11 Our mouth is opened. As the opening of the mouth is a sign of boldness, (602) if you are inclined to connect this with what goes before, the meaning will be this, — “I have ample ground of glorying, and an upright conscience opens my mouth. Your entertaining unfavorable views of us, is not owing to any fault on our part, but arises from your being unfair judges. For you ought to have entertained more favorable views of my ministry, which God has rendered honorable to you in so many ways.” I explain it, however, otherwise; for he says that the reason why his mouth was opened was, that his heart was enlarged Now what is meant by enlargement of heart? Undoubtedly it means the cheerfulness that springs from benevolence. (603) It is quite a common figure, to speak of a narrow and contracted heart as denoting either grief, or disgust, while, on the other hand, an enlarged heart is employed to denote dispositions of an opposite kind. Hence Paul here says nothing but what we every day experience, for when we have to do with friends, our heart is enlarged, all our feelings are laid open, there is nothing there that is hid, nothing shut, — nay more, the whole mind leaps and exults to unfold itself openly to view. (604) Hence it is, that the tongue, also, is free and unfettered, does not faulter, does not with difficulty draw up from the bottom of the throat broken syllables, as usually happens when the mind is influenced by a less joyful affection.
(602) God promised to Ezekiel that he would give him “ the opening of the mouth in the midst of the house of Israel,” (Ezekiel 29:21,) which is explained by Gill to mean, “ boldness and courage of speech when he should see his prophecies fulfilled.” Paul himself makes use of a similar expression in Ephesians 6:19, “that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly. ” — Ed.
(603) The same view, in substance, is taken by Chrysostom. — Καθάπερ γὰρ τὸ θερμαῗνον εὐρύνειν εἴωθεν, οὓτω καὶ τὢς ἀγάπης ἔργον τὸ πλατύνειν ἐστί· θερμν<& ga>ρ ἐστιν ἠ ἀρετὴ· καὶ ζέουσα αὕτη καὶ τὸ στόμα ἀνεπέτασε Παύλου καὶ τὴν καρδίαν ἐπλάτυνεν — “For as heat is wont to expand, so it is the part of love to enlarge. For virtue is warm and fervent. It was this that opened Paul’s mouth, and enlarged his heart.” — Ed.
(604) “From a tender and considerate regard to the good of the Christians at Corinth, he” (Paul) “had determined not to revisit them, until their unseemly heats and factions were allayed. How was he affected while he waited at Ephesus to receive the tidings of this longed-for but protracted issue? ‘O ye Corinthians! our mouth is opened unto you; our heart is enlarged!’ What a picture of a heart! We see him standing on the shore of the ‘gean Sea, over against Corinth, with his arms extended towards that city, and in the attitude of speaking. We hear the words by which he seeks to relieve his overcharged breast, heaving and ready to burst with the fullness of those desires which he had long felt to come among them, satisfy them of the sincerity of his affection, and replenish their souls with the consolation with which he himself had been comforted. ‘O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open to you, our heart is enlarged! Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now, for a recompense in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.’” — M’Crie’s Sermons, p. 29. — Ed.