15 Now *I* shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved.
Thus, yearning over you, we had found our delight in having imparted to you not only the glad tidings of God, but our own lives also, because ye had become beloved of us.
But if also I am poured out as a libation on the sacrifice and ministration of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice in common with you all.
But whether we are in tribulation, [it is] for your encouragement and salvation, wrought in the endurance of the same sufferings which *we* also suffer,
For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that *they* also may obtain the salvation which [is] in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Behold, this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be in laziness a charge; for I do not seek yours, but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
Obey your leaders, and be submissive; for *they* watch over your souls as those that shall give account; that they may do this with joy, and not groaning, for this [would be] unprofitable for you.
And king David longed to go forth to Absalom; for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.
And he said to me, My grace suffices thee; for [my] power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me.
Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your affections; but for an answering recompense, (I speak as to children,) let *your* heart also expand itself.
even as also ye have recognised us in part, that we are your boast, even as *ye* [are] ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Already ye are filled; already ye have been enriched; ye have reigned without us; and I would that ye reigned, that *we* also might reign with you. For I think that God has set us the apostles for the last, as appointed to death. For we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. *We* [are] fools for Christ's sake, but *ye* prudent in Christ: *we* weak, but *ye* strong: *ye* glorious, but *we* in dishonour. To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are in nakedness, and buffeted, and wander without a home, and labour, working with our own hands. Railed at, we bless; persecuted, we suffer [it]; insulted, we entreat: we are become as [the] offscouring of the world, [the] refuse of all, until now. Not [as] chiding do I write these things to you, but as my beloved children I admonish [you]. For if ye should have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus *I* have begotten you through the glad tidings. I entreat you therefore, be my imitators. For this reason I have sent to you Timotheus, who is my beloved and faithful child in [the] Lord, who shall put you in mind of my ways [as] they [are] in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly. But some have been puffed up, as if I were not coming to you;
The thief comes not but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I am come that they might have life, and might have [it] abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep:
And the king was much moved, and went up to the upper chamber of the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said thus: O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died in thy stead, O Absalom, my son, my son!
And Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me, I pray, choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David to-night; and I will come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and will make him afraid; and all the people that are with him shall flee; and I will smite the king only; and I will bring back all the people to thee. The man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: all the people shall be in peace. And the saying was right in the eyes of Absalom, and in the eyes of all the elders of Israel.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on 2 Corinthians 12
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
In this chapter the apostle proceeds in maintaining the honour of his apostleship. He magnified his office when there were those who vilified it. What he says in his own praise was only in his own justification and the necessary defence of the honour of his ministry, the preservation of which was necessary to its success. First, He makes mention of the favour God had shown him, the honour done him, the methods God took to keep him humble, and the use he made of this dispensation (v. 1-10). Then he addresses himself to the Corinthians, blaming them for what was faulty among them, and giving a large account of his behaviour and kind intentions towards them (v. 11-21).
2Cr 12:1-10
Here we may observe,
2Cr 12:11-21
In these verses the apostle addresses himself to the Corinthians two ways:-