2 Corinthians 5:13 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

For whether we be beside ourselves. — The recollection of one sneer leads on to another. This also had been said of him, and the intense sensitiveness of his nature made him wince under it. Some there were at Corinth who spoke of his visions and revelations, his speaking with tongues as in ecstasy, his prophecies of future judgment, as so many signs of madness. “He was beside himself.” (Comp. Agrippa’s words in Acts 26:24, and Note there.) Others, or, perhaps, the same persons, pointed to his tact, becoming all things to all men, perhaps even insinuated that he was making money by his work (2 Corinthians 9:12; 2 Corinthians 12:10): “he was shrewd enough when it served his turn.” He answers accordingly both the taunts. What people called his “madness” — the ecstasy of adoration, the speaking with tongues (1 Corinthians 14:18-23) — that lay between himself and God, and a stranger might not intermeddle with it. What people called his “sober-mindedness” — his shrewd common sense, his sagacity — that he practised not for himself, but for his disciples, to win them to Christ, remove difficulties, strengthen them in the faith.