The Reason for the Change of Travel Plans; the Apostle’s Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

First the Apostle 1) explains why he changed his travel plan (2 Cor. 1:12–24, 2:1–11). Then 2) he speaks of the exaltedness of Christian revelation and all the economy of salvation, setting forth also how it is established on earth (2 Cor. 2:12–7:1). Finally 3) he expresses joy and comfort brought to him by Titus’ arrival and all that he saw in Corinth and what Titus reported to him (2 Cor. 7:2–16). Why these subjects entered in will become clear in the commentary itself.

1. Reason for the Change in Travel Plan (2 Cor. 1:12–24, 2:1–11)

There were rumors in Corinth: he thought to come to us, but now he is going differently. What is this changeability? It is levity. Properly such empty talk should belong to the third part, where the Apostle concerns himself with dispelling gossip about him. But he singled out this rumor from among the others and addressed it first and foremost because certain persons were using it to cast a shadow upon the very unchangeableness of the Gospel itself, which for the Apostle Paul was above all things on earth. Therefore he places this subject first. His line of thinking here is this: a) I have always and everywhere acted with a pure conscience; I acted thus also among you; and it should be well known to you how sincere are my words (2 Cor. 1:12–14). b) Relying on this, you should not have given a bad interpretation to the fact that I wished to come to you in this way, but now I go differently, as though this is levity, as though there is here some deliberation according to the flesh (2 Cor. 1:15–17). c) But this is nothing; I fear lest you go further and on the basis of this begin to permit thoughts about the instability of the Gospel itself. Oh no; the word of our Gospel was at once accompanied also by deed—you received the anointing. Therefore your word was—yes (2 Cor. 1:18–22). d) From this alone you should have concluded that there was a reason for the change in my plan, worthy of attention. And I declare it to you. This was the desire to avoid the sorrowful necessity of personally dealing with judgment and punishment upon him who grieved us all (2 Cor. 1:23, 24). e) You did well to deal with him as I wrote; but since he repents, he may be received back into the community (2 Cor. 2:1–11). This last word is added here only so as not to return to the same subject again; yet what is said about it needed to be said.

c) Apostolic Sincerity (2 Cor. 1:12–14)

2 Cor. 1:12. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience: we have behaved in the world, and especially toward you, with frankness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God.

Earlier the holy Apostle expressed the hope that God, as He had delivered them, will always deliver from all evils. But one cannot sustain such hope if his conscience is unclean. Only the purity of conscience gives such boldness to hope, and without it hope dies like a flower in frost. The Apostle speaks of this now; and this same thing served for him as the starting point for explaining what he intended to say next.

“Our boasting,” he says, “is this.” “Boasting” – that which he spoke above: “that we have hoped, and He will still deliver us” (2 Cor. 1:10). To boast thus, I have a foundation in the testimony of conscience. Boasting – here, consequently, is the same as boldness. Theodoret writes: – “Boldness is given to us (that we might hope for deliverance from dangers) by the testimony of conscience.” Or boasting means inner consolation. God has delivered and will deliver; but while deliverance comes, for it has its own time, what sustains us is a consciousness that we suffer unjustly, giving us manly and magnanimous endurance of afflictions. Saint Chrysostom says: “Here the Apostle reveals to us yet another, and by no means unimportant, but rather very important means for consolation, which can embolden the soul even when calamities oppress it, and shows another virtue of his own. What is it? – That we, he says, wherever we have lived, everywhere have conducted ourselves in pure and sincere conscience. And this serves not a little for our comfort and consolation. So the Apostle speaks to believers so that he might teach them also not to lose heart in sorrows, but to rejoice if only they have a pure conscience. ‘Our boasting,’ he says, ‘is the testimony of conscience,’ that is, when our conscience does not have cause to condemn us as criminals pursued for evil deeds. For, he says, although we endure countless calamities, although we are threatened from all sides by attacks and dangers; for our consolation it suffices to have one thing: the testimony of a pure conscience, that we endure these calamities not for any crime, but for pleasing God, for virtue, for true wisdom and for the salvation of many. Therefore, the first consolation of which the Apostle spoke above came from God, and this of which he now speaks came from themselves and was the fruit of their pure life. And because this latter was the fruit of their virtue, he calls it also his boasting.”

