2 Corinthians 1 - Introduction

The Apostle encourageth them against troubles, by the comforts and deliverances which God had given him, as in all his afflictions, so particularly in his late danger in Asia: and calling both his own conscience and their's to witness of his sincere manner of preaching the immutable truth of the gospel, he excuseth his not coming to them, as proceeding not of lightness, but of his lenity towards them.

Anno Domini 58.

AFTER giving the Corinthians his apostolical benediction, St.Paul began this chapter with returning thanks to God, who had comforted him in every affliction, that he might be able to comfort others, with the consolation wherewith he himself had been comforted, 2 Corinthians 1:3. By this thanksgiving the Apostle insinuated, that one of the purposes of his writing the present letter, was to comfort the sincere part of the Corinthian church, and to relieve them from the sorrow occasioned to them by the rebukes in his former letter.—Next, to shew the care which God took of him as a faithful Apostle of his Son, he gave the Corinthians an account of a great affliction which had befallen him in Asia, that is, in Ephesus and its neighbourhood, and of a great deliverance from an imminent danger of death, which God had wrought for him; namely, when he fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, as mentioned in his former epistle, ch. 1 Corinthians 15:32, and had the sentence of death in himself to teach him that he should not trust in himself, but in God, 2 Corinthians 1:8.

When the Apostle sent Timothy and Erastus from Ephesus into Macedonia, as mentioned, Acts 19:22 it is probable that he ordered them to go forward to Corinth, (1 Corinthians 16:10.) provided the accounts which they received in Macedonia gave them reason to think their presence in Corinth would be useful; and that he ordered them likewise to inform the Corinthians, that he was coming straightway from Ephesus to Corinth, to remedy the disorders which some of the family of Chloe told him had taken place among them. But, after Timothy and Erastus departed, having more than ordinary success in converting the idolatrous Gentiles in the province of Asia, he put off his voyage to Corinth for some time, being determined to remain in Ephesus and its neighbourhood till the following Pentecost; after which he purposed to go through Macedonia, in his way to Corinth. This alteration of his intention the Apostle notified to the Corinthians in his first epistle, ch. 1 Corinthians 16:5. But the faction having taken occasion therefrom to speak of him as a false, fickle, worldly-minded man, who, in all his actions, was guided by interested views, he judged it necessary, in this second letter, to vindicate himself from that calumny, by assuring the Corinthians that he had behaved with the greatest simplicity and sincerity, 2 Corinthians 1:12.—and by declaring that what he was about to write on that subject was the truth; namely, that when he sent them word by Timothy and Erastus, of his intention to set out for Corinth immediately by sea, he really meant to do so, 2 Corinthians 1:13.-and that the alteration of his resolution did not proceed either from levity or falsehood, 2 Corinthians 1:17.—as they might have known from the uniformity of the doctrine which he preached to them, 2 Corinthians 1:18.—whereby, as well as by the earnest of the Spirit put into his heart, God had fully established his authority with the Corinthians. It was therefore absurd to impute either levity or falsehood to one who was thus publicly and plainly attested of God to be an Apostle of Christ, by the spiritual gifts and graces which he had conferred upon him, 2 Corinthians 1:22.—Lastly, he called God to witness that hitherto he had delayed his journey to Corinth expressly for the purpose of giving the faulty among them time to repent, 2 Corinthians 1:23.—and that, in so doing, he had acted suitably to his character; because miraculous powers were bestowed on the Apostles, not to enable them to lord it over the persons and goods of the disciples, by means of their faith, but to make them helpers of their joy, persuading them both by arguments and chastisements to live agreeably to their Christian profession, 2 Corinthians 1:24.

St. Paul's first epistle produced different effects among the Corinthians: many of them entered into themselves; they excommunicated the incestuous man, requested St. Paul's return with tears, and vindicated him and his office against the false teacher and his adherents. Others of them still adhered to that adversary of St. Paul, expressly denied his apostolical office, and even furnished themselves with pretended arguments from that epistle. He had formerly promised to take a journey from Ephesus to Corinth; thence to visit the Macedonians; and to return from thence to Corinth: but the unhappy state of the Corinthian church made him alter his intention, since he found that he must have treated them with severity, ch. 2 Corinthians 1:15. Hence his adversaries partlyargued, 1st, That St. Paul was irresolute and unsteady, and therefore could not be a prophet; 2nd, The improbability of his ever coming to Corinth again, since he was afraid of them. Such was the state of the Corinthian church, when St. Paul, after his departure from Ephesus, having visited Macedonia, received an account of the above particulars from Titus, ch. 2 Corinthians 7:5 and therefore wrote to them his second epistle about the end of the same year, or the beginning of 58. The contents of this epistle are these: First, He gives the Corinthians an account of his sufferings to that time, and of the comfort that he derived from meditating on the resurrection, ch. 2 Corinthians 1:1. Secondly, He vindicates himself against those who would not consider him as a true Apostle, because he had altered his resolutions, ch. 2 Corinthians 1:12.—ii. 4. Thirdly, He forgives the incestuous man, and tells the Corinthians how much he longed for their amendment, 2 Corinthians 2:5; 2 Corinthians 2:13. Fourthly, He treats of the office committed to him, of preaching the redemption by Jesus Christ in all its branches. His adversaries had ridiculed his sufferings: he shews that they are no disgrace to the gospel, or its ministers; and here he gives a short abstract of the doctrine that he preaches, ch. 2 Corinthians 2:14 to 2 Corinthians 5:21. Fifthly, He shews it to be his office, not only to preach the redemption by Christ, but to inculcate certain duties, and particularly that of flying from idolatry;—an oblique censure of those who attended the idol feasts, ch. 6. Sixthly, He endeavours, once more, to win their confidence, by telling them how affectionately he was disposed towards them, and rejoiced at their amendment, ch. 7. Seventhly, He exhorts them to a liberal collection for the Christians in Judea, 2 Corinthians 8:1 to 2 Corinthians 9:15. Eighthly, He vindicates himself against those who thought him deficient in the evidences of his apostleship, and imputed his caution when at Corinth to his consciousness of not being a true Apostle, ch. 10 to the end of the epistle.