The Great Commentary (Mossman/Cobb English)

But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty . All hidden and disgraceful wickedness. What is vile loves darkness, and those who seek for what is impure have ever in their mouth, “ If not chastely, yet cautiously.” S. Paul means : I do nothing, not even in secret, with which fault can be found : I am no hypocrite, like many false apostles. S. Ambrose ( Offic , lib. ii. c. 3), alluding to the ring of Gyges, which enabled him to see all and be seen by none, and so led him to deflower the queen and slay the king, and get possession of the throne of Lydia, says beautifully : “ Give this ring to a wise man , that by its power he may be hid from the eyes of all if he does wrong: he will none the less flee from the stain of sin , though he be seen by none . The wise man's hiding-place is not to be found in fear of punishment , but in hope of keeping innocency . Law is not laid down for the righteous , but for the unnghteous ; for the 42 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE righteous man is a law to himself in the uprightness of his heart and has his rule of righteousness within” To the same effect is the golden sentence of Seneca : u Even if I were sure that no man would know, and that God would forgive , yet the hattfulness of sin would prevent me from sinning” Add to this that even if we escape the notice of men when we sin, yet we cannot escape from the all-seeing eye of God, who will judge and punish. Therefore let every one renounce with S. Paul the hidden things of dishonesty, and live chastely, and keep his heart pure, just as if he were standing in the presence of God. Not walking in craftiness . Professing to be one thing and secretly doing another. The words are aimed at the lust of the false apostles, and their secret evil-living. Cf. Eph. v. 1 2. Nor handling the word of God deceitfully . As the false apostles do, who mix it up with the law of Moses, or fashion their teaching after the needs of time, place, and persons. These three were excellently performed by Luther. (1.) He falsified Rom. iii. 28, “We conclude that a man is justified by faith,” by adding the word * only ” to faith ; and also 2 Pet i. 10 : c< Give diligence by good works to make your calling and election sure,” by omitting the words “by good works.” (2.) He wrested the word of God to his own lusts when he tried to persuade a certain woman that it was lawful for her to lie with him whilst her husband was asleep, on the authority of 1 Cor. viL 39 : “ If her husband sleep, she is at liberty.” (3.) To suit different places, times, and persons, he gave different expositions of the words of consecration. Gaspar Querhamer Saxo has published thirty-six contradictory explanations of his on the subject of the Eucharist alone, collected from his writings during his lifetime. Commending ourselves to every man's conscience . Those who follow their conscience and form their judgments by it see that what I say is true, and if they would say what they think, they cannot deny that I preach with sincerity, as in the presence of God, seeing and fearing God everywhere as my witness and judge

But if our Gospel be hid I So as not to be understood and THE GOD OF THIS WORLD 43 hence not believed. He alludes to the veil of Moses (iii. 13), and anticipates the objection : “ If you, O Paul, manifest, as you say, the word of God in truth, and commend yourself to every man’s conscience, how comes it that this word of God of yours is not manifest to all? Why do not all believe it?” He replies that it is plain enough to the good.and faithful, but to the wicked and unbelieving it is hidden and unknown, because they are reprobate. He is not speaking of the written Gospel, as heretics suppose, as though that were clear to all the elect, but of the mysteries of the Gospel, or the articles of the faith that are open and obvious to every Christian, such as the birth, Passion, and resurrection of Christ These truths were preached by Paul and the Apostles before the Gospels were committed to writing ; and when this letter was written, all the Gospels were not yet written. To them that are lost. It is the proof and cause of their reprobation that they have a veil of blindness and unbelief over their heart, which prevents them from seeing and believing Christ and His mysteries, which are so clearly set forth in the Gospel and the New Testament

