Ambrosiaster — Commentary on Scripture

2 Corinthians 1:20

Paul means that the work of the Father and the Son is one. When the Father gives the Spirit, the Son gives him too, because the Holy Spirit comes from both of them. He is thinking of the Trinity here because he has been speaking about the perfecting of mankind. The whole sum of perfection is found in the Trinity.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 1:21

Paul is saying that Christ confirms the Gentiles in the faith promised to the Jews, because he has made us both one.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 1:23

Here Paul is addressing people who apparently wanted to reform but were not making much of an effort in that direction. It was to spare them until they pulled themselves together that he went elsewhere for the time being. Paul did not want them to think that he despised them as unworthy. Once they realized that, they would mend their ways, and then the apostle would come to visit them.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 1:24

Paul says this because faith is not a matter of compulsion but of free will.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:1

Paul was afraid that if he rebuked a few he would cause pain to many, because all the members of a body suffer when one of them is in pain.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:2

Paul did not want to hurt the Corinthians, but he saw it as the necessary prelude to the joy which would come from their obedience.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:3

The purification of the people is the apostle’s joy.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:4

It is obvious that when someone admonishes another and in the process he himself suffers more grief over it than the person being rebuked, he is not doing this in order to cause grief but to show what deep love he has for the other. Someone who rebukes another without feeling this way merely tramples on his feelings.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:5

By “you all” Paul means the saints among the Corinthians. For they were divided into those who were saints and those who were not, but it is the former he is addressing here.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:7

A person who is swallowed up in too much affliction will turn in desperation to committing sins. True repentance, on the other hand, is a turning away from sin. If this person repents, he will prove that he is sorry for what he has done.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:9

As far as anyone can tell, Paul was commending the Corinthians for their obedience in other respects. They had already put matters right in their church administration, and now he was asking them to be obedient in this matter as well.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:10

Paul is practicing what he preaches. He has the right to give orders, but he cannot refuse to do himself what he is asking others to do. In the first letter he condemned this man’s crime, in the hope that everyone would loathe him for it, but now he wants him to be received back and prays that they will no longer show any anger toward him. The Corinthians evidently did not have the apostle’s wisdom and did not understand that this ought to be done immediately.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:11

Paul did not want this brother, being filled with sorrow and being rigorously excluded from the love of the church, to despair of himself. The devil, who is always subtle in his tricks, would then see that this man’s mind was an easy prey, approach him and suggest that at least he should enjoy the things of the present, given that he has been denied any hope of future reward. Thus the brother would perish, being possessed by the devil, even though an opportunity for repentance had been given him.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:12

Paul means that when he got to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, there were people who received the message.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:13

Lacking the consolation of Titus’s presence Paul found the work unbearable, because there was so much opposition to him. For although some people had opened their hearts and accepted the Word of God, there were many unbelievers who reacted with impudent hostility. One lone voice could not teach the new believers and fend off these attacks at the same time. Therefore Paul said goodbye to those who had received him and left for Macedonia.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:14

For God to lead us in triumph in Christ is to make us victors in the faith of Christ, so that when unbelief has been trodden underfoot, faith may have its trophy.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:15

The aroma of the knowledge of God comes from Christ and through Christ. The reason why Paul said “aroma” was this: Some things are recognized by their smell, even though they are invisible. God, who is invisible, wishes to be understood through Christ. The preaching of Christ reaches our ears just as an aroma reaches our nostrils, bringing God and his only begotten Son right into the midst of his creation. A person who speaks the truth about Christ is just such a good aroma from God, worthy of praise from the one who believes. But one who makes erroneous assertions about Christ has a bad smell to believers and unbelievers alike.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:16

To unbelievers the preaching of the cross is the smell of death. On hearing the Word of God they receive it as if it were a plague from which death knocks on the door. But to others it is the fragrance of life. To believers the Word of God is a messenger of eternal life. It affects them in accordance with their faith.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 2:17

Paul is alluding to various false apostles who used to corrupt the Word of God through bad interpretation. Some of them were so zealous for Jewish tradition that they did not teach properly about Christ.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 3:2

Evidence of salvation is an epistle in itself. The salvation of the Corinthians was in Paul’s heart and in the hearts of those who were with him, for he was always thinking about it.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES