2 Corinthians 1:11

Ye also helping together by prayer for us - Tyndale renders this in connection with the close of the previous verse; “we trust that yet hereafter he will deliver us, by the help of your prayer for us.” The word rendered “helping together,” means cooperating, aiding, assisting; and the idea is, that Paul felt that his trials might be turned to good account, and give occasion for thanksgiving; and that this was to be accomplished by the aid of the prayers of his fellow Christians. He felt that the church was one, and that Christians should sympathize with one another.

THE Apostle Paul had, by singular Providences, been delivered from imminent peril in Asia. During the great riot at Ephesus, when Demetrius and his fellow shrine-makers raised a great tumult against him, because they saw that their craft was in danger, Paul's life was greatly in jeopardy. Consequently he writes, "We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life." The Apostle attributes to God, alone, his singular preservation.

THE Apostle Paul had, by singular Providences, been delivered from imminent peril in Asia. During the great riot at Ephesus, when Demetrius and his fellow shrine-makers raised a great tumult against him, because they saw that their craft was in danger, Paul's life was greatly in jeopardy. Consequently he writes, "We were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life." The Apostle attributes to God, alone, his singular preservation. And if he referred also to the occasion when he was stoned and left for dead, there is much appropriateness in his blessing "God which raised the dead." The Apostle, moreover, argues from the fact that God had thus delivered him in the past, and was still his helper in the present, that He would be with him also in the future. Paul is a master at all arithmetic—his faith was always a ready-reckoner—we here find him computing by the Believer's Rule of Three. He argues from the past to the present, and from the present to things yet to come. The verse preceding our text is a brilliant example of this arriving at a comfortable conclusion by the Rule of Three—"Who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us." Because our God is, "the same yesterday, today and forever," His love in time past is an infallible assurance of His kindness today, and an equally certain pledge of His faithfulness on the morrow. Whatever our circumstances may be, however perplexed may be our pathway, and however dark our horizon, if we argue by the rule of, "He has, He does, He will," our comfort can never be destroyed. Courage, then, O you afflicted seed of Israel.

Ye also helping together by prayer - Even an apostle felt the prayers of the Church of God necessary for his comfort and support. What innumerable blessings do the prayers of the followers of God draw down on those who are the objects of them! The gift bestowed - by the means of many persons - The blessings communicated by means of their prayers. Thanks may be given by many - When they who have prayed hear that their prayers are so particularly answered, then all that have prayed will feel themselves led to praise God for his gracious answers. Thus, the prayers of many obtain the gift; and the thanksgiving of many acknowledge the mercy. The gift, or χαρισμα, which the apostle mentions, was his deliverance from the dangers and deaths to which he was exposed.