John Wesley

sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

“As sorrowing - For our own manifold imperfections, and for the sins and sufferings of our brethren. Yet always rejoicing - In present peace, love, power, and a sure hope of future glory.”

We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians. Our hearts are open wide.

“O ye Corinthians - He seldom uses this appellation. But it has here a peculiar force. Our mouth is opened toward you - With uncommon freedom, because our heart is enlarged - In tenderness.”

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

“Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers - Christians with Jews or heathens. The apostle particularly speaks of marriage. But the reasons he urges equally hold against any needless intimacy with them.”

What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

“As God hath said - To his ancient church, and in them to all the Israel of God. I will dwell in them, and walk in them - The former signifying his perpetual presence; the latter, his operation.”

“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

“And ye shall be to me for sons and for daughters, saith the Lord Almighty - The promise made to Solomon, 1 Chr. xxviii, 6, is here applied to all believers; as the promise made particularly to Josh. is applied to them, Heb. xiii, 5.”

Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

“From all pollution of the flesh - All outward sin. And of the spirit - All inward. Yet let us not rest in negative religion, but perfect holiness - Carrying it to the height in all its branches, and enduring to the end in the…”

And not only did they do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us, because it was the will of God.

“And not as we hoped - That is, beyond all we could hope. They gave themselves to us, by the will of God - In obedience to his will, to be wholly directed by us.”

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become…

“For ye know - And this knowledge is the true source of love. The grace - The most sincere, most free, and most abundant love. He became poor - In becoming man, in all his life; in his death.”

At the present time, your surplus will meet their need, so that in turn their surplus will meet your need. Then there will be equality.

“It may likewise have a further meaning:-that as the temporal bounty of the Corinthians did now supply the temporal wants of their poor brethren in Judea, so the prayers of these might be a means of bringing down many spiritual blessings on their benefactors: so…”

As it is written: “He who gathered much had no excess, and he who gathered little had no shortfall.”

“As it is written, He that had gathered the most had nothing over; and he that had gathered the least did not lack - That is, in which that scripture is in another sense fulfilled.”

Along with Titus we are sending the brother who is praised by all the churches for his work in the gospel.

“The brother - The ancients generally supposed this was St. Luke. Whose praise - For faithfully dispensing the gospel, is through all the churches.”

More than that, this brother was chosen by the churches to accompany us with the offering—the gracious gift we administer to honor the Lord Himself and to show our eagerness…

“He was appointed by the churches - Of Macedonia. With this gift - Which they were carrying from Macedonia to Jerusalem. For the declaration of our ready mind - That of Paul and his fellow-traveler, ready to be the servants of all.”

As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker among you. As for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, to the glory of Christ.

“My partner - In my cares and labours. The glory of Christ - Signal instruments of advancing his glory.”

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good…

“All grace - Every kind of blessing. That ye may abound to every good work - God gives us everything, that we may do good therewith, and so receive more blessings.”

As it is written: “He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”

“He hath scattered abroad - (A generous word.) With a full hand, without any anxious thought which way each grain falls. His righteousness - His beneficence, with the blessed effects of it.”

Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness.

“And bread - All things needful for your own souls and bodies. Will continually supply you with that seed, yea, multiply it to you more and more. And increase the fruits of your righteousness - The happy effects of your love to God and man.”

For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.

“After the flesh - By any carnal or worldly methods. Though the apostle here, and in several other parts of this epistle, speaks in the plural number, for the sake of modesty and decency, yet he principally means himself.”

And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, as soon as your obedience is complete.

“Being in readiness to avenge all disobedience - Not only by spiritual censure, but miraculous punishments.”

I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ.

“So your minds - We might therefore be tempted, even if there were no sin in us. Might be corrupted - Losing their virginal purity.”

But I will keep on doing what I am doing, in order to undercut those who want an opportunity to be regarded as our equals in the things of which…

“Who desire any occasion - To censure me. That wherein they boast, they may be found even as we - They boasted of being "burdensome to no man." But it was a vain boast in them, though not in the apostle.”

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

“Five times I received from the Jews forty stripes save one - Which was the utmost that the law allowed. With the Roman he sometimes pleaded his privilege as a Roman; but from the Jews he suffered all things.”

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with grief?

“Who - So he had not only the care of the churches, but of every person therein. Is weak, and I am not weak - By sympathy, as well as by condescension. Who is offended - Hindered in, or turned out of, the good way.”

In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes in order to arrest me.

“The governor under Aretas - King of Arabia and Syria of which Damascus was a chief city, willing to oblige the Jews, kept the city - Setting guards at all the gates day and night.”

was caught up to Paradise. The things he heard were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell.

“He was caught up into paradise - The seat of happy spirits in their separate state, between death and the resurrection. Things which it is not possible for man to utter - Human language being incapable of expressing them.”

Even if I wanted to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth.

“For if I should resolve to glory - Referring to, I might glory of such a glorious Revelation. I should not be a fool - That is, it could not justly be accounted folly to relate the naked truth.”