2 Corinthians 1:23-24 Moreover I call God for a record on my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet to Corinth. His reasons were — I. ONE OF MERCY: to spare them pain (ver. 23) — to save them from the sharp censure their lax morality would have necessitated. It was no caprice, no fickleness, respecting St. Paul's character that — 1. He was not one of those who love to be censors of the faults of others. There are social faultfinders, who are ever on the watch for error and who yet provide no remedy. Now all this was contrary to the spirit of St. Paul; he had that love "which thinketh no evil," etc. It pained him to inflict the censure which would give pain to others. 2. He was not one of those who love to rule. II. APPARENTLY A SELFISH ONE: to spare himself pain (2 Corinthians 2:1 5). But if we look closely into it, it only sheds fresh light upon the unselfishness and delicacy of St. Paul's character. He desired to save himself pain, because it gave them pain. He desired joy for himself, because his joy was theirs. He will not separate himself from them for a moment. 1. It was not to pain them merely that he wrote, but because joy, deep and permanent, was impossible without pain; as the extraction of a thorn by a tender father gives a deeper joy in love to the child. 2. It was not to save himself pain merely that he did not come, but to save them that pain which would have given him pain. Here there is a canon for the difficult duty of blame. To blame is easy enough — with some it is all of a piece with the hardness of their temperament; but to do this delicately — how shall we learn that? I answer, Love! and then say what you will; men will bear anything if love be there. If not, all blame, however just, will miss its mark; and St. Paul showed this in ver. 4. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.WEB: But I call God for a witness to my soul, that I didn't come to Corinth to spare you. |
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