2Co 1:2424Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand. (2 Corinthians 1:24)IN the first recorded intercourse between the Lord and Moses, after Moses had pitched the tabernacle outside the camp, when "the Lord spake with him face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend," Moses was emboldened to ask, "Show me now thy way." Surely, as Moses himself afterward testifies, " His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He;" yet His way of dealing with His people after their failure, is strongly contrasted with man's way, and proves that "His way is higher than our way," and blessed in proportion to its highness.
This way of God is remarkably carried out by the Apostle Paul in his conduct to the saints of Corinth. The manner in which he addresses himself to deal with them, distracted as they were by divisions, debating even the fundamental doctrine of the resurrection, and conniving at a gross outrage on moral decency, is replete with instruction. Before he utters one word of direct reproof, he seeks to establish their souls in the faithful grace of God. He thanks God for the grace given to them by Christ Jesus. He acknowledges their many gifts; needed indeed for the time, but not essential; because there would be no need of such gifts at the coming (or, revelation, marg.) of our Lord Jesus Christ. He leads their souls to Him to confirm them blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, and reminds them of the faithfulness of God who had called them into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ. Surely this is the divine way. It is ever the way of man to reason from himself Godward, but the way of God is the reverse. He acts from Himself and for Himself. Christians are very apt to use the way of man, by reasoning from man to God-because the constitutional disease of Christians is unbelief. They are ready enough to doubt their own saintship; and when others would press on them their failures as a proof that they are not saints at all, they are thrown off their stability; and reproof and correction entirely lose their power.
In this Epistle, although we find the absence of direct reproof at the outset, it is remarkable that, in the very act of establishing their souls, there is indirect reproof. The Apostle, under the guidance of the Spirit, could at a glance survey their condition, and whilst he thanks God for the grace and gifts bestowed on them—there is a silent rebuke of their short-coming in the grace, and misuse of the gifts. The Apostle could not say to them as to the Philippians; "I thank God for every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request with joy, far your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now." He found cause indeed for thanksgiving in the grace of God to the Corinthians, but none for their fellowship in the Gospel. They lacked the stability in the grace of the Gospel which characterized the Philippians. Pride of knowledge and pride of gifts, made them forget that knowledge (at best but in part), and gifts of the highest order would cease at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was Christ Himself, and not His gifts, which would confirm them blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ; and it was the fidelity of God who had called them to which they had to look, and not to the acquirements of their teachers.
After this (1 Cor. 1:1010Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. (1 Corinthians 1:10)) the Apostle plainly tells them of the report which had reached him of the disorder among them, but he makes no direct mention of authority — till the end of the fourth chapter. "Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. What will ye? Shall I come unto you with a rod; or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?" Instead of using direct apostolical authority, he addresses himself to their consciences pointedly and yet delicately. Thus, in the case of the incestuous person, he mentions the crime which they were tolerating as unheard of even among the heathen. They were puffed up instead mourning. He would have them act in concert with him—but he does not disturb them from their standing, as being unleavened. In the matter of going to law before the heathen tribunals, he shames them that they could not find a wise man among themselves to settle their disputes, and that they had forgotten their high destiny of judging the world; and then very justly indeed insinuates that there was defect in their apprehension of grace. Wearied almost, at the low tone of their questions, he interrupts his replies in the seventh chapter by the solemn and weighty sentence, ver. 29-32. The liberty resulting from knowledge he denies not, but he contrasts it with the thoughtfulness resulting from love, chap. 8. To the question raised as to his Apostleship, he appeals to their saintship as the seal of it, chap. 9. To guard them against the danger of relying on outward ordinances, chap. 10., he refers to the conduct of Israel, with the delicate introduction " I would not have you ignorant, brethren." Again, after the admonition" Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall "—with what address does he allude to their special danger of becoming involved in idolatry by the desire of social intercourse. " I speak as unto wise men, judge ye what I say." In noticing irregularities in their assemblies for worship, chap. 11., he praises them, first, for their general attention to his directions (ver. 2); and when he has to advert to their gross disorder with respect to the Lord's supper, he commences thus: " Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not." In treating of spiritual gifts, where their very folly had marred their very end and use, he commences, “I would not have you ignorant” (chap. 12.); and in correcting their grievous ignorance of the resurrection, he introduces his discourse with the declaration of the Gospel he had preached unto them.
