Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:1 The meekness and gentleness of Christ W. Braden. These words recognise Christ's character as an accepted standard of appeal among the Corinthians. To ourselves such an appeal would not be strange. But does it not strike you as remarkable here? For remember that only a few years before this the oldest of the converts were gross idolaters. The standard of appeal has not altered. The preacher refers back to Christ as the source of all authority and influence. As Christians, if we are in perplexity, we ask the question, What did Christ do? and when we discover that, our course is clear. There is to us no higher joy than to please Him. But notice what it is in Christ to which Paul refers. I. THE MEEKNESS AND GENTLENESS OF CHRIST. 1. Men had been striving to overturn Paul's authority and destroy his influence. This was enough to excite the indignation of any true-hearted man, and no wonder if he had vindicated his character in stinging words. But he will not do this. He will conquer them by the gentleness which Christ ever manifested to those who had gone astray. Most thoroughly had he entered into Christ's spirit. He can never forget how tenderly and patiently the Saviour had treated him. Years after, when writing to one who had never tried the patience of Christ as he had done, he said: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord" ( 1 Timothy 1:12-16 ). Paul had experienced the power of Christ's meekness and gentleness, and he was anxious that others should know it too. 2. Let us turn to the, life of Christ, and see how full it is of this Divine virtue. John the Baptist said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" and, though there is an idea of sacrifice, what is more meek and gentle than a lamb? He Himself declared, "I am meek and lowly of heart." Think of all He suffered, and the manner in which He suffered it. He came into the world eager to bless and save it, but "He was despised and rejected of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." And yet in no instance was He ruffled by the injuries wrought on Himself. When the helpless and the poor were oppressed, He stood ready to defend them. How He scathed the Pharisees! Yet even in their case tenderness and love were in His heart, for immediately after His tremendous exposure He breaks out in a wail like a mother for the child of her love, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets," etc. And to the very close of life He remains the same. Isaiah ( Isaiah 53:7 ) and Peter ( 1 Peter 2:23 ) — the one in prophecy, the other in history — unite in bearing testimony to the meekness and gentleness of Christ. II. THE GENTLENESS OF CHRIST WAS NOT AN AMIABLE WEAKNESS. There are many who obtain credit for this virtue who have no manner of right to it. They are patient if any one wrongs them, and seem the incarnation of good humour. Often this disposition is simply a consciousness of helplessness or indifference. But Christ was gentle because He was strong. It was an awful power that Christ carried with Him; and were it not that we know how gentleness clothed that power, we should be ready to wonder that men did not shrink in fear before His presence. He had power enough to drive devils into the deep, yet gentleness to gather children in His arms. III. JESUS WAS GENTLE, BUT IT WAS NOT BECAUSE HE WAS IGNORANT OF MEN'S CHARACTERS. We may often act towards others in kindness and forbearance because we do not know them. But Christ knew what was in men; He was never deceived; and this was one of the reasons of His gentleness. He saw good as well as bad. He understood all the difficulties that beset men. Allowances were to be made, and He made them; circumstances were to be considered, and He considered them. We are hasty in judgment, because we are so ignorant of what passes within the hearts of those we condemn. Christ was full of forbearance, because He knew the whole. IV. JESUS WAS GENTLE, BUT NOT BECAUSE HE WAS INDIFFERENT TO JUSTICE AND PURITY. We often overlook sin, because we do not much care whether things are right or wrong. A child does wrong; a friend in amiable pity says, Oh, let him go this time." The friend cares very little about justice itself or the law of the household. When a criminal is taken, there are plenty of weak people who will urge you to let him go. They get credit for gentleness. But then, indeed, some people are always ready to forgive any wrong that has been done against some one else. People are careless because they have no hatred of what is evil in their own natures. They have sinned so much themselves that they readily condone sin in others. But all this is not true gentleness; it is indifference to righteousness. Now Christ's gentleness was not of this nature. He did care what men did. He was perfectly pure, and every sin wounded His heart like a poisoned arrow. He loved righteousness, and hated iniquity. He was as just as He was loving; and it was to vindicate Divine justice that He came to Calvary. He died the just for the unjust. V. THIS MEEKNESS AND GENTLENESS IS THE WEAPON BY WHICH CHRIST CONQUERS US. It is the power of His love that subdues human hearts. He will bear with men until His very patience and gentleness shall make them ashamed of their sin. What argument can be more powerful than this? ( W. Braden. )

Benson Commentary 2 Corinthians 10:1 Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: 2 Corinthians 10:1-3 . Now, &c. — Hitherto St. Paul’s discourse, in this epistle, was chiefly directed to those at Corinth who acknowledged his apostleship, and who had obeyed his orders, signified to them in his former letter. But in this and the remaining chapters he addresses the false teachers, and such of the faction as adhered to them, speaking to them with great authority, and threatening to punish them by his miraculous power, if they did not immediately repent. The different characters therefore of the two sorts of persons who composed the Corinthian Church, must be carefully attended to, otherwise this part of the epistle will appear a direct contradiction to what goes before. I Paul myself — A strongly emphatical expression; beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ — Our lowly and condescending Saviour; that meekness and gentleness which I have learned from his example, and desire to exercise toward the most unreasonable of my enemies; who in presence am base among you — According to the representation of some, and despised for the meanness of my appearance; but being absent am bold toward you — Using great freedom and authority in my letters. The false teachers, it seems, and their party, ridiculing the apostle’s threatenings in his former letter, had said that he was all meekness and humility when present among them; but very assuming and bold by letters, when absent, which they represented as wise carnal policy. To this the apostle here refers, and beseeches them that they would not compel him to be bold, and to exert his apostolical authority against some, who, on account of his meekness when present with them, had calumniated him as a person who walked after the flesh, or acted in a cowardly and crafty manner. For (he says) though he walked in the flesh — Inhabited a mortal body, and consequently was not free from human weakness, yet he assured them he did not war against idolaters and unbelievers, against the world and the devil; after the flesh — By any carnal weapons or worldly methods; but by such as were far more powerful. Though the apostle here, and in several other parts of this epistle, speaks in the plural number, for the sake of modesty and decency, and because he had associated Timothy with himself in this address to the Corinthians, yet he principally means himself. On him were these reflections cast, and it is his own authority which he is vindicating. 2 Corinthians 10:2 But I beseech you , that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. 2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 2 Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 2 Corinthians 10:4 . For the weapons of our warfare — Those we use in this war; are not carnal — But spiritual. As they were not aided in their endeavours to Christianize the world by human power and authority, so neither did they rely on learning or eloquence, or any thing which could recommend them to human regard: but our weapons are mighty through God — Namely, the word of God and prayer, attended with the influence of the Divine Spirit, in his various gifts and graces, giving efficacy to their preaching in public, their converse in private, and their holy, exemplary, and beneficent lives. The means they used to enlighten, reform, regenerate, and save the world, were effectual, because the Lord wrought with them, and confirmed their word with signs following, Mark 16:20 . Pulling down strong holds — Ignorance, prejudice, unbelief, fleshly lusts, worldly affections, desires of wealth, honour, pleasure, errors and vices of all sorts, and whatever was opposed by the wit, or wisdom, or power, or malice, or cruelty of men or devils, against the progress of the gospel in the world, and the influence of divine grace in the souls of men. In the original expression, ???? ?????????? ?????????? , the apostle appears to allude to the beating down of fortresses by means of military engines, to which engines he compares their spiritual weapons above mentioned. And as the strong holds of which he speaks were demolished chiefly by preaching the gospel, by plain and simple men, without wisdom of words, or, as he expresses himself, ( 1 Corinthians 1:21 ,) by the foolishness of preaching, there is, perhaps, also an allusion to the beating down of the walls of Jericho by the priests blowing their trumpets, and by the people shouting, Joshua 6:20 . 2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2 Corinthians 10:5-6 . Casting down imaginations — ????????? ???????????? , literally, demolishing reasonings, namely, such as were fallacious and sophistical, by which vain men endeavoured to controvert, disprove, or even expose to contempt and ridicule, the doctrine of the gospel, and the whole Christian system. For the reasonings which the apostle speaks of, and says they threw down, were not the candid reasonings of those who attentively considered the evidences of the gospel, but the sophisms of the Greek philosophers, and the false reasonings of the statesmen, and all others who, from bad dispositions, opposed the gospel by argument and sophistry. And these the apostles overturned; not by forbidding men to use their reason, but by opposing to them the most convincing arguments, drawn from the evident accomplishment of the Old Testament prophecies, the miraculous powers and gifts with which the apostles and first preachers of the gospel were endowed, the manifest excellence and salutary tendency and influence of the gospel, the blessed effect produced by it on the hearts and lives of multitudes, Jews and heathen, who had before been vicious and profane, but were now evidently reformed in principle and practice, and from the exemplary, useful, and holy lives of all those who in truth embraced the gospel. And every high thing that exalteth itself — In any way whatever; against the knowledge of God — That divine and spiritual acquaintance with him, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, wherein consisteth eternal life. The apostle, Macknight thinks, alludes to the turrets raised on the top of the walls of a besieged city or fortress, from which the besieged annoyed their enemies. To these high structures the apostle compared the proud imaginations of the enemies of revelation, concerning the sufficiency of men’s natural powers in all matters of religion and morality. And, we may add, all other vain conceits which men are wont to entertain of themselves, with regard to their natural or moral excellences, in consequence of which they disbelieve and disobey, or neglect the gospel, and live without God in the world. These, and such like imaginations, the apostles cast down by the force of the spiritual weapons which they made use of: and similar imaginations have, in all ages, been cast down by the faithful preaching of the true and genuine gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, accompanied by the influence of his Divine Spirit: and bringing into captivity every thought — Every proud and haughty notion of the mind of man; to the obedience of Christ — The true King of his people, and the Captain of our salvation. For, the evil reasonings above mentioned being destroyed, the mind itself is overcome and taken captive, lays down all authority of its own, and entirely gives itself up to perform, for the time to come, to Christ its conqueror, the obedience which he requires: and the various thoughts which arise in it, from that time forth, are made subservient to the will of Christ, as slaves are to the will of their lords. “In this noble passage, the apostle, with great energy, describes the method in which wicked men fortify themselves against the gospel, raising, as it were, one barrier behind another to obstruct its entrance into their minds. But when these are all thrown down, the gospel is received, and Christ is obeyed implicitly; every thought and reasoning taking its direction from him.” And having in readiness to revenge — Say, rather, avenge, or punish; all disobedience — Not only by spiritual censure, but by miraculous chastisements; when your obedience is fulfilled — When the sound part of you have given proof of your obedience, and thereby have distinguished yourselves from the others, that the innocent may not be punished with the guilty. “His love to the Corinthians, whom he desired to spare, and the infirm state of their church at present, made him choose to defer the punishment of these offenders till he had drawn off the affections of the Corinthians from their false apostles, and made them more unanimous in their regards to him. And this is the best excuse that can be made for the neglect of discipline in any church; namely, ‘that there is no place for severe remedies, when a disease hath infected the whole church.” — Whitby. It is to be remembered, it was before this time that the apostle had smitten Elymas with blindness; and it is highly probable, from this text, and others of a like nature, that some other miracles of this awful kind had been wrought by him, though they are not recorded in Scripture. 2 Corinthians 10:6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. 