The apostle returns to the subject which pre-occupied him-his connections
with the Corinthians, and the truth of his apostleship, which was
questioned by those who seduced them, throwing contempt on his person. He
was weak, they said, when present, and his speech contemptible, though bold
when absent (his letters being boastful, but his bodily presence
contemptible). "I beseech you," says the apostle, "by the meekness and
gentleness of Christ [shewing thus the true character of his own meekness
and humility when among them], not to compel me to be bold among you, as I
think of being with regard to some who pretend that I walk after the
flesh." The strength of the war that he waged against evil was founded on
spiritual weapons, with which he brought down all that exalted itself
against the knowledge of God. This is the principle on which he acted, to
seek to bring to obedience all who hearkened to God, and then severity to
all disobedience, when once obedience should be fully established, and
those who would hearken were restored to order. Precious principle! the
power and the guidance of the Spirit acting in full, and with all patience,
to restore to order, and to a walk worthy of God; carrying the
remonstrances of grace to the utmost, until all those who would hearken to
them and willingly obey God were restored; and then to assert divine
authority in judgment and discipline, with the weight which was added to
the apostolic action by the conscience and common action of all those who
had been brought back to obedience.
Observe, that the apostle refers to his personal authority as an apostle;
but that he uses it in patience (for he possessed it for the purpose of
edification and not for destruction) in order to bring back to obedience
and uprightness all those who would hearken; and thus, preserving christian
unity in holiness, he clothes the apostolic authority with the power of the
universal conscience of the assembly, guided by the Spirit, so far as there
was a conscience at work.
He then declares that such as he is in his letters, such shall they find
him when he is present; and he contrasts the conduct of those who took
advantage of his labours, beguiling a people who had already become
Christians, in order to stir them up against him, with his own conduct in
going where Christ had not yet been known, seeking to bring souls to the
knowledge of a Saviour of whom they were ignorant. Also he hoped that, when
he visited the Corinthians, his ministry would be enlarged among them by
their increase of faith, in order that he might go on beyond them to
evangelise regions that still lay in darkness. But he who gloried, let him
glory in the Lord.
