Now all these things depend on God, as the author of them, who hath used this means of making up that breach between him and us, and hath given us power and commission to give men reconciliation, peace, or pardon, or absolution, upon renewing of their lives. And the tenure of our commission runs thus, That God hath used Christ as a means to make peace between him and the greater and worse part of the world, the Gentiles at this time as well as the Jews, (not by pardoning of their sins, while they remain in them, but by admitting them to repentance, by not shutting up ways of mercy, and moreover calling them, using admirable methods of mercy in revealing himself to them,) and hath put in our hands the word of reconciliation, the preaching of this gospel, and making known the means of grace, and advising and persuading all men to make use of it. This therefore is the nature of our present employment, to be (as our title of apostles imports) proxies and negotiators for Christ, we supplying the place of Christ on earth, and so treating with men, after the manner that Christ did when he was here, calling sinners to repentance, and that with all the affectionate importunity imaginable, as sent from God on purpose to entreat men to it: and accordingly now we do, in Christ's stead; we beseech you to reform your lives, and make yourselves capable of the return of God's favour to you: see note [m] Matt. v. For Christ, an innocent, pure, sinless person, hath God sent to be a sacrifice for our sins, that we might imitate his purity, and thereby be, through the benefits of his death, accepted and justified by God. Wherefore having so rich promises made you by God, promises of being received by Christ as children into his family—but those promises conditional promises, made upon condition that you forsake all impurity, &c., ch. vi. 17, 18—my earnest exhortation to you is, that you purify yourselves from the sins (of all kinds) that are now crept in among you; particularly from the pollutions of the flesh, that your idol-feasts are apt to betray you to; and of the spirit, as pride, faction, schism, &c., preferring false teachers before us which planted Christ among you: practising to the end all manner of piety with all diligence: (see note [c] Phil. ii.) The false teachers that you receive so willingly, injure you, defile you, and either defraud or perhaps seduce you into abominable sins; (see Ephes. iv. 22, and note [b] 2 Pet. i.); but we have been far from doing any of these, and therefore are fitter to be embraced by you, ch. vi. 14: (see note [i] Romans i.) I speak not this to bring any evil report upon you; for I love you most passionately, as I said before. My freedom (see note [a] John vii.) in mentioning your faults is great indeed, but withal I am as free in boasting of your obedience; and though I have had much grief and fear, ver. 5, through the sins that were among you, yet the joy which I take in your repentance is extremely more abundant than the sorrow was. For the truth is, all our journey long, from Ephesus to Macedonia, Acts xx. 1, we had a sad time of it; for as we met with many oppositions from others, so the many fears we had concerning you were very troublesome to us. But through the mercy of God, who relieves those that are in greatest want of relief, Titus's coming freed us from all. And it was not the bare presence of Titus that was such solace to me, but the news that he brought me, and with which he himself was so much comforted, to wit, the news of your panting after me, lamenting most sadly the sins that I had in my former epistle laid to your charge, and your earnestness for me against those that traduced me. So that now, though those directions of mine in my first epistle brought the censures of the church upon some of you, (for so I find they did, though but for a time, with place for speedy remission upon reformation,) I have no reason to be sorry for what I did, though the truth is, I was a while sorry for it, and wished I had not been so severe. But now that I hear what success it hath found among you, what reformation hath been wrought by it, I profess myself to rejoice, not that you had the censures inflicted on you, but that those censures produced that effectual reformation and change; for you were dealt with according to the custom of evangelical discipline; and so it is clear enough that you have not been damnified by me in this matter, but much advantaged thereby. For that discipline which Christ hath now ordained in his church (see note [c] 1 Cor. v.) is very proper to work such change of mind as shall advance to a constant persevering, durable forsaking all known sins (see note [a] Rom. x.); whereas the punishments which are usual in the world ordinarily end in the taking away of men's lives, or somewhat analogical to them in a lower degree. And an evidence thereof I have in you, whose having the censures of the church inflicted on some of you hath wrought a vehement care to make all right again, a clearing of the guiltless, a displeasure and disdain against the guilty, fear of my displeasure, When therefore I wrote so sharply to you, the interpretation which you are to make of it is this, that it was not out of any disposition of severity against them that had committed those crimes, the fornicators and incestuous person, 1 Cor. v. 1, the man that sued his brother, ch. vi. 1, nor out of any partiality of kindness to them that had been sufferers by those crimes, him that was defrauded, 1 Cor. vi. 8, or disturbed with lawsuits before the heathen judicatures, ver. 1, but only to express my care of you, that by my writing to you in that manner you might discern