Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you. — The visit to Corinth of Acts 18:1. followed by a long sojourn, may perhaps be reckoned as the first occasion; then came the projected journey from Ephesus to Corinth and thence to Macedonia (2 Corinthians 1:16); now he was preparing for the third journey, announced in 1 Corinthians 16:5-7, from Macedonia to Corinth. (See, however, the Note on 2 Corinthians 13:1.)
I seek not your’s, but you. — The words point to the secret motive of the conduct which had annoyed some of the Corinthians. He loved them, as all true friends love, for their own sake, not for anything he might hope to gain from them. He must be sure that he had gained their hearts before he could receive their gifts as poor substitutes for their affections; and therefore he announces beforehand that he meant to persevere in the same line of conduct, working for his own maintenance as before. Romans 16:23 indicates that he so far deviated from his purpose as to accept the hospitality of Gaius of Corinth.
For the children ought not to lay up for the parents. — Better, perhaps, are not bound to lay by. There is a touch of exquisite delicacy and tenderness, reminding us of like characteristics in the Epistle to Philemon, in this apology for the seeming wrong of which men had complained. He could claim the rights of a father, as in 1 Corinthians 4:15; might he not be allowed to fulfil a father’s obligations, and to give to his children rather than receive from them?