14. I write not these things to shame yon, but as my beloved sons I warn (you).
Not as shaming you (ivrpiTrwv) icrite I these things. The word used signifies to invert, to turn round, or back ; and then, generally, to move, and especially to move to shame. It may be rendered here, ' I write not these things as moving you,' i. e. to work upon your feelings. The use of the word in 2 Thess. 3, 14, and Tit. 2, 8, is in favour of the common interpretation. Paul's object in drawing such a contrast be- tween their case and his, was not to mortify them ; but as his beloved sons, i. e. out of love to them as his sons, he says, I warn you. The word [vov^irioi) is that generally used to ex- press parental admonition and instruction. . His design was to bring the truth to their minds, and let them see what they really were, as contrasted with what they imagined them- selves to be.
15. Por though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet (have ye) not many fathers : for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
Paul was entitled to admonish them as sons, for he was their spiritual father. The words in Christ are not connected with iiistructors^ as though the sense were, ' instructors who are in Christ,' i. e. Christian instructors. The jDOsition of the words in the original show that they belong to the verb. * Though ye may have in Christ, i. e. in reference to Christ, or as Christians, many teachers, ye have not many fathers.' The pedagogues (TratSayooyot) among the Greeks were usually slaves, who were the constant attendants, rather than the teachers, of the boys of a family. They had, however, the charge of their education, and therefore the word is used in the New Testament for instructors. Paul contrasts his rela- tion to the Corinthians as their spiritual father, with that of their other teachers. The point of the contrast is not that he loved them, and they did not ; or that they were disposed to arrogate too much authority, and he was not ; but simply, that he was the means of their conversion, and they were not. His relation to them preceded theirs and was more intimate and tender.
He was their father, "/or in Christ Jesus he had begotten them." That is, in virtue of his union to Christ, as his apostle