how diligent I am to do you any good. 13 22 Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. And by this means I have received much matter of joy, hearing what good effects the censures had wrought upon you; and this joy was very much increased to see how Titus was joyed and inwardly enlivened by you. For whatever good I told him of you, whatever I have boasted of your kindness to me, you have made it all good; and as I never said any false thing to you, so whatsoever I said to Titus about you he hath by experience found to be perfectly true also. And he hath huge kindness toward you, considering what readiness of obedience you expressed to my directions, and what cheerful reception you gave him that was thus sent from me unto you: (see note [c] Phil. ii.) This therefore is matter of all joy to me, that I can thus confidently promise myself of your obedience &c., and never fear to find myself deceived in my confidence. Now I thought good to mention to you the liberal collection for the poor which hath been made (see Acts ii. 47, and iv. 34, and note [d] 1 Pet. iii.) at Philippi and Thessalonica and other churches in Macedonia; That being under an heavy affliction themselves, they were very cheerful in their liberality; being themselves in the depth of poverty, they expressed a very great bounty to others. For having no obligation upon them to do so, as being poor, ver. 2, and not being solicited by me, they did voluntarily contribute what they were able, nay, I may truly say, more than they could well spare; Instead of being entreated by me, earnestly beseeching me to receive their charity and collection, (see note [c] Acts ii.) and convey it from them for the relief of the poor Christians in Judaea. And not only this, but as they had first given themselves up to the service of God, so they offered me their service also, (God so moving them,) that is, not only their bounty but their pains, not only to send or give their goods, but to go themselves, some of their company, to Corinth, On a message from me to desire Titus, who had before done somewhat among you concerning this contribution to the poor Christians in Judaea, that he would now perfect it among you, And that as ye have been richly furnished with faith in believing yourselves all that hath been revealed to you, with ability of instructing others, with knowledge of mysteries, (see notes [b] [c] 1 Cor. i.) with all care and industry to do whatever you could to bring forth fruits of faith, and with extreme kindness towards me, so ye would exceed in this liberality and contribution toward the poor Christians also. This I say not by way of precept or command, laying any obligation upon you, (see ver. 10,) but only by mentioning how forward others have been, the Macedonians by name, when they were themselves [a] for a season] The word ὥρα signifies a season, and any part of time indefinitely, but yet both in Greek and Latin is oft used for a small or short space: so Philemon, ver. 15, πρὸς ὥραν, for a short space, and 1 Thess. ii. 17, πρὸς καιρὸν ὥρας, for the space of an hour, that is, for a short space. And so here εἰ καὶ πρὸς ὥραν, though but for an hour, that is, for a short space; which being joined with ἐλύπησεν ὑμᾶς, hath grieved you, in the notion of that phrase for inflicting the censures, (see note [c] on 1 Cor. v.) it denotes the infliction of some penance, a sentence of abstention for a while, for a short space, (for the bringing forth fruits of repentance,) after which it is to be remitted again. This the Nicene fathers express by this style, ἐφ' ὧν καὶ χρόνος ὥριστοι καὶ καιρὸς τέτακται, "for whose censures the time is determined, and season set;" Zonaras by καιροὶ ὡρισμένοι τῇ μετανοίᾳ τῶν πεπτωκότων, "the times set for the penance of the lapsed." And this is answerable to the Nidui among the Jews, a remotion for thirty days. Another sort of censures there was, sine præfinito tempore, "without determining of the time," irrevocabile anathema, in Alcimus, perennis excommunicatio, "a lasting, irrevocable excommunication," Concil. Turon. 2. c. 20, and Concil. Paris. 3. can. 5; but this not absolutely so, but usque ad reformationem, "for ever, if they reform not." Hereby it appears that it was not only the incestuous person, 1 Cor. v. 1, which is here referred to, for he was delivered up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, and that is parallel to the perennis excommunicatio, "the durable excommunication," or that which was to continue until reformation; but others, it seems, which had been found fault with in that Epistle, (as he that went to law, ch. vi. and the like,) fell under the censures, though only πρὸς ὥραν, for a definite time, that they might bring forth fruits of repentance: and accordingly they did, ver. 11. For to such performances as these ye can want no motives, when ye consider the example of Christ in his dealings toward us; his liberality and bounty in exhausting himself for us, submitting himself to so mean a condition, and even to death itself, that thereby ye and all that will make use of his bounty may be spiritually enriched. And herein, though for the degree of your liberality no precept doth oblige you, Christ's command of relieving the poor leaving to you the liberty to determine the proportion, yet I shall give you my opinion, that as you have formerly expressed some forwardness, not only to do somewhat for that present, but to resolve to do more if you had been or when you should be able, so it will not now be for your credit, or the reputation of your bounty, to fall short of that purpose. [a] to be forward] What θέλιν, to will, signifies in this place will appear by the