2 Corinthians 6:4

approving The word is the same as is translated -commend" in ch. 2 Corinthians 3:1, and there is an obvious reference here to 2 Corinthians 6:1 of that chapter.

as the ministers of God There is an ambiguity in the A. V. here. The Apostle means -we, as ministers of God, recommend ourselves to those to whom we minister" in the way afterwards mentioned, not that the Apostles prove themselves to beministers of God by their conduct. Tyndale renders let us behave ourselves as the ministers of God.

in much patience Dean Stanley divides the means by which the Apostle commended himself into four classes: (1) from patience (or rather endurance) to -fastings," referring to the bodily sufferings of the Apostle; (2) from -pureness" to -love unfeigned," referring to the virtues, that is, the manifestations of the Divine presence in St Paul; (3) from -by the word of truth" to -by evil report and good report," referring to the means whereby he was enabled to prove himself to be a true minister of God; and (4) the remainder, relating to the acceptation in which the Apostles were held, and its contrast with the reality. Bengel also would subdivide the first class into three triplets of sufferings. But this is perhaps somewhat fanciful.

in afflictions The word thus rendered is translated indifferently by tribulations(Wiclif so renders it here) and afflictionsin the A. V. See note on ch. 2 Corinthians 4:8.

in distresses See note on ch. 2 Corinthians 4:8.