1 Corinthians 2:3

“And I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.”

The words καὶ ἐγώ, and I, are not the repetition of the κἀγώ of 1 Corinthians 2:1; they announce a new feature subordinate to the preceding and in agreement with it. As he did not seek to render his preaching brilliant in matter or form, so in his personal demeanour he did not affect the airs of one assured of success. He felt and showed only one feeling, that of his own weakness. Addressing himself to this Gentile community, he had not, as among Jews, the point of support supplied by the prophecies. On the other hand, he surrendered what might have been his help in his new surroundings depth of thought and charm of language. What remained to him? Humanly speaking, he felt like one disarmed; hence the ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ, in weakness. And this feeling of weakness went the length of fear, when he weighed the gravity of a work like his, and the responsibility it laid on him. By repeating the prep. ἐν before τρόμῳ, “and in trembling,” which Paul does not do in the other instances when he joins these two substantives (2 Corinthians 7:15; Ephesians 6:5; Php 2:12), he distinguishes the second from the first more precisely; fear even produced in him a sort of physical tremor. Perhaps he also felt himself humbled by the weakness of his outward appearance (2 Corinthians 10:10). All this sufficiently explains the terms of this verse, without the necessity of having recourse to fear of persecutions, of which Chrysostom thinks, or even to the supposition of ill-health, according to Rückert. It is interesting to compare the picture which Paul here traces of his inward frames with the narrative of the external facts of his ministry in Acts 18. The first of these pictures remarkably completes the second, and explains why the Lord found it necessary to grant to His servant the vision, related Acts 18:9, and to say to him, like a friend encouraging his friend: “Fear not; speak and be not silent.”

The words I was with you embrace not only his public teachings, but his private conversations and all his personal relations.

What a contrast between this humble, even timid, attitude of the apostle, and the bold confidence of the Greek rhetorician stepping before his auditory as a man sure of the success of his person and piece!