For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
Ver. 15. Ten thousand instructors] Gr. pedagogues, who often prove orbiliusses, sharp and severe above measure, Verberibus pluunt, colaphis grandinant. So did these Corinthian school masters, 2 Corinthians 11:20. They were also too well skilled in the Doric dialect, crying, Give, give; and taught little more than elegant elocution.
I have begotten you through the gospel] For together with the word there goeth forth a regenerating power, James 1:18. The exhortations thereof are operative means of sanctification, and practical; as when God said, "Let there be light," or Christ said, "Lazarus, come forth." The Spirit maketh the seed of the word prolific and generative; and hence ministers are made fathers, as Moses was father to Aaron's children, Numbers 3:1, who are therefore there called "his generation." And as propriissimum opus viventis est, generare sibi simile, as saith the philosopher, it is the most proper work of every living thing to beget its like; so here.