English · KJV

Ambrosiaster

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 1,043 passages across 16 books

Commentary

321–340 of 1,043
2 Corinthians 4:15

For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

God does not want anyone to be excluded from his gift. But because not everyone had received the word of faith, God’s apostle, who knew God’s will, was not afraid to suffer persecutions and perils as long as he could preach to everyone faithfully, so that more people might believe.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 4:16

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

In times of persecution the soul advances. Every day it adds something more to its experience of faith. Even the damage done to the body becomes conducive to immortality through the merit of the soul.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 4:17

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

Paul is saying that our present afflictions are light because they are happening within time and space. In return for this light tribulation, we shall gain a degree of glory beyond measure. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.

2 Corinthians 4:18

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Paul is saying that people who long for heavenly things despise the things of this world, because in comparison with what they want, these things are nothing.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:1

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Our present body is our earthly home. Our resurrection body is our heavenly one.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:3

If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

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

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

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

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:5

Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

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

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:6

Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

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

Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

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

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 5:10

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

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

For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.

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

For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.

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

For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

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

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

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

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

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

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

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

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

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

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

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

(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

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

All writers