II. APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY. The apostles had authority to "bind and loose," to direct and administer in the early Church. On fit occasions they exerted such authority, and none of them more firmly or wisely than Paul. But they forbore as much as possible to press mere authority even in matters of order and discipline, and they disclaimed any right of dominion over the faith of their fellow-Christians, The Apostle Paul in particular is never found demanding attention or obedience to his teaching on the ground of his official dignity. Many signs and special miracles attended his ministry and confirmed his word; but he never posed as a worker of wonders in order to awe the minds and compel the submission of his hearers. His aim was to manifest the truth to the consciences of men. In founding the Corinthian Church he had "reasoned," "persuaded," "testified," and "taught the Word of God" (see Acts 18:1-28.). His own statement is, "I declared unto you the testimony of God" (see 1 Corinthians 2:1-5). The object of St. Paul in thus refraining from any assertion of a right to dictate was to build the faith of the Church, not on apostles, but on God. He would not say, "Believe because we bid you, and whatever we tell you." He was one of a hand of witnesses to Jesus Christ the Lord; but, once those facts were believed with the heart, the disciples in every Church stood for salvation on the same ground with the apostles themselves, and had the same confirmation of the truth by the Holy Spirit.
III. LESSONS FOR THE MODERN MINISTRY OF THE WORD. For the propagation of the gospel there must still be witnesses; for the edification and peace of the Church there must be teachers, helps, governments, overseers. But none of these have a right to "lord it over God's heritage;" least of all may they lord it over the faith of their brethren. If the apostles of the Lamb disclaimed such dominion, how much more should they who have ministries to fulfil in the modern Churches of God! It is preposterous to connect apostolic dignity or the glory of apostolic succession with pomp and lordliness and the assertion of official superiority. It is apostolic to serve diligently and suffer patiently, to preach the truth in love, and to teach the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, but seeking no honour or glory from men. The object of the ministry in regard to those who are without is to bring them to repent and believe the gospel The object in regard to those who are within the household of faith is to promote their joy and health.
1. "In faith ye stand." This is not submission to a human authority, but allegiance of heart to God in Christ Jesus. In emotions, opinions, anxieties, conjectures, there is no standing. Only by faith is the heart fixed, the mind established, in this world of change and disappointment, solidity imparted to the character, and calm courage breathed into the soul. Want of faith or decay of faith accounts for restlessness, weakness, rashness and inconstancy. The heart is "tossed and not comforted." The will is yielded to selfish desires and uneasy impulses. But "we have access by faith into the grace wherein we stand."
2. Those who minister to the faith of Christians increase their joy. The apostles were intent on this (see Romans 15:13; Philippians 1:25, Philippians 1:26; 1 Peter 1:8; 1 John 1:4). And every true minister of Christ will find, with St. Paul, that his own spiritual life is bound up with the steadfastness and liveliness of those whom he instructs in the truth.—F.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
2 Corinthians 1:1
By the will.
In this assertion, "an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God," St. Paul briefly summarizes the claim to apostleship which he elsewhere argues, and which he so earnestly vindicates in a later portion of this Epistle. He carries the question to the final court of appeal, declaring that the primal source whence comes all call to office in the Christian Church is the "will of God." It matters not how that "will" may be expressed; whether, as to the older disciples, in the call of their Master to apostleship, or, as to St. Paul, by direct revelation from heaven. The only point of interest is this—Have sufficient signs of the Divine will concerning us been given to carry conviction to our minds? And what is the proper influence which the recognition of the will of God concerning us should have as we hold and fulfil the duties of the office? Such a conviction is—
I. A MAN'S HUMILIATION. It makes him nothing and God all. It sets him down among the ministries that God may use as he wills. But it brings to him a holier humiliation than that. It bows him down under the greatness of the trust he bears, oppresses him with the honour that is laid upon him, makes him feel his helplessness and unworthiness, as may be illustrated in the hesitations and humble expressions of Moses and Jeremiah when they were called of God. The healthiest humility is that wrought by a great and solemn trust.
II. A MAN'S INSPIRATION. It gives him an idea and an object in his life. It moves him with the power of a great purpose. It calls him to high endeavour. It wakens into bright activity every faculty and power of his nature. It urges him with the sense of duty. It delivers him from the weakness that ever attends a conflict of motives. It holds out before him the reward of the faithful.
III. A MAN'S STRENGTH. In the power of the conviction that he is where God would have him be, and is doing what God would have him do, a man can overcome and dare all things. St. Paul's own endurances are inconceivable save as we can feel that he had this strength. Especially illustrate from his wearying controversy with the Jewish party. They said evil things of him, but this was his strength—he knew that he was an apostle by the will of God.—R.T.
