_HE PROCEEDETH IN EXHORTING THEM TO PURITY OF LIFE, AND TO BEAR HIM LIKE AFFECTION AS HE DOTH TO THEM. WHEREOF LEST THEY MIGHT SEEM TO DOUBT, HE DECLARETH WHAT COMFORT HE TOOK IN HIS AFFLICTIONS, BY THE REPORT WHICH TITUS GAVE OF THEIR GODLY SORROW WHICH HIS FORMER EPISTLE HAD WROUGHT IN THEM, AND O... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVING THEREFORE THESE PROMISES,— This verse should certainly have been connected with what goes before, and not have begun a new chapter. Some would read the latter part of it thus: _From all filthiness of the flesh, and perfecting the holiness of the Spirit in the fear of God._ If we understand it... [ Continue Reading ]
WE HAVE DEFRAUDED NO MAN.— The original word signifies, "to indulge a covetous temper, and make a prey of others by it;" and perhaps intimates, that the false teachers, of whom he had so much reason to complain, had done so.... [ Continue Reading ]
BOLDNESS OF SPEECH— _Freedom of speech._ Doddridge. The word rendered _exceeding joyful,_ υπερπερισσευομαι, is very expressive, and seems to be a word of the Apostle's own making.... [ Continue Reading ]
NEVERTHELESS,— Or, _but._... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH I DID REPENT:— _However anxious I might before have been._ The original word Μεταμελεια strictly expresses _an after-care_ and _anxiety_ for any thing that has been done; whereas the word _repent_ always signifies a wish that it had not been done. Now, as what St. Paul did in writing the form... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR GODLY SORROW, &C.— See the _Inferences._... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, WHAT REVENGE?— _What punishment!—_namely, of the incestuous person. Heylin. The word _clear_ in this verse answers very well to the word αγνος in the Greek: but then, "to be _clear,"_ in English is generally understood to signify, "not to have been guilty;" which could not be the sense of the A... [ Continue Reading ]
I REJOICE THEREFORE, &C.— The address of all this part of the epistle is striking and excellent: this verse in particular finely introduces what he had to say in the following chapter, and is strongly illustrated by ch. 2 Corinthians 9:2. _INFERENCES_ DRAWN FROM 2CI 2 CORINTHIANS 7:6.—From the consi... [ Continue Reading ]