Thus, where there was the fullest consciousness of authority, so that he might have carried it with a high hand, using the rod, there was the patient exercise of grace. His object was not the assertion of his authority, but the awakening of their conscience, and the calling out their faith into exercise. The immediate presence of the Apostle at Corinth would doubtless have had the effect of silencing faction. He might have authoritatively ruled the many points in discussion, some bowing through real respect, others through fear; but this would have defeated his object. His authority, and with it himself, would have come in between their consciences and God; and thus he would have habituated them to bow to some present authority, and to feel it as a positive need, so that conscience and faith would never be exercised at all. The Apostle, with unquestionable authority, and the full consciousness of the possession of it, saw the danger of this and avoided it. The history of the Church has too plainly proved the reality of the danger, by Christians doing that which the Apostle avoided. They have themselves constituted an authority to which they bow, but by the acknowledgment of which they effectually hinder the exercise of faith and conscience. Is there an ordered and regulated society of Christians to be found which has not interposed its own authority, where the Apostle would not introduce his, and in which personal influence is not extensively used? If personal influence ever could be safely used, it surely might have been by the Apostle; but he acted in a manner even to lose it, because his object was Christ and the real blessing of saints,—not himself and a party of Christians. The presence and influence of the Apostle had kept the Galatian churches from allowing the introduction of the Judaizing error. “It is good to be zealously affected, always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you." It was his presence, and not faith and conscience, which had kept out the evil; so that when he was gone, there was no real barrier against the evil. In the Philippians, we find the happy contrast to this: " Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Here we find faith and conscience in exercise before God. It was not Paul, but God who worked in them. Happy the condition of saints when thus their souls are kept by faith in immediate contact with God. They will then readily own any authority, and profit by any ministry which is of God; but they will not allow either the one or the other to displace God.
The delay of the Apostle in carrying into execution his promised visit (1 Cor. 4:18-2118Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you. 19But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. 20For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. 21What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness? (1 Corinthians 4:18‑21)), had laid him open to the suspicion of fickleness (2 Cor. 1:1717When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay? (2 Corinthians 1:17), of being bold when away, cowardly when present, and of trying to terrify them by letters (2 Cor. 10:1, 10, 11; 12:14; 13:1, 21Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: (2 Corinthians 10:1)
10For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. 11Let such an one think this, that, such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present. (2 Corinthians 10:10‑11)
14Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. (2 Corinthians 12:14)
1This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. 2I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare: (2 Corinthians 13:1‑2)). In the Second Epistle, he explains his conduct; it was regulated "not by fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God." He had to wait upon God and to do the work of God, in God's way and God's time. He might indeed apparently compromise his character for steadfastness in his purpose, but the grace of God and the wellbeing of saints were more in his estimation than his own character. His intention was to have visited them before this, that they might have “a second benefit "—and what hindered? Nothing positive—as when Satan had hindered his intention of visiting the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 2:17,1817But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire. 18Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us. (1 Thessalonians 2:17‑18)); but God " waiteth to be gracious," and he had to wait. Doubtless there was wholesome discipline in all this to the Apostle. His letter appeared to have had no effect in arousing the consciences of the Corinthians. It had been written out of much distress of soul (2 Cor. 2:44For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. (2 Corinthians 2:4)); and as he had received no tidings from Corinth as to how it had been received—this led to deeper anxiety—so as to make the Apostle for a moment to regret that he had written as he had done (2 Cor. 7:88For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. (2 Corinthians 7:8)). It was thus that he who had the fullest confidence, that he was "nothing behind the very chiefest of the Apostles," was made to feel in himself, that he was " nothing." But how amply was his painful experience repaid by proving the God with whom he had to do, to be " the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;" and as the " God who comforteth them that are cast down." Had he either acted at the outset authoritatively, or had his letter produced an immediate effect, the burst of adoring gratitude, in the commencement of the Second Epistle had never had a place. He must needs learn his own personal unworthiness, and then he would be able to use his authority not only powerfully, but also discriminatingly, " having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."
