thors of their fall. Thus his mind was kept in a state of con- stant agitation by his numerous anxieties and his wide-hearted sympathy.
30. If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things Avhich concern mine infirmities.
Paul's boasting was not like that of the false teachers. They boasted not only of their descent, but of their learning, eloquence, and personal advantages ; he boasted only of the things which implied weakness, his sufferings and privations. The future, Kavxrjo-ofxaL, expresses a general purpose, illustrated in the past, and not ha\4ng reference merely to what was to come. The persecutions, the poverty, the scourgings, the hunger and nakedness of which Paul had boasted, were not things in which men of the world pride themselves, or which commonly attract human applause.
31. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoAveth that I lie not.
This is a peculiarly solemn asseveration. An oath is the act of calling God to witness the truth of what we say. Here the appeal is not simply to God as God, but to God in his pe- culiar covenant relation to believers. When the Israelite called on Jehovah as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he recognized him not only as the creator and moral governor of the world, but as the covenant God of his nation. So the Christian when he calls God " The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," recognizes him not only as his Creator, but as the author of redemption through his eternal Son. Jesus Christ is a designation of the Theanthropos, the histori- cal person so named and known, to whom God stood in the relation at once of God and Father. Our Lord had a de- pendent nature to which God stood in the relation of God, and a divine nature to which He stood in the relation of Father, and therefore to the complex person Jesus Christ God bore the relation of both God and Father.
There is a difference of opinion as to the reference of this passage. Some suppose that the apostle intended by this oath to confirm the truth of the whole preceding exhibition of his labours and sufferings ; others, that it is to be confined to the assertion in v. 30, viz., that he would boast only of his infirmi-