Ambrosiaster — Commentary on Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:3

People are earnest in their prayers that they should not be excluded from the glory which is promised. This is what being found naked means. For when the soul is clothed in a body, it must also be clothed with the glory by which it is transformed into brightness.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:4

Paul is saying here that we are oppressed by bodily sufferings and death.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:5

The Spirit is our guarantee because he is the agent of our adoption.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:6

God is still present, but because we cannot see him we are said to be absent from him as long as we are in the body.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:9

We have to put our energy into good works in order to please God.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:10

If we are going to receive what we have done in the body, it is clear that we shall not be judged without a body, good or bad. Paul does not say “in the flesh,” because the deeds of the flesh always deserve punishment, but “in the body,” because sometimes the body acts spiritually and sometimes it acts carnally.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:12

Paul is saying this because of some people who used to take a personal pride in making it known that they had been taught by men who had always been with the Lord.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:13

What Paul has said is sane from his hearers’ point of view, as long as it is understood in the sense in which it was uttered, but if it is thought to have been spoken out of boastfulness, it is insane. For all pride is a kind of insanity.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:14

Because of the love of Christ the apostles were not silent about the gifts they received from him. Those who love him are surrounded by such gifts. They were not boasting about them but inviting their hearers to become Christ’s disciples.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:16

Now that Christ has risen from the dead, birth according to the flesh loses its importance, bodily weakness ceases to count and the sufferings of death no longer matter either. Right up until the cross there was a suspicion that Christ was weak, but once he rose from the dead all that vanished and what was previously doubted came to be believed.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:18

Although Christ has redeemed us all things come from God, because all fatherhood comes from him. Therefore [in triune reasoning] precedence must be given to the person of the Father.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:19

God was in Christ, that is to say, the Father was in the Son, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them. Creation sinned against God and did not repent, so God, who did not want his work to perish, sent his Son in order to preach through him the forgiveness of sins and thus reconcile them to himself.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:20

Paul wants to show both his devotion to God’s providence and his belief that it is his duty to love the whole human race.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:21

Christ did not have to be born as a man, but he became man because of sin. It was only because all flesh was subject to sin that he was made sin for us. In view of the fact that he was made an offering for sins, it is not wrong for him to be said to have been made “sin,” because in the law the sacrifice which was offered for sins used to be called a “sin.” After his death on the cross Christ descended to hell, because it was death, working through sin, which gave hell its power. Christ defeated death by his death and brought such benefit to sinners that now death cannot hold those who are marked with the sign of the cross.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 6:2

Paul is teaching that God’s grace in Christ was predestined. God decreed that his mercy would be poured out in this way, that help would be lavished on those who called for it in the name of Christ.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 6:3

By his faith and vigilance, Paul is cutting away everything which might cause the negligent to stumble, out of fear that their sluggishness might present his disciples with a cause for stumbling. Fault would have been found with their ministry if they did not exemplify in their deeds the things they were teaching.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 6:4

Servants of God teach without flattery, so that they might please him whose servants they are, unlike the false apostles, who sought only to please their hearers.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 6:7

The word of truth was in Paul’s teaching, because he conveyed no message other than the one which he had received from the Lord.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 6:8

Paul is saying that he was recognized as a sincere and faithful preacher by those who believed that the gospel was the glory of God. Even to those who thought that the gospel was vile, he presented himself as a faithful servant of God and was not afraid to say things which they would have been scandalized to hear.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 6:9

Those who hated the apostles thought that they were dying every day of their lives as the price for their wickedness. But because the apostles were preaching with God’s approval, they kept being rescued from death by the help of Christ.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES