         
• Key
Chapter 7
The apostle's inference from the preceding
exhortation, 1.
He presses them to receive him with
affection, because of his great love towards them,
2-4.
He tells them what distress he felt on their account
in Macedonia, till he had met with Titus, and heard of
their prosperity, 6-7.
He rejoices that his
first epistle was made the means of their
reformation, 8,9.
States how they were affected by
his letter, and the process of their reformation,
10,11.
Shows why he had written to them, 12.
Rejoices that his boasting of them to Titus is found to be
a truth; and takes occasion to mention the great
affection of Titus for them, and his own confidence in
them, 13-16.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 1. Having therefore these
promises
The promises mentioned in the
three last verses of the preceding chapter, to which this
verse should certainly be joined.
Let us cleanse
ourselves
Let us apply to him for the
requisite grace of purification; and avoid every thing in
spirit and practice which is opposite to the doctrine of God,
and which has a tendency to pollute the soul.
Filthiness of the
flesh
The apostle undoubtedly means,
drunkenness, fornication, adultery, and all such sins
as are done immediately against the body; and by
filthiness of the spirit, all impure desires, unholy
thoughts, and polluting imaginations. If we avoid and abhor
evil inclinations, and turn away our eyes from beholding
vanity, incentives to evil being thus lessened, (for the eye
affects the heart,) there will be the less danger of our
falling into outward sin. And if we avoid all outward
occasions of sinning, evil propensities will certainly be
lessened. All this is our work under the common aids of
the grace of God. We may turn away our eyes and ears from
evil, or we may indulge both in what will infallibly beget
evil desires and tempers in the soul; and under the same
influence we may avoid every act of iniquity; for even
Satan himself cannot, by any power he has, constrain us
to commit uncleanness, robbery, drunkenness, murder,
body and soul must consent. But still
withholding the eye, the ear, the hand, and the body in
general, from sights, reports, and acts of evil,
will not purify a fallen spirit; it is the grace and Spirit of
Christ alone, powerfully applied for this very purpose, that
can purify the conscience and the heart from all dead works.
But if we do not withhold the food by which the man of sin is
nourished and supported, we cannot expect God to purify our
hearts. While we are striving against sin, we may
expect the Spirit of God to purify us by his inspiration from
all unrighteousness, that we may perfectly love and magnify
our Maker. How can those expect God to purify their hearts who
are continually indulging their eyes, ears, and
hands in what is forbidden, and in what tends to
increase and bring into action all the evil propensities of
the soul?
Perfecting holiness
Getting the whole mind of Christ brought into the soul.
This is the grand object of a genuine Christian's pursuit. The
means of accomplishing this are, 1. Resisting and avoiding
sin, in all its inviting and seducing forms. 2. Setting the
fear of God before our eyes, that we may dread his
displeasure, and abhor whatever might excite it, and whatever
might provoke him to withhold his manna from our mouth. We
see, therefore, that there is a strong and orthodox sense in
which we may cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and of the spirit, and thus perfect
holiness in the fear of God.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 2. Receive us
χωρησατεημας. This address is variously understood.
Receive us into your affections-love us as we
love you. Receive us as your apostles and
teachers; we have given you full proof that God hath both sent
and owned us. Receive, comprehend, what we now say to
you, and carefully mark it.
We have wronged no
man
We have never acted contrary to the
strictest justice.
We have corrupted no
man
With any false doctrine or pernicious
opinion.
We have defrauded no
man.
Of any part of his property. But what
have your false teachers done? They have beguiled you
from the simplicity of the truth, and thus
corrupted your minds. 2 Corinthians
11:3. They have brought you into bondage; they have
taken of you; devoured you; axalted themselves
against you, and ye have patiently suffered all
this. 2 Corinthians
11:20. It is plain that he refers here to the false
apostle or teacher which they had among them.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 3. I speak not this to
condemn you
I do not speak to reproach but
to correct you. I wish you to open your eyes and see how you
are corrupted, spoiled, and impoverished by those whom ye have
incautiously preferred to the true apostles of Jesus Christ.
I have said before, that ye are in
our hearts
He has in effect and substance
said this, 2 Corinthians
1:6-8;; 2:4,12;;
3:2,13;
where see the passages at length, and the notes.
To die and live with
you.
An expression which points out the
strongest affection, as in cases where love blinds us to the
faults of those whom we love, and causes us to prefer them to
all others; like that in Horace:-
Quanquam sidere pulchrior llle est, tu levior cortice, et
improbo Iracundior Adria. Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam
tibens. ODAR. lib. iii. Od. ix. ver. 21.
