2. I beseech you, that I may not be bold, when I am present. Some think, that the discourse is incomplete, and that he does not express the matter of his request. (746) I am rather of opinion, however, that what was wanting in the former clause is here completed, so that it is a general exhortation. “Show yourselves docile and tractable towards me, that I may not be constrained to be more severe.” It is the duty of a good pastor to allure his sheep peacefully and kindly, that they may allow themselves to be governed, rather than to constrain them by violence. Severity, it is true, is, I acknowledge, sometimes necessary, but we must always set out with gentleness, and persevere in it, so long as the hearer shews himself tractable. (747) Severity must be the last resource. “We must,” says he, “try all methods, before having recourse to rigor; nay more, let us never be rigorous, unless we are constrained to it.” In the mean time, as to their reckoning themselves pusillanimous and timid, when he had to come to close quarters, he intimates that they were mistaken as to this, when he declares that he will stoutly resist face to face the contumacious (748) “They despise me,” says he, “as if I were a pusillanimous person, but they will find that I am braver and more courageous than they could have wished, when they come to contend in good earnest.” From this we see, when it is time to act with severity — after we have found, on trial being made, that allurements and mildness have no good effect. “I shall do it with reluctance,” says Paul, “but still I have determined to do it.” Here is an admirable medium; for as we must, in so far as is in our power, draw men rather than drive them, so, when mildness has no effect, in dealing with those that are stern and refractory, rigor must of necessity be resorted to: otherwise it will not be moderation, nor equableness of temper, but criminal cowardice. (749)
Who account of us. Erasmus renders it — “Those who think that we walk, as it were, according to the flesh.” The Old Interpreter came nearer, in my opinion, to Paul’s true meaning — “ Qui nos arbitrantur, tanquam secundum carnem ambulemus;” — (“Those who think of us as though we walked according to the flesh;” (750)) though, at the same time, the phrase is not exactly in accordance with the Latin idiom, nor does it altogether bring out the Apostle’s full meaning. For λογιζεσθαι is taken here to mean — reckoning or esteeming. (751) “They think of us,” says Paul, “or they take this view of us, as though we walked according to the flesh.”
To walk according to the flesh, Chrysostom explains to mean — acting unfaithfully, or conducting one’s self improperly in his office; (752) and, certainly, it is taken in this sense in various instances in Paul’s writings. The term flesh, however, I rather understand to mean — outward pomp or show, by which alone the false Apostles are accustomed to recommend themselves. Paul, therefore, complains of the unreasonableness of those who looked for nothing in him except the flesh, that is, visible appearance, as they speak, or in the usual manner of persons who devote all their efforts to ambition. For as Paul did not by any means excel in such endowments, as ordinarily procure praise or reputation among the children of this world, (Luke 16:8,) he was despised as though he had been one of the common herd. But by whom? (753) Certainly, by the ambitious, who estimated him from mere appearance, while they paid no regard to what lay concealed within.
(746) “ Et le sens seroit, Ie vous prie, afin qu’il ne faille point vser de hardiesse;” — “And the meaning would be, I beseech you, in order that I may not have occasion to use boldness.”
(747) “ Docile et traittable;” — “Teachable and tractable.”
(748) “ Aux rebelles et obstinez;” — “The rebellious and obstinate.”
(749) “ Couardice ou nonchalance;” — “Cowardice or indifference.”
(750) Wiclif (1380) renders it: “that demen” (i.e., judge) “ us as if we wandren aftir the fleisch.” Tyndale (1534,) Cranmer (1539,) and Geneva (1557,) read as follows: “which repute us as though we walked carnally.” Rheims (1582) — “which thinke us as though we walke according to the flesh.” — Ed.
(751) “The sense is, ‘I entreat, I say, that I may not have to be bold when I am present, with that confidence, wherewith I intend to be bold against certain, who regard me as walking after the flesh,’ i.e., guided by worldly principles. There seems to be a paraniomasia in λογίζομαι and λογιζομένους, which, if introduced into English, may perhaps be best expressed by reckon. ” — Bloomfield. — Ed.
(752) “ Nec satis recte (ut opinor) Chrysostomus κατὰ σάρκα perinde exposuit, acsi accusaretur Apostolus eo nomine quod Spiritu Dei non duceretur, sed pravis carnis affectibus;” — “Nor is it altogether with propriety, in my opinion, that Chrysostom has explained κατὰ σάρκα, as if the Apostle were accused on this ground — that he was not led by the Spirit of God, but by the depraved affections of the flesh.” — Beza — Ed.
(753) “ Mais qui estoyent ceux qui le mesprisoyent ainsi ?” — “But who are those that despised him thus?”