23. Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.
Paul here returns to the original charge. The complaint against him for not having executed his purpose of going at once from Ephesus to Corinth, he had left on one side to meet the more serious charge of inconsistency in his teaching. Having answered that accusation, he here says, JBut I sparing yoii^ i. e. for the sake of avoiding giving you pain, ccone not again to Corinth. The obvious implication is, that such was the state of things in Corinth that had he gone there immedi- ately on leaving Ephesus, as he had originally intended, he would have been obliged to appear among them with a rod. 1 Cor. 4, 21. It was to avoid that necessity, and to give them the opportunity to correct abuses before he came, that he had deferred his visit. As there was no available testimony by which the apostle could prove that such was his motive, he confirms it by an oath. I invoke God as a witness^ i. e. I call upon the omniscient God, who is the avenger of all perju- ry, to bear testimony to the truth of what I say. " An oath for confirmation is the end of all strife," Heb. 6, 16. All the bonds of society are loosened, and all security of life and prop- erty is lost, if men are not to be believed upon their oaths. This shows that human society depends on the sanctity of an oath ; and as the oath derives all its sacredness from faith in God, as the providential and moral governor of the world, it is obvious that society cannot exist without religion. Su- perstition and false religion, although great evils, are fiir bet- ter than atheism. The words cVt rrjv ifiyv v/zx^x^^? rendered on my soiil^ may mean against my soul ; or, I summon God to me as a witness. The latter idea includes the former, for, as Calvin says, " He Avho uses God as a witness, cites the punish- er of falsehood."
24. Not for that we have dommion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy : for by faith ye stand.
This is intended to moderate and explain what precedes. ' When I speak of sparing you, I do not wish to intimate that I consider myself tlie lord over your faitli.' Not for that^ ovx on, equivalent to, I do not sag that we have dominion over your faith. Some say faith is here used for believers, (the abstract for tlie concrete,) we have not dominion over believers; or, as