We have seen that Timothy had been sent from Ephesus to INIacedonia and Corinth. He had rejoined Paul when he wTote this Second Epistle ; for he is as- sociated with him in the salutation (2 Cor. i, 1). We have no account, either in the Acts or in the Epistles, of this journey of Timothy, and some have thought it probable that he never reached Corinth. Let us sup- pose, however, that he arrived there soon after the First Epistle, conveyed by Stephanas and others, had been received by the Corinthian Church. He found that a movement had arisen in the heart of that Church which threw (let us suppose) the case of the incestuous per- son (1 Cor. V, 1-5) into the shade. This was a delib- erate and sustained attack upon the apostolic authoritj' and personal integrity of the apostle of the Gentiles. The party-spirit wliich, before the writing of the Firsli Epistle, had been content with underrating the powers of Paul compared with those of Apollos, and with pro- testing against the laxity of his doctrine of freedom, had been fanned into a flame by the arrival of some person or persons who came from the Judsean Church, armed with letters of commendation, and who openly ques- tioned the commission of him whom they proclaimed to be a self-constituted apostle (2 Cor. iii, 1 ; xi, 4, 12- 15). As the spirit of opposition and detraction grew strong, the tongue of some member of the Church (more probably a Corinthian than the stranger himself) seems to have been loosed. He scoffed at Paul's courage and constancy, pointing to his delay in coming to Corinth, and making light of his threats (i, 17, 23). He de- manded proofs of his apostleship (xii, 11, 12). He de- rided the weakness of his personal presence and the simplicity of his speech (x, 10). He even threw out insinuations touching the personal honesty and self- devotion of Paul (i, 12 ; xii, 17, 18). When some such attack was made openly upon the apostle, the Church had not immediately called the offender to account ; the better spirit of the believers being cowed, apparent- ly, b}' the confidence and assumed authority of the as- sailants of Paul. A report of this melanchol}' state of things was brought to the apostle bj- Timothy or by others ; and we can imagine how it must have wound- ed his sensitive and niost affectionate nature, and also how critical the juncture must have seemed to him for the whole Western Church. He immediately sent off Titus to Corinth, with a verbal message re-enforcing his former letter with the sharpest rebukes (see 1 Cor. iv, 18-21), using the authority which had been denied, and threatening to enforce it speedily by his personal
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presence (2 Cor. ii, 2, 3 ; vii, 8). As soon as the mes- senger was gone — how natural a trait ! — he began to repent of having sent him. He must have hated tlie appearance of claiming homage to himself; his heart must have been sore at the requital of his love ; he must have felt the deepest anxiety as to the issue of the struggle. We can ■well believe him therefore when he speaks of what he had suffered: "Out of much af- fliction and anguish of heart I wrote to yon with many tears" (ii, 4); "I had no rest in my spirit" (ii, 13); " Our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side ; without were fightings, within were fears" (vii, 5). It appears that he could not bring himself to has- ten to Corinth so rapidly as he had intended (i, 15, 16) ; he would wait till he heard news which might make his visit a happy instead of a painful one (ii, 1). When he had reached Macedonia, Titus, as we have seen, met him with such reassuring tidings. The offender had been rebuked by the Church, and had made submission (ii, 6, 7); the old spirit of love and reverence towards Paul had been awakened, and had poured itself forth in warm expressions of shame and grief and penitence. The cloud was now dispelled ; fear and pain gave place to hope and tenderness and thankfulness. But even now the apostle would not start at once for Corinth. He may have had important work to do in Macedonia. But another letter would smooth the way still more effectuallj' for his personal visit ; and he accordinglj- ■wrote the Second Epistle, and sent it by the hands of Titus and two other brethren to Corinth.
When the Epistle is read in the light of the circum- stances we have supposed, the sj'mptoms it displays of a highly wrought personal sensitiveness, and of a kind of ebb and flow of emotion, are as intelligible as they are noble and beautiful. Nothing but a temporary- in- terruption of mutual regard could have made the joy of sj'mpathy so deep and fresh. If he had been the object of a personal attack, how natural for the apostle to write as he does in ii, 5-10. In vii, 12, "he that suf- fered wrong" is Paul himself. All his protestations relating to his apostolic work, and his solemn appeals to God and Christ, are in place ; and we enter into his feelings as he asserts his own sincerit}' and the open- ness of the truth which he taught in the Gospel (ch. iii, iv). We see what sustained him in his self-as- sertion ; he knew that he did not preach himself, but Christ Jesus the Lord. His own weakness became an argument to him, which he could use to others also, of the power of God working in him. Knowing his own fellowship with Christ, and that this fellowship was the right of other men too, he would be persuasive or severe, as the cause of Christ and the good of men might re- quire (ch. iv, v). If he was appearing to set himself up against the churches in Judaea, he was the more anxious that the collection which he was making for the benefit of those churches should prove his sympa- thy with them by its largeness. Again he would re- cur to the maintenance of his own authority as an apostle of Christ against those who impeached it. He ■would make it understood that spiritual views, spirit- ual powers, were real; that if he knew no man after the flesh, and did not war after the flesh, he was not the less able for the building up of the Church (ch. x). He would ask them to excuse his anxious jealousy, his folly and excitement, while he gloried in the practical proofs of his apostolic commission, and in the infirm- ities which made the power of God more manifest; and he would plead with them earnestly that they would give him no occasion to find fault or to correct them (ch. xi, xii, xiii).