to the gift not of their money only but of themselves. Some say that this means that they offered themselves to go to Cor- inth or elsewhere to collect money for the poor. But the sense is fuller and simpler as above explained. By the icill of God. That is, the will of God was the cause of their giv- ing themselves to the Lord, &c. It is (Sta ^eXrJ/xaTos, not Kara S^eXrjfjLo) hy^ not according to^ the will of God.
6. Insoraucli that we desired Titus, tliat as he had begun, so he would also finish in you the same grace also.
Insomuch (eig to irapaKok.) SO that we were induced to ex- hort Titus. Paul, 1 Cor. 16, 1, had urged the Corinthians to make collections for the poor saints. Titus visited Corinth after that letter was written and made a beginning in this work. When Paul came to Macedonia and found how Hberally the churches there had contributed, he urged Titus to return to Corinth and complete what he had so successfully begun. The exhortation therefore addressed to Titus, of which the apostle here speaks, was not the exhortation given him before the visit from which he had just returned, but that which he gave him in reference to a renewed visit yet to be made. Instead therefore of the rendering, I desired Titus., it would would be plainer to translate, I have desired him. That (iva, not in order that., according to the usual force of the particle, but that^ as expressing the contents of the request), as he had begun., (TTpocvrjp^aro, a word which occurs nowhere but in this chapter,) hctd hegun before. This may mean, 'had already begun,' i. e. begun before the time of Paul's writing ; or, had begun before the Macedonians made their collections. The latter is the more probable meaning, since, as appears from V. 10, the Corinthians had commenced this work before the Macedonian churches had moved in the business. So hi would also finish., i. e. either in the sense of bringing a given work to an end, Heb. 9, 6, or of perfectmg an inward grace, 7, 1. In you., ek v/xa?, in relation to, or, for you. Matt. 10, 10. This grace also ; x^-P'-^ ^^7 l^^re mean either good work, or, grace, in the ordinary sense of the word. The connection with the following verse is in favour of understanding it in the latter sense. It was a disposition of the mind that Titus was exhorted to bring into full exercise among the Corinthi-