1 Corinthians 16:17-18

“I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied, 18. for they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such.” Paul here extends to the two other members of the deputation what he had just said of the first. Fortunatus is probably the same person who was afterwards the bearer of the letter of Clement of Rome (c. 65). Achaicus is unknown. As slaves often bore the name of the country of their birth, Edwards thinks that this last was one of Chloe's slaves (1 Corinthians 1:11). Weizsäcker supposes that both were slaves of Stephanas himself. The second supposition is at least more probable than the first. The expression: ὑστέρημα ὑμῶν, literally: your shortcoming, denotes the blank felt by Paul from the absence of the Corinthians, and the impossibility of communicating directly with them. The three deputies have filled this void, because it seemed to him as if in these three men he had the whole Church; comp. Philippians 2:30. The γάρ, for, 1 Corinthians 16:18, shows that this verse should explain the preceding expression. They have dissipated the uneasiness which filled the apostle's heart in regard to the Corinthians. By telling him of the love of the Church, and perhaps showing him many things in a less distressing light than he supposed, they have given him real comfort; they have consoled him, not merely in his human sensibilities this would require ψυχή, soul, but even in his inmost being, his πνεῦμα, spirit, the organ of his relations to God.

And it is not only he whom they have thus comforted; but also the Corinthians themselves. By adding to: my spirit, the words: and yours, the apostle transports himself to the time when the deputies, returned to Corinth, will give account to the congregation of their conferences with Paul, and when the Church also in turn will find in this communication that spiritual tranquillizing which it needs. Now such services should be acknowledged, for it is not every one who could refresh a Paul and a Church of Corinth. Hence the exhortation which closes this paragraph: “Acknowledge the work of such men, and what is due to them.” What exquisite delicacy is stamped on every line!