10:16
- —and not to boast in another man’s line &c.] In this and the three preceding verses, the Apostle seems
Anno DOMINI 66. Or, understand it not. Or, line. Or, may be in you. Or, rule. Paul, being forced, entereth into commendation of himself, Anno DOMINI 60. a Ser. 6. 24. I Cor. 1. 31.
2 Corinthians 10:17
17.—let him glory in the Lord.] In a regular performance of the Gospel ministry, and in the successes with which God hath blessed him in converting men to the Christian faith. Pyle.
2 Corinthians 10:18
18.—whom the Lord commendeth.] By the gifts of the Holy Ghost vouchsafed to him, and by the power of Christ attending on him in his ministry. Drs. Wells and Whitby. As the pride and vanity of the false apostles condemned in this chapter deserve our notice, so also do the great modesty and humility of St. Paul, the true Apostle of Jesus Christ. He represents his preaching of the Gospel as his spiritual exercise, or the running of a race; in which his zeal and activity are not more to be admired, than the constancy with which he adhered to his own province, the sphere which God had marked out for him. Whoever pretends to run beyond that line, doth “stretch himself beyond,” and “boast without his measure.” Dr. Hammond, Burkitt. Chap. XI. To preserve the Corinthians in a good opinion of himself, and a just sense of his apostolical authority, against the suggestions of the false teachers, the Apostle enlarges upon one of their chief insinuations, namely, that of not taking maintenance of their church. He exposes their pride and subtlety, particularly of the judaising part of them: compares himself with, and justly prefers himself to them, on all accounts; on his innumerable sufferings for Christ’s religion, his unwearied labours in the church, his constant cares and fears for, his compassionate tenderness to all its members. Pyle. Ver. 1.—is my folly.] Though the necessity, which lay on the Apostle thus to commend himself in vindication of his apostleship, made him free from folly in godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.