"Though he exceed in beauty far The rising lustre of a
star; Though light as cork thy fancy strays, Thy passions wild
as angry seas When vex'd with storms; yet gladly I
With thee would live, with thee would die." FRANCIS.
From all appearance there never was a Church less worthy of
an apostle's affections than this Church was at this time; and
yet no one ever more beloved. The above quotation applies to
this case in full force.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 4. Great is my boldness of
speech
He seems to refer to the manner in
which he spoke of them to others.
Great is my glorying of
you
They had probably been very loving and
affectionate previously to the time in which they were
perverted by their false apostle. He therefore had
boasted of them in all the Churches.
I am filled with
comfort
My affection for you has still the
most powerful ascendancy in my soul. Here we may see the
affection of the most tender father to his children.
I am exceeding
joyful
υπερπερισσευομαι. I superabound in
joy; I have a joy beyond expression. υπερπερισσευω is an
extremely rare verb. I have not met with it in any Greek
author; and it occurs no where in the New Testament but here
and in Romans
5:20.
In all our
tribulation.
Perhaps επι here should be
rendered under instead of in, as it signifies,
Mark
2:26; ; Luke
3:2; Acts
11:28. Under all our tribulations, I feel
inexpressible joy on your account.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 5. When we were come into
Macedonia
St. Paul, having left Ephesus,
came to Troas, where he stopped some time; afterwards he came
to Macedonia, whence he wrote this epistle,
Our flesh had no
rest
So exceedingly anxious was he to know
the success of his first epistle to them.
Without were
fightings
The oppositions of pagans,
Jews, and false brethren.
Within were
fears.
Uncertain conjectures relative to
the success of his epistle; fears lest the severity of it
should alienate their affections utterly from him; fears lest
the party of the incestuous person should have prevailed;
fears lest the teaching of the false apostle should have
perverted their minds from the simplicity of the truth; all
was uncertainty, all apprehension; and the Spirit of God did
not think proper to remove the causes of these apprehensions
in any extraordinary way.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 6. Comforted us by the coming
of Titus
Who brought him a most
satisfactory account of the success of his epistle, and the
good state of the Corinthian Church.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 7. He told us your earnest
desire
To see me, and correct what was
amiss among yourselves.
Your mourning
Because you had sinned.
Your fervent mind
The zeal you felt to testify your affectionate regard for
me.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 8. I do not repent, though I
did repent
Though I had many doubts in my
mind concerning the success of my letter; and though I grieved
that I was obliged to write with so much severity, the case
absolutely requiring it; yet now I am not sorry that I have
written that letter, because I find it has completely answered
the end for which it was sent.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 9. Ye sorrowed to
repentance
Ye had such a sorrow as produced
a complete change of mind and conduct. We see that a man may
sorrow, and yet not repent.
Made sorry after a godly
manner
It was not a sorrow because ye were
found out, and thus solemnly reprehended, but a sorrow because
ye had sinned against God, and which consideration caused you
to grieve more than the apprehension of any punishment.
Damage by us in
nothing.
Your repentance prevented that
exercise of my apostolic duty, which would have consigned your
bodies to destruction, that your souls might be saved in the
day of the Lord Jesus.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 10. For godly
sorrow
That which has the breach of God's
holy law for its object.
Worketh repentance
A thorough change of mind unto salvation, because
the person who feels it cannot rest till he finds
pardon through the mercy of God.
But the sorrow of the world
worketh death.
Sorrow for lost goods, lost
friends, death of relatives, and deep, produces diseases,
increases those that already exist, and often leads men to lay
desperate hands on themselves. This sorrow leads to
destruction, the other leads to salvation; the one leads to
heaven, the other to hell.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 11. What carefulness it
wrought in you
Carefulness of obeying my
directions, 2 Corinthians
7:15; yea, what clearing of yourselves from
guilt by inflicting censures on the guilty person, and putting
away evil from among you, 1 Corinthians
5:13; yea, what indignation against him who had
dishonoured his profession, and defiled the Church; yea,
what fear of my displeasure, and the rod which I
threatened, 1 Corinthians
4:21; yea, what vehement desire to rectify what was
amiss in this matter, 2 Corinthians
7:7; yea, what zeal for me; yea, what
revenge in punishing the delinquent. See Whitby.
