1. Suvepyouvreg, workers together) Not only as the ambassadors of God , or on the other hand, as beseeching , we deal with you ; but also, as your friends, we co-operate with you for your sal- vation. [ This is the medium between the dignity of ambassadors and the humility of beseeching , ch. v. 20. That is, we try all means. — Not. Crit.] For you ought to work out your own sal- vation, Phil. ii. 12. The working together with them is described, ver. 3, 4; the exhortation , ver. 2, 14, 15 [as far as ch. vii. 1. —
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Y. g.] He strongly dissuades them from Judaism, as an am- bassador, and by beseeching ; as working together with them, he strongly dissuades them from heathenism. None but a holy [ch. vii. 1] minister of the Gospel can turn himself into all forms of this sort. — xa/', also). — rr\v yd piv, the grace ) of which ch. v. 18, 19 treats, [and ch. vi. 2, 17, 18. — Y. g.] — 8's^affdai) This word is drawn from the dsxrp of ver. 2 [ receive — For this is God’s season of receiving sinners]. Divine grace offers itself : human faith and obedience avail themselves of the offer.
2. As/s/, He saith) The Father to Messiah, Is. xlix. 8, em- bracing in Him all believers. — yap, for) He is describing grace. — dtxru), accepted) the acceptable time of the good pleasure of God. Hence Paul presently after infers its correlative, evnpog- dsxroc, well-accepted, that it may be also agreeable to us.1 — s-tjjj tovffd gov) I have heard thee, viz. praying. — h w'zpoc, in a day) Luke xix. 42 ; Heb. iii. 7. — ihov vvv, behold now) The summing up of the exhortation, ver. 1 ; set before us in the way of a sup- posed dialogue.2
3. ’Ey fjjTjdsvi, in nothing) corresponds to h gravri, in every thing, in the following verse. — didovreg, giving) The participle depends on ver. 1. — rtpognoKYiv, offence) which would be the case, if we were without ‘ patience’ and the other qualifications, which are pre- sently afterwards mentioned. — i diaxov/a, the ministry) The Ab- stract. The ministers of God, the Concrete, ver. 4.
4. Atdxovoi, ministers) This word has greater force, than if it had been written diaxovovg. — v^o^ovy, in patience) This is put first ; ch. xii. 12 : chastity, etc., follow in ver. 6. A remarkable gra- dation.— in much) Three triplets of trials follow, which must be endured, and in which patience is exercised, afflictions [necessities, distresses] : stripes [imprisonments, tumults] : la- bours [watchings, fastings] : The first group of three includes the genera ; the second, the species of adversities ; the third, things voluntarily endured. And the variety of cases of the several classes of trial should be observed, expressed, as it is, by the employment of the plural number. — h dX/^egiv, h dmyxoug,
1 The present time is thxTo'c to God : let it be also evxj ooahexros to us. —Ed.
2 Or introduction of an imaginary speaker. See Append, on Sermoci- natio. — Ed.