How admirably does the Apostle meet the charge of fickleness, by urging that neither with him nor any man was " Yea " and " Nay." That was with God alone—"with Him there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning; " but man is properly dependent—it is his blessing and strength to be so—and for him to arrogate " Yea " and "Nay" to himself, would be mere obstinacy. And how many a man has persisted in his purpose when he has found it wrong, in order that he might appear consistent; but not so the Apostle. The Corinthians might think him fickle, but there was no uncertainty in his testimony, in that which he preached to them. “But God is true: our word toward you was not Yea and Nay—for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you, was not Yea and Nay, but in Him was Yea." It was not the authority he had as an Apostle which established him, but God; and the same God could establish them. He sought to lead their souls to God, and not to come in between their souls and God. “Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God." How readily will saints rest on derived authority, even when such an authority is only pretended; but it would be dangerous to rest on it, even supposing it to be real. God is a Rock, the only Rock, the only one who can establish. It was to this Rock the Apostle would lead the Corinthians. He solemnly calls God to witness, that it was to spare them he had not yet come to Corinth. There is patience with God; but there is severity also. What patience had God shown towards Israel during the long period of prophetic ministry, “rising early and sending " to them, " till there was no remedy," and then came " severity"—God showed himself in judgment. The Apostle had authority; but once and again he asserts that it was given to him "of God for edification, and not for their destruction." It was of God, and therefore not to be questioned. Had he gone immediately to Corinth, he must have silenced every gainsayer by the direct exercise of his power, which would have thus been used for their destruction. On the other hand, the Apostle dared not lord it over their faith. Submission to him personally might have hindered the exercise of faith in God. He would indeed help their joy by leading their souls to God—but he dared not to come in between their souls and God, for “they stood by faith." There is no place for faith in God where authority occupies the supreme place, which of right belongs to God alone. In his preaching, the Apostle guarded against the danger of the faith of his hearers resting “in the wisdom of man “instead of” in the power of God," and the like danger he sought to avoid in his conduct. Orthodox confessions of faith, and even valuable ministry, have often taken Christians off the ground of “standing by faith," which can never be ordered or ruled, although it may be greatly helped. An apostle could infallibly denounce error and proclaim truth—he could also authoritatively correct irregularities in the Church—but he could not command faith. In order to lead the disciples to stand by faith, he acts in a parental character, by seeking to get their souls into contact with God, and not to be awed into submission by the presence of apostolical authority.
It is here we discern the divine way and order. God, who alone is Omnipotent, declares His name to be " gracious and long-suffering," however despised His name so declared might be. The Apostle, in the consciousness of power derived from God, could even allow his power to be questioned, and himself to be insulted, rather than use his power “for destruction," when God had entrusted him with it” for edification." Where there is power in the Church pretended to be of God, but really humanly derived, it is ever accompanied with the impatience of personal feeling, so as to require immediate bowing to its authority. Such humanly derived ecclesiastical power has for the most part been exercised against Christ, not for Him; for destruction, and not for edification. Those who claim it take the very place which the Apostle dared not take, as lords over the faith of the saints, so as to render it impossible for them to stand by faith, by this interposing their presumed authority. But this does not lessen the great sin of the professing body, in allowing the claims of derived authority to supersede the authority of God himself over their consciences.
“By faith ye stand." Faith in a present God, able to meet the actual need of the soul, can alone produce healthful action in the saints. The exercise of apostolical authority to punish the refractory, infallibly to declare the truth, or to correct irregularities, was most legitimate: but if this was all—if contumacy was silenced, truth acknowledged, and decorum restored, by the actual presence of the Apostle, this would afford no ground for their continuance in a healthy condition. When the authority which had produced the reformation ceased to be present, a relapse was almost certain to follow, or else (what has actually taken place in the Church generally) the establishment of an authoritative ministry. Christians have themselves settled that which the Apostle so anxiously sought to avoid, a formally ordered and