In all things, since ye have received my
letter, ye have approved yourselves to be clear,
αγνους; not only to be clear of contumacy and obstinate
persistance in your former conduct, but to have done all in
the compass of your power to rectify the abuses which had
crept in among you. The Corinthians were not clear,
i.e. innocent or void of blame in the fact, but they were
clear of all blame in their endeavours to remove the
evil.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 12. Not for his cause that had
done the wrong
viz. the incestuous person.
Nor for his cause that suffered
wrong
Some think the apostle means himself;
others, that he means the Church at Corinth, the
singular being put for the plural; others, the
family of the incestuous person; and others, the
father of the incestuous person. If this latter opinion
be adopted, it would seem to intimate that the father of this
person was yet alive, which would make the
transgression more flagrant; but these words might be spoken
in reference to the father, if dead, whose cause should
be vindicated; as his injured honour might be considered, like
Abel's blood, to be crying from the earth.
But that our care for you-might
appear
It was not to get the delinquent
punished, nor merely to do justice to those who had suffered
in this business, that the apostle wrote his epistle to them,
but that they might have the fullest proof of his fatherly
affection for them, and his concern for the honour of God; and
that they might thereby see how unnatural their opposition to
him was, and what cause they had to prefer him, who was ready
to give up his life in their service, to that false apostle or
teacher who was corrupting their minds, leading them from the
simplicity of the truth, and making a gain of them.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 13. For the joy of
Titus
Titus, who had now met St. Paul in
Macedonia, gave him the most flattering accounts of the
improved state of the Corinthian Church; and indeed their kind
usage of Titus was a full proof of their affection for St.
Paul.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 14. For if I have
boasted
The apostle had given Titus a very
high character of this Church, and of their attachment to
himself; and doubtless this was the case previously to the
evil teacher getting among them, who had succeeded in changing
their conduct, and changing in a great measure their character
also; but now they return to themselves, resume their lost
ground, so that the good character which the apostle gave them
before, and which they had for a time forfeited, is now as
applicable to them as ever. Therefore his boasting of them
is still found a truth.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 15. And his inward
affection
τασπλαγαγχνααυτου. Those
bowels of his-his most tender affection. For the meaning
of this word See Clarke on Matthew
9:36.
Whilst he remembereth the
obedience of you all
This is a very natural
picture; he represents Titus as overjoyed even while he is
delivering his account of the Corinthian Church. He expatiated
on it with extreme delight, and thereby showed at once both
his love for St. Paul and his love for them. He loved them
because they so loved the apostle; and he loved them because
they had shown such kindness to himself; and he loved them
because he found so many excellent and rare gifts, joined to
so much humility, producing such an exemplary and holy life.
With fear and trembling ye
received him.
Ye reverenced his
authority; ye were obedient to his directions; and ye
dreaded lest any thing should be undone or ill done
which he had delivered to you in the name of God.
• AC Top
JFB
Verse 16. I have confidence in you,
in all things.
It appears that the apostle
was now fully persuaded, from the accounts given by Titus,
that every scandal had been put away from this Church; that
the faction which had long distracted and divided them was
nearly broken; that all was on the eve of being restored to
its primitive purity and excellence; and that their character
was now so firmly fixed, that there was no reason to apprehend
that they should be again tossed to and fro with every wind of
doctrine.
- 1. THUS a happy termination was put to an affair that
seemed likely to ruin the Christian Church, not only at
Corinth, but through all Greece; for, if this bad man, who had
been chief in opposing the apostle's authority, bringing in
licentious doctrines, and denying the resurrection of the
dead, had ultimately succeeded at Corinth, his doctrine and
influence might soon have extended over Greece and Asia Minor,
and the great work of God which had been wrought in those
parts would have been totally destroyed.
This one
consideration is sufficient to account for the apostle's great
anxiety and distress on account of the divisions and heresies
at Corinth. He knew it was a most pernicious leaven; and,
unless destroyed, must destroy the work of God. The loss of
the affections of the Church at Corinth, however much it might
affect the tender, fatherly heart of the apostle, cannot
account for the awful apprehensions, poignant distress, and
deep anguish, which he, in different parts of these epistles,
so feelingly describes; and which he describes as having been
invariably his portion from the time that he heard of their
perversion, till he was assured of their restoration by the
account brought by Titus.
• AC Top
Top of SRB References ^
Top of JFB Comentary ^
Top Of Adam Clarke Commentary ^
Top of Page ^
Copyright Statement
The Adam Clarke Commentary is a derivative of an
electronic edition prepared by GodRules.net.
Bibliography
Information
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary
on 2 Corinthians 7". "The Adam Clarke Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=2co&chapter=007>.
1832.
|
