Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. 2 Corinthians 1:1, 2 Paul to the Corinthians A. Maclaren, D. D. Note — I. THE BLENDING OF LOWLINESS AND AUTHORITY IN PAUL'S DESIGNATION OF HIMSELF. 1. He does not always bring his apostolical authority to mind at the beginning of his letters. In the loving letter to the Philippians he has no need to urge his authority. In Philemon friendship is uppermost. 2. "By the will of God" is at once an assertion of Divine authority, a declaration of independence, and a lowly disclaimer of individual merit. The weight he expected to be attached to his words was to be due entirely to their Divine origin. Never mind the cracked pipe through which the Divine breath makes music, but listen to the music. II. THE IDEAL OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER HERE SET FORTH. "Saints" — a word that has been woefully misapplied. The Church has given it as a special honour to a few, and decorated with it mainly the possessors of a false ideal of sanctity. The world uses it with a sarcastic intonation, as if it implied loud professions and small performances. 1. Saints are not people living in cloisters, but men and women immersed in the vulgar work of everyday life. The root idea of the word is not moral purity, but separation to God. Consecration to Him is the root from which the white flower of purity springs. We cannot purify ourselves, but we can yield ourselves to God, and the purity will come. 2. To thus devote ourselves is our solemn obligation, and unless we do we are not Christians. The true consecration is the surrender of the will, and its one motive is drawn from the love and devotion of Christ to us. All consecration rests on the faith of Christ's sacrifice. 3. And if, drawn by the great love of Christ, we give ourselves away to God in Him, then He gives Himself to us. III. THE APOSTOLIC WISH WHICH SETS FORTH THE HIGH IDEAL TO BE DESIRED BY CHURCHES AND INDIVIDUALS. 1. "Grace and peace" blend the Western and Eastern forms of salutation, and surpass both. All that the Greek meant by his "Grace," and all that the Hebrew meant by his "Peace" — the ideally happy condition which differing nations have placed in different blessings, and which all loving words have vainly wished for dear ones — is secured and conveyed to every poor soul who trusts in Christ. 2. Grace means —(1) Love in exercise to those who are below the lover or who deserve something else.(2) The gifts which such love bestows.(3) The effects of those gifts in the beauties of character and conduct developed in the receivers. So here are invoked the love and gentleness of the Father; and next the outcome of that love, which never visits the soul empty handed, in all varied spiritual gifts; and, as a last result, every beauty of heart, mind, and temper which can adorn the character and refine a man into the likeness of God. 3. Peace comes after grace. For tranquillity of soul we must go to God, and He gives it by giving us His love and its gifts. There must be first peace with God that there may be peace from God. Then, when we have been won from our alienation and enmity by the power of the Cross, and have learned to know that God is our Lover, Friend, and Father, we shall possess the peace of those whose hearts have found their home; the peace of spirits no longer at war within — conscience and choice tearing them asunder in their strife; the peace of obedience, which banishes the disturbance of self-will; the peace of security shaken by no fears; the peace of a sure future across the brightness of which no shadows of sorrow nor mists of uncertainty can fall; the peace of a heart in amity with all mankind. So, living in peace, we shall lay ourselves down and die in peace, and enter "that country afar beyond the stars" where "grows the flower of peace." ( A. Maclaren, D. D. )

Benson Commentary 2 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: 2 Corinthians 1:1-2 . Paul, an apostle — Appointed and made such, not by my own will or choice, or those of any man, or any number of men; but by the will of God — Who called me by his grace to that sacred and important office; see Galatians 1:1 ; Galatians 1:15 ; and Timothy, our — Or rather a, brother — St. Paul, writing to Timothy, styles him his son; writing of him, his brother. From this it is evident that Timothy was with the apostle when this second epistle to the Corinthians was written; and by joining his name with his own in this epistle, he did him the greatest honour, and highly advanced his credit with the Corinthians, and all other Christians who should read it. To the church of God which is at Corinth — Whom he hath mercifully called out from the world and united to himself. With all the saints which are in all Achaia — “Corinth being the metropolis of the province of Achaia, the brethren in those parts, no doubt, had frequent intercourse with those in Corinth, and by that means had an opportunity of hearing this letter read in the Christian assemblies at Corinth. But as they had equal need, with the Corinthians, of the admonitions and advices contained in this letter, it was addressed to them likewise, that they might be entitled to take copies of it, in order to read it in their public meetings for their own edification.” — Macknight. Grace be to you, &c. — See on Romans 1:7 . 2 Corinthians 1:2 Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 . Blessed be God, &c. — A solemn and beautiful introduction, highly suitable to the apostolical spirit; even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — Who is his only-begotten Son, both as to his divine and human nature; see Hebrews 1:2 ; Luke 1:35 ; and as he is Mediator, appointed, authorized, and qualified by the Father for that office. The Father of mercies — From whose paternal compassion and readiness to forgive the penitent, that sincerely believe in and turn to him, all our hopes are derived; and the God of all comfort — Whose nature it is ever to have mercy; and who knows how to proportion his supports to the exigence of every trial. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation — Bestows comfort on us, his apostles and ministers, for the sake of others; that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble — He that has experienced one kind of affliction is able to comfort others in that affliction: he that has experienced all kinds of afflictions, is able to comfort others in all. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us — The sufferings endured for his sake, which he accounts his own; so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ — “The consolation of which the apostle speaks was derived from the presence of Christ with him in his affliction; from a sense of the love of Christ shed abroad in his heart; from the joy which the success of the gospel gave him; from the assured hope of the reward which was prepared for him; from his knowledge of the influence of his sufferings to encourage others; and from the enlarged views which he had of the government of God, whereby all things are made to work for good to them who love God; so that he was entirely reconciled to his sufferings;” finding by experience, that his consolation quite overbalanced them all. Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation — Namely, when you see with what Christian courage and patience we are enabled to bear afflictions; and salvation — By encouraging you to undergo the like, and so to obtain salvation; or, for your present comfort, and present and future salvation; which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings — That is, the prospect or hope of which salvation is of sufficient power to enable you to endure the like sufferings which we have endured, if you should be called thereto; see 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 ; Romans 8:18 . Or whether we be comforted, it is for your comfort — That we may be the better able to comfort you. And our hope of you — Grounded on your patience in suffering for Christ’s sake; is steadfast — Firm and unshaken; knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings — By Christian sympathy, and enduring the like yourselves; so shall ye be also of the consolation — Which arises from principles and hopes which are not peculiar to us, who are apostles, or to other ministers of the gospel, but common to all sincere believers, such as I trust you in general are. 2 Corinthians 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 2 Corinthians 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. 2 Corinthians 1:7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. 2 Corinthians 1:8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 . For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant — As if he had said, We speak thus concerning the sufferings wherewith God is pleased to exercise his people, because we have lately experienced them in a large measure: of our trouble which came to us in Asia — It is probable that the apostle here refers either to some opposition which he met with in his journey through Galatia and Phrygia, ( Acts 18:23 ,) of which no particular account has reached us; or to the tumult excited by Demetrius, as is related Acts 19:23-41 . “It may be said, perhaps, that it does not appear from the history that any danger threatened Paul’s life in the uproar at Ephesus, so imminent as that from which he here represents himself to have been delivered. This matter, it is true, is not stated by the historian in form; but the personal danger of the apostle we cannot doubt must have been extreme, when the whole city was filled with confusion; when the populace had seized his companions; when, in the distraction of his mind, he insisted on coming forth among them; when the Christians, who were about him, would not suffer him; when his friends, certain of the chief of Asia, sent to him, desiring that he would not adventure himself into the tumult; when, lastly, he was obliged to quit immediately the place and the country; and, when the tumult was ceased, to depart into Macedonia. Nothing could be more expressive of the circumstances in which the history describes him to have been at the time when the epistle purports to have been written,” than the verses under consideration. “It is the calm recollection of a mind emerged from the confusion of instant danger. It is that devotion and solemnity of thought which follows a recent deliverance. There is just enough of particularity in the passage to show that it is to be referred to the tumult at Ephesus.” — Paley. That we were pressed out of measure — The Corinthians knew before that he had been in trouble. He now declares the greatness and the fruit of it; above strength — Above the ordinary strength of a Christian, even of an apostle; insomuch that we despaired even of life — Ourselves, and were looked upon by others as dead men. We had the sentence of death in ourselves — That is, not only did others apprehend this concerning us, but we ourselves did indeed think that the appointed end of our life and ministry was come. That we should not trust in ourselves — That, for the future, we should put no confidence in our own wisdom or power to elude the designs of our enemies, nor merely regard human probabilities; but in the greatest and most extreme dangers should learn to repose a cheerful confidence in the power and providence of that God who, at his own pleasure, raiseth the dead by his almighty word; who delivered us from so great a death — As then threatened us; and doth still deliver — In the various dangers with which we are continually surrounded. In whom we trust that he will yet deliver us — From every evil, and preserve us to his heavenly kingdom. Ye also — As well as other churches; helping by prayer for us — From this we learn, that the most eminent saints may be assisted and benefited by the prayers of persons much inferior to them in station and piety; which is a great encouragement to us to pray for one another, and a reason for our desiring each other’s prayers. That for the gift — Namely, my deliverance; bestowed by the means of many persons praying for it, thanks may be given by many on our behalf — Since nothing can be more reasonable than that mercies obtained by prayer should be acknowledged in praise. 2 Corinthians 1:9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 2 Corinthians 1:10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us ; 2 Corinthians 1:11 Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf. 2 Corinthians 1:12 For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward. 2 Corinthians 1:12-14 . For, &c. — I am more imboldened to look for this, because I am conscious of my integrity; seeing our rejoicing is this — Even in the deepest adversity, a rejoicing which no external calamities can impair, or injuries destroy; the testimony of our conscience — In the sight of God, who searcheth the secrets of all hearts, however men may suspect or censure us; that in simplicity — Aiming singly at the glory of God; and godly sincerity — Without any tincture of guile, dissimulation, or disguise; not with fleshly (carnal) wisdom — Which is so ungenerously and unrighteously imputed to us; but by the grace of God — Which hath created us anew, and continues to help our infirmities; we have had — In time past, and still continue to have, our conversation in the world, in all places which we have visited, and in which we have had our abode, in every circumstance; and more abundantly to you-ward — That is, which has more evidently discovered itself in our converse among you. For we write none other things — Namely, concerning our conversation: than what you read or acknowledge — Than what I have always declared respecting myself, in the epistles I have sent to you and other churches; and what you know in yourselves, and cannot but own to be true; as also you have acknowledged in part — That is, in some measure, or some of you; that we are your rejoicing — That ye rejoice in having known us; as ye also are ours — As we also rejoice in the success of our labours among you; and we trust shall rejoice therein in the day of the Lord Jesus — When we hope to present you before Christ as the seals of our ministry. 2 Corinthians 1:13 For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end; 2 Corinthians 1:14 As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus. 2 Corinthians 1:15 And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit; 2 Corinthians 1:15-16 . And in this confidence — That is, being confident of this, namely, of our mutual affection to, and esteem for, each other; I was minded — ????????? , I purposed; to come unto you before — Or first, as ???????? seems here to signify. “As soon as the apostle was informed, by some of the family of Chloe, that dissensions had arisen among the Corinthian brethren, he determined to go to Corinth first; that is, before he went into Macedonia. His intention was to go straightway to Corinth by sea, because he wished to be there soon, in the expectation that his presence among the Corinthians would put an end to their divisions, either in the way of persuasion or of punishment. Wherefore, to prepare the Corinthians for his coming, he notified his resolution to them by Timothy and Erastus; but after their departure, having great success in preaching, and the messengers from Corinth arriving with a letter from the sincere part of the church, the apostle judged it prudent to delay his visit to Corinth, to give them who had sinned time to repent. And therefore, instead of going straightway to Corinth, by sea, he resolved to go by the way of Macedonia. This alteration of his purpose he signified to the Corinthians in his first epistle, 1 Corinthians 16:5-7 .” That you might have a second benefit — So our translators have rendered ???????? ????? ; that is, a further confirmation and edification in gifts and graces, wherewith ye were enriched by my first coming to you. And to pass by you into Macedonia — To make you a short visit in my way thither; and then, having despatched my business in the churches there, to come again to you from Macedonia, and make a longer stay; and of you to be brought (sent) forward toward Judea — When I shall go thither to deliver the money raised by the contribution of the Gentile Christians, for the relief of their distressed Jewish brethren. 2 Corinthians 1:16 And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judaea. 2 Corinthians 1:17 When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay? 2 Corinthians 1:17-20 . When I therefore was thus minded — Having, therefore, purposed this; did I use lightness — Did I lightly change my purpose? or, the things that I purpose in general; do I purpose according to the flesh — Are my purposes grounded on carnal or worldly considerations? that with me there should be yea and nay — Sometimes one, sometimes the other; that is, variableness and inconstancy in my counsels and actions, that none should know how to depend upon me for what they had to expect from me? But as God is true — I solemnly protest, that, as the God whom I serve is faithful; our word to you — On this and other occasions, and the doctrine we have preached to you; was not yea and nay — Wavering and uncertain; but that my behaviour and testimony have been always uniform, invariable, and consistent with my professions. For the Son of God, who was preached by us — That is, our preaching concerning him, was not yea and nay — Was not variable and inconsistent with itself; but in him was yea — As he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, the declarations of his Word, and the engagements of his covenant, are inviolably the same. For all the promises of God — Many and precious as they are; in him are yea and amen — Are made with truth, and fulfilled with fidelity; or are surely established and accomplished in and through him. They are yea with respect to God promising; amen with respect to men believing; yea with respect to the apostles; amen with respect to their hearers. Unto the glory of God by us — As is declared by us in our ministry. 2 Corinthians 1:18 But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. 2 Corinthians 1:19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. 2 Corinthians 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. 2 Corinthians 1:21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 . Now he which stablisheth us — Apostles and teachers; with you — All true believers; in the faith of Christ — Or he who confirms both you and us in the truth; and hath anointed us — With the oil of gladness, with joy in the Holy Ghost; thereby giving us strength both to do and suffer his will: or, he who hath consecrated us to this apostolic office, and endued us with the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost, thereby qualifying us for it; is God — From whom alone every good and perfect gift cometh. Who hath also sealed us — Stamped his image on our hearts; thus marking and sealing us as his own property. Anciently, seals were used for marking goods, as the property of the person who had put his seal on them, that they might be distinguished from the goods of others. Thus all believers are said to be sealed with the Spirit of promise, or which was promised, ( Ephesians 1:13 ,) because they are thereby marked as Christ’s property. Thus, likewise, the servants of God are said to be sealed on their foreheads for the same purpose, Revelation 7:3 ; Revelation 9:4 . The apostles therefore are said to have been sealed of God, because by the sanctifying graces and the extraordinary gifts conferred upon them, they were declared to be both his servants and the apostles of his Son, and could not be suspected either of fraud or falsehood. And given us the earnest of the Spirit — Those sacred communications of his grace, which are the anticipation of our future felicity. There is a difference between an earnest and a pledge. A pledge is to be restored when the debt is paid; but an earnest is not taken away, but completed. Such an earnest is the Spirit; the first-fruits of which true believers have, ( Romans 8:23 ,) and wait for all its fulness. The apostle is thought by some to allude to the custom of hiring servants by giving them earnest-money; as if he had said, He hath hired us to be his servants, and the apostles of his Son, by giving us the Holy Spirit in his gifts and graces. These are called the earnests with which the apostles were hired, because they were to them a sure proof of those far greater blessings which God would bestow on them in the life to come, as the wages of their faithful services. For the same reason all believers are represented as having the earnest of the Spirit given them, 2 Corinthians 5:5 ; Ephesians 1:14 . 2 Corinthians 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 2 Corinthians 1:23 Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. 2 Corinthians 1:23-24 . Moreover, I call God to record — As if he had said, That you may believe me in what I am going to affirm, I call God as a witness, upon, or against my soul — If I do not speak the truth. Was not Paul now speaking by the Spirit? And can a more solemn oath be conceived? Who then can imagine that Christ ever designed to forbid swearing? That to spare you — That out of tenderness to you, and to avoid punishing you; I came not as yet to Corinth — That is, I deferred coming, lest I should be obliged to use severity against you. He says elegantly, to Corinth, not to you, when he is intimating his power to punish. Not that we have dominion over your faith — Power to impose upon you articles of faith or rules of practice, which the Lord hath not enjoined, or have any authority to dictate what you should believe or do; this is the prerogative of God alone: nor would we exert the power with which Christ hath endowed us, to any tyrannical or overbearing purposes. But are helpers of your joy — Co- workers with Christ to promote your comfort, by establishing you in that faith from which all comfort springs; for by faith ye stand — ???????? , ye have stood hitherto, and this will be a means of strengthening your faith, by which alone you can continue in the favour of God, and in union with him, and obtain a right and title to eternal life. Here we see the light in which ministers should always consider themselves, and in which they are to be considered by others; not as having dominion over the faith of their people, or having a right to dictate by their own authority what they shall believe, or what they shall do, but as helpers of their joy, by helping them forward in faith and holiness. In this view how amiable does their office appear! and how friendly to the happiness of mankind! How far then are they from true benevolence who would expose it to ridicule and contempt? 2 Corinthians 1:24 Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 2 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia: Chapter 1 SUFFERING AND CONSOLATION. 2 Corinthians 1:1-7 (R.V) THE greeting with which St. Paul introduces his Epistles is much alike in them all, but it never becomes a mere formality, and ought not to pass unregarded as such. It describes, as a rule, the character in which he writes, and the character in which his correspondents are addressed. Here he is an apostle of Jesus Christ, divinely commissioned; and he addresses a Christian community at Corinth, including in it, for the purposes of his letter, the scattered Christians to be found in the other quarters of Achaia. His letters are occasional, in the sense that some special incident or situation called them forth; but this occasional character does not lessen their value. He addresses himself to the incident or situation in the consciousness of his apostolic vocation; he writes to a Church constituted for permanence, or at least for such duration as this transitory world can have; and what we have in his Epistles is not a series of obiter dicta , the casual utterances of an irresponsible person; it is the mind of Christ authoritatively given upon the questions raised. When he includes any other person in the salutation-as in this place "Timothy our brother"-it is rather as a mark of courtesy, than as adding to the Epistle another authority besides his own. Timothy had helped to found the Church at Corinth; Paul had shown great anxiety about his reception by the Corinthians, when he started to visit that turbulent Church alone; { 1 Corinthians 16:10 f.} and in this new letter he honors him in their eyes by uniting his name with his own in the superscription. The Apostle and his affectionate fellow-worker wish the Corinthians, as they wished all the Churches, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not necessary to expound afresh the meaning and connection of these two New Testament ideas: grace is the first and last word of the Gospel: and peace-perfect spiritual soundness-is the finished work of grace m the soul. The Apostle’s greeting is usually followed by a thanksgiving, in which he recalls the conversion of those to whom he is writing, or surveys their progress in the new life, and the improvement of their gifts, gratefully acknowledging God as the author of all. Thus in the First Epistle to the Corinthians he thanks God for the grace given to them in Christ Jesus, and especially for their Christian enrichment in all utterance and in all knowledge. So, too, but with deeper gratitude, he dwells on the virtues of the Thessalonians, remembering their work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope. Here also there is a thanksgiving, but at the first glance of a totally different character. The Apostle blesses God, not for what He has done for the Corinthians, but for what He has done for himself. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation." This departure from the Apostle’s usual custom is probably not so selfish as it looks. When his mind traveled down from Philippi to Corinth, it rested on the spiritual aspects of the Church there with anything but unrelieved satisfaction. There was much for which he could not possibly be thankful; and just as the momentary apostasy of the Galatians led to his omitting the thanksgiving altogether, so the unsettled mood in which he wrote to the Corinthians gave it this peculiar turn. Nevertheless, when he thanked God for comforting him in all his afflictions, he thanked Him on their behalf. It was they who were eventually to have the profit both of his sorrows and his consolations. Probably, too, there is something here which is meant to appeal even to those who disliked him in Corinth. There had been a good deal of friction between the Apostle and some who had once owned him as their father in Christ; they were blaming him, at this very moment, for not coming to visit them; and in this thanksgiving, which dilates on the afflictions he has endured, and on the divine consolation he has experienced in them, there is a tacit appeal to the sympathy even of hostile spirits. Do not, he seems to say, deal ungenerously with one who has passed through such terrible experiences, and lays the fruit of them at your feet. Chrysostom presses this view, as if St. Paul had written his thanksgiving in the character of a subtle diplomatist: to judge by one’s feeling, it is true enough to deserve mention. The subject of the thanksgiving is the Apostle’s sufferings, and his experience of God’s mercies under