What exactly is the boast, and what did conscience testify to? “We have behaved in the world with frankness and godly sincerity.” “We have behaved,” ανεστραφημεν, we moved about among others, we bore ourselves in relations with others and acted upon them and before them. “In frankness,” απλοτητος, such as exists in children, artless, hiding no designs, open entirely as it is. “In godly sincerity,” ειλικρινεια, honestly, as on the heart so also outwardly; neither word nor deed nor countenance nor anything external of ours differs from what is in our heart. “Godly”—or God-like, or pleasing to God (Theophylact), or bestowed by God and as shown before God. Thus the Apostle says here: “We did nothing deceitfully, or hypocritically, or in pretense, nor from flattery, or ill-will, or for deception and seduction, nor from other similar motives; but always acted with full freedom, simplicity, truth, in purity and guilelessness of heart, honestly, from the heart; since we had nothing that needed to be hidden, nothing shameful” (the holy Chrysostom).

“Not by earthly wisdom.” Flesh here—life which the fathers call outer; the wisdom of this life consists in always contriving to maintain good relations with others and family well-being, masking oneself and carefully concealing one’s aims, all of which are focused on living always for one’s own pleasure, pursuing one’s interests, and not losing face before anyone, sparing neither anyone nor anything that stands as an obstacle in the way, yet covering this all with decent appearance. This wisdom has in view neither virtue nor God’s glory, but only the satisfaction of egotism, which generates it, nourishes it, and perfects it. It is cunning in words, and even more cunning in the conduct of affairs. If one were to unfold all its intricacies even in one case, people would be amazed and not believe that a man can be so cunning by himself. That is why we have the saying: the devil taught him. This saying is not without reason—it expresses truth. Could such wisdom appear in the spirit of Apostles, filled with God’s Spirit? The holy Paul denies this, saying: “not by earthly wisdom” do we always act, “that is, without deceit and guile, without elaborate words and contrived reasonings. Thus, what false apostles boasted of, the Apostle Paul rejects and despises, clearly showing thereby that fleshly reasoning is unworthy of praise, and that he himself not only does not seek it, but is also ashamed of and turns away from it” (the holy Chrysostom).

“But by the grace of God we have behaved in the world,” that is, we have lived as God’s grace inspired us, as it guided us and as it worked in us. Life “by grace,” εν χαριτι, is opposed to the former life according to fleshly wisdom. The holy fathers distinguish three degrees or classes of life in which one and the same person may at different times revolve. One is fleshly life, as indicated above: it is called sub-natural life, and even contrary to nature; another is virtuous life, according to the demands of conscience, possible even outside grace: it is called natural life; the third is grace-filled life, beginning, ripening, and manifesting itself variously through the action of God’s grace alone: it is called super-natural and possible only in true Christianity, constituting its distinguishing feature. It is completely opposed to life according to the wisdom of the flesh. In it nothing is done for oneself, but all for God’s glory and the good of others; nothing is done according to one’s own thoughts, but all according to the inspiration of grace, and whatever is done is not done by one’s own strength, but by grace, which takes human strength merely as an instrument for manifesting its actions. Those who possess it live in consciousness and heart in God alone, who, living in them, acts through them and outside them. But where God is, the limits of nature give way; therefore such a life is never without miracles. This could especially not be without miracles in the Apostles. Therefore when the holy Paul says: “by the grace of God,” he means not only moral height, purity, and detachment, but also the manifestation of God’s power through them.

“The holy Chrysostom says about this: ‘What is ‘by the grace of God’?’ — That is, by the wisdom and power given us by God, proving them by miracles and by the victory which we won over philosophers, orators, sophists, and kings—we, unlearned men who drew nothing from human wisdom. And not in vain did the Apostles comfort and boast in this when assured in themselves that they acted not by human power, but accomplished all by God’s grace, and not in Corinth alone, but throughout the whole world. For he says: ‘in the world, and especially toward you.’ What is ‘especially toward you’?’ — That is, ‘we have behaved by the grace of God.’ For in you we accomplished more, he says, miracles and signs, took greater care, and were especially concerned to conduct ourselves so as not to deserve censure from you. For the Apostle attributes also this to God’s grace, ascribing to it his own actions as well. For it is well known that in Corinth he renounced his rights regarding the sustenance of the preachers of God’s word (1 Cor. 9) and, sparing the weakness of the Corinthians, preached the Gospel without any recompense from them.” Thus according to the holy Chrysostom, “especially toward you” relates not only to “by the grace of God” but also to “in frankness and godly sincerity” and to “not by earthly wisdom.” Since he ascribes these latter traits to God’s grace, he said in general that “especially toward you” by God’s grace our life was distinguished and shone forth.

