2 Corinthians 7:14

For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) For if I have boasted any thing to him of you.—It is obviously implied that he had boasted. He had encouraged Titus, when he sent him, with the assurance that he would find many elements of good mingled with the evil which he was sent to correct. And now St. Paul can add: “I was not shamed” (the tense requires this rendering) “when he came back with his report.”

Even so our boasting, which I made before Titus.—The words “I made” are, as the italics show, not in the Greek. Some of the better MSS. give, indeed, “your boasting,” and with this reading the sense would be: “As what I said of you to Titus turned out to be true, so I recognise that what you said to him of yourselves, of your zeal and longing (as in 2Corinthians 7:11), was spoken truly.” The Received reading rests, however, on very good authority, and certainly gives a better sense: “We spoke truly to you of your faults; we spoke truly to Titus of your good qualities.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:12-16 The apostle was not disappointed concerning them, which he signified to Titus; and he could with joy declare the confidence he had in them for the time to come. Here see the duties of a pastor and of his flock; the latter must lighten the troubles of the pastoral office, by respect and obedience; the former make a due return by his care of them, and cherish the flock by testimonies of satisfaction, joy, and tenderness.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For if I have boasted anything to him ... - This seems to imply that Paul had spoken most favorably to Titus of the Corinthians before he went among them. He had probably expressed his belief that he would be kindly received; that they would be disposed to listen to him, and to comply with the directions of the apostle; perhaps he had spoken to him of what he anticipated would be their liberality in regard to the collection which he was about to make for the poor saints at Jerusalem.

I am not ashamed - It has all turned out to be true. He has found it as I said it would be. All my expectations are realized; and you have been as kind, and hospitable, and benevolent as I assured him you would be.

As we spake all things to you in truth - Everything which I said to you was said in truth. All my promises to you, and all my commands, and all my reasonable expectations expressed to you, were sincere. I practiced no disguise, and all that I have said thus far turned out to be true.

Even so our boasting ... - My boasting of your character, and of your disposition to do right, which I made before Titus has turned out to be true. It was as I said it would be. I did not commend you too highly to him, as I did not overstate the matter to you in my Epistle.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. anything—that is, at all.

I am not ashamed—"I am not put to shame," namely, by learning from Titus that you did not realize the high character I gave him of you.

as … all things … in truth, even so our boasting … is found a truth—As our speaking in general to you was true (2Co 1:18), so our particular boasting to Titus concerning you is now, by his report, proved to be truth (compare 2Co 9:2). Some oldest manuscripts read expressly, "concerning you"; this in either reading is the sense.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The apostle here multiplieth expressions to sweeten the Corinthians, by all manner of ways declaring his value for and affection towards them. It appeareth by this, that the apostle had at some time before spoken something to Titus in commendation of this church of Corinth, which he here calleth a

boasting of them; he now again boasted, that he had said nothing but the truth, which Titus had experienced, and reported to him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For if I have boasted anything to him of you,.... As of their faith in Christ, of their liberality to the saints, their affection for him, and obedience to him as children to a father:

I am not ashamed; since these all appeared to be true; as he must have been had they been otherwise:

but as we spake all things to you in truth; that is, our preaching among you was true; all the doctrines we delivered to you were truth; our word was not yea and nay, but uniform, and all of a piece:

even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth; some understand this of the boasting which the apostle made concerning Titus, in his epistle to them, highly commending him, and which they found to be in all things exactly true; but the words rather design his boasting of the Corinthians unto Titus, which was found to be true by him.

Geneva Study Bible

For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Corinthians 7:14 f. Polite statement of the reason why the joy of Titus had rejoiced him so greatl.

εἴ τι αὐτῷ ὑπὲρ ὑμ. κεκαυχ.] Comp. 2 Corinthians 9:2. Who could deny that Paul, both alone, of which he is thinking here, and in company with Timothy (at which ἡ καύχησις ἡμῶν then glances), had justly boasted before Titus (coram Tito) to the advantage of the Corinthians (ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν, comp. 2 Corinthians 9:2)? See 1 Corinthians 1:4 ff. He had, in fact, founded the church and laboured so long in it, and they were in his heart, 2 Corinthians 7:3.

οὐ κατῃσχύνθην] This κατῃσχ. would have taken place, if Titus had experienced among you an opposite state of things, contradicting the truth of my καύχησις. But when he came to you: διὰ τῶν ἔργων ἐδείξατέ μου τὰ ῥήματα, Chrysosto.

ἀλλʼ ὡς πάντα κ.τ.λ.] Opposite of οὐ κατῃσχ.: “as we have spoken everything truly to you, our boasting before Titus has also become truth.” No doubt Paul is here making a passing allusion to the attack on his veracity (comp. 2 Corinthians 1:17 ff.), and that in such a way as emphatically to confront it with, first, what was said by him (πάντα … ἡ καύχησις ἡμῶν), and then the persons to whom he spoke (ὑμῖν … ἡ ἐπὶ Τίτου). Thus the first, and next to it the last, place in the arrangement of the sentence has the emphasis (Kühner, II. p. 625).

πάντα] quite general: we have lied to you in nothing. Chrysostom and Billroth think that it applies to all the good, which Paul had said of Titus to the Corinthians,—a purely arbitrary view, not to be guessed by any reade.

ἐν ἀληθείᾳ] i.e. truthfully. Comp. Colossians 1:6; John 17:19; Pind. Ol. vii. 127. The adverbial use is genuine Greek (Matthiae, p. 1342; Bernhardy, p. 211), not a Hebraism (Rückert). See on John 17:19.

ἐλαλήσαμεν] locuti sumus, quite general, and not to be limited, at variance with the context, to doctrine (Emmerling, Flatt, Hofmann, and others, following Theodoret).

ἐπὶ Τίτου] coram Tito. See Schaefer, Melet. p. 105; Fritzsche, Quaest. Luc. p. 139.

ἐγενήθη] se praestitit; it has shown itself as truth by experience. Comp. 2 Corinthians 1:19; Romans 3:4; Romans 7:13. Often so also in classic writers.

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Corinthians 7:14. ὅτι εἴ τι κ.τ.λ.: for if in anything I have gloried to him on your behalf, i.e., have boasted of you (cf. 2 Corinthians 9:2, 2 Corinthians 12:5), I was not put to shame, sc., by the vanity of my boasting being exposed; but as we spake all things to you in truth (this he is continually insisting on, e.g., at 2 Corinthians 1:18, 2 Corinthians 2:17, 2 Corinthians 4:2, etc.), so our glorying also, viz., that made before Titus (cf. Mark 13:9 for ἐπί with the gen.), was found (not “is found” as A.V., but “was found” as at 1 Corinthians 1:30) to be truth.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. I am not ashamed] Rather, ‘I was not ashamed,’ i.e. at his return.

but as we spake] i.e. when we were with you.

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Corinthians 7:14. Κεκαύχημαι, οὐ κατῃσχύνθην, I have boasted, I am not ashamed) ch. 2 Corinthians 9:4, 2 Corinthians 12:6.—πάντα, all things) He suitably refers to ch. 2 Corinthians 1:18.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - I am not ashamed. The due rendering of the tenses brings out the sense much more accurately. "Because if I have boasted anything to him on your behalf, I was not put to the blush;" in other words, "One reason of my exceeding gladness was that you fully justified that very favorable picture of you which I had drawn for Titus when I was urging him to be the bearer of my letter." Is found a truth; literally, proved itself to be a truth. Here again there is a most delicate reference to the charge of levity and unveracity which had been brought against him (2 Corinthians 1:17). I always spoke the truth to you; but I might well have feared that, in speaking of you to Titus, my affection for you had led me to overstep the limits of perfect accuracy. But you yourselves, by proving yourselves worthy of all I said of you, have established my perfect truthfulness, even in the only point where I might have thought it doubtful. Nothing could exceed the tact and refinement, the subtle delicacy and beauty, of this gentle remark. 2 Corinthians 7:14