2 Corinthians 1:4
Comforted, and therefore comforters.
It may seem strange that the Bible, and Christian ministers following its example, should deal so frequently and so largely with troubles and afflictions. You sometimes half suspect that Christian people must have a larger share of earthly sorrow than fails to the lot of others. We may admit a sense in which this is true. The higher susceptibilities of the Christian man, his clearer vision of unseen things, and his separateness from the world, do seem to involve some special kinds of suffering from which the heedless and the godless are free. The influences on personal character and on individual life, wrought by God through the sorrows he sends, are often presented. In the passage now before us the apostle puts another side of their influence. Our afflictions and our comfortings become a blessing to others. "That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble." Our sorrows have by no means exhausted their stores of blessing when they have dispelled our doubts, delivered us from our dangers, and cultured our characters; they have stores of blessing left in them still, with which, through us, to enrich and comfort others. This may be set before us in two of its aspects.
I. OUR AFFLICTIONS AND COMFORTINGS ARE THE SOURCES WHENCE COMES OUR FITNESS FOR INFLUENCING OTHERS. It may be a question beyond present solution, what exact share have the sorrows of our past lives had in the formation and nourishment of our present abilities for Christian work and influence? And yet surely no man can reach middle life or old age, and feel the respect in which he is held, his power to comfort and help others, and the value that is set upon his judgment and counsel, without recognizing how much of that fitness for influence has come out of his experience of sorrow. Precisely what qualities are nourished by particular forms of trouble we may not be able to decide, but the whole result we can estimate, and there is not one true Christian who would hesitate to say, "Blessed be God for the afflictions of my life; yes, even for those which bruised and almost broke my heart, because, as sanctified by God, they have fitted me to sympathize with and to comfort others' Experience brings power. But the Christian's experiences are not of griefs only; they are of griefs together with Divine comfortings, and these together bring a peculiar kind of power. This may be illustrated from any of the spheres of Christian influence.
1. Take the power of a Christian's ordinary conversation. We can discover m the very tones of the voice the holy subduedness that tells of some great woe that has put into the words and the voice that humbleness and gentleness. How often this tone of the stricken ones has had its power upon us!
2. Take the special efforts which are made, by conversation, for the conversion and instruction of others.
3. Take any endeavour to express sympathy with those who may now be suffering under God's mighty hand. How different are the consolations offered by stricken and by unstricken ones! The unstricken can find beautiful words, and be truly sincere as they utter them. But the stricken ones can express unutterable things in silence and look. Send the long-widowed woman to cheer the newly widowed. Send the mother who has children in heaven to comfort the mother who sits so still, with broken heart, beading over the baby's coffin. The plant of healing sympathies grows and blossoms and fruitens out of our very wounds and tears and deaths. Then it will but be reasonable to expect that, if God has high places of work for us, and valuable influence for us to exert, he will need to bring us through great and sore troubles, St. Paul recognizes this necessity in our text. How his life was filled with anxieties and sorrows we seldom worthily estimate. Great soul! He did not care to be always talking about himself; only once or twice does he lift the veil and show his secret history; but there—in much affliction awaiting him everywhere, and the comfortings of God abounding in all—is the explanation of his mighty and gracious influence. He was "comforted of God that he might be able to comfort them which are in any trouble." The same truth shines out even more clearly from the life and cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is able to succour because in all points tempted. Lifted up, "he draws all men unto him." Gaining his influence by his own sufferings borne in patience and faith. Winning power to save and help the world by dying an agonizing death and knowing, in the uttermost needs of a dying hour, the gracious comfortings of God.
II. OUR AFFLICTIONS AND COMFORTINGS GAIN FOR US ALL THE POWER OF A NOBLE EXAMPLE. In the previous part of the subject our conscious efforts to help and bless others have been chiefly considered; but the good man's influence is by no means to be limited to them. There is an unconscious influence, less easily calculated, but more mighty, reaching more widely, blessing as does the bracing air of the hills, or the fresh blowing of sea breezes, or the face of a long-lost friend. And this kind of power to bless belongs peculiarly to those who have come out of God's tribulations and comfortings.
1. Estimate the moral influence of those in whom afflictions have been sanctified upon men who are living with no sense of spiritual and eternal things.