2 Corinthians 10:7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's. 2 Corinthians 10:7 . Do ye look on the outward appearance of things — Judging of me by my outward person, and the infirmities of my body, ( 2 Corinthians 10:1-2 ,) and not from the power of Christ resting on me, and working by me? 2 Corinthians 12:9 . If any man trust — ???????? ????? , be confident, in himself; that he is Christ’s minister — And claims authority on that account; let him think this again — Let him consider seriously; that as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s — Nor can any one produce more convincing proofs of Christ’s calling him to the ministry, and approving his discharge of it, than myself. By speaking thus, the apostle did not intend to acknowledge the false teacher referred to to be a true and faithful minister of Christ. That teacher had taken on himself the work of the ministry, and was by profession a servant of Christ. This Paul acknowledged, without entering into the consideration of his integrity or faithfulness. “At the same time, as he pretended to great powers of reasoning, the apostle desired him to reason this from himself: That if he was a minister of Christ merely by professing to be one, the apostle, who, besides laying claim to that character, had exercised miraculous powers among the Corinthians, was thereby shown to be more truly a minister of Christ than he was, who did not possess that proof.” — Macknight. See 2 Corinthians 11:23 . 2 Corinthians 10:8 For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed: 2 Corinthians 10:8-10 . For though I should boast somewhat more — Than I do, or they can do; of our apostolical authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification — To bring sinners to repentance and faith in Christ, and so to promote holiness; and not for your destruction — To drive any one to despair by excessive severity, or to the injury of any particular person; I should not be ashamed — By my power failing me when I should try it on the disobedient among you. In saying that his power had been given him not for their destruction, the apostle intimated to them, that when he had ordered them to cut off the incestuous person from their communion, he had not done it for the purpose of destroying him, but to preserve them from the contagion of his evil example. That I may not, &c. — That is, I say this that I may not seem as if I would, by any means, terrify you by letters — Threatening more than I can perform. For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful — In respect of boasting and threatening: or are convincing and affecting, manifesting great strength of reason, and power of persuasion. It cannot be hence concluded that St. Paul had written more than one epistle to them before this; for nothing is more common than this enallage or change of numbers. Indeed, the Greeks and Romans gave the name of letters to one letter: and that here referred to, and said to be weighty, was his first to the Corinthians, a letter in which he had sharply reproved the offenders, and threatened them in a very firm tone, particularly 2 Corinthians 4:18-18 , and through the whole of chap. 5. But his bodily presence is weak — From this it would appear that St. Paul was either a man of small stature, or that there was something in his countenance or address which was ungraceful. Indeed, Chrysostom, Nicephorus, and Lucian, (or rather the author of the Philopatris,) relate of him, not only that his stature was low, but that his body was crooked, and his head bald, which probably are the infirmities here referred to. Some have thought that he had also an impediment in his speech, but of that there does not appear to be any proof from the testimony of any ancient author. And his speech contemptible — ????????????? , literally, contemned. Here, however, the word seems intended to signify worthy of being contemned, which may refer to his manner of speaking. 2 Corinthians 10:9 That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. 2 Corinthians 10:10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. 2 Corinthians 10:11 Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present. 2 Corinthians 10:11-12 . Let such a one, whoever he be, think this — Reckon upon this as a certain fact; that such as we are in word by letters — However weighty and powerful they may be; when we are absent, such — The same also; will we be in deed, or action, when we are present — Our deeds will fully correspond to our words, and we shall do something to vindicate these pretences, if their speedy repentance do not prevent it. For we dare not, &c. — As if he had said, I, whose appearance and speech are so contemptible, cannot presume to make myself of the number, or to equal myself, as a partner of the same office, or to compare myself with some that commend themselves — As a partaker of the same labour! A strong irony. But they, measuring themselves by themselves — That is, by their own opinion of themselves, and making it the only standard whereby to judge of themselves; are not wise — Do not understand themselves, nor see their own inferiority to the apostles, evangelists, and many other extraordinary or even ordinary ministers of Christ. The meaning is, that the false teachers, in their conversations among themselves, measured or estimated themselves not according to their real worth, but according to the opinion which they had formed of themselves. They looked continually on themselves, surveying their own great imaginary qualifications, but not considering the vastly superior abilities of many others; and so formed a disproportionate opinion of themselves. And this is everywhere one of the greatest sources of pride. 2 Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. 2 Corinthians 10:13 But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. 2 Corinthians 10:13 . But we will not, like them, boast of things without measure — Assume the credit of other men’s labours, ( 2 Corinthians 10:15 ,) nor meddle with those converted by them; but according to the measure of the rule, or province, which God hath distributed, or allotted, to us — To me, in particular, as the apostle of the Gentiles; a measure which reaches even to you — Here “God is represented as measuring out, or dividing to, the first preachers of the gospel, their several offices, and their several scenes of action, that they might labour each in the parts assigned to them. To the apostles he allotted the charge of converting the world, and endowed them with gifts suited to the greatness of that work. To them, therefore, it belonged to form their converts into churches, and to appoint rules for their government. They had authority to dictate the religious faith and practice of mankind. In short, they had the supreme direction, under Christ, of all religious matters whatever. Yet none of them interfered in the labours of the others, except by common consent. The province assigned by God to the evangelists, and other inferior ministers, was to assist the apostles; to build upon the foundation laid by them; to labour in the gospel under their direction, and in all things to consider themselves as subordinate to the apostles.” 