The opening verses of this chapter immediately follow up the closing verses of chap. 4: Why do we not “faint” under the weight of our ministry? and why, in the light of unseen and eternal things, do we feel “our affliction” to be “light, momentary, and more and more productive of an eternal weight o... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:1. FOR WE KNOW THAT IF [1] THE EARTHLY HOUSE OF OUR TABERNACLE BE DISSOLVED or ‘our earthly tent-house be taken down,' [1] Several modern critics think the “if” is here used to leave it an open question whether he and his generation might not see the coming of the Lord, and so not d... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:2. FOR VERILY IN THIS (tabernacle) WE GROAN, LONGING TO BE CLOTHED UPON WITH OUR HABITATION WHICH IS FROM HEAVEN viewed as “from heaven,” because the distinguishing properties of the resurrection-body will be the efflux of that resurrection-life which resides in “the Lord from heaven... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:3. SEEING THAT WE SHALL INDEED BE FOUND CLOTHED, NOT NAKED. This rendering, though not so literal as the Authorised Version, seems necessary to convey in our language what is certainly meant; Rendered as in our Authorised Version, a shade of doubt is undoubtedly conveyed to every Eng... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:4. FOR INDEED WE THAT ARE IN THIS TABERNACLE DO GROAN, BEING BURDENED: NOT FOR THAT WE WOULD BE UNCLOTHED, BUT THAT WE WOULD BE CLOTHED UPON, THAT MORTALITY (_Gr._ ‘that which is mortal') MAY BE SWALLOWED UP OF LIFE: ‘It is not that we are weary of a body, as if it were a mere cage f... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:5. NOW HE THAT WROUGHT US FOR THIS VERY THING IS GOD, WHO GAVE UNTO US THE EARNEST OF THE SPIRIT (_i.e.,_ ‘the Spirit as the earnest'). This “groaning” is not the mere feeling which nature forces out from many a weary spirit, especially under the manifold ills of life; it is that ins... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:6. BEING THEREFORE ALWAYS OF GOOD COURAGE, AND KNOWING THAT WHILST WE ARE AT HOME IN THE body, we are abroad (or ‘away from home') from the Lord (the Lord Christ): (for we walk by faith, not by sight) ‘we live by the faith of things yet future.'... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:8. WE ARE OF GOOD COURAGE, I SAY, AND ARE WILLING RATHER TO BE ABROAD FROM THE BODY, AND TO BE AT HOME WITH THE LORD. [1] [1] πρ ὸ ς τ ὸ ν Κύριον compare John 1:1, πρὸς τὸν Θεόν. _Note._ Since the states contrasted in the previous verses are states of _embodiment_ in mortality no... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:10. FOR WE MUST ALL BE MADE MANIFEST BEFORE THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF CHRIST (The word means more than ‘appear:' compare 1 Corinthians 4:5, ‘till the Lord come... and _make manifest_ the counsels of the heart'), THAT EACH ONE MAY RECEIVE THE THINGS _DONE _ IN THE BODY (_Gr._ ‘the things... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:11. KNOWING THEREFORE THE FEAR OF THE LORD the Lord Christ who is to be our Judge, WE (in the exercise of our ministry) persuade men; BUT WE ARE MADE MANIFEST UNTO GOD (who knoweth our hearts), AND I HOPE THAT WE ARE MADE MANIFEST ALSO IN YOUR CONSCIENCES to which we willingly leave... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:12. WE ARE NOT AGAIN COMMENDING OURSELVES UNTO YOU (see chap. 2 Corinthians 3:1), BUT _SPEAK _ AS GIVING YOU OCCASION OF GLORYING ON OUR BEHALF enabling you to meet all unworthy attacks upon us, by pointing to what the Gospel which we brought you has made yourselves, THAT YE MAY HAVE... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:13. FOR WHETHER WE ARE BESIDE OURSELVES, IT IS UNTO GOD; OR WHETHER WE ARE OF SOBER MIND, IT IS UNTO YOU: ‘If tarried away by the glory of the message with which we are burdened, we at times seem beside ourselves (Acts 26:24), it is our zeal for God that urges us on; but if at other... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:14. FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST not our love to Christ, but (as the following words shew, and other places confirm) Christ's love to men (see Romans 8:35; Romans 8:37; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:19), CONSTRAINETH US so shuts us up that we cannot choose but act as we do, BECAUSE WE HAVE T... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:16. WHEREFORE HENCEFORTH KNOW WE NO MAN AFTER THE FLESH: ‘Our old principles of judgment are at an end; we now look on persons and things alike in a quite new light;' EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE KNOWN CHRIST AFTER THE FLESH, YET NOW WE KNOW HIM SO NO MORE. There is no reference here to any v... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:17. WHEREFORE IF ANY MAN IS IN CHRIST, HE IS A NEW CREATURE: THE OLD THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY; BEHOLD, THEY [1] ARE BECOME NEW. This verse simply generalizes the preceding statements, stripping them of all reference to himself and those written to, and extending them to all who are “in... [ Continue Reading ]
_Comprehensive View of the Christian Ministry,_ 18-21. 2 Corinthians 5:18. AND to express in brief the whole Divine plan ALL THINGS (in this matter) ARE OF GOD, WHO RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF THROUGH CHRIST [1] Those who take this to mean ‘induced us to give up our enmity to Him,' go entirely against... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:19. TO WIT (to be more particular) THAT GOD WAS IN CHRIST, RECONCILING THE WORLD UNTO HIMSELF, NOT RECKONING UNTO THEM THEIR TRESPASSES. This shews conclusively, as already said, that the reconciliation of the preceding verse means the removal on God's part of His just ground of offe... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:20. WE ACE AMBASSADORS THEREFORE ON BEHALF OF CHRIST, AS THOUGH GOD WERE INTREATING BY US (as His mouth), WE BESEECH _YOU_ ON BEHALF OF CHRIST, BE YE RECONCILED TO GOD. Calvin would extend this reconciliation to the daily forgiveness which believers themselves stand in need of, becau... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:21. HIM [1] WHO KNEW NO sin HE MADE TO BE SIN ON OUR BEHALF, [2] THAT WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM. This is the most systematic, the most comprehensive, and the most unmistakeable expression of the Divine intention in the death of Christ which the New Testament con... [ Continue Reading ]