1.
It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2.
I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
3.
And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4.
How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
5.
Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.
6.
For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
7.
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
8.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
9.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
11.
I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.
12.
Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.
13.
For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.
14.
Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
15.
And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
16.
But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
17.
Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you?
18.
I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?
19.
Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.
20.
For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:
21.
And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
CALUMNIATIONS, SECRET MALIGNINGS
How frequently these things so prevail in a church as to bring about alienation’s, conflicts and terrible apostasies! The one of these words means open slander, which is so pestilential and ruinous among the members of a church, and the other means private gossip creeping round among the people, undermining and utterly ruining spirituality. I have known churches divided up into factions and filled with parties mutually recriminating each other, until they all become a pandemonium. “Inflation’s,” i. e., people puffed up with pride, vanity, egotism, self-importance, which are flagrantly incompatible with the humility, meekness and lowliness indispensable in Christian character. “Out-fallings.” How few large church organizations can we find without cases of this kind? Members partaking the same sacrament and refusing to speak to each other, and of course eating and drinking damnation to their souls. The Corinthian church was very large, mainly Gentiles, but many Jews in it; thus consisting of heterogeneous elements, easily kindled by Satan into a Hellish conflagration if once they only forfeit the equilibrium of sustaining grace and sanctifying power.
21. “ And I again coming, God shall not humble me before you, and I will weep over many of those who had sinned and not repented over their uncleanness, fornication and lasciviousness which they had practiced.” The verb is in the aorist tense, indicating an action complete, recognizing the fact that they had been guilty of these things, but that they were all taken away. Here we have three words indicating different phases of that same dark iniquity which was so prevalent in Corinth, the emporium of prostitution, which was popularized by the worship of Venus, the goddess of love, or more properly sensuality, which was so prominent there that more than a thousand priestesses were connected with her worship and living dissolute lives, thus apologizing for debauchery by the plausibility of religion. This awful state of things, and the fact that evidently very many of his converts were saved from low debauchery and gross sensuality, accounts for the wonderful emphasis laid on this phase of immorality throughout both the epistles.