2. Estimate their influence on doubting and imperfect Christians.
3. Estimate the influence of such persons on children. You may have thought that your afflictions have set you aside from your work. Nay, they have just lifted you up to the trust of some of God's highest and best work. Tribulation worketh patience, experience, and hope. It matures the finer elements of character. But it does more—it fits us for work, for higher influence on others, enabling us to set before men all the power of a noble example. Our afflictions and comfortings are really our clothing with the soldier's dress, our putting on the soldier's armour, our grasping the soldier's weapons, our drilling for the soldier's service, that we may be good soldiers of the cross. Each one of us may become a Barnabas, a son of consolation. Comforted of God, let us learn to comfort others.—R.T.
2 Corinthians 1:5
Christ's sufferings renewed in his disciples.
"For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us." We have expressed here a characteristic and familiar thought of the apostle's—the one which brought to him the fullest and deepest consolations. It is true, but it is too easily apprehended to be all the truth, that St. Paul's sufferings, borne in fulfilling his ministry, were Christ's sufferings because a part of his service; but the apostle evidently reached the unspeakably precious and inspiring view of Christian suffering which sees it to be Christ's, because it is essentially like his—it is vicarious, it is borne for others. He says, "Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation… or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation." St. Paul would know "the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;" even to that death in its vicariousness, as a sublime self sacrifice for the salvation of others. For the thought that in our sufferings, of whatever nature, we share Christ's sufferings, comp. 2 Corinthians 4:10; Philippians 3:13; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 4:13. All vicariously borne suffering is Christly; it is the kind of which he is the Leader and the sublime Example; it is even necessary, as attendant on all human efforts to bless others. Every one who would help another must take into account that he may have to suffer in doing it. Illustrate by the doctor, or the man who tries to save, from water, or fire, or accident, a fellow creature. He may even perish in so doing. The Christian may cherish this supreme comfort—he may become to others, in measure, what Christ is to him. He may become the inspiration of vicarious service. His Christly example may act on men as Christ's example acted on him. If it might be so, St. Paul was willing to suffer. It may be shown and illustrated that such Christ-like enduring has—
I. A TEACHING power on others. It brings its revelations of God and brotherhood. It opens mysteries. It impresses the evil of sin.
II. AN ELEVATING power on others. It lifts men up to bear their own sufferings well, when we can show them the Christ-likeness of ours.
III. A COMFORTING power, since it shows, not only how God's grace can abound, but also how God can turn even what we think evil into gracious agency for blessing. Sufferers still can strengthen, help, and save others.—R.T.
2 Corinthians 1:8-11
The sanctifying influence of nearness to death.
In God's providence he brings his people sometimes to the "borderland," and, after giving the expectation, and almost the experience, of death, he leads them back to life and labour and relations again. Of this Hezekiah is the prominent Bible example. The sufferings through which the apostle had passed are not here detailed, and there is found much difficulty in deciding to what experiences he refers. Some think he recalls the tumult in Ephesus, which Dean Stanley shows was a more serious affair than Luke's narrative alone would suggest. Others think that some time of grievous and imperilling sickness is alluded to. And the apostle's mind may go further back to the stoning at Lystra, when he was left for dead (see Acts 14:19). It has been remarked that "the language is obviously more vividly descriptive of the collapse of illness than of any other peril." The point to which we now direct attention is that the sufferings imperilled life and brought him to the full contemplation of death—brought him to the "borderland;" and he gives the Corinthians some account of his feelings and experiences at the time, and tries to estimate some of the spiritual results then attained. They are these—
I. A FEELING OF SELF HELPLESSNESS. Man never feels that fully until he faces death. He knows that no resolution, no energy, no sacrifice, can ensure his "discharge from that war" He can do nothing, and that most humiliating conviction may be a part of our necessary experience. Somewhere in life we need to be brought up before a great sea, with mountains around and foes before, much as Israel was when led forth from Egypt. It is good for us to feel helpless, utterly helpless, and then to hear the voice saying, "Stand still, and see the salvation of God."
II. DELIVERANCE FROM SELF TRUST. Some sort of reliance on ourselves is necessary in order to meet the claims of life aright, and do its duties faithfully. Some measures of self-reliance blend with the Christian's trust in God all through his life of activity and service. Seldom, indeed, are full surrender to God, and entire conformity to his will, and simple reliance on his care, really won; and the experience of nearness to death alone breaks away the last bonds binding us to self, and enables us to "trust wholly." Life, after visiting the "borderland," may be wholly the "life of faith upon the Son of God."