2 Corinthians 10:14 For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure , as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ: 2 Corinthians 10:14-16 . We stretch not, &c. — In preaching at Corinth, we do not, like the false teacher, go out of our line, as not reaching to you; but we are come even as far as you — By a gradual, regular process, having taken the intermediate places in our way. The apostles themselves, (unless they received particular direction to that purpose, see Acts 16:6-7 ,) “were not at liberty to preach in some countries, and pass by others. St. Paul, therefore, following this rule, preached in all the countries of the Lesser Asia, beginning at Jerusalem. From Asia he passed into Macedonia, where he preached in many of the chief cities. Then he preached in Greece, and particularly at Athens; and at last came to Corinth, in a regular course of preaching the gospel, where it had not been preached before.” Not — Like those whom I have had so much reason to complain of; boasting of things without, or beyond, our proper measure — Not intruding into churches planted by other men’s labours — Where we have no natural and proper call. “The apostle justly considered the false teacher’s coming, and establishing himself in the Corinthian church, as one of its ordinary pastors, and his assuming the direction of that church, in opposition to him, as an unlawful intrusion; because that church having been planted by St. Paul, the edification and direction of it belonged only to him, and the bishops and deacons ordained by him. Besides, this intruder, by pretending to more knowledge than the apostle, and by assuming an authority superior to his, endeavoured to draw the Corinthians from following his doctrines and precepts.” — Macknight. But having hope, when your faith is increased — And I can leave you to the care of your ordinary teachers; to be by you enlarged according to our rule — That is, with respect to our line of preaching; abundantly. To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you — The apostle hoped that the believers at Corinth would soon be so well instructed in the doctrines of the gospel, and so confirmed in the faith, as to render it proper for him to leave them to the care of others; and to go and preach the gospel in the countries beyond them, where the gospel had not been preached, namely, in the regions of Italy and Spain, whither we know he intended to go. For in Laconia, Arcadia, and the other countries of Peloponnesus, which composed the Roman province of Achaia, he had already preached the gospel, as is plain from the inscription of both his letters to the Corinthians. And not to boast in another man’s line — Or province, marked out, as it were, by a line; of things made ready to our hand — As some, who are very solicitous about their own case, affect to do, and then pride themselves in sowing the ground which others had cleared. As the apostle here contrasts his own behaviour with that of the false teacher, we may infer, from what he says, that that teacher took to himself great praise for having instructed the Corinthians more perfectly than, he said, Paul had done, and for having regulated the affairs of the church, which he pretended had been left in disorder by the apostle. 2 Corinthians 10:15 Not boasting of things without our measure, that is , of other men's labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, 2 Corinthians 10:16 To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. 2 Corinthians 10:17 But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 2 Corinthians 10:17-18 . But he that glorieth — Whether it be of planting or watering the churches; let him glory in the Lord — Not in himself, but in the power, love, and faithfulness of the Lord, who only can render any man’s labours successful. Let every minister remember it is to Christ that he owes all his ability for his work, and all his success in it. For not he that commendeth himself — With the greatest confidence, or boasts of any thing done by his power, or has a good opinion of himself, on account of any service he has performed; is approved — As faithful and sincere; but whom the Lord commendeth — By conferring on him the gifts and graces of his Spirit, and by blessing his labours. Let those, therefore, who are so ready to applaud themselves and each other, maturely consider this, and learn to be more solicitous than they are about approving themselves to their great Master, whether they be more or less regarded by their fellow- servants. 2 Corinthians 10:18 For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary 2 Corinthians 10:1 Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: Chapter 22 WAR. 2 Corinthians 10:1-6 (R.V) THE last four chapters of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians stand as manifestly apart as the two about the collection. A great deal too much has been made of this undeniable fact. If a man has a long letter to write, in which he wishes to speak of a variety of subjects, we may expect variations of tone, and more or less looseness of connection. If he has something on his mind which it is difficult to speak about, but which cannot be suppressed, we may expect him to keep it to the end, and to introduce it, perhaps, with awkward emphasis. The scholars who have argued, on the ground of the extreme difference of tone, and want of connection, that 2 Corinthians 10:1-18 ; 2 Corinthians 11:1-33 ; 2 Corinthians 12:1-21 ; 2 Corinthians 13:1-14 , of this Epistle were originally a separate letter, either earlier (Weisse) or later (Semler) than the first seven chapters, seem to have overlooked these obvious considerations. If Paul stopped dictating for the day at the end of 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 ; if he even stopped a few moments in doubt how to proceed to the critical subject he had still to handle-the want of connection is sufficiently explained; the tone in which he writes, when we consider the subject, needs no justification. The mission of Titus had resulted very satisfactorily, so far as one special incident was concerned-the treatment of a guilty person by the Church; the tension of feeling over that case had passed by. But in the general situation of affairs at Corinth there was much to make the Apostle anxious and angry. There were Judaists at work, impugning his authority and corrupting his Gospel; there was at least a minority of the Church under their influence; there were large numbers living, apparently, in the grossest sins; { 2 Corinthians 12:20 f.