Moreover, I call God for a record— Or, to witness. Nothing but the great importance of St. Paul's vindicating his character to such a church, would have justified the solemnity of an oath of this kind. The meaning of these verses is as follows: "With respect to that change in my purpose of coming to you, which some would represent as an instance of a contrary conduct, I call God to witness, and declare to you, even as I have hope that he will have mercy on my soul, that it was not because I slighted my friends, or feared my enemies, but of real tenderness, and with a desire to spare you the uneasiness, which I thought, I must in that case have been obliged to give you,—that I came not as yet to Corinth, 2 Corinthians 1:24. Not that I pretend to have dominion over your faith; for it is by faith you stand; but I forbore to come, as one concerned to preserve and help forward your joy, which I am tender of; and therefore declined coming to you, whilst I thought you in an estate which would require a severity from me that would trouble you." It is plain that St. Paul's doctrine had been opposed by some of them at Corinth; (1 Corinthians 15:12.) his apostleship questioned; (1 Corinthians 9:1-2.) he himself triumphed over, as if he durst not come; (1 Corinthians 4:18.) they saying that his letters were weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence weak, and his speech contemptible; 2 Corinthians 10:10. This being the state in which his reputation was then at Corinth, and he having promised to come to them, 1 Corinthians 16:5 he could not but think it necessary to excuse his failing them at that time, by reasons which should be both convincing and kind; such as are contained in the verses before us.
Inferences.—It is very observable, how often the great Apostle describes and addresses Christians under the appellation of saints. Let the venerable title be ever fixed and retained in our minds; that so we may continually remember the obligations that we are under to answer it, as we would avoid the guilt and infamy of lying to God and men, by falsely and hypocritically professing the best religion, very possibly to the worst, and undoubtedly to the vainest purposes: and that we may be excited to a sanctity becoming this title, let us often think of God, as the Father of mercies, and as the God of all consolation; and especially let us contemplate him, as assuming these titles under the character of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So shall we find our hearts more powerfully engaged to love and trust in him, and enter into a more intimate acquaintance and frequent converse with him. From him may we seek consolation in every distress; considering the supports which we so experience, not as given for ourselves alone, but for others also; that we, on the like principles, may console them. Ministers, in particular, should regard them in this view, and rejoice in those tribulations which may render them more capable of comforting such as are in trouble, by those consolations with which they themselves have been comforted by God; that so the church may be edified; and God glorified in all, by the thanksgiving of many, for mercies obtained in answer to united prayers.
Let us particularly remember the support which St. Paul experienced, when he was pressed above measure, and as it seemed, quite beyond his strength, so as to despair of life,—and received the sentence of death in himself, as what was wisely appointed to teach him a firmer confidence in God, who raiseth the dead. Strong as his faith was, it admitted of farther degrees; and the improvement of it was a happy equivalent for all the extremities that he suffered. He therefore glories, as assured of being rescued from future dangers, 2 Corinthians 1:10. Nor was his faith vain, though he afterwards fell by the hand of his enemies, and seemed as helpless a prey to their malice and rage, as any of the multitudes whose blood Nero, or the instruments of his cruelty, poured out like water. Death is itself the grand rescue of a good man, which bears him to a state of everlasting security; and in this sense, every believer may in some sort adopt the Apostle's words; and while he acknowledges past and present, may assuredly, in the confidence of faith, expect future deliverances.
Happy therefore shall we be, if by divine grace we be enabled at all times to maintain the temper and conduct of Christians; and can confidently rejoice in the testimony of our consciences, that our conversation in the world is in simplicity and godly sincerity; that our ends in religion are great and noble; that our conduct is simple and uniform; in a word, that we act as in the sight of a heart-searching God. Then may we look upon the applauses or the censures of men as comparatively a very light matter; and may rest assured, if, as with regard to the Apostle in the instance before us, we suffer a malignant breath for a while to obscure the lustre of our character, but, notwithstanding, continue to cleave to Christ,—the day is near, which will reveal it in unclouded glory.
All the promises of God, are yea and amen in Christ. Let us depend upon it that they will be performed to all the faithful saints of God; and let us make it our great care, that we may be able to say we are interested through Christ in the blessings to which they relate. Let there be a proportionable steadiness and consistency in our obedience; nor let our engagements to God be yea and nay, since his are so faithful to his simple-hearted persevering saints.—Are we established in Christ? Are we sealed with the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts? Let us acknowledge, that it is God who hath imparted it to us; and let Christians of the greatest integrity and experience be proportionably humble, rather than by any means elated on account of their superiority to others.
We see the light in which ministers should always consider themselves, and in which they are to be considered by others;—Not as having dominion over the faith of their people, or a right to dictate, by their own authority, what they should believe, or, on the same principles, what they should do; but as helpers of their joy, in consequence of their being helpers of their piety and obedience. In this view, how amiable and engaging does the ministerial office appear! What a friendly aspect does it wear upon the happiness of mankind! and how little true benevolence do they manifest, who would expose it to ridicule and contempt!
May those who bear that office, be careful that they do not give it the most dangerous wound, and abet the evil works of those who despise and deride it; which yet they will most effectually do, if they once appear to form their purposes according to the flesh. Let them with a single eye direct all their administrations to the glory of God, and the edification of the church; that they may be able to appeal to their hearers, as those who must acknowledge, and bear their testimony to their uprightness. In that case, they may confidently look on them as those, in whom they hope to rejoice in the day of the Lord. And if, while they pursue these ends, they are censured as persons actuated by any mean and less worthy principle, let them not be much surprized or discouraged. They share in exercises, from which the blessed Apostle St. Paul was not exempted; as indeed there is no integrity or caution, which can guard any man from the effects of that malice against Christ and his Gospel, with which some hearts overflow, when they feel themselves condemned by it.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The Apostle opens the Epistle, 1. With his usual address and salutation. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God eminently called to this high office, and Timothy our brother, who joins me in heartiest affection towards you; unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia, who in profession and practice appear to be separated from the world as the Lord's people—Grace be to you, and peace, with all their happy fruits, from God our Father, the Author of all our blessings, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the meritorious cause of them.
2. He blesseth God for the signal mercies that he had experienced. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in and through him, as the divine Mediator, is now become to us the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, multiplying his pardons, showering down his benefits, and giving us temporal and spiritual consolation through this Son of his love, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, by his word and Spirit bringing home the great and precious promises with power to our souls, and shedding abroad his love in our hearts; that, from experience of the riches of his goodness, we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, whether of soul or body, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God, tenderly sympathizing with them, and suggesting those encouraging words of scripture, which, in distress, we have found reviving to our own souls. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, to whom we are thus conformed, and who is still afflicted in all the afflictions of his members, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ, who fails not to minister supports and comforts proportionable to our sufferings. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, it is designed for your advantage; that by our examples of patience, fortitude, and perseverance, you may be encouraged to bear up under every trial, and boldly stand fast, till your salvation is completed; which is effectual by persevering in the exercises of faith and patience, in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted by divine supports under our afflictions, or by seasonable deliverances from them, it is also ordered for your consolation and salvation, as the means thereof, if you will but improve them. Note; (1.) All our mercies from God call for perpetual grateful acknowledgments. (2.) They who have been exercised with trials in their own souls and bodies, will be the most able comforters to others under the like troubles. We speak best, when we speak from experience. (3.) Though our afflictions may be at present grievous, the time will come, if we be faithful in the improvement of them, when we shall see peculiar reason to bless God for them, and know that they have been through grace especially conducive to our eternal salvation. (4.) All our comforts flow from God in Christ, as reconciled to us through the Blood of his Son.
2nd, St. Paul,
1. Expresses his confidence in them; and our hope of you is steadfast, that you will never be discouraged by any tribulations which you see us endure, or are called to bear yourselves; knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings with us, so shall ye be also of the consolation, rejoicing with us here in the experience of God's love, and, if faithful unto death, shortly to arrive where sorrow shall be for ever banished, and our joys will be perfected.
