The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Corinthians — Section 318

Christ's presence with you which you seek in me" (Conybeare and Howeon). NO one can help seeing how natnral this advice was to the apostle, and bow suitable to these noisy and fault-finding Corinthians. On the one hand, St. Paul wRs a man whom casual observers could easily misunderstand. His temperament, his habit of introversion, his intense self•consciousness, exposed him to constant misconception. Again, he was a born leader of men. Such a leader as he could not escape a severe probation while acquiring the ascendency to which he was predestined. Leaders who adapt tbemselves unscrupulously to times and circumstances gain a quick mastery. Leaders that shape contingencies to their high purposes and bring men into sympathy with a lofty ideal in their own souls must have creative genius, and exert it undei- sbarp and continual opposition. To this class of leaders the apostle belonged. Further~ more, bis position was unique by reason of the fact that his apostleship necessarily placed him between the two great rival forces of the ·age, Judaism and Gentilism. To show what the Law meant as a Divine institution; to show what Gentile civilization and culture meant as a long-existing providence; to harmonize as far as might be the truths in e.ach; in brief, to mediate between their claims as widely organized economies, and put them on common ground as it respected Christianity and its supreme authority, and do away with the, distinction of Jew and0 Gentile as· to the conditions of salvation ;-this was the most difficult task ever committed to a man. Owing to its intrinsic character, it brought him at every _turn in contact -rrith prejudices and passions which justified themselves in the one case by the miracles of Jehovah, in the other by the prescripts of government, and in both by the· Tenerable sanction of ages. Wbat wonder, then, that his career as a public man among public men was speciali7.ed qnite as much by systematic and vindictive misrepresentation as by a success unequa.lled in the influence exerted over the thought and morals of the· world ! On the other hand, look at these young Christian ·communities, situated often wide apart and unable to strengthen each others' hands, planted in the midst of peoples hostile to their creeds and still more to their virtues, and d~pendent in most instances on the nurture of a single apostle; look at them in a'state hardly more than inchoate,-'-· and can we be surprised that they were in some cases the sulljecte of intestine distur- ' bance, nay, of violent commotion? "Not many wise men ·after the fiesli,"not many mighty, not many noble," were "called;" but the "weak things of the world,"" base' things, and things despised," were "chosen," for the most part, as the original materials of that edifice which was to show in its proportions, its symmetry, its permanence, the' workmanship of the Hand unseen_. The "c.alled" and the "chosen" were_ eventually to vindicate the wisdom of the call and the choice.. Let us not.overlook, however, the disadvantages inseparable at the ·time from the·crude elements that constituted the early Churches. Without dwe~ling on these a.t length, suffice it to say that they were· imperilled by a corrupt Judaism on·the one slde, and a most' corrupt paganism on the other, the agencies and influences of which sought' t~eni as a prey to their lust of avarice and ambition. Now, the Church at Corinth was notably in this state ·of' exposure. Gallio, the Proconsul of Achaia, had protected St. Paul against the fury' of the Jews, and the Greeks bad used the· occasion to wreak their vengeance on the· Jews. Retaliation was the order of the times. Baffled by a Roman official, insulted: and beaten by a mob of Greeks, t,he Jews were not likely to forget the apostle, and wlJ. 1 can imagine with what zest they would enjoy the zeal of the Judaizing emissaries, and how they would diligently foment the efforts made for bis disgrace in Corinth. To • what extent this was carried by the Jews as a body we can only conjeqture. Certain· it is, however, that for several years Corinth was the seat of a most.active and uncom- promising warfare on St. Panl. Once more, and :finally, he comes before us in the passage under notice in an attitude unmistakably stern and authoritative. Is Christ in you, he asks the. Corinthians, or are ye reprobates? Prove yourselves, apply tho test, find out whether or not· you are in Jesus Christ and share his-spirit, and if you cannot stand the test, know then that you are reprobates. He expresses the hope that they will not find him a reprobate (unapproved or spurious) if they put him_ to ~he test of exercising his authority. Yot he trusts that the test of .his power will be avoided, and prays that they may" do no evil." If they should act as he prayed they might, then there would be no necessity for him to demonstrate his authority, and, in that happy event, he would appear "unapproved," i.e. not tested as to the display of on. xur. 1-14.] THlll SEOOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS. 1119