And in this confidence I was minded— Or, I purposed: So 2 Corinthians 1:17. The next thing which St. Paul justifies, is his not coming to them. He had promised to call on the Corinthians in his way to Macedonia, but failed: this his opposers would have to proceed from levity in him, or a mind regulating itself wholly by carnal interest (ver.
17.). To which he answers,that God himself having confirmed him among them by the unction and earnest of his Spirit, in the ministry of the gospel of his Son,—whom St. Paul had preached to them steadily the same, without any the least variation, or unsaying of any thing that he had at any time delivered,—they could have no ground to suspect him to be an unstable, uncertain man, who could not be depended on in what he said to them, 2 Corinthians 1:15-22. In the next place, with a very solemn asseveration, he professes that it was to spare them that he came not to them, 2 Corinthians 1:23.—ch. 2 Corinthians 2:3. He gives another reason, 2 Corinthians 1:12-13 why he went on to Macedonia, without coming to Corinth, as he had proposed; namely, the uncertainty he was in, by the not coming of Titus, concerning their disposition at Corinth. Having mentioned his journey to Macedonia, he takes notice of the success which God gave to him there and every where, declaring of what consequence his preaching was, both to the salvation and condemnation of those who received or rejected it; professing again his sincerity and disinterestedness, not without a severe reflection on their false apostle, 2 Corinthians 1:14
By the word χαριν, in the verse before us, which our Bibles translate benefit, it is plain the Apostle means his being present among them a second time, without giving them any grief or displeasure. He had been with them before almost two years together, with satisfaction andkindness; he intended them another visit, but it was, he says, that they might have the like gratification; that is, the like satisfaction in his company a second time: which is to the same purport with what he says, ch. ii