2. He informs them what a weight of afflictions he had undergone. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, (see Acts 14; Acts 16; Acts 19.) that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, loaded with burdens more than our natural strength could sustain; so that we despaired even of life, not knowing which way to escape, and our case to all appearance desperate. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, and concluded that we must be destroyed; the Lord in his providence suffering us to be brought to these extremities, that we should not trust in ourselves, feeling by experience our own utter insufficiency to help ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead, whose wisdom, power, and grace alone could extricate us from our troubles, and save us from the jaws of death. Note; The Lord sometimes suffers his believing people to be reduced as it were to the last gasp in their trials, that he may convince them more deeply of their own helplessness, and magnify his grace and power more signally in their deliverance.
3. He gratefully acknowledges the divine interposition: who delivered us from so great a death, when to human view it appeared inevitable; and doth deliver, in jeopardy as we stand every hour: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us, content to cast our care upon him, in the fullest confidence of his protection and support: Ye also helping together by prayer for us, and joining in affectionate supplications on our behalf, that we may be still preserved in the midst of danger; that for the gift of so signal a deliverance as we have experienced, bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, in answer to the prayers of those faithful souls, who, ceaseless at a throne of grace, besought the Lord for us, thanks may be given by many on our behalf, and God glorified and praised for the mercy that he has extended towards us. Note; (1.) Past experience of God's interposition should engage us still to hope in his mercy. (2.) None ever trusted God and were confounded. (3.) We owe much to the prayers of those who interest themselves for us in their approaches to God. (4.) The blessings received in answer to prayer, call loud for a due return of praise.
3rdly, The Apostle,
1. Vindicates himself in general from the insinuations of his traducers. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, maintaining a single eye to God's glory; not with fleshly wisdom, purposing any mean ends or selfish designs of our own; but by the grace of God, having this for our governing principle, taught by his word, and guided by his Spirit, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you ward who cannot but be conscious how holily and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you; and if I have now disappointed you of my intended visit, it was no double-mindedness, but the providence of God, which prevented me. Note; A good conscience affords always matter of real joy.
2. He appeals to themselves for the truth of what he said. For we write none other things unto you than what you read or acknowledge, and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end; our future conversation will, we trust, be as exemplary as the past. As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus, when we hope to appear with you before him as the seals of our ministry, our joy and crown.
4thly, In answer to the insinuations of his enemies, who accused him of levity and inconstancy:
1. He avers the sincerity of his intentions at he time when he gave them his promise. In the confidence of their affection and esteem he was fully purposed to visit them, in hopes of affording them further spiritual assistance; and not merely to call on them in his way to Macedonia, but to return thence, and make some considerable stay among them, and then to have been helped forward on his journey by them to Jerusalem. When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness, promising rashly, and altering my mind without sufficient reason? Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh? Was I influenced by any secular views? Or did I want to flatter you, and tell you what I never intended to perform? That with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay, talking backwards and forwards to serve a turn? No; St. Paul; as every faithful man does, spoke the truth from his heart.
2. He vindicates his doctrine, which the seducers wanted to represent as equally erroneous as his promise was deceitful; and this he does with a solemn appeal to God. But, as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay, our doctrine was not various and changeable, but uniformly the same; for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea; the same crucified Jesus was the subject of our ministry, and we taught with perfect harmony all the glorious truths of Gospel grace: for all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, to all his faithful saints; flowing from the favour and love of God, purchased by the obedience to death, and ratified by the blood-shedding of the Redeemer, unto the glory of God by us, who by our ministrations is thus exalted in the highest.
3. He mentions some of the inestimable blessings which God in Christ Jesus had bestowed. (1.) Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ is God, we are built up in him, and are united together to him as our living Head. (2.) He hath anointed us with the gifts and graces of his Spirit. (3.) He hath also sealed us, stamping his blessed image on our souls. (4.) He hath given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts, shedding abroad his love, as a pledge of that eternal felicity which he will confer upon all his faithful saints.
4. He gives a weighty reason for not coming at present to Corinth, and solemnly calls God to witness thereto, that it was out of mere tenderness towards them, to spare them, that he might not be obliged to inflict on the offenders condign punishment. But, to prevent mistakes, he adds, Not for that we have dominion over your faith, we assume no tyrannical power, nor pretend to be Lords over your conscience; but are helpers of your joy, desiring to promote your spiritual and eternal consolation; for by faith ye stand—faith grounded not on fallible human testimony, but on the word of God.