2 Cor. 1:13, 14. What we write to you is not anything other than what you read and understand; “I hope you will understand fully,” “just as you have understood us in part, that we are your pride even as you are our pride, on the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“What we write,” he says, not of previous writing, or of writing in general, but of this very thing that he writes now. We do not write one thing, he says, while holding another in mind; but that very thing that we think we express in written words. What concepts do the written words evoke in you, those same are found in us. The words “read” and “understand,” αναγινωσκειν and επιγινωσκειν, are often placed together by similarity of sound, though one may need to express one or the other. Thus here the holy Paul wished to say: what we write, you know yourselves from our stay among you, and reading what is written, you at once see that this is so. Therefore Oecumenius and Theophylact understand by αναγινωσκειν not “read” but “recall.” The Greek word permits this: αναγνωσις is ανωθεν γνωσις. So: we write nothing else than what you yourselves recall, and what you know. Thus also the holy Chrysostom: “He brings the Corinthians themselves as witnesses that what he says to them is true. Let no one suppose, he says, that my words are empty boasting unsubstantiated by deeds. For I am conveying to you only what you yourselves know, and that I do not lie, you before all others should witness. For in reading our epistles, you see that what is written in them is the same as you actually know about us—and that our testimony about ourselves in our epistles not only does not contradict our deeds; on the contrary, what you previously knew about us is completely in accord with what you read about us in our epistles.”

The following words: “I hope that you will understand fully, just as you have understood us in part,” should be read in connection with: “as you have understood us in part.” From the experience of our stay and action among you, you understood us in part; I hope that you will always understand thus. He wishes to say that as we have until now given you no cause to think of us as crafty and insincere, so in the future you will meet with no such cause; what we were, we are now, and will always be; and our word and manner of action have always been the same, are now, and always will be. We are not passing on our own, we are not introducing our own, but God’s; and God is unchanging and His truth is eternal. Whoever preaches his own and introduces his own, can speak and act one way today and differently tomorrow. But we—God’s instruments: God is He who works in us.

The words “you have understood us in part” and “you will understand fully” can be understood as an indication of degrees of knowledge. You have understood us in part and known us; I hope that you will come to full understanding of us, will understand us completely. It is natural for human knowledge and understanding to grow.

“For you are our pride just as we are your pride, on the day of the Lord Jesus.” This is not a subject of understanding, not an indication of what exactly the Corinthians understood in the Apostles in part and what they will understand fully—but a new confirmation of apostolic sincerity. He wishes to say: what we say to you and write, what we teach you and establish in you—all this we do as those who are to appear for judgment before God. And I assure you that on the Lord’s day, that is, on the last day of judgment, we will be your glory. The Judge, absolutely righteous and omniscient, will glorify you for following our word and sincerely believing in it; and you will then be our glory, for this faith of yours—our Judge will not shame us, but will glorify us. So certain is our word, that although we might be found unworthy of glory in other respects at the judgment, yet because we transmitted to you this word and made you faithful to Him, the most righteous Judge will glorify us. “See,” exclaims the holy Chrysostom, “how he raises the Corinthians to what is higher and trains them in philosophy, when he directs their thoughts to that great day of the Lord. Then, he says, we will be glorified in you, and you in us, when it will be revealed that you had such teachers who taught nothing human and, living an unblemished life, gave no occasion for scandal; and you had such students who did not conduct themselves as ordinary people—did not waver, but with readiness received all and never reasoned contrary to the truth. Now this is open to those who have the mind of Christ, but then it will be revealed to all. So although we grieve now, yet we have no small consolation both from a good conscience and from the expected then revelation. Now our conscience alone knows that in everything we act by God’s grace, as you know this, and will know further; but then all men will know both our deeds and yours, and will see that we are glorified for each other.”

We will be your glory on the Lord’s day, he says, and you will be ours. But about himself he said that as he has always been faithful to God’s truth, so he will not cease to be such. Therefore, by the correspondence of speech, he draws the Corinthians also to a promise and decision—that as they have been faithful to the received word until now, so in the future they will remain faithful to it, and not in the same measure of knowledge of it in which they have become partakers of it until now, but in whatever measure they may come to know it. And there would have been no difficulty for the Corinthians to understand that this is the inevitable condition in order not to be put to shame at the judgment. Teachers will be glorified for teaching alone; but it is impossible for students to be glorified for mere hearing and reception of their teaching. This will only serve for greater condemnation, if reception of the teaching is not joined by following it, sincere and unwavering until the end.