} there was something, we cannot but think, approaching spiritual anarchy. The one resource the Apostle has with which to encounter this situation-his one standing ground alike against the Church and those who were corrupting it-is his apostolic authority; and to the vindication of this he first addresses himself. This, I believe, explains the peculiar emphasis with which he begins: "Now I myself, I Paul entreat you." ????? ??? ?????? is not only the grammatical subject of the sentence, but if one may say so, the subject under consideration; it is the very person whose authority is in dispute who puts himself forward deliberately in this authoritative way. The ?? ("now") is merely transitional; the writer moves on, without indicating any connection, to another matter. In the long sentence which makes up the first and second verses, everything comes out at once-the Apostle’s indignation, in that extreme personal emphasis; his restraint of it, in the appeal to the meekness and gentleness of Christ; his resentment at the misconstruction of his conduct by enemies, who called him a coward at hand, and a brave man only at a safe distance; and his resolve, if the painful necessity is not spared him, to come with a rod and not spare. It is as if all this had been dammed up in his heart for long, and to say a single word was to say everything. The appeal to the meekness and gentleness of Christ is peculiarly affecting in such a connection; it is intended to move tile Corinthians, but what we feel is how it has moved Paul. It may be needful, on occasion, to assert oneself, or at least one’s authority; but it is difficult to do it without sin. It is an exhilarating sensation to human nature to be in the right, and when we enjoy it we are apt to enlist our temper in the divine service, forgetting that the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God. Paul felt this danger, and in the very sentence in which he puts himself and his dignity forward with uncompromising firmness, he recalls to his own and his readers’ hearts the characteristic temper of the Lord. How far He was, under the most hateful provocation, from violence and passion! How far from that sinful self-assertion, which cannot consider the case and claims of others! It is-when we are in the right that we must watch our temper, and, instead of letting anger carry us away, make our appeal for the right by the meekness and gentleness of Jesus. This, when right is won, makes it twice blessed. The words, "who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am of good courage toward you," are one of the sneers current in Corinth at Paul’s expense. When he was there, his enemies said, face to face with them, he was humble enough; it was only when he left them he became so brave. This mean slander must have stung the proud soul of the Apostle-the mere quotation of it shows this; but the meekness and gentleness of Christ have entered into him, and instead of resenting it he continues in a still milder tone. He descends from urging or entreating ( ???????? ) to beseeching ( ?????? ). The thought of Christ has told already on his heart and on his pen. He begs them so to order their conduct that he may be spared the pain of demonstrating the falsehood of that charge. He counts on taking daring action against some at Corinth who count of him as though he walked after the flesh; but they can make this face-to-face hardihood needless, and in the name not of his own cowardice, but of his Lord’s meekness and considerateness, he appeals to them to do so. ????????????? ???????????? . The charge of walking after the flesh is one that needs interpretation. In a general way it means that Paul was a worldly, and not a spiritual, man; and that the key to his character and conduct-even in his relations with Churches-was to be sought in his private and personal interests. What this would mean in any particular case would depend upon the circumstances. It might mean that he was actuated by avarice, and, in spite of pretences to be disinterested, was ruled at bottom by the idea of what would pay; or it might mean-and in this place probably does mean-that he had an undue regard for the opinion of others, and acted with feeble inconsistency in his efforts to please them. A man of whom either of these things could be truly said would be without spiritual authority, and it was to discredit the Apostle in the Church that the vague and damaging charge was made. He certainly shows no want of courage in meeting it. That he walks in the flesh, he cannot deny. He is a human being, wearing a weak nature, and all its maladies are incident to him. As far as that nature goes, it is as possible that he, as that any man, should be ruled by its love of ease or popularity; or, on the other hand, should be overcome by timidity, and shrink from difficult duties. But he denies that this is his case. He spends his life in this nature, with all its capacity for unworthy conduct; but in his Christian warfare he is not ruled by it-he has conquered it, and it has no power over him at all. "I was with you," he wrote in the First Epistle, "with weakness and fear and much trembling"; but "my speech and my preaching were with demonstration of the Spirit and of power." This is practically what he says here, and what must be said by every man who undertakes to do anything for God. No one can be half so well aware as he, if he is sincere at all, of the immense contrast between the nature in which he lives and the service to which he is called. None of his enemies can know so well as he the utter earthenness of the vessel in which the heavenly treasure is deposited. But the very meaning of a divine call is that a man is made master of this weakness, and through whatever pain and self-repression can disregard it for his work’s sake. With some men timidity is the great trial: for them, it is the flesh. They are afraid to declare the whole counsel of God; or they are afraid of some class, or of some particular person: they are brave with a pen perhaps, or in a pulpit, or surrounded by sympathizing spectators; but it is not in them to be brave alone, and to find in the Spirit a courage and authority which overbear the weakness of the flesh. From all such timidity, as an influence affecting his apostolic work, Paul can pronounce himself free. Like Jeremiah { Jeremiah 1:6-8 } and Ezekiel, { Ezekiel 2:6-8 } he is naturally capable, but spiritually incapable of it. He is full of might by the Spirit of the Lord: and when he takes the field in the Lord’s service, the flesh is as though it were not. Since the expression ?? ????? ????????????? refers to the whole of the Apostle’s life, it seems natural to take ???????????? as referring to the whole of his ministry, and not solely to his present campaign against the Corinthians. It is of his apostolic labours in general-of course including that which lay immediately before him-that he says: "The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strong holds." Nobody but an evangelist could have written this sentence. Paul knew from experience that men fortify themselves against God: they try to find impregnable positions in which they may defy Him, and live their own life. Human nature, when God is announced to speak, instinctively puts itself on its guard; and you cannot pass that guard, as Paul was well aware, with weapons furnished by the flesh. The weapons need to be divinely strong: mighty in God’s sight, for God’s service, with God’s own might. There is an answer in this to many of the questions that are being asked at present about methods of evangelizing; where the divinely powerful weapons are found, such questions give no trouble. No man who has ever had a direct and unmistakable blessing on his work as an evangelist has ever enlisted "the flesh" in God’s service. No such man has ever seen, or said, that learning, eloquence, or art in the preacher: or bribes of any sort to the hearer; or approaches to the "strong holds," constructed of amusements, lectures, concerts, and so forth, were of the very slightest value. He who knows anything about the matter knows that it is a life-and-death interest which is at stake when the soul comes face to face with the claims and the mercy of God; and that the preacher who has not the hardihood to represent it as such will not be listened to, and should not be. Paul was armed with this tremendous