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Who is meant by the “ god of this world ? ” {1.) Marcion, according to Chrysostom, inferred that there is a certain god, just but not good, who was the creator of the world. (2.) The Manicheans reply that it is the devil, and that he was the creator of the world and of matter in general. (3) Chrysostom, Anselm, Theodoret, and Theophylact make the sentence run : God, te., the true God, hath blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world ; or God, the true God, the author and maker of the world, hath blinded the minds of them that believe not (4.) CEcumenius and S. Thomas say : The God of this world is the devil, who is the god of worldly men, not by having created them, but in the way of wickedness, example, power, and suggestion. This seems the simplest explanation j for S. Paul does not call him God simply, but the God of this world, ie., of worldly men, who prefer the perishing things of time to the realities of eternity. Cf. Eph. vl 12. (5.) S. Thomas also says: “The God of this world is mammon, or the power and pomp that men 44 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE of the world make their chief good and set up as their god. C f* PhiL iii. 19. Them which believe not The construction is a Hebraism. The Gospel is hidden in the case of unbelievers who perish, in whom of whom, the God of this world hath blinded the minds. Lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ . . . should shine unto them. The Greek word avyrj, from which the verb here is derived, denotes, say Chrysostom and Theophylact, a faint light and foreshine of clear light, /.<?., of the brightness of the Divine glory which will be revealed in heaven. As the dawn and the morning star precede the sun, so does faith in this life, like a morning star, go before the brightness of the sight of the Beatific Vision. Cf. 2 Pet. i. 19. The Gospel is called the “ Gospel of the glory of Christ,” or the " glorious Gospel of Christ,” because by it Christ is glorified. Who is the image of God (1.) This is strictly true of the Son, who proceeds from the Father as His image. (2.) The Son is called the image of the Father, because He is begotten by Him in such a way that He is most like to the Father, and most perfectly represents Him. He is the Word of God or the Wisdom of God, in whom the Father beholds His own Wisdom mirrored. “Word,” however, stands for a concept of the mind, and is an image of the thought of the mind, and so He is distinguished from the Holy Spirit, who, though He perfectly resembles the Father, yet is not this by the mere fact of His procession ; for by that He is merely the bond of union in will and love between the Father and the Son. (3.) The Son is the image of the Father by reason of His Divine Essence, inasmuch as He has received It from the Father. For, since He has received It from the Father, He is in reality diverse in Person, just as an image is diverse from its original. Moreover, since He has received His Essence from the Father, He is most like to Him, and in all things represents Him. Observe the depth of the Apostle's statements. The world receives the light of faith from the Apostles, they from Christ, in the same way that Moses received it from an angel representing Christ; Christ from the Father, in the same way that light proceeds from light, and a ray from the sun. TIIE IMAGE OF THE FATHER 45

Ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake . Supply “ we show," or “ we preach.”

For God . . . hath shined in our hearts . In the account of the creation of the world given in Genesis, light is said to have been created first of all, because light is a quality most splendid, pleasant, gladdening, useful, efficacious, and powerful. Cf. Dionysius (de Divtiu Nomin. c. iv.), who enumerates thirty-four properties of light and of fire wonderfully adapted to set forth God and the things belonging to Him. Cf. note to Gen. i. 2. Hugo ( de Sacram . pag. i. c. 10) and others point out, by way of allegory, that on the first day, when light was created and divided from darkness, the good angels were established in good and the evil in evil, and were separated each from other. What, therefore, was done in the world of sense was an image of what was being done in the unseen world. Nay, S. Augustine frequently maintains that the literal sense is that which refers to the angels. The Apostle here explains this light tropologically. As God formerly produced light out of darkness, so now has He made unbelievers into believers, and has enlightened them with the light of faith. So, too, S. Augustine {contra Advers . Leg. lib. i. c. 8) lays down that by light and day succeeding the pre-existing darkness, and being again succeeded by darkness, is signified what spiritually takes place in man, viz., grace succeeding sin, and sin again grace. To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ To illuminate us, that we in turn may illuminate others with that clear and glorious knowledge which shines forth from God in the face of Christ, or else by means of our clear knowledge of Christ and His redemption. It is commonly said that a man is known by his face ; hence to know “ in the face ” signifies to know clearly and openly. Just as at night a lighted torch throws light on the surrounding darkness, and is carried before travellers to show them the way clearly, so does Christ lighten us in the night of this world, so that we know God surely and plainly, and go on our way to see Him in the life of bliss in heaven. Hence the Glossa symbolically explains these words to mean : by Jesus Christ, 46 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE who is the Face of the Father ; for without Him the Father is not known. There is still kept up an allusion to the veil over Moses’ face contrasted with the open face of Christ (iii. 15). The word face may be, with the Syriac, translated the person, /.<?., we illuminate, others in the name, place, and authority of Christ. S. Cyril (de Fide ad Theodor . Imp.) says : “ He hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. See how openly and plainly the light of the knowledge of God the Father has shone forth in the person of Christ”

But we have this treasure . The treasure is the ministry and preaching of the Gospel entrusted to him by God. Cf. ver. 1 and vers. 5 and 6. In earthen vessels . (1.) In a body of dust frail and fragile. Our body is as an earthenware vessel; for as an earthen vessel is nothing but clay baked in the fire, so is our body nothing but earth made solid by the heat of the soul. Take away the soul, and the body returns to the dust whence it came. C£ Ps. ciii. 14. Or, (2.) in earthen vessels means in ourselves ; for though we are Apostles, still we are men, frail and fashioned from the dust, and, like earthen vessels, are worthless, weak, and contemptible, exposed to injuries at the hands of all. This explanation is favoured by the words that follow : M We are troubled on every side,” &c. So in 1 Cor. i. 27, it was said that God had chosen the Apostles as the foolish, and weak, and base things of the world ; and also in 1 Cor. ii. 1, Paul said that he had come to the Corinthians, not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, but in weakness, and fear, and trembling ; and again, in 1 Cor. iv. 9, he expresses the same idea. Origen (Horn, in Numer.) symbolically interprets this treasure as the grace of the Holy Spirit hidden in earthen vessels, ue ., in the rude, unpolished, and unadorned words of the law and the Gospel That the excellency of the power may he of God and not of us. God wills me to have this treasure in an earthen vessel, in order that the excellency which is in me, and the fruit that I gather in the conversion of the heathen, may not be ascribed to me, but to the power of God and the grace of Christ. EARTHEN VESSELS 47

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus . The death of Jesus, according to S. Ambrose, but the Greek is rather dying or mortification. The dying meant is the suffering of death like to the suffering of Jesus Christ, which is the road to and the beginning of death, a long and living death. This is the suffering spoken in vers. 8 and 9, suffering inflicted from without, though it may be extended also to any voluntary mortification of mind and body. It is called “ the dying of Jesus,” (1.) because it is borne by JOY IN SORROW 49 His example ; (2.) because it is undergone for His faith ; (3.) because we, His servants, bear about in our body, by a kind of representation, the very death and Passion of Christ, just as slaves carry the badge and token of their master. Cf. Gal. vl 17. So in Heb. xi. 26, it is said that Moses bore the reproach of Christ, and preferred it to the riches of Egypt (see note there). “ There is no doubt ? says Ambrose, “that in His martyrs Christ is slain , and that in them that suffer chains orscourgings for the faith , Christ suffers the samel 9 Paul gives here the cause why, in the midst of trouble and distress, he is not crushed and destroyed, but is instead raised up and quickened. It is because by tribulation he is made like Christ crucified and smitten, and then raised and quickened ; and, therefore, he rejoices in tribulation. Salvianus (de Vero Jud. et Provid. Dei , lib. i.) says that no one is miserable who is content in the midst of misery, rather he is happy, because it is of his own devotion that he lives in misery. Toil, fasting, poverty, humility, weakness, persecution are not grievous to those that endure them, but to those that kick at them. Among the heathen, Fabricius, Fabius, Regulus, Camillus found poverty and affliction no burden. " No one? he says, “is made miserable b^ other people's opinion but by his own, and therefore false judgment cannot make them miserable whose conscience approves them . . . . None, I think, are happier than they who act according to their own knowledge and wish. Religious are of low estate , but they wish it so ; they are poor , but pleased with poverty ; they have no ambition, for they scorn it; they mourn, but they rejoice to mourn ; they are weak, but they delight in weakness. 4 When I am weak / says the Apostle, 1 then am I strong.' And so, no matter what may happen to those that are religious indeed, they are to be called happy . None are more joyous in the midst of all kinds of adversity than those who are in a state of their own choosing? That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. This is that future life when we shall rise with Christ to glory (ver. 14) ; and also the present life, when, after the pattern of the risen body of Christ, our afflicted bodies become more lively VOL. II. D 50 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE through the operation of the Spirit, on account of our hope of the resurrection and through the power of God, which delivers us from so many dangers every day and strengthens us against them. Ver. 1 1. — For we which live are alway delivered unto death. In the midst of a life such as ours, we are exposed to constant danger of death and to every kind of trouble. The thought, then, that in all our tribulation we are made like to Christ in His Passion and resurrection is what animates, comforts, and strengthens us. As in our afflicted and mortified body the death of Christ is visibly set forth, so in its deliverance, salvation, and strengthening do we see the life and resurrection of Christ When we are thrown to the lions and other wild beasts, to be, as all expect, surely devoured by them, they spare us and fawn upon us ; when we are cast into the fire it shrinks from us, nay, with genial warmth refreshes us; when we are thrown into the sea to be drowned, the sea bears us up and preserves us from all hurt ; when I was stoned at Lystra and left for dead, I was soon after found to be alive. In all these and similar persecutions and afflictions I have fellowship with, I am made like, and I set forth the suffering, death, and burial of Christ, which by the power of God, were but the glorious prelude to the life of bliss. And for this reason I am strong, nay, I rejoice and glory in all my tribulations; for they give me a sure and certain hope of an eternal life of glory. “ Therefore ,” says CEcumenius, t( was Christ permitted by God to be delivered to deaths that His resurrection might be made manifest to all He who daily raises us certainly raised up Himself also , and will in good time raise us up to eternal life?

So then death worketh in us, but life in you. Your spiritual life, your salvation is produced through faith and grace, but ours by the death of our body. The passion and death of the Apostles has been the life of the Church. “ The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” says Tertullian. Chrysostom gives a different explanation : “ You live in peace and suffer no such persecutions for the faith as I do ; and so you seem to live, and I seem to die daily.” DEATH IN LIFE SI We, having the same spirit of faith. As David was hemmed in with dangers, and yet was delivered by God alone from them all, and said : t€ I believed,” />., I believe that God will always be true to His promises and deliver me, so too do we believe and hope, and boldly profess that our help and strength, our deliverance and resurrection have been promised by God, and will most surely be wrought out Ps. cxvi., alluded to here by S. Paul, is a Eucharistic psalm, in which David gives God thanks for his safe deliverance. Hence it begins with, “ I believed.” In other words : I, David, in the midst of dangers and adversity, when hunted by Saul and his men, when my life was sought by Achish and the Philistines, when I was so placed that I seemed to be deprived of all human help, and to be in desperate straits, yet put my trust in God, who had promised me safety, and moreover the kingdom, by the mouth of Samuel. Wherefore, I said boldly that I believed, without doubting that God would deliver me from all these evils, and would bring me to His promised kingdom, as, in fact, He has delivered me, and has set me on the throne. “ Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints.” My death is of great account and great price in the sight of the Lord. God, therefore, carefully watches that my death, or that of His other Saints may not be allowed, except for good cause and great gain, and He wonderfully guards us and delivers us. This, I, David, found in the cave and at other times when I was shut in by the bands of Saul and of my other enemies, and therefore with praise and thanksgiving do I exclaim, What return shall I make unto the Lord for all the benefits that He hath done unto me ? I will receive the cup of salvation, of my many safe deliverances — that cup which is a witness and public profession of God’s goodness to me, and of my frequent escapes from danger — of God’s salvation will I take. Observe here that (i.) the Jews had three kinds of sacrifices, the whole burnt-offering, the sin-offering, and the peace-offering. This last was a sacrifice of salvation, offered for the peace and salvation of any individual or family, or of the whole people, whether 52 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE already obtained or to be obtained. (2.) In every sacrifice a libation was made to God, just as if the sacrifice were God's feast. The cup, therefore, of salvation is the cup of wine which was offered to God, poured out and drunk by the offerers. (3.) This cup was a figure of the Eucharistic chalice, which makes us not only mindful of the salvation wrought by Christ, but also partakers of it. Tropologically this “cup” is martyrdom and affliction, and the obstinate resistance that we make to sin, even unto death, says S. Basil, in his comments on Ps. cxvl For Paul eagerly longed for martyrdom, and hence he speaks not of the cross, but of the cup of salvation, as though he should say : I will readily drink whatever the Lord may have given to me, even though it be the martyr's death ; and therefore knowing, says S. Augustine, that martyrdom is not within my own power, but depends on the grace of God, I will call upon that grace, and will publicly preach and celebrate the name of the Lord. Similarly, Christ speaks of His Passion as a cup, and bids His Apostles and martyrs and all His members drink of it (S. Matt xx. 22, and xxvi. 42). As, then, every Christian offers to Christ, His Deliverer, the Eucharistic cup and sacrifice as a thanksgiving, so does Paul offer his sufferings, his afflictions, and death to Christ, as a most pleasing cup. So, too, have all the martyrs, by openly professing their faith and dying for it, offered to Christ the cup of their martyrdom. I believed. I believed, and I still believe. This is a continuous act of belief, and not merely one that is inchoate, especially so since David speaks of the person of Paul and of us all, and puts his own belief forward as one deserving our imitation

Shall raise up us also . . , and shall present us with you. Shall present us with you in glory. He says out of modesty, “shall present us with you,” not “you with us,” because the Corinthians were the cause and object of his preaching, and so also of his glory

The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal S. Augustine (, Sentent No. 270) says well : “ There is this difference between things temporal and things eternal, that the former are loved more before they are obtained, but seem worthless when they arrive . Nothing satisfies the mind but a true and certain eternity of incorruptible joy . But eternal joy is more ardently loved when obtained than when longed for. No one can value it above its true worth, so that when he attains it it seems vile in his eyes through having been too ardently longed for . But so great is the excellency of heaven that charity will obtain far more than faith has believed or hope desired” See also S. Gregory, Horn. 36 in Evang, where he draws out at length this distinction between carnal and spiritual pleasures. CHAPTER V I That in his assured hope of immortal glory, 9 and in expectance of it, and of the general judgment, he laboureth to keep a good conscience, 12 not that he may herein boast of himself, 14 but as one that, having received life from Christ, endeavoureth to live as a new creature to Christ only, 18 and by his ministry of reconciluxtion to reconcile others also in Christ to God ■pOR we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven, 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened : not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 5 Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord : 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight :) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 1 1 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men ; but we are made manifest unto God ; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. 12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart. 13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God : or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. 14 For the love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead : 15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. 16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh : yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. 6x 62 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE Therefore if any man be In Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new. 18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation ; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us : we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin ; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER i The Apostle goes on to remind the Corinthians of the glories of heaven, saying that in exile here and in the tabernacle of the flesh he longs for them, and wishes to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. ii. He shows (ver. 9) that it is his endeavour to please not men but Christ alone, who shall come to judgment. iii. He declares (ver. 14) that he is constrained to do this by the love of Christ, who has reconciled us by His death ; and therefore that he no longer knows any one according to the flesh, but only him who is a new creature in Christ iv. He professes himself (ver. 18) to be a minister and ambassador of Christ, and he prays them to be reconciled to God for Christ's sake