He aimed at their edification, for he feared their state was not what he could desire. He feared lest they would not be acceptable to him, nor he to them. What he feared was that the evils to which frequent reference had already been made, should be found still to exist. Those evils were, tpci?, conten- tions^ such as existed between the different factions into which the church was divided, some saying we are of Paul, others, we are of Cephas, &c., see 1 Cor. 1, 11 ; envyings^ ^^Aot, those feelings of jealousy and alienation which generally attend con- tentions; ^vfxoL^ outbreaks of anger ; ept^etat, cabals. The word is from Ipt^og, a hireling^ and is often used of a factious spirit of party ; KaraXaXiol and i//t^upto-/xoi, backbiting and whis- perings, i. e. open detractions and secret calumnies ; <f)vaM(reL<s, swellings, i. e. manifestations of pride and insolence ; aKarao-- raa-LUL, tumults, i. e. those disorders which necessarily follow the state of things above described. This is a formidable list of evils, and it seems hard to reconcile what is here said with the glowing description of the repentance and obedience of the church found in the preceding part of this epistle, espe- cially in chapter 7. To account for this discrepancy some suppose, as before mentioned, that the latter part of this epis- tle, from ch. 10 to the end, formed a distinct letter written at a different time and under different circumstances from those under which the former part was written. Others, admitting that the two portions are one and the same epistle sent at the «ame time, still assume that a considerable interval of time elapsed between the writing of the former and latter parts of the letter; and that during that interval intelligence had reached the apostle that the evils prevailing in the church had not been so thoroughly corrected as he had hoped. The common and sufficient explanation of the difficulty is, that part of the congregation, probably the mnjority, were penitent and obedient, while another part were just the o})posite. When the apostle had the one class in view he used the lan- guage of commendation ; when the other, the language of censure. Examples of this kind are abundant in his epistles. The first part of his first epistle to the Corinthians is full of the strongest ex[)ressions of praise, but in what follows severe re2>roof fills most of its pages.
21. (And) lest, Avhcn I come again, my God will humble me among you, and (that) I shall bewail many