INTRODUCTION TO 2 CORTHINIANS 12 The apostle in this chapter proceeds upon the same subject, in vindicating himself against the false teachers, and giving proof of his apostleship; he takes notice of a very remarkable and unusual vision he was favoured with; makes mention of an uncommon temptation... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS NOT EXPEDIENT DOUBTLESS FOR ME TO GLORY,.... Though it was lawful for him to glory, and was necessary in the present circumstances of things, in vindication of himself, and to preserve the Corinthians from being carried away with the insinuations of the false apostles; and so for the honour an... [ Continue Reading ]
I KNEW A MAN IN CHRIST ABOUT FOURTEEN YEARS AGO,.... Which is to be understood of himself, as appears from 2 Corinthians 12:7, where he speaks in the first person; and the reason why he here speaks in the third, is to show his modesty and humility, and how much he declined vain glory and popular app... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I KNEW SUCH A MAN,.... The same man, namely himself, is here designed, and the same rapture spoken of, and the condition he was in expressed in the same words: which repetition is made for the more strong affirmation of what he delivered, and to signify the marvellousness of this vision, and how... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW THAT HE WAS CAUGHT UP INTO PARADISE,.... Not the earthly paradise in which our first parents were; this was destroyed by the flood, and the place where it was not now to be known; and to what purpose the apostle should be carried thither cannot be guessed at; though some have thought that this i... [ Continue Reading ]
OF SUCH AN ONE WILL I GLORY,.... The apostle in great modesty seems to speak of some other person, and not himself, as caught up into the third heaven, when he yet means himself; and does as it were distinguish himself from himself; himself in paradise from himself on earth; his sense is, that thoug... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THOUGH I WOULD DESIRE TO GLORY,..... Had a mind to it, chose it, and was fond of it, thought fit to proceed in this way concerning this vision, or this with many others: I SHALL NOT BE A FOOL; in reality; though he might seem and be thought to be so by others; he does indeed before call his glo... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LEST I SHOULD BE EXALTED ABOVE MEASURE,.... Over much elated in his mind, and swelled with a vain conceit of himself: THROUGH THE ABUNDANCE OF THE REVELATIONS; for he had not only one or two, or a few, but an abundance of them; and which, as everything does but grace, tended to lift up his mind... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS THING I BESOUGHT THE LORD THRICE,.... With respect to the thorn in the flesh, the messenger Satan, who gave him so much continual disturbance. This sent him to the throne of grace, to request of the Lord, THAT IT, or rather, "he might" DEPART FROM ME: this request greatly confirms the abo... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID UNTO ME,.... Either by what the Jews call קול בת, "Bath Kol", a voice from heaven, an articulate audible one; or by some extraordinary revelation of the Spirit of God; or by a divine impression upon his mind; whereby he was assured of what follows, MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR THEE; the... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE I TAKE PLEASURE IN INFIRMITIES,.... Not in them simply considered, but as they were made use of to his advantage, for the exercise of his grace, and for his more abundant consolation; and especially as they tended to the glory of Christ, and made his grace, power, and strength the more con... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM BECOME A FOOL IN GLORYING,.... This is either to be understood conditionally, if he had acted as a fool in commending himself, or was to be reckoned and called so by others, for glorying of himself, his visions and revelations; or as an ironical concession, allowing himself to be a fool for so... [ Continue Reading ]
TRULY THE SIGNS OF AN APOSTLE WERE WROUGHT AMONG YOU,.... Not only the doctrine which he preached, the power that attended it, and the success it met with among them, were clear signs and evident proofs of his being sent by Christ; not only they themselves, who were converted under his ministry, wer... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHAT IS IT WHEREIN YE WERE INFERIOR TO OTHER CHURCHES,.... The apostle here suggests, and appeals to themselves for the truth of it, that in nothing they came short of other churches; that as he was not behind the very chiefest of the apostles, and so they had no reason to be ashamed of him and... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THE THIRD TIME I AM READY TO COME TO YOU,.... Not that he had been twice at Corinth, and was now about to come a third time; for as yet he had been but once there, when he first preached to them, was the means of their conversion, and settled them in a church state; he had promised them to c... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL GLADLY SPEND,.... Meaning all his time, talents, and strength, which God had bestowed upon him for their spiritual profit and advantage; yea, all that small pittance of worldly goods that he enjoyed: he not only determined to take nothing from them, but was willing to communicate his litt... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT BE IT SO, I DID NOT BURDEN YOU,.... These words are not spoken by the apostle in his own person of himself, but in the person of his adversaries, and contain a concession and an objection of theirs, but be it so; they granted that he had not burdened the Corinthians, that he had took nothing of... [ Continue Reading ]
DID I MAKE A GAIN OF YOU,.... He appeals to the Corinthians against such calumnies and false insinuations, whether ever he had circumvented them in such a manner, or had ever used such artful methods to pillage them; or whether ever he had discovered any covetous disposition towards anything of thei... [ Continue Reading ]
I DESIRED TITUS, AND WITH HIM I SENT A BROTHER,.... The apostle proceeds to mention one or two persons that he had sent unto them, and desires to know whether they could charge them with any such practices. He had desired, exhorted, and encouraged Titus to go unto them, and collect money from them;... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAIN, THINK YOU THAT WE EXCUSE OURSELVES TO YOU?.... The apostle would not have the Corinthians imagine, that by what he had said once and again in this epistle, he meant to excuse himself from coming to them, for he really and sincerely intended it; or that by this long defence of himself against... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I FEAR LEST WHEN I COME,.... This fear arose from his fatherly affection for them, and care of them: I SHALL NOT FIND YOU SUCH AS I WOULD; truly penitent for former sins, thoroughly reformed in life and manners, zealous for God, Christ, and the Gospel, and hearty lovers of one another: AND THA... [ Continue Reading ]
AND LEST WHEN I COME AGAIN,.... Another thing which he feared would be the case when he came again to them, that he himself should be afflicted and distressed, seeing them in a disorderly and dissolute course of life, be obliged to punish them, which would be an humiliation and matter of grief to hi... [ Continue Reading ]