2 Corinthians 13:1

This is the third time I am coming to you. Or the third that I have purposed to come; and when I come it will be to punish those who are convicted, on the testimony of two or three witnesses, of having sinned, and of not having done penance.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses. Every accusation, every cause shall be settled on the deposition of two or three witnesses, so that the guilt that I shall punish may be sufficiently established. Others explain this to mean that the two or three witnesses are his three visits to Corinth, and they point to the reference to his three visits which immediately precedes this clause. I am one, he would then say; but coming to you a third time (xii. 14, note), I shall have the authority of two or three witnesses (Maldonatus, Notæ, mss.). But this interpretation is too jejune. The lofty mind of the Apostle has in view something wider and higher than this; moreover, it seems foreign to his drift. He is quoting Deut. xix. 15, the plain meaning of which, as applied here, is that when he comes to judge, each accused person shall he condemned or acquitted on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Although this law, in so far as it is part of the judicial law of the Old Testament, has been abrogated by Christ, yet in so far as it is part of the law of nature, it is still in force, and has been admitted by both Civil and Canon Law; for common-sense has taught all nations that it is only fair and fitting that no one should be condemned but on the testimony of two or three witnesses at least. One witness may easily be suborned or be deceived, but not so well two. S. Paul then accepts and follows this law in its literal meaning, as does Christ in S. Matthew 18:16.

Ver. 2. I to1d you before, and foretell you, as if I were present,... and being absent. As I declared when I was present with you, so do I still say when absent. The Greek copies add after present, the second time, but the meaning, is unaltered. His writing from a distance is, as it were, a second personal address. Ver. 3. Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me. Do you mean to disregard my injunctions, in order to see whether I dare and have power to punish the disobedient by the power given me by Christ? So may a teacher say to his rebellious pupil, "Do you wish to feel the weight of my arm, and to try the birch?"

Which to you-ward is not weak. Christ has already shown Himself not weak but powerful, by powerfully working through me so many wonderful miracles, and by so recently punishing the fornicator by my excommunication, and handing him over to Satan as his tormentor. He refers principally to this power of punishing possessed by him. Ver. 4. For though He was crucified. Through the weakness of His humanity, yet by the power of His Godhead He rose and lives.

For we also are weak in Him. With Him and for Him we are weak, we suffer, and are afflicted. According to this the for denotes not cause but likeness, and is put for so, by a usual Hebrew usage, which expresses similitude by doubling the conjunction.

We shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. Through Him and with Him we will show the power of Christ, i.e., the spiritual vigour of the Gospel, and in particular the power of punishing the contumacious amongst you (Theophylact). Anselm and Theodoret explain it: We with you shall rise by the power of God to eternal bliss. But the first sense is more in harmony with the context. This is supported by the phrase toward you (not merely in you), as well as by the fact that he is concerned with showing the power of Christ lodged in himself, to punish the contumacious. His argument is: As Christ, though weak in Himself, yet rose with power to a life of unending bliss, so equally does He work in us Apostles, and by us, weak though we be, and will continue to work powerfully in producing unearthly virtues, conversions, miracles, and punishments. Ver. 5. Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith. A stern rebuke. See, 0 Corinthians, that ye do not foolishly put faith in the false apostles, and so be out of the faith. Try yourselves, and see whether you believe or not. If you hold fast the faith, and continue in it, you will believe, nay, you will see Christ to be powerful in you, and also in me, by the mighty works He does through me, and thus you will be led to acknowledge my apostleship and evangelical truth.

Theophylact and Gagneius take it otherwise: Make trial of yourselves, and see if you are powerful through Christ indwelling within you, so that through Him you work miracles. In the primitive Church the faithful laity even had the power of working miracles. These two writers, therefore, understand S. Paul here to refer to that faith which works miracles united to the gift of prophecy and of tongues, which faith is a sign of the indwelling of Christ in that congregation in which it flourishes.

Others, thirdly, explain it thus. Try yourselves, and see if you have faith which worketh by love, whether you have the love of Christ abiding in you. But the first meaning is the true one, and the one that suits best the context.

Observe here that this precept shows that the faithful do not know for certain, and therefore should not, and cannot, believe that they have faith, and consequently cannot be assured of their righteousness.

It may be retorted that S. Paul adds: "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you?" I answer that he does not mean that Christ was in their hearts, or in their faith which justified them, or in them individually, but in them collectively as a church. The proof of this was that they saw so many miracles, so many gifts and graces conferred upon their church, that they had no doubt about the presence and working of Christ among them. His conclusion is that the Corinthians ought to hold fast to this Church and to Christ by faith, and therefore to Paul as His vicar (Theophylact).

This appears, secondly, from the fact that the object of faith is not "that I am just," but that "Christ Jesus is among us," i.e., in our Church, and working powerfully in it through the Apostles; consequently we are the true Church of Christ, and the Apostles and their descendants are true teachers.

It may be urged here that S. Augustine (de Trin. lib. iii. c. 1) and S. Thomas here say that we may have certain knowledge that we possess faith. I answer: We know certainly that we believe and cling to Christ, but whether we do this by Divine or human faith, whether so earnestly, firmly, divinely as our righteousness and salvation require, we know not, but can only conjecture.

Except ye be reprobates. " A reprobate," says Anselm, " is one who either knows not, or has deserted the upright faith: and honest heart that he received in his baptism." Theophylact hence says that S. Paul hints that the Corinthians were corrupt in life and character. You do not, he seems to say, recognise that Christ is in you, because you are wicked and of evil life. Evil living is the beginning and the cause of apostasy and heresy. It was lust and pride that caused Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Ochino, and all the Protestant leaders, whether priests or monks, to throw off the habit of the Catholic faith and the Roman Church, and to throw themselves into forbidden nuptials, apostasies, and heresies.

Secondly, it is better to take reprobates, as in ver. 7, in the sense of despicable. From the signs of grace and of the miracles wrought among you by Christ, you know that Christ is in you, unless perchance you have been rejected by Christ, and deprived of the light He gives, and so reduced to your former darkness and abject state. Hence I said. "Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith;" see if your faith is honest: if it is, you know that Christ is in you; if you do not know, it is a sign that your faith is useless, that you have been rejected by Christ, and are no longer believers.