2 Corinthians 10:1-3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Now, &c. Hitherto St. Paul's discourse, in this epistle, was chiefly directed to those at Corinth who acknowledged his apostleship, and who had obeyed his orders, signified to them in his former letter. But in this and the remaining Chapter s he addresses the false teachers, and such of the faction as adhered to them, speaking to them with great authority, and threatening to punish them by his miraculous power, if they did not immediately repent. The different characters therefore of the two sorts of persons who composed the Corinthian Church, must be carefully attended to, otherwise this part of the epistle will appear a direct contradiction to what goes before. I Paul myself A strongly emphatical expression; beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ Our lowly and condescending Saviour; that meekness and gentleness which I have learned from his example, and desire to exercise toward the most unreasonable of my enemies; who in presence am base among you According to the representation of some, and despised for the meanness of my appearance; but being absent am bold toward you Using great freedom and authority in my letters. The false teachers, it seems, and their party, ridiculing the apostle's threatenings in his former letter, had said that he was all meekness and humility when present among them; but very assuming and bold by letters, when absent, which they represented as wise carnal policy. To this the apostle here refers, and beseeches them that they would not compel him to be bold, and to exert his apostolical authority against some, who, on account of his meekness when present with them, had calumniated him as a person who walked after the flesh, or acted in a cowardly and crafty manner. For (he says) though he walked in the flesh Inhabited a mortal body, and consequently was not free from human weakness, yet he assured them he did not war against idolaters and unbelievers, against the world and the devil; after the flesh By any carnal weapons or worldly methods; but by such as were far more powerful. Though the apostle here, and in several other parts of this epistle, speaks in the plural number, for the sake of modesty and decency, and because he had associated Timothy with himself in this address to the Corinthians, yet he principally means himself. On him were these reflections cast, and it is his own authority which he is vindicating.