2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 7
Paul’s Consolation and Joy because of the Corinthians. 2 Cor. 7, l–16.
A frank and urgent appeal to sanctification: V.3. I speak not this to condemn you; for I have said before that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you. V.4. Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you; I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.
But lest the Corinthian Christians in this very defense of the apostle feel their wrong in not having defended him against the attacks of his detractors, he hastens to add: By way of condemnation I do not say this; for I have stated before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together.
As a sentence of condemnation they were not to construe his words; he was not accusing them of mistrusting him. Rather it remained true what he had assured them of before, chap. 1, 6; 6, 11, that his heart was enlarged in loving sympathy for them, just as he felt sure of their affection toward him.
Their image was in his heart, they were so inseparably connected with him in love that they would be absent from his heart neither in death nor in life. And the Greek word which he uses implies that this feeling was mutual, that his devotion to their welfare was equaled by their love for him.
This fact makes him continue, with all joyfullness: Great is my frankness toward you, great is my glorying on your behalf. The assurance of their loving sympathy gives him the confidence to unburden himself so frankly to them, to boast so trustingly on their account, not only in this letter, but on the occasion of his visits to other congregations. Such was the exultation of his heart over their spiritual progress that he cried out: I am filled with comfort, I am more than filled, I overflow with joy in all our affliction.
Misery, distress, sorrow there is indeed always for the faithful minister, both on account of the persecution of the world and by reason of apostasy and enmity within the congregations. But all this is overshadowed by the consolation derived from the success of the Gospel, as a result of which the apostle’s heart is filled with joy to overflowing; it could not contain his feeling in silence, but must needs break forth in happy exclamation. It is the experience of all pastors that are unswervingly faithful in the discharge of their duties, consolation and joy overshadowing the affliction of sorrow.