tumult, as of the people, see Acts 24, 12, but the former has also the sense of care, or attention. If the corrected text be adopted, then the interpretation just mentioned is to be pre- ferred. ' Without mentioning other things, {y eTrt'o-rao-ts /aov 17 Ktt^' rjjxipav) my daily oversight, the care of all the church.' If the common text, although not so well sustained, be ad- hered to, the meaning probably is, 'My daily concourse' (quotidiani hominimi impetus). That is, the crowding upon him every day of people demanding his attention. This is the sense expressed by Luther ; " Dass ich ttiglich werde an- gelaufen, und trage Sorge fur alle Gemeinen." The solicitude which the apostle felt for the churches which he had founded, is apparent from all his epistles ; and it may be easily im- agined how various and constant must have been the causes and occasions of anxiety and trouble on their account.
29. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is of- fended, and I burn not ?
That is, he sympathized with his fellow Christians, who were his children in the faith, so that their sorrows and suffer- ings were his own. This was the consequence not only of the communion of saints, in virtue of which, " if one member suf- fer, all the members suffer with it ; or one member be hon- oured, all the members rejoice with it," 1 Cor. 12,26; but also of the peculiar relation which Paul sustained to the churches, which he had himself i^lanted. Who is loeak / i. e. in faith, or scrupulous through want of knowledge, compare 1 Cor. 9, 22, and J am not iveak f That is, with whose in- firmities of faith and knowledge do I not sympathize ? He pitied their infirmities and bore with their prejudices. To the weak, he became as weak. There are men, says Calvin, who either despise the infirmities of their brethren, or trample them under their feet. Such men know little of their own hearts, and have little of the spirit of Paul or of Paul's master. God never quenches the smoking flax. Who is offended (oTKai/SaAi^erat), i. e. caused to stumble, or led into sin ; and / burn not. That is, and I am not indignant? It was not to Paul a matter of indifference when any of the brethren, by the force of evil example, or by the seductions of false teach- ers, were led to depart from the truth or to act inconsistently with their profession. Such events filled him not only with grief at the fall of the weak, but with indignation at the au-