III. FULL CONFIDENCE IN THE CONTINUING AND ABOUNDING OF DIVINE GRACE. This follows from so extreme an experience of what "almighty grace can do." Short of the experience of death, we may doubt whether "grace" can meet us at every point of our need; whether there really are no complications of circumstances which may overmaster grace. A man may say—Grace can meet many needs, but not just this condition or this particular frailty. A man brought back from the "borderland" has won an impression of God's power and mercy that enables him to look forward to life and feel that God's efficient grime can be with him everywhere and in everything. It is St. Paul, who "had the sentence of death in himself," who was a personally delivered man, and who spoke of God as being able to make all grace abound towards us, so that we, having all sufficiency in all things, might abound unto every good word and work (2 Corinthians 9:8). Death is the climax of all human woes, and he who can deliver from death can master all our troubles and "make all things work together for good." In concluding, show that the sanctified influence of his extreme experience may be seen in the tone and spirit and manner of the Christian thus brought back from the "borderland;" but that there is great danger of misusing even such Divine dealings with us, as Hezekiah seems to have done. A man restored from imperilling sickness may presume on the very mercy which has been so gloriously manifested in his case. We should take as our model such an experience as that of the Apostle Paul.—R.T.
2 Corinthians 1:11, 2 Corinthians 1:12
The gracious influence of prayerfulness and sympathy on suffering souls.
The apostle wanted his friends to know of his sufferings so that he might have—
I. THEIR SYMPATHY IN THE TROUBLES. Very tenderly beautiful is the way in which St. Paul, while turning to God for his great consolations, yet yearns for the sympathy of those among whom he laboured. He liked to have some of them with him. He was a most brotherly and sympathetic man, and could neither suffer nor rejoice alone. In this he illustrates what is the great want of all warm natures; they yearn for sympathy, and we may render noble service who can give such sympathy in response to them. It is help and healing for stricken ones that we can "weep with those who weep."
II. THEIR PRAYERS FOR HIS PRESERVATION. A man in trouble longs for the feeling—at which men may easily scoff, but which is nevertheless a most real and helpful feeling—that he is upheld by the prayers of those that love him. None of the difficulties about prayer in relation to material changes need meet us when we speak of prayer in relation to spiritual influences. We ought to pray for the preservation of our friend's life when he is in peril from disease, but we do this with uncertainty as to what the will of God is, and so with full submission to whatever the decisions of that will may be. We pray that our suffering friends may be inwardly upheld, comforted, and strengthened, and in such prayers we know what the will of God must be. Sympathizing prayers have a really gracious influence on suffering souls, and surely bring down Divine blessings on them.
III. THEIR THANKSGIVINGS WHEN HE WAS RESTORED. The apostle could not rejoice alone. He wanted others to help him sing both of "mercy and judgment." From this subject arises, as the point of practical impression, the question—How can we help our suffering brothers and sisters? Even the Lord Jesus wanted sympathy, and the uplifting of others' prayers for him, when he was in the agony of Gethsemane; and so do his brethren. In what ways can such sympathy and help find expression? Neither utterances of sympathy nor earnest prayers can suffice instead of, and as an excuse for, not rendering practical helpings, but they will be found to inspire such practical efforts; for those whom we take on our hearts to pray for we are most likely to take into our hands to help.—R.T.
2 Corinthians 1:12-14
The conscience testimony.
"For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience." This passage may be thus paraphrased: "It is this which causes such a perennial flow of joy and consolation into my heart amid all my anxieties and distresses. I can feel in my conscience that what knits us together in sympathy is a Divine and not a human bond. On my part there is the inspiration from above, on yours the verifying faculty which enables you to recognize the truth of what I deliver to you." Now, no man ever needs publicly to appeal to the testimony of his conscience unless he is misjudged, misrepresented, maligned, or slandered by his fellow men. He may, however, be placed in such circumstances that he can make no other appeal than to the consciousness of having acted in sincerity and uprightness. Such a testimony may not be accepted by others, but the ability to render it brings rest and peace to a man's own heart. St. Paul was at this time greatly suffering from misrepresentations and slanderings; and so was David, in the older time, when he turned with such passionate intensity to God, saying, "Judge me according to mine integrity, and according to my righteousness which is in me." The worst hurt a true and faithful man can receive is the misjudging of his sincerity. F.W. Robertson says, "Met by these charges from his enemies, and even from his friends, the apostle falls back on his own conscience. Let us explain what he means by the testimony of conscience. He certainly does not mean 'faultlessness,' for he says, 'Of sinners I am chief.' And St. John, in a similar spirit, declares that none can boast of faultlessness: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.' And here St. Paul is not speaking of his own personal character, but of his ministry; and again, he is not speaking of the blamelessness of his ministry, but of its success. No; it was not faultlessness St. Paul meant by the testimony of conscience, but this—integrity, moral earnestness in his work; he had been straightforward in his ministry, and his worst enemies could be refuted if they said that he was insincere." Now, the conscience testimony may be said to include self approval before self, self approval before man, and self approval before God.
I. SELF APPROVAL BEFORE SELF. Treat conscience as the exercise of a man's judgment concerning the right and wrong of his own conduct—a man's self appraisement. A man may be calm amid all storms of slander or persecution who can feel that he is consciously sincere, and that he has been true to himself. Carefully distinguish this from mere self satisfaction, and from the pride that leads a man to "think of himself more highly than he ought to think." A man's moral strength depends upon his self approval when conscience makes its searching estimate of conduct and of motives. A man is only weak when his conscience upholds his accuser.
II. SELF APPROVAL BEFORE MAN.
1. A man is often compelled to take action which he knows men are likely to misconceive and misrepresent. He can only do so with the assurance that he is right.
2. Men are corruptly disposed to put a wrong construction on the actions of their fellows, and every man must take this into account who occupies prominent or public positions. He dares not waver or change to try and meet everybody's wishes. He can but fall back upon the testimony of his own conscience.
III. SELF APPROVAL BEFORE GOD. He, being the Searcher of the heart, knows the very secrets of motive and feeling, and it may seem as if there could not be any "self approval" in his presence. And yet God's Word teaches us that God looks for sincerity, expects it, and knows that we can reach it. Perfect we cannot be; sincere we can be. "It we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." David may even speak of his integrity before God. And the height of a man's moral strength is only gained when he feels consciously sincere in the Divine presence, but is truly humble even in the consciousness and says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my ways."—R.T.
2 Corinthians 1:21, 2 Corinthians 1:22
The sealing and earnest of the Spirit.
The figure used in the passage is taken from the custom, common to nearly all lands, of affixing marks to a man's peculiar property. That mark was frequently a seal, with a characteristic device. The shepherd has some mark which he places on each of his sheep, so that if any one of them strays away it may at once be known as his. And so Christ, the good Shepherd, has a mark by which he knows, and would have all men know, the members of his flock. That mark is the seal of the Spirit. The meaning of the term is explained by a passage in Revelation 7:1-17. The angel demands a little delay until he shall have "sealed the servants of God in their foreheads." That is, by a distinctive mark, the sons of God are to be separated from the world, stamped as God's chosen ones. And as that shall then be done by a glorious name, blazoned on the forehead; as it was done, in the older time, to Israel, by a blood-sprinkled lintel; so now it is done by the gift of the great Comforter and Friend, the Holy Spirit of promise. The presence of the Spirit pledges the fact of our reconciliation to God, and so it seals us. That Spirit may work on ungodly men and by ungodly men, but he cannot properly be said to work in ungodly men. His is an influence on them from without; his dwelling in the heart is the assurance that the great change has taken place. A man must be "born again" ere he can be the dwelling place of the Spirit. "The Spirit witnesseth with our spirit that we are the children of God." And it is not possible to overstate either the dignity or the safety that attends such a sealing. God stamps his people by giving them his own presence. It is hot enough to affix a mark, not enough to entrust to guardian angels. Satan may conceivably overcome them, and sin may blot out the mark. God would give his people no other seal than his own omnipotent presence. Divinest seal! No human hands can tear that from our soul. It can only be lost by our own self willed acts. We can pluck off the seal. We may grieve the Spirit away. None can deny the livery of the eternal King, with which we are clothed, but we may ourselves choose another service and strip off the King's dress. What the sealing and earnest of the Spirit are may best be illustrated by the experiences of the apostolic company when the Spirit first came in Pentecostal power and glory. The disciples were waiting at the throne of grace, waiting for the fulfilment of the as yet mysterious promise of the Lord. It was the early morning, when a sweeping sound of wind came about the house, and filled the room where they were sitting. Presently dividing tongues of flame rested on their heads, and they felt new power thrilling within them. Those were the symbols of the Spirit's sealing them for their great missionary service. In this new might a surprising change passed over them. They were ignorant Galilaeans; now they could speak seas to be understood by people of all tongues; now they were swayed with feelings that raised timid disciples into moral heroes and noble witnesses and faithful martyrs. That was the flint sealing of the Spirit, and it does but illustrate how still God takes us as his, gives to us his Spirit, secures us by a Divine indwelling, and inspires us with Divine motives and impulses.—R.T.
2 Corinthians Intro
2 Corinthians
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