2 Corinthians 12:16-21 | |
16. But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. | 16. Sed esto: ipse non gravavi vos: verum quum essem astutus, dolo vos cepi. |
17. Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? | 17. Num per quenquam eorum, quos nisi ad vos, expilavi vos? 1 |
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? | 18. Rogavi Titume, et una cum illo misi fratrem: num quid a vobis extorsit Titus? An non eodem spirtu ambulavimus? An non iisdem vestigiis? |
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. | 19. Rursum arbitramini, quod nos vobis excusemus? In conspectu Dei in christo loquimur: sed omnia, carissimi, pro vestra aedificatione. |
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: | 20. Nam metuo, ne qua fiat, ut, si venero, non quales velim reperiam vos: et ego reperiar a vobis, qualem nolitis: ne quo modo sint contentiones, obtrectationes, susurri, tumores, seditiones. |
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. | 21. Ne iterum, ubi venero, humiliet me Deus meus apud vosm et lugeam multos eorum qui ante peccaverumt, nec poenitentiam egerunt immunditiae libidinis et impudicitiae quam patrarunt. |
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In the mean time, he lets us know the disposition of a true and genuine Past, or, when he says that he will look upon the sins of others with grief. And, undoubtedly, the right way of acting is this -- that every Christian shall have his Church inclosed within his heart, and be affected with its maladies, as if they were his own, -- sympathize with its sorrows, and bewail its sins. We see, how Jeremiah entreats, that there may be given him a fountain of tears, (Jeremiah 9: l,) that he may bewail the calamity of his people. We see, how pious kings and prophets, to whom the government of the people was committed, were touched with similar feelings. It is, indeed, a thing that is common to all the pious, to be grieved in every case in which God is offended, and to bewail the ruin of brethren, and present themselves before God in their room as in a manner guilty, but it is more particularly requisite on the part of Pastors. 10 Farther, Paul here brings forward a second catalogue of vices, which, however, belong to one general head -- unchastity.
1 "Vous ay-ie affrontez, ou, pillez?" -- "Did I take advantage of you, or plunder you?"
2 "This passage is so far from being friendly to the exercise of guile, that it is a manifest disavowal of it. It is an irony. The Apostle does not describe what had actually been his conduct, but that of which he stood accused by the Corinthian teachers. They insinuated, that he was a sly, crafty man, going about preaching, persuading, and catching people with guile. Paul acknowledges, that he and his colleagues did, indeed, 'persuade men,' and could not do otherwise, for ' the love of Christ constrained them.' (2 Corinthians 5:11, 14.) But he indignantly repels the insinuation of its being from mercenary motives. 'We have wronged no man,' says he, 'we have corrupted no man; we have defrauded no man.' (2 Corinthians 7:2.) Having denied the charge, he shows the absurdity of it. Mercenary men, who wish to draw people after them, have an end to answer: and ' what end, says Paul, could I have in view, in persuading you to embrace the gospel? Have I gained any thing by you? When I was with you, was I burdensome to you? No: nor, as things are, will I be burdensome. Yet being crafty, forsooth, I caught you with guile.'" -- Fuller' s Works, volume 3. -- Ed.
3 The reader will find the same proverb made use of by Calvin, when commenting on 1 Corinthians 7:36. (See vol. 1. p. 265.) He probably alludes, in both instances, to a sentiment of Horace: "Metiri se quenquam suo modulo ac pede verum est;" -- "It is proper, that every one should measure himself by his own measure and foot." (Hor. Epist. 1.7. 98.) -- Ed.
4 "Pour refuter et repousser loin de soy le blasme qu'on auoit controuue impudemment;" -- "With the view of repelling, and putting far away from himself the blame which they had inpudently contrived."
5 "Veu qu'on semoit de luy des souspectons et iugemens si iniques, apres qu'il auoit si diligemment pourueu a toutes choses?" -- "Inasmuch as they propagated such unfair surmises and judgments respecting him, after he had so carefully used precaution as to every thing?"
6 "Ils n'eussent iamais mesdit l'vn de l'autre;" -- "They would never have slandered one another."
7 "Du premier denombrement de leur vices qu'il fait yci;" -- "Of the first enumeration that he makes here of their vices."
8 Calvin has here very probably in his eye 2 Timothy 3:2, in commenting on which, he calls his readers to remark, that the vice first noticed by the Apostle in that passage -- self-love (
9 "Qu'ils eussent proufite en sainctete de vie;" -- "That they had made progress in holiness of life."
10 "Des Pasteurs et Ministres;" -- "Of Pastors and Ministers."
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