ποιῆσαι, to do, precedent: for when to will goes before doing, as Phil. ii. 13 it doth, then it must be conceived to denote the resolving of that which is after done; but when it is subsequent to doing, as here, then it cannot belong to that, but to some further action still future, either of the same kind with that formerly done, or of any other which is specified. That here it refers to some further degree of liberality to be superadded to what they had already done, appears by the ensuing exhortation to consummate the work, ver. 11, and by the mention of the προθυμία τοῦ θέλιν, the forwardness to will, that is, to resolve to do more, as they should be able. In which respect it is that ch. ix. 2, Paul saith he hath boasted of them, that they had (ἀπὸ πέρυσι, as here, from a year ago) made a preparation for this new supply, for so παρεσκεύασται, hath been prepared, signifies, as passives are oft used for reciprocals. As for the τοῦτο ὑμῖν συμφέρει, this is profitable for you in the former part of this verse, though it may fitly be applied to several ways of profit, that their liberality would probably And therefore now you may do well to perfect what ye then began, that as then at a distance ye were forward to make the resolution, so you may now perform according to your present ability. For supposing a man cheerfully to do what he is able, that resolution of his, if it be performed, that is, if he do according to his ability, shall be well accepted and rewarded by God, and that which he is not able to do shall never be expected of him. 13, 14. And this collection that I speak of is not so designed, that other men should be released of their burden by having it laid on your shoulders, that they should be made up by your liberality, and you distressed by giving them; but that there may be an equality; you relieving them now in this time of famine in Jewry out of your plenty, and when you want, as they now do, they, when the famine is over, should relieve you again out of their plenty: That as it was in the gathering of manna, no man had the more or the less for gathering more or less; so it might be among fellow-Christians; they that had for the present less possessions should yet by supply from others have sufficient, and they that had greater possessions, by relieving others, have no more left to them than they had need of. And what I write to you for your advantage by way of care of (and advice to) you, it seems Titus hath had in his mind already, out of the same care of you, God be thanked, who put it into his heart. For he was very willing at the first word, nay, prevented my exhortation, and before he was spoken to, of his own free choice he went to you about it. And with him we sent the evangelist, (probably St. Luke, see note on Rom. xvi. 6,) whose diligence in preaching the gospel through all churches is so much commended, And whom the bishops in synod ordained to go along with me this journey, and was not by myself chosen to it, (see 1 Cor. xvi. 3,) to carry this collection (wherein I had done nothing but as a servant and officer made use of by the Macedonians,) to the honour of God, (whose servants they were that were thus relieved, and whose grace it was that the Macedonians were so liberal,) and to the stirring up your alacrity and forwardness by their example. This I then did; and of this I now give this so particular account, as being very careful that I might not be under suspicion or censure in managing or disposing that great sum of money collected or received by me: Providing for a good reputation before men, as well as for a good conscience before God. And with Titus and Luke I have, by consent of the churches, ver. 19, sent a third, of whose industry and diligence we have often had experience, but in this business found him much more willing to be industrious, upon the special confidence he hath of your goodness and expected liberality. ¹⁶ He that had much, Ὁ τὸ πολὺ. ¹⁹ nay, being more diligent he went out to you of his own accord, σπουδαιότερος δὲ ὑπάρχων, αὐθαίρετος ἐξῆλθε πρὸς ὑμᾶς. ²⁰ who is praised for the gospel, οὐ ὁ ἕπαινος ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ. ²¹ ordained by the churches our fellow-traveller, χειροτονηθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκκλησιῶν συνείδημος ἡμῶν. ²² charity dispensed, χάριτι διακονομένη. ²³ the Lord himself, and your forwardness of mind, or, encouragement, αὐτοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου καὶ προθυμίαν ὑμῶν. ²⁴ taking care of this, στελλόμενοι τοῦτο. ²⁵ dispensed, τῇ διακονομένη. ²⁶ forecasting what will be honest, προνοούμενοι καλά. Now concerning this contribution to the poor Christians of Judæa, I suppose it utterly superfluous for me to use any arguments to exhort you to it. For of your forwardness therein I am so far from doubting, that I have made boast of it to others, that the Christians of all Achaia (of which Corinth was the chief city) have for a twelvemonth made a preparation to send a new supply, beyond that which they then did, (see note [a] ch. viii. 10,) and the emulation to your example, or the opinion of your forwardness, hath stirred up, hath wrought much in Macedonia, made them very liberal. And that what I have thus boasted of your preparation may be found true, and that you may be indeed prepared beforehand, and not surprised at my coming, I have sent these bearers to you to give you warning: Lest if the Macedonians, to whom I have boasted of your forwardness, ver. 2, come along with me to you, and find that you have not your supplies ready, it be matter of great shame to me, as it must be also to you, (see note [a] ch. viii. 10,) that I have had the