2 Corinthiens 2:17

For we are not as many, which corrupt the Word of God.

Corrupting the Word of God

The expression has the idea of self-interest, and especially of petty gain, at its basis. It means literally to sell in small quantities, to retail for profit. But it was specially applied to tavern keeping, and extended to cover all the devices by which the wine-sellers in ancient times deceived their customers. Then it was used figuratively as here; and Lucian speaks of philosophers as selling the sciences, and in most cases (πολλοι a curious parallel to St. Paul), like tavern keepers “blending, adulterating, and giving bad measure.” There are two separable ideas here. One is that of men qualifying the gospel, infiltrating their own ideas into the Word of God, tempering its severity, or perhaps its goodness, veiling its inexorableness, dealing in compromise. The other is that all such proceedings are faithless and dishonest because some private interest underlies them. It need not be avarice, though it is as likely to be this as anything else. A man corrupts the Word of God, makes it the stock in trade of a paltry business of his own, in many other ways than by subordinating it to the need of a livelihood. When he exercises his calling as minister for the gratification of his vanity, or when he preaches not that awful message in which life and death are bound up, but himself, his cleverness, his learning, humour, fine voice or gestures, he does so. He makes the Word minister to him, instead of being a minister of the Word; and that is the essence of the sin. It is the same if ambition be his motive, if he preaches to win disciples to himself, to gain an ascendency over souls, to become the head of a party which will bear the impress of his mind. (J. Denney, B. D.)

The way to preach the gospel

I. With conscious honesty. “As of sincerity” in direct antagonism to all duplicity and hypocrisy. No man can preach the gospel effectively who is not a true man--true to himself and to the doctrines he proclaims. He must be uninfluenced by prepossessions, by sectarian bias, by worldly interests or fame. No man can have this conscious honesty--

1. Unless he preaches his own personal convictions of the gospel. Not the opinions of others, nor even his own opinions, but convictions self-formed, vital, and profound.

2. Unless his own convictions have been reached by impartial, earnest, and devout study. The man who thus preaches, preaches a fresh, living, mighty gospel.

II. With conscious divinity. “Of God, in the sight of God,” i.e.--

1. From God. He must feel that he has a Divine commission.

2. Before God. “In the sight of God.” He must feel that the God who hath sent him confronts him. This consciousness will make him--

(1) Earnestly living. His soul will be all excitement.

(2) Utterly fearless of man.

III. With conscious Christliness. “In Christ.” There are two senses in which we are said to be in another.

1. In their affections. Without poetry or figure we are in those, in the hearts of those who love us. The child is in the heart of the loving parent, etc. Thus all Christ’s disciples are in His heart, in His affections. They live in Him.

2. In their character and spirit. Thus the admiring student lives in the character and spirit of his loved teacher, the admiring reader in the thoughts and genius of his favourite author, etc. This is the sense that is specially implied in the text. What is the spirit of Christ? It is that of supreme love to the Great Father and self-sacrificing love for humanity. (D. Thomas, D. D.).