God ; The children, or members of the kingdom, the phrase means the commmiity over which God reigns, whether in this world, or in the world to come. In the former sense the meaning is equivalent to the reign of God. Hence to say, Thy kingdom come, and to say. May God reign, is the same thing. Now as God reigns m the hearts of his people — as well as in the church, and in heaven — so this inward spiritual dommion is called the kingdom of God. In this sense the passage, " the kingdom of God is within you," may be under- stood ; and also Rom. 14, 17, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost ; " which is equivalent to saying that true religion does not consist in external observances, but in inward graces. This is the form of the idea which seems best suited to the passage before us. ' God's reign, his dominion in the heart, or true religion, does not consist in professions, but in reality.* The word power is to be taken in the same sense here as in v. 19. Paul says, 'I will know, not what these men say, but what they really are ; for the kingdom of God (or religion) does not consist in what is aj^parent and outward, but in what is inward and real.' It is not a semblancCj but a reality.
21. What will ye ? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and (in) the spirit of meekness ?
Paul, so far from being afraid to go to Corinth, as his ene- mies imagined, was prepared to go there with authority. He was their spiritual father and ruler. He had the right and the abiUty to punish them. It depended on themselves in what character he should appear among them ; whether as a pim- isher or as a comforter — whether in the exercise of discipline, or as a kmd and tender parent. The preposition (iv) rendered with in the first clause, is the same as that rendered in in those which follow. It has the same force in them all. It means furnished with, attended by. That is, it marks the at- tending circumstances. The expression " spirit of meekness " is commonly understood to mean a meek or gentle spirit or disposition of mind. As, however, the w^ord spirit, when con- nected with an abstract noun, always refers to the Holy Spirit, as in the phrases Spirit of truth. Spirit of wisdom. Spirit of adoption. Spirit of love, of fear, or of glory, it should be so understood here. Paul asks whether he should come Avith se- verity, or filled with the Spirit as the author of meekness. It