sense of what the Gospel was-the immensity of grace in it, the awfulness of judgment; and it was this which gave him his power, and lifted him above the arts, the wisdom, and the timidity of the flesh. A man will hold his own against anything but this. He will parley with any weapon flesh can fashion or wield; this is the only one to which he surrenders. Perhaps in the fifth verse { 2 Corinthians 10:5 }, which is an expansion of "the casting down of strong holds," a special reference to the Corinthians begins to be felt: at all events they might easily apply it to themselves. "Casting down imaginations," the Apostle says, "and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God." "Imaginations" is probably a fair enough rendering of ????????? . though the margin has "reasonings," and the same word in Romans 2:15 is rendered "thoughts." To what it applies is not very obvious. Men do certainly fortify themselves against the Gospel in their thoughts. The proud wisdom of the Greek was familiar to the Apostle, and even the obvious fact that it had not brought the world salvation was not sufficient to lower its pride. The expression has sometimes been censured as justifying the sacrificium intellectus or as taking away freedom of thought in religion. To think of Paul censuring the free exercise of intelligence in religion is too absurd; but there is no doubt that, with his firm hold of the great facts on which the Christian faith depends, he would have dealt very summarily with theories, ancient or modern, which serve no purpose but to fortify men against the pressure of these facts. He would not have taken excessive pains to put himself in the speculator’s place, and see the world as he sees it, with the most stupendous realities left out; he would not have flattered with any affected admiration that most self-complacent of mortals-the wise of this world. He would have struck straight at the heart and conscience with the spiritual weapons of the Gospel; he would have spoken of sin and judgment, of reconciliation and life in Christ, till these great realities had asserted their greatness in the mind, and in doing so had shattered the proud intellectual structures which had been reared in ignorance or contempt of them. "Thoughts" and "imaginations" must yield to things, and make room for them: it was on this principle Paul wrought. And to "thoughts" or "imaginations" he adds "every high thing [ ????? ] that exalts itself against the knowledge of God." The emphasis is on "every"; the Apostle generalizes the opposition which he has to encounter. It may not be so much in the "thoughts" of men, as in their tempers, that they fortify themselves. Pride, which by the instinct of self-preservation sees at once to the heart of the Gospel, and closes itself against it; which hates equally the thought of absolute indebtedness to God and the thought of standing on the same level with others in God’s sight,-this pride raises in every part of our nature its protest against the great surrender. It is implied in the whole structure of this passage that "the knowledge of God" against which every high thing in man rises defiantly is a humbling knowledge. In other words, it is not speculative merely, but has an ethical significance, which the human heart is conscious of even at a distance, and makes ready to acknowledge or to resist. No high thing lifts itself up in us against a mere theorem-a doctrine of God which is as a doctrine in algebra; it is the practical import of knowing God which excites the rebellion of the soul. No doubt, for the Apostle, the knowledge of God was synonymous with the Gospel: it was the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ; it was concentrated in the Cross and the Throne of His Son, in the Atonement and the Sovereignty of Christ. The Apostle had to beat down all the barriers by which men closed their minds against this supreme revelation; he had to win for these stupendous facts a place in the consciousness of humanity answering to their grandeur. Their greatness made him great: he was lifted up on them; and though he walked in the flesh, in weakness and fear and much trembling, he could confront undaunted the pride and the wisdom of the world, and compel them to acknowledge his Lord. This meaning is brought out more precisely in the words with which he continues-"bringing every, thought, into captivity" to the obedience of Christ. If we suppose a special reference here to the Corinthians, it will be natural to take ????? ("thought") in a practical sense-as, e.g., in 2 Corinthians 2:2 , where it is rendered "devices." The Corinthians had notions of their own, apparently, about how a Church should be regulated-wild, undisciplined, disorderly notions; and in the absence of the Apostle they were experimenting with them freely. It is part of his work to catch these runaway thoughts, and make them obedient to Christ again. It seems, however, much more natural to allow the wilder reference of ??????????????? to the whole of Paul’s apostolic work; and then ????? also will be taken in a less restricted sense. Men’s minds, and all that goes on in their minds ( ??????? covers both: see 2 Corinthians 2:11 ; 2 Corinthians 3:14 ; 2 Corinthians 4:4 ), are by nature lawless: they are without the sense of responsibility to guard and consecrate the sense of freedom. When the Gospel makes them captive, this lawless liberty comes to an end. The mind, in all its operations, comes under law to Christ: in its every thought it is obedient to Him. The supremacy which Christ claims and exercises is over the whole nature: the Christian man feels that nothing-not even a thought-lies beyond the range in which obedience is due to Him. This practical conviction will not paralyse thinking in the very least, but it will extinguish many useless and bad thoughts, and give their due value to all. The Apostle descends unmistakably from the general to the particular in 2 Corinthians 10:6 "Being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." Apparently what he contemplates in Corinth is a disobedience which in part at least will refuse to surrender to Christ. There is a spirit abroad there, in the Judaists especially, and in those whom they have influenced, which will not bend, and must be broken. How Paul means to take vengeance on it, he does not say. He is confident himself that the divinely powerful weapons which he wields will enable him to master it, and that is enough. Whatever the shape the disobedience may assume,-hostility to the Gospel of Paul, as subversive of the law; hostility to his apostolic claims, as unequal to those of the Twelve; hostility to the practical authority he asserted in Churches of his founding, and to the moral ideas he established there,-whatever the face which opposition may present, he declares himself ready to humble it. One limitation only he imposes on himself-he will do this, "when the obedience of the Corinthians is fulfilled." He expressly distinguishes the Church as a whole from those who represent or Constitute the disobedient party. There have been misunderstandings between the Church and himself; but as 2 Corinthians 1:1-24 ; 2 Corinthians 2:1-17 ; 2 Corinthians 3:1-18 ; 2 Corinthians 4:1-18 ; 2 Corinthians 5:1-21 ; 2 Corinthians 6:1-18 ; 2 Corinthians 7:1-16 show, these have been so far overcome: the body of the Church has reconciled itself to its founder; it has returned, so to speak, to its allegiance to Paul, and has busied itself in carrying out his will. When this process, at present only in course, is completed, his way will be clear. He will be able to act with severity and decision against those who have troubled the Church, without running any risk of hurting the Church itself. This leads again to the reflection that, with all his high consciousness of spiritual power, with all his sense of personal wrong, the most remarkable characteristic of Paul is love. He waits to the last moment before he resorts to severer measures; and he begs those who may suffer from them, begs them by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, to spare him such pain. 2 Corinthians 10:7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's. Chapter 23 COMPARISONS. 