804 II. CORINTHIANS 13, 4.

preceding verse. 'Christ is powerful among yon, 1. Because though he died as a man, he lives ; and 2. Because though we are weak, we are strong in him.' In either way the sense is substantially the same. In what sense does the apostle here speak of himself as weak ? It is not a moral Aveakness, for it is conditioned by his communion with Christ ; ice are iceak in 1dm. It is not subjection to those sufferings which were a proof of weakness and are therefore called infirmities ; be- cause the context does not call for any reference to the apos- tle's sufferings. Nor does it mean a weakness in the estima- tion of others, i. e. that he was despised. It is obviously antithetical to the strength or power of which he was a partaker ; and as the power which he threatened to exercise and demonstrate was the power to punish, so the weakness of which he speaks was the absence of the manifestation of that power. He in Christ, that is, in virtue of his fellowship with Christ, was when in Corinth weak and forbearing, as though he had no power to vindicate his authority ; just as Christ was weak in the hands of his enemies when they led him away to be crucified. But as Christ's weakness was voluntary, as there rested latent in the suffering Lamb of God the resources of almighty power ; so in the meek, forbearing apostle was the j^lenitude of supernatural power which he de- rived from his ascended master. TFe shall live icith him. "Vitam," says Calvin, "opponit infirmitati: ideoque hoc nomine florentem et plenum dignitatis statum intelligit." As the life of Christ subsequent to his resurrection was a state in which he assumed the exercise and manifestation of the power inherent in him as the Son of God, so the life of which Paul here speaks, was the state in which he manifested the apostolic power with which he was invested. There is no reference to the future or eternal life of which Paul, as a believer, was here- after to partake. He is vindicating the propriety of his de- nunciation of chastisement to the disobedient in Corinth. Though he had been among them as weak and forbearing, yet he would manifest that he was alive in the sense of having j)Ower to enforce his commands. J3y the power of God. Paul's i)ower was a manifestation of the power of God. It was derived from God. It was not his own either in its source or in its exercise. He could do notliing, as he after- wards says, against the truth. Toward you ; i. e. ice shall live toward you. We shall exercise our authority, or manifest our apostolic life and power in relation to you.