2nd Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 12 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - For we commend not ourselves again unto you. Still reverting to the charge that he was guilty of self praise, he says that his object is not this, for it was needless (2 Corinthians 3:2, 3). But give you occasion to glory on our behalf. But we speak as we have done to give you a starling-point for something to boast of on our behalf. He has already said (2 Corinthians 1:4) that the teachers and the taught in their mutual affection ought to have some ground for "boasting" (i.e. for speaking with some praise and exultation) of each other. The Corinthians were being robbed of this by the interested lies of St. Paul's opponents, who thought only about outward appearances. This is why no has set forth to them the aim and glory of his ministry. Nothing could be more gentle and forbearing than such a mode of stating his object. Yet for those who were sufficiently finely strung to understand it, there was an almost pathetic irony involved in it. Which glory in appearance, and not in heart; literally, in face. The grounds of their boasting, whatever they were, were superficial and external (2 Corinthians 10:7), not deep and sincere. But those who would judge of Paul aright must look into his very heart, and not on his face.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(12) For we commend not ourselves again unto you.--The better MSS. omit "For," which may have been inserted for the sake of an apparent sequence of thought. In reality, however, what follows is more intelligible without it. He has scarcely uttered the words that precede this sentence when the poison of the barbed arrow of the sneer to which he had referred in 2Corinthians 3:1 again stings him. He hears his enemies saying, "So he is commending himself again;" and these words are the answer to that taunt. "No," he says, "it is not so, but in appealing to the witness of the work done in your consciences we give you an 'occasion' (or starting-point) of a boast which we take for granted that you, the great body of the Church of Corinth, will be ready to make for us."That ye may have somewhat to answer.--The opponents, of whom we are to hear more hereafter (see Notes on 2Corinthians 10:7-18; 2Corinthians 11:12-33), rise up once more in his thoughts. "That such as these should be boasting of their work and their success!" What did they glory in? In appearance. The words may apply to anything external--claims of authority, training, knowledge, and the like. The use of the word, however, in 2Corinthians 10:1 seems to imply a more definite meaning. Men contrasted what we should call the dignified "presence" of his rivals with his personal defects, the weakness of his body, the lowness of his stature. "Take your stand," he seems to say, "against that boast, on the work done by us in your consciences."