Ambrosiaster — Commentary on Scripture

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

2 Corinthians 6:11

Paul is saying this because of the freedom he enjoyed in a pure conscience. A mind with a bad conscience is afraid to speak, loses its train of thought and makes verbal slips. People whose heart is enlarged are happy with themselves because they are confident that they have behaved well.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 6:16

It is obvious that the things Paul lists are opposites and that we are to flee from the ones and cling to the others. No one can serve two masters. Christ has proclaimed that we should go away from the devil, who wants to represent himself falsely as God. He has promised us eternal life, so we should be strangers to the treachery and wrong-headedness of unbelievers. He has forbidden the worship of idols because they are incompatible with the temple of God. We are temples of the living God. There is nothing more damaging to us than idols, because they tempt us to depart from our faith in the one true God.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 6:18

God wants us to be set apart from all contamination so that he can receive us as his children. By this testimony Paul exhorts us to a pure life. He shows that Jesus Christ was already our Lord in ancient times and was predestined to receive us in the fondness of his love.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:1

What Paul is saying is clear, but “defilement of the flesh” is to be interpreted in a complex way. Notice that he did not say “from defilement of the flesh” but “from every defilement of the flesh” in order to encourage us to flee from all carnal vices—everything which the law prohibits—so that we might perfect holiness of the Spirit in the fear of God. We do this by pursuing the things which are right in the fear of God and which are therefore holy, abstaining from sins in the name of Christ. People who restrain themselves from vices without professing Christ may seem to be set apart according to the world but not according to the Spirit of God. Only those who believe are made clean. Others, whatever they may be like, remain unclean.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:2

Paul wants the Corinthians to give thought to what he is saying, so that when they have taken it to heart they may conclude that what he is saying is true.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:3

Paul wants them to realize in what frame of mind he is speaking to them. He is certainly not rejecting people whom he wants to have as sharers with him, but he is exhorting them to make themselves worthy of this sharing.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:4

Paul is confident because of the way the Corinthians responded to his reproof in the first letter. The fact that they did not take it badly has given him the confidence to admonish them again. He also says that he has been consoled by this to such an extent that in spite of all his affliction he is overflowing with joy. Seeing that there is hope for the people on whose behalf he is enduring hardships, he is rejoicing in spite of his tribulations, being certain that he will please God for the fact that they have received salvation.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:5

It is because the flesh is irrational that Paul says that it has no rest from its suffering. But the soul, although it was suffering in the body, did have rest. This is because of the hope that God would reward them for the tribulations inflicted on them by unbelievers. Fightings were inflicted on the body, and fears attacked the soul, but Paul was not at all afflicted in the Spirit, who was given to him so that he might endure such things.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:6

It is always a great comfort, when we are suffering, to have someone near us who can share it with us.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:7

Paul showed what great affection he had for them. He paid no mind to the stench of the dungeon, nor of the pain of the lashes, nor of the rope with which his feet were bound. But when he heard that the Corinthians had amended their ways he rejoiced, and forgetting his sufferings, thanked God for their salvation, viewing it as a kind of reward for his troubles.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly grief brings about the death of worldliness. When the sinner is found out he is grieved because he is bound to be punished, not having anyone from whom he may expect mercy. Perhaps for the moment there may be nobody who can exact retribution from him, but he knows he will not be able to escape the judgment of God.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:11

Someone who repents is troubled by the fear that he might sin again. But a person who knows that he has been deformed by sin longs to reform himself. One who knows that he is being rebuked for his own good begins to experience a zeal for bringing good works to completion.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:12

Paul is making it clear that forgiveness ought to be granted to those who did wrong not only for their sake but for the sake of the church, because when one does wrong many suffer.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:13

Paul has been comforted by the fact that those whom he rebuked wished to mend their ways. But on learning from Titus that they were experiencing pain on account of their error, he was consoled even more and filled with joy, because their resolve had been confirmed by their behavior.

COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES

2 Corinthians 7:15

Paul is saying that Titus’s mind and affection are concerned with them, because he has seen their progress, for the mind of a saint is concerned with everything that is good. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.