2 Corinthians 10:7-18 (R.V) THIS passage abounds with grammatical and textual difficulties, but the general import and the purpose of it are plain. The self-assertion of ????? ??? ?????? ( 2 Corinthians 10:1 ) receives its first interpretation and expansion here: we see what it is that Paul claims, and we begin to see the nature of the opposition against which his claim has to be made good. Leaving questions of grammatical construction aside, vv. 7 and 8 { 2 Corinthians 10:7-8 } define the situation; and it is convenient to take them as if they stood alone. There was a person in Corinth-more than one indeed, but one in particular, as the ??? in 2 Corinthians 10:7 and the singular ????? in 2 Corinthians 10:10 suggest-who claimed to be Christ’s, or of Christ, in a sense which disparaged and was meant to disparage Paul. If we use the plural, to include them all, we must not suppose that they are identical with the party in the Church who are censured in the First Epistle for saying, "I am of Christ," just as others said, "I am of Paul," "I am of Apollos," "I am of Cephas." That party may have been dependent upon them, but the individuals here referred to are taxed with an exclusiveness and arrogance, and in the close of the chapter with a wanton trespassing on Paul’s province, which show that they were not native to the Church, but intruders into it. They were confident that they were Christ’s in a sense which discredited Paul’s apostleship, and entitled them, so to speak, to legitimate a Church which his labors had called into being. Everything compels us to recognize in them Jewish Christians, who had been connected with Christ in a way in which Paul had not; who had known Him in the flesh, or had brought recommendatory letters from the Mother Church at Jerusalem; and who on the Strength of these accidents, gave themselves airs of superiority in Pauline Churches, and corrupted the simplicity of the Pauline Gospel. The first words in 2 Corinthians 10:7 - ?? ???? ???????? ??????? -are no doubt directed to this situation but they have been very variously rendered. Our Authorized Version has, "Do ye look on things after the outward appearance?" That is, "Are you really imposed upon by the pretensions of these men, by their national and carnal distinctions, as if these had anything to do with the Gospel?" This is a good Pauline idea, but it is doubtful whether ?? ???? ???????? can yield it. The natural sense of these words is, "What is before your face." The Revised Version accordingly renders, "Ye look at the things that are before your face": meaning, apparently, "You allow yourselves to be carried away by whatever is nearest to you-at present, by these interloping Jews, and the claims they flaunt before your eyes." It seems to me more natural, with many good scholars, to take ??????? , in spite its unemphatic position, as imperative: "Look at the things which are before your faces! The most obvious and palpable facts discredit these Judaists and accredit me. A claim to be Christ’s is not to be made out a priori by any carnal prerogatives, or any human recommendations; it is only made out by this-that Christ Himself attests it by giving him who makes it success as an evangelist. Look at what confronts you! There is not a single Christian thing you see which is not Christ’s own testimony that I am His; unless you are senseless and blind, my position and authority as an apostle can never be impugned among you." The argument is thus the same as that which he uses in 2 Corinthians 3:1-3 , and in the First Epistle, 2 Corinthians 9:2 . At first Paul asserts only a bare equivalence to his Jewish opponent: "Let him consider this with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also are we." The historical, outward connection with Christ, whatever it may have been, amounted in this relation to exactly nothing at all. Not what Christ was, but what He is, is the life and reality of the Christian religion. Not an accidental acquaintance with Him as He lived in Galilee or Jerusalem, but a spiritual fellowship with Him as He reigns in the heavenly places, makes a Christian. Not a letter written by human hands-though they should be the hands of Peter or James or John-legitimates a man in the apostolic career; but only the sovereign voice which says, "He is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name." Neither as Christian nor as apostle can one establish a monopoly by making his appeal to "the flesh." The application of this Christian truth has constantly to be made anew, for human nature loves a monopoly; it does not seem really to have a thing, unless its possession of it is exclusive. We are all too ready to unchurch, or unchristianise, others; to say, "We are Christ’s," with an emphasis which means that others are not. Churches with a strong organization are especially tempted to this unchristian narrowness and pride. Their members think almost instinctively of other Christians as outsiders and inferiors; they would like to take them in, to reordain their ministers, to reform their constitution, to give validity to their sacraments-in one word, to legitimate them as Christians and as Christian societies. All this is mere unintelligence and arrogance. Legitimacy is a convenient and respectable political fiction; but to make the constitution of any Christian body, which has developed under the pressure of historical exigencies, the law for the legitimation of Christian life, ministry, and worship everywhere, is to deny the essential character of the Christian religion. It is to play toward men whom Christ has legitimated by His Spirit, and by His blessing on their work, precisely the part which the Judaisers played toward Paul; and to compromise with it is to betray Christ, and to renounce the freedom of the Spirit. But the Apostle does not stop short with claiming a bare equality with his rivals. "For though I should boast somewhat more abundantly concerning our authority I shall not be put to shame"-i.e., "The facts I have invited you to look at will bear me out." The key to this passage is to be found in 1 Corinthians 15:15 , where he boasts that, though the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, he had, through the grace of God given to him, labored more abundantly than all the rest. If it came to comparison, then, of the attestation which Christ gave to their several labors, and so to their authority, by success in evangelizing, it would not be Paul who would have to hide his head. But he does not choose to boast any more of his authority at this point. He has no desire to clothe himself in terrors; on the contrary, he wishes to avoid the very appearance of scaring them out of their wits by his letters. {for ???????? compare Mark 9:6 ; Hebrews 12:21 } His authority has been given him, not for the pulling down, but for the building up, of the Church; it is not lordly, { 2 Corinthians 1:24 } but ministerial; and he would wish, not only to show it in kindly service, but also in a kindly aspect. "Not for casting down," in 2 Corinthians 10:8 , is no contradiction of "mighty for casting down" in 2 Corinthians 10:4 : the object in the two cases is quite different. Many things in man must be cast down-many high thoughts, much pride, much willfulness, much presumption and self-sufficiency-but the casting down of these is the building up of souls. At this point comes what is logically a parenthesis, and we hear in it the criticisms passed at Corinth on Paul, and his own reply to them. "His letters," they say (or, he says), "are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence weak, and his speech of no account." The last part of this criticism has been much misunderstood; it is really of moral import, but has been read in a physical sense. It does not say anything at all about the Apostle’s physique, or about his eloquence or want of eloquence; it tells us that (according to these critics), when he was actually present at Corinth, he was somehow or other ineffective; and when he spoke there, people simply disregarded him. An uncertain tradition no doubt represents Paul as an infirm and meager person, and it is easy to believe that to Greeks he must sometimes have seemed embarrassed and incoherent in speech to the last degree (what, for instance, could have seemed more formless to a Greek than vv. 12-18 of this chapter?) { 2 Corinthians 10:12-18 }: nevertheless, it is nothing like this which is in view here. The criticism is not of his physique, nor of his style, but of his personality-what is described is not his appearance nor his eloquence, but the effect which the man produced when he went to Corinth and spoke. It was nothing. As a man, bodily present, he could get nothing done: he talked, and nobody listened. It is implied that this criticism is false; and Paul bids any one who makes it consider that what he is in word by letters when he is absent, that he will also be in deed when he is present. The double role of potent pamphleteer and ineffective pastor is not for him. The kind of criticism which was here passed on St. Paul is one to which every preacher is obnoxious. An epistle is, so to speak, the man’s words without the man; and such is human weakness, that they are often stronger than the man speaking in bodily presence, that is, than the man and his words together. The character of the speaker, as it were, discounts all he says; and when he is there, and delivers his message in person, the message itself suffers an immense depreciation. This ought not so to be, and with a man who cultivates sincerity will not so be. He will be, himself, as good as his words; his effectiveness will be the same whether he writes or speaks. Nothing ultimately counts in the work of a Christian minister but what he can say and do and get done when in direct contact with living men. In many cases the modern sermon really answers to the epistle as it is referred to in this sarcastic comment; in the pulpit, people say, the minister is impressive and memorable; but in the ordinary intercourse of life, and even in the pastoral relation, where he has to meet people on an equal footing, his power quite disappears. He is an ineffective person, and his words have no weight. Where this is true, there is something very far wrong; and though it was not true in the case of Paul, there are cases in which it is. To bring the pastoral up to the level of the pulpit work-the care of individual souls and characters to the intensity and earnestness of study and preaching-would be the saving of many a minister and many a congregation. But to return to the text. The Apostle is disinclined to pursue this line further: in defending himself against these obscure detractors, he can hardly avoid the appearance of self-commendation, which of all things he abhors. An acute observer has remarked that when war lasts long the opposing combatants borrow each other’s weapons and tactics: and it was this uninviting weapon that the policy of his opponents laid to the Apostle’s hand. With ironical recognition of their hardihood, he declines it: "We are not bold-have not the courage-to number ourselves among, or compare ourselves with, certain of them that commend themselves" - i.e., the Judaists who had introduced themselves to the Church. "Far be it from me," says the Apostle grimly, "to claim a place among, or near, such a distinguished company." But he is too much in earnest to prolong the ironical strain, and in the verses which follow, from 12 to 16 { 2 Corinthians 10:12-16 }, he states in good set terms the differences between himself and them. (1) They measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves among themselves, and in so doing are without understanding. They constitute a religious coterie, a sort of clique or ring in the Church, ignoring all but themselves, making themselves the only standard of what is Christian, and betraying, by that very proceeding, their want of sense. There is a fine liberality about this sharp saying, and it is as necessary now as in the first century. Men coalesce, within the limits of the Christian community, from affinities of various kinds-sympathy for a type or an aspect of doctrine, or liking for a form of polity; and as it is easy, so is it common, for those who have drifted like to like, to set up their own associations and preferences as the only law and model for all. They take the air of superior persons, and the penalty of the superior person is to be unintelligent. They are without understanding. The standard of the coterie - be it "evangelical," "high church," "broad church." or what you please-is not the standard of God: and to measure all things by it is not only sinful, but stupid. In contrast to this Judaistic clique, who saw no Christianity except under their own colors, Paul’s standard is to be found in the actual working of God through the Gospel. He would have said with Ignatius, only with a deeper insight into every word, "Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church." (2) Another point of difference is this: Paul works independently as an evangelist; it has always been his rule to break new ground. God has assigned him a province to labor in, large enough to gratify the highest ambition: he is not going beyond it, nor exaggerating his authority, when he asserts his apostolic dignity in Corinth: the Corinthians know as well as he that he came all the way to them, and was the first to come, ministering the Gospel of Christ. Nay, it is only the weakness of their faith that keeps him from going farther: and he has hope that as their faith grows it will set him free to carry the Gospel beyond them to Italy and Spain; this would be the crown of his greatness as an evangelist, and it depends on them ( ?? ???? ???????????? ) whether he is to win it; in any case, the winning of it would be