them. He expressly calls them the sufferings of Christ. These sufferings, he says, abound toward us. Christ was the greatest of sufferers: the flood of pain and sorrow went over His head: all its waves and billows broke upon Him. The Apostle was caught and overwhelmed by the same stream; the waters came into his soul. That is the meaning of ?? ???????? ??? ??????? ?????????? ??? ???? . In abundant measure the disciple was initiated into his Master’s stern experience; he learned, what he prayed to learn, the fellowship of His sufferings. The boldness of the language in which a mortal man calls his own afflictions the sufferings of Christ is far from unexampled in the New Testament. It is repeated by St. Paul in Colossians 1:24 : "I now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and fill up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body’s sake, which is the Church." It is varied in Hebrews 13:13 , where the sacred writer exhorts us to go out to Jesus, without the camp, bearing His reproach. It is anticipated and justified by the words of the Lord Himself: "Ye shall indeed drink of My cup; and with the baptism with which I am baptized shall ye be baptized withal." One lot, and that a cross, awaits all the children of God in this world, from the Only-begotten who came from the bosom of the Father, to the latest-born among His brethren. But let us beware of the hasty assertion that, because the Christian’s sufferings can thus be described as of a piece with Christ’s, the key to the mystery of Gethsemane and Calvary is to be found in the self-consciousness of martyrs arid confessors. The very man who speaks of filling up that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ for the Church’s sake, and who says that the sufferings of Christ came on him in their fullness, would have been the first to protest against such an idea. "Was Paul crucified for you?" Christ suffered alone; there is, in spite of our fellowship with His sufferings, a solitary, incommunicable greatness in His Cross, which the Apostle will expound in another place. { 2 Corinthians 5:1-21 } Even when Christ’s sufferings come upon us there is a difference. At the very lowest, as Vinet has it, we do from gratitude what He did from pure love. We suffer in His company, sustained by His comfort; He suffered uncomforted and unsustained. We are afflicted, when it so happens, "under the auspices of the divine mercy"; He was afflicted that there might be mercy for us. Few parts of Bible teaching are more recklessly applied than those about suffering and consolation. If all that men endured was of the character here described, if all their sufferings were sufferings of Christ, which came on them because they were walking in His steps and assailed by the forces which buffeted Him, consolation would be an easy task. The presence of God with the soul would make it almost unnecessary. The answer of a good conscience would take all the bitterness out of pain; and then, however it tortured, it could not poison the soul. The mere sense that our sufferings are the sufferings of Christ-that we are drinking of His cup-is itself a comfort and an inspiration beyond words. But much of our suffering, we know very well, is of a different character. It does not come on us because we are united to Christ, but because we are estranged from Him; it is the proof and the fruit, not of our righteousness, but of our guilt. It is our sin finding us out, and avenging itself upon us, and in no sense the suffering of Christ. Such suffering, no doubt, has its use and its purpose. It is meant to drive the soul in upon itself, to compel it to reflection, to give it no rest till it awakes to penitence, to urge it through despair to God. Those who suffer thus will have cause to thank God afterwards if His discipline leads to their amendment, but they have no title to take to themselves the consolation prepared for those who are partners in the sufferings of Christ. Nor is the minister of Christ at liberty to apply a passage like this to any case of affliction which he encounters in his work. There are sufferings and sufferings; there is a divine intention in them all, if we could only discover it; but the divine intention and the divinely wrought result are only explained here for one particular kind-those sufferings, namely, which come upon men in virtue of their following Jesus Christ. What, then, does the Apostle’s experience enable him to say on this hard question? (1) His sufferings have brought him a new revelation of God, which is expressed in the new name, "The Father of mercies and God of all comfort." The name is wonderful in its tenderness; we feel as we pronounce it that a new conception of what love can be has been imparted to the Apostle’s soul. It is in the sufferings and sorrows of life that we discover what we possess in our human friends. Perhaps one abandons us in our extremity, and another betrays us; but most of us find ourselves unexpectedly and astonishingly rich. People of whom we have hardly ever had a kind thought show us kindness; the unsuspected, unmerited goodness which comes to our relief makes us ashamed. This is the rule which is illustrated here by the example of God Himself. It is as if the Apostle said: "I never knew, till the sufferings of Christ abounded in me, holy near God could come to man; I never knew how rich His mercies could be, how intimate His sympathy, how inspiriting His comfort." This is an utterance well worth considering. The sufferings of men, and especially the sufferings of the innocent and the good, are often made the ground of hasty charges against God; nay, they are often turned into arguments for Atheism. But who are they who make such charges? Not the righteous sufferers, at least in New Testament times. The Apostle here is their representative and spokesman, and he assures us that God never was so much to him as when he was in the sorest straits. The divine love was so far from being doubtful to him that it shone out then in unanticipated brightness; the very heart of the Father was revealed-all mercy, all encouragement and comfort. If the martyrs have no doubts of their own, is it not very gratuitous for the spectators to become skeptics on their account? "The sufferings of Christ" in His people may be an insoluble problem to the disinterested onlooker, but they are no problem to the sufferers. What is a mystery, when viewed from without, a mystery in which God seems to be conspicuous by His absence, is, when viewed from within, a new and priceless revelation of God Himself. "The Father of mercies and God of all comfort," is making Himself known now as for want of opportunity He could not be known before. Notice especially that the consolation is said to abound "through Christ." He is the mediator through whom it comes. To partake in His sufferings is to be united to Him; and to be united to Him is to partake of His life. The Apostle anticipates here a thought on which he enlarges in the fourth chapter: "Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body." In our eagerness to emphasize the nearness and the sympathy of Jesus, it is to be feared that we do less than justice to the New Testament revelation of His glory. He does not suffer now. He is enthroned on high, far above all principality and power and might and dominion. The Spirit which brings His presence to our hearts is the Spirit of the Prince of Life; its function is not to be weak with our weakness, but to help our infirmity, and to strengthen us with all might in the inner man. The Christ who dwells in us through His Spirit is not the Man of Sorrows, wearing the crown of thorns; it is the King of kings and Lord of lords, making us partakers of His triumph. There is a weak tone in much of the religious literature which deals with suffering, utterly unlike that of the New Testament. It is a degradation of Christ to our level which it teaches, instead of an exaltation of man toward Christ’s. But the last is the apostolic ideal: "More than conquerors through Him that loved us." The comfort of which St. Paul makes so much here is not necessarily deliverance from suffering for Christ’s sake, still less exemption from it; it is the strength and courage and immortal hope which rise up, even in the midst of suffering, in the heart in which the Lord of glory dwells. Through Him such comfort abounds; it wells up to match and more than match the rising tide of suffering. (2) But Paul’s sufferings have done more than give him a new knowledge of God; they have given him at the same time a new power to comfort others. He is bold enough to make this ministry of consolation the key to his recent experiences. "He comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." His sufferings and his consolation together had a purpose that went beyond himself. How significant that is for some perplexing aspects of man’s life! We are selfish, and instinctively regard ourselves as the center of all providences; we naturally seek to explain everything by its bearing on ourselves alone. But God has not made us for selfishness and isolation, and some mysteries would be cleared up if we had love enough to see the ties by which our life is indissolubly linked to others. This, however, is less definite than the Apostle’s thought; what he tells us is that he has gained a new power at a great price. It is a power which almost every Christian man will covet; but how many are willing to pass through the fire to obtain it? We must ourselves have needed and have found comfort, before we know what it is; we must ourselves have learned the art of consoling in the school of suffering, before we can practice it for the benefit of others. The most painfully tried, the most proved in suffering, the souls that are best acquainted with grief, provided their consolation has abounded through Christ, are specially called to this ministry. Their experience is their preparation for it. Nature is something, and age is something; but far more than nature and age is that discipline of God to which they have been submitted, that initiation into the sufferings of Christ which has made them acquainted with His consolations also, and has taught them to know the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Are they not among His best gifts to the Church, those whom He has qualified to console, by consoling them in the fire? In the sixth verse { 2 Corinthians 1:6 } the Apostle dwells on the interest of the Corinthians in his sufferings and his consolation. It is a practical illustration of the communion of the saints in Christ. "All that befalls me," says St. Paul, "has your interest in view. If I am afflicted, it is in the interest of your comfort: when you look at me, and see how I bear myself in the sufferings of Christ, you will be encouraged to become imitators of me, even as I am of Him. If, again, I am comforted, this also is in the interest of your comfort; God enables me to impart to you what He has imparted to me; and the comfort in question is no impotent thing; it proves its power in this-that when you have received it, you endure with brave patience the same sufferings which we also suffer." This last is a favorite thought with the Apostle, and connects itself readily with the idea, which may or may not have a right to be expressed in the text, that all this is in furtherance of the salvation of the Corinthians. For if there is one note of the saved more certain than another, it is the brave patience with which they take upon them the sufferings of Christ. ? ?? ????????? ??? ?????, ????? ????????? { Matthew 10:22 } All that helps men to endure to the end, helps them to salvation. All that tends to break the spirit and to sink men in despondency, or hurry them into impatience or fear, leads in the opposite direction. The great service that a true comforter does is to put the strength and courage into us which enable us to take up our cross, however sharp and heavy, and to bear it to the last step and the last breath. No comfort is worth the name-none is taught of God-which has another efficacy than this. The saved are those whose souls rise to this description, and who recognize their spiritual kindred in such brave and patient sufferers as Paul. The thanksgiving ends appropriately with a cheerful word about the Corinthians. "Our hope for you is steadfast; knowing that, as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so are ye also of the comfort." These two things go together; it is the appointed lot of the children of God to become acquainted with both. If the sufferings could come alone, if they could be assigned as the portion of the Church apart from the consolation, Paul could have no hope that the Corinthians would endure to the end; but as it is he is not afraid. The force of his words is perhaps best felt by us, if instead of saying that the sufferings and the consolation are inseparable, we say that the consolation depends upon the sufferings. And what is the consolation? It is the presence of the exalted Savior in the heart through His Spirit. It is a clear perception, and a firm hold, of the things which are unseen and eternal. It is a conviction of the divine love which cannot be shaken, and of its sovereignty and omnipotence in the Risen Christ. This infinite comfort is contingent upon our partaking of the sufferings of Christ. There is a point, the Apostle seems to say, at which the invisible world and its glories intersect this world in which we live, and become visible, real, and inspiring to men. It is the point at which we suffer with Christ’s sufferings. At any other point the vision of this glory is unneeded, and therefore withheld. The worldly, the selfish, the cowardly; those who shrink from self-denial; those who evade pain; those who root themselves in the world that lies around us, and when they move at all move in the line of least resistance; those who have never carried Christ’s Cross, -none of these can ever have the triumphant conviction of things unseen and eternal which throbs in every page of the New Testament. None of these can have what the Apostle elsewhere calls "eternal consolation." It is easy for unbelievers, and for Christians lapsing into unbelief, to mock this faith as faith in "the transcendent"; but would a single line of the New Testament have been written without it? When we weigh what is here asserted about its connection with the sufferings of Christ, could a graver charge be brought against any Church than that its faith in this "transcendent" languished or was extinct? Do not let us hearken to the sceptical insinuations which would rob us of all that has been revealed in Christ’s resurrection; and do not let us imagine, on the other hand, that we can retain a living faith in this revelation if we decline to take up our cross. It was only when the sufferings of Christ abounded in him that Paul’s consolation was abundant through Christ; it was only when he laid down his life for His sake that Stephen saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. 2 Corinthians 1:8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: Chapter 2 FAITH BORN OF DESPAIR. 2 Corinthians 1:8-14 (R.V) PAUL seems to have felt that the thanksgiving with which he opens this letter to the Corinthians was so peculiar as to require explanation. It was not his way to burst upon his readers thus with his private experiences either of joy or sorrow; and though he had good reason for what he did-in that abundance of the heart out of which the mouth speaks, in his desire to conciliate the good-will of the Corinthians for a much-tried man, and in his faith in the real communion of the saints-he instinctively stops here a moment to vindicate what he has done. He does not wish them to be ignorant of an experience which has been so much to him, and ought to have the liveliest interest for them. Evidently they knew that he had been in trouble, but they had no sufficient idea of the extremity to which he had been reduced. We were weighed down, he writes, in excess, beyond our power; the trial that came upon us was one not measured to man’s strength. We despaired even of life. Nay, we have had the answer of death in ourselves. When we looked about us, when we faced our circumstances, and asked ourselves whether death or life was to be the end of this, we could only answer, Death. We were like men under sentence; it was only a question of a little sooner or a little later, when the fatal stroke should fall. The Apostle, who has a divine gift for interpreting experience and reading its lessons, tells us why he and his friends had to pass such a terrible time. It was that they might trust, not in themselves, but in God who raises the dead. It is natural, he implies, for us to trust in ourselves. It is so natural, and so confirmed by the habits of a lifetime, that no ordinary difficulties or perplexities avail to break us of it. It takes all God can do to root up our self-confidence. He must reduce us to despair; lie must bring us to such an extremity that the one voice we have in our hearts, the one voice that cries to us wherever we look round for help, is Death, death, death. It is out of this despair that the superhuman hope is born. It is out of this abject helplessness that the soul learns to look up with new trust to God. It is a melancholy reflection upon human nature that we have, as the Apostle expresses it elsewhere, to be "shut up" to all the mercies of God. If we could evade them, notwithstanding their freeness and their worth, we would. How do most of us attain to any faith in Providence? Is it not by proving, through numberless experiments, that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps? Is it not by coming, again and again, to the limit of our resources, and being compelled to feel that unless there is a wisdom and a love at work on our behalf, immeasurably wiser and more benignant than our own, life is a moral chaos? How, above all, do we come to any faith in redemption? to any abiding trust in Jesus Christ as the Savior of our souls? Is it not by this same way of despair? Is it not by the profound consciousness that in ourselves there is no answer to the question, How shall man be just with God? and that the answer must be sought in Him? Is it not by failure, by defeat, by deep disappointments, by ominous forebodings hardening into the awful certainty that we cannot with our own resources make ourselves good men-is it not by experiences like these that we are led to the Cross? This principle has many other illustrations in human life, and every one of them is something to our discredit. They all mean that only desperation opens our eyes to God’s love. We do not heartily own Him as the author of life and health, unless He has raised us from sickness after the doctor had given us up. We do not acknowledge His paternal guidance of our life, unless in some sudden peril, or some impending disaster, He provides an unexpected deliverance. We do not confess that salvation is of the Lord, till our very soul has been convinced that in it there dwells no good thing. Happy are those who are taught, even by despair, to set their hope in God; and who, when they learn this lesson once, learn it, like St. Paul, once for all (see note on ????????? above). Faith and hope like those which burn through this Epistle were well worth purchasing, even at such a price; they were blessings so valuable that the love of God did not shrink from reducing Paul to despair that he might be compelled to grasp them. Let us believe when such trials come into our lives-when we are weighed down exceedingly, beyond our strength, and are in darkness without light, in a valley of the shadow of death with no outlet-that God is not dealing with us cruelly or at random, but shutting us up to an experience of His love which we have hitherto declined. "After two days will He revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him." The Apostle describes the God on whom he learned to hope as "God who raises the dead." He himself had been as good as dead, and his deliverance was as good as a resurrection. The phrase, however, seems to be the Apostle’s equivalent for omnipotence: when he thinks of the utmost that God can do, he expresses it thus. Sometimes the application of it is merely physical; {e.g., Romans 4:17 } sometimes it is spiritual as well. Thus in Ephesians 1:19 ff. the possibilities of the Christian life are measured by this-that that power is at work in believers with which God wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Is not that power sufficient to do for the weakest and most desperate of men far more than all he needs? Yet it is his need, somehow, when brought home to him in despair, that opens his eyes to this omnipotent saving power. The text of the words in which Paul tells of his deliverance can hardly be said to be quite certain, but the general meaning is plain. God delivered him from the awful death which was impending over him; he had his hope now firmly set on Him; he was sure that He would deliver him in the future also. What the danger had been, which had made so powerful an impression on this hardy soul, we cannot now tell. It must have been something which happened after the First Epistle was written, and therefore was not the fighting with wild beasts at Ephesus, whatever that may have been. { 1 Corinthians 15:32 } It may have been a serious bodily illness, which had brought him to death’s door, and left him so weak, that still, at every step, he felt it was God’s mercy that was holding him up. It may have been a plot to make away with him on the part of the many adversaries mentioned in the First Epistle { 1 Corinthians 16:9 } -a plot which had failed, as it were, by a miracle, but the malignity of which still dogged his steps, and was only warded off by the constant presence of God. Both these suggestions require, and would satisfy, the reading, "who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver." If, however, we take the reading of the R.V-"who delivered us from so great a death, and will deliver; on whom we have set our hope that He will also still deliver us"-the existence of the danger, at the moment at which Paul writes, is not necessarily involved; and the danger itself may have been more of what we might call an accidental character. The imminent peril of drowning referred 2 Corinthians 11:25 would meet the case; and the confidence expressed by Paul with such emphatic reference to the future will not seem without motive when we consider that he had several sea voyages in prospect-as those from Corinth to Syria, from Syria to Rome, and probably from Rome to Spain. So Hofmann interprets the whole passage: but whether the interpretation be good or bad, it is elsewhere than in its accidental circumstances that the interest of the transaction lies for the writer and for us. To Paul it was not merely a historical but a spiritual experience; not an incident without meaning, but a divinely ordered discipline; and it is thus that we must learn to read our own lives if the purpose of God is to be wrought out in them. Notice in this connection, in the eleventh verse, how simply Paul assumes the spiritual participation of the Corinthians in his fortunes. It is God indeed who delivers him, but the deliverance is wrought while they, as well as other Churches, co-operate in supplication on his behalf. In the strained relations existing between himself and the Corinthians, the assumption here made so graciously probably did them more than justice; if there were unsympathetic souls among them, they must have felt in it a delicate rebuke. What follows-"that, for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf" (R.V)-simple and intelligible as it looks in English, is one of the passages which justify M. Sabatier’s remark that Paul is difficult to understand and impossible to translate. The Revisers seem to have construed ?? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ?????? together, as if it had been ?? ??? ?. ?. ?. ??????? , the meaning being that the favor bestowed on Paul in his deliverance from this peril had been bestowed at the intercession of many. Others get virtually the same meaning by construing ?? ??? ???? ??????? with ?? ?????? ???????? : the inversion is supposed to emphasize these last words; and as it was, on this view, prayer on the part of many persons that procured his deliverance, Paul is anxious that the deliverance itself should be acknowledged by the thanksgiving of many. It cannot be denied that both these renderings are grammatically violent, and it seems to me preferable to keep ?? ??? ???? ??????? by itself, even though ?? ?????? ???????? and ??? ?????? should then reduplicate the same idea with only a slight variation. We should then render: "in order that, on the part of many persons, the favor shown to us may be gratefully acknowledged by many on our behalf." The pleonasm thus resulting strikes one rather as characteristic of St. Paul’s mood in such passages, than as a thing open to objection. But grammar apart, what really has to be emphasized here is again the communion of the saints. All the Churches pray for St. Paul-at least he takes it for granted that they do; and when he is rescued from danger, his own thanksgiving is multiplied a thousandfold by the thanksgivings of others on his behalf. This is the ideal of an evangelist’s life; in all its incidents and emergencies, in all its perils and salvations, it ought to float in an atmosphere of prayer. Every interposition of God on the missionary’s behalf is then recognized by him as a gift of grace ( ??????? )-not, be it understood, a private favor, but a blessing and a power capacitating him for further service to the Church. Those who have lived through his straits and his triumphs with him in their prayers know how true that is. At this point ( 2 Corinthians 1:12 ) the key in which Paul writes begins to change. We are conscious of a slight discord the instant he speaks about the testimony of his conscience. Yet the transition is as unforced as any such transition can be. I may well take for granted, seems to be the thought in his mind, that you pray for me; I may well ask you to unite with me in thanks to God for my deliverance; for if there is one thing I am sure of, and proud of, it is that I have been a loyal minister of God in the world, and especially to you. Fleshly wisdom has not been my guide. I have used no worldly policy; I have sought no selfish ends. In a holiness and sincerity which God bestows, in an element of crystal transparency, I have led my apostolic life. The world has never convicted me of anything dark or underhand; and in all the world none know better than you, among whom I lived longer than elsewhere, working with my hands, and preaching the Gospel as freely as God offers it, that I have walked in the light as He is in the light. This general defense, which is not without its note of defiance, becomes defined in verse 13 { 2 Corinthians 1:13 }. Plainly charges of insincerity had been made against Paul, particularly affecting his correspondence, and it is to these he addresses himself. It is not easy to be outspoken and conciliatory in the same sentence, to show your indignation to the man who charges you with double-dealing, and at the same time take him to your heart; and the Apostle’s effort to do all these things at once has proved embarrassin