2 Corinthians 5:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Therefore, if any man be in Christ, &c.— Galatians 6:14-15 may give some light to this place. To connect this and the preceding verse with St. Paul's discourse here, they must be understood in reference to the false apostle, against whom St. Paul is here justifying himself;making it a grand point, in this as well as his former epistle, to shew that what the false Apostle gloried in was no just cause of boasting. Pursuant to this just design of sinking the authority and credit of that false apostle, St. Paul, in this and the following verses, insinuates these two things: 1. That the ministry of reconciliation being committed to him, they should not forsake him to hearken to and follow that pretender. 2. That they being in Christ, and so a new creation, should, as he does, not know any man in the flesh,—not esteem or glory in that false apostle, because he might perhaps pretend to have seen our Saviour in the flesh, or to have heard him, or the like. The original word Κτισις, signifies creation, and is so translated. Romans 8:22 and the passage may either mean, as above, that if any one be in Christ, it is as if he were in a new creation, wherein all former relations, considerations, and interests are ceased, and all things in that state are new to him; or it may imply (and I doubt not but the word takes in both) that there is a new creation in his heart,—his appetites, apprehensions, and pursuits being changed, and his life actually amended and fully reformed.