The Great Commentary (Mossman/Cobb English)

We then> as workers together with Him, We, as workers together with God, beseech you to accept this proffered reconciliation, spoken of in vers. 18, 19, and 20, of the preceding chapter. Beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. He receives grace into a vacuum, says Anselm, who does not work with it, who does not give it his heart, and who, through sloth, makes that grace ineffectual, by not doing all that he can to express it in good works. In other words, do not suppose that faith alone is reconciliation, for a good life and good works are also indispensable. So Theophylact, following Chrysostom. Observe that the Apostle applies the word grace to the general benefit of reconciliation of the world through Christ’s redemption ; for it was of this that he had just been treating. Nevertheless, under that he comprehends that particular grace which Christ has merited for each one, and which God gives to each one, to enable each one to become a partaker of the general redemption wrought by Christ

Ye are not straitened in us. You dwell fully and spaciously in my heart as in your home. My love builds for you a spacious house. Ye are straitened in your own bowels. The love of your hearts for me is so small that it contracts them, and barely gives me place there. Your love and good-will do not equal mine. The Corinthians would seem to have been alienated from Paul by the calumnies of the false apostles ; he, therefore, declares the greatness of his love for them, that he may kindle theirs in return. Moreover, Paul seemed to have in his First Epistle straitened the Corinthians by prohibiting them from idolatry, from going to law before unbelieving judges, from their love-feasts and sumptuous banquets; and in ver. 14 he is about to straiten them by forbidding a believer to marry with an unbeliever. He here paves the way by urging them to receive, with the large-hearted love of UNEQUAL MARRIAGES 93 Christ, his apparently straitening precepts, which are not his but Christ’s

Now for a recompenee in the same . . . be ye also enlarged. S. Paul is speaking of a return of love, and not, as some think, of the heavenly reward. These latter take the meaning to be, that since the Corinthians were to have the same reward in heaven, they should enlarge their love for S. Paul. But the sense clearly is that they should repay S. Paul’s for them with an equal measure of love on their part

What concord hath Christ with Belial ? What harmony can there be between Him who is the Author of all knowledge, obedience, and righteousness and the devil with his followers ? l*he Hebrew Belial denotes (1.) disobedience, rebellion, ungodliness; (2.) those who have these qualities; and (3.) the devil, as the first apostate, the first to shake off the yoke of obedience to God and His law. Hence apostates are called " sons of Belial,” ie . 9 children of the devil, or children of disobedience, rebellion ungodliness. What part hath he that believeth with an infidel l What is there common to both, to be shared by both? So, in 1 Kings xil 16, we find : 11 What portion have we in David ? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse.” This antithesis explains the three preceding ones. It is not right for a believer to be joined with an unbeliever, even as it is not possible for righteousness to be joined to 96 SECOND EPISTLE TO THE ununrighteousness, light to darkness, Christ to Belial, the temple of God with idols. Ver. 1 6 . — Ye are the temple of the living God. By faith, grace, and holiness. S. Cyprian (de Orat . Domini) says beautifully : “ Let us show ourselves in our lives as the temples of God> that all may see that God indwells within us , so that we who have begun to be heavenly and spiritual may think and do nothing but what is spiritual and heavenly .” The Hebrew word for “temple” connotes power and majesty. Hence Chrysostom {Horn. 17 in Ep. ad Deb.) says that God ordered Solomon’s Temple to be made exceeding magnifical, that the Jews, who were naturally attracted by outward things, might be led to know something of the majesty of God. Why, then, should not Christians ornament their temples, as the houses of God, and show honour to God, and especially to the body of Christ present with them, and so excite others to reverence and love God ? Such a temple, such a royal, nay, such a Divine palace, is the Church allegorically, and each faithful soul tropologically, as the Apostle here declares. In this temple God shows His great glory and majesty, by His exceeding great grace, by magnificent and glorious works of virtue, and by the power of His sacraments. Villalpando (in Ezek . vol ii. p. 256) sees a further reference in the Hebrew word for temple to motion or walking. The tabernacle was a movable temple in which God dwelt and walked with the Hebrews through the wilderness into their promised land. It is to this that S. Paul alludes in the words that follow. I will walk in them. I will be their guardian, and will spiritually walk in them through the powers and virtues of the souL Anselm points out that S. Paul quotes Ezek. xxxviL 27 literally, and Lev. xxvi. 12 tropologically. What is said in the latter passage of the literal tabernacle of witness is to be understood of God’s protecting presence in each one of the faithful. Allegorically this tabernacle signified the Church of Christ, as is explained in Ezek. xxvii. 27, and tropologically each holy soul, which is a temple of God moving through the wilderness of this world to its resting-place in heaven. GOD IN MAN 97 (i.) God walks in the soul as in His tabernacle when, through acts of faith, hope, and charity, He passes from the memory to the understanding, and thence to the will. For the faithful soul is as the temple of heaven : its sun is the understanding, or zeal for righteousness ; its moon is faith and continence ; its stars the other virtues, as S. Bernard says (Serm. 27 in Cantic.). (2.) God walks in the soul, inasmuch as He makes it by His grace go from virtue to virtue (Anselm and Theophylact). In the same way that in the tabernacle the way to the Holy of Holies through the Holy Place was by the altar of incense, the table of shew-bread, and the candlestick, does God enable us to pass into heaven through holiness of life by prayer, almsgiving, chastity, and purity of soul. The altar of incense was a symbol of prayer, the table of almsgiving, the candlestick of purity and brightness of life. (3.) God walks in the soul by way of contemplation. He causes us to follow in our minds His temples, as He passed from the temple of heaven to that of the Virgin’s womb, thence to that of Calvary, thence to hell, and finally back again to heaven, (4.) God walks in us corporally, says S. Ambrose, for the Word was made flesh and dwelt and walked amongst us, and daily by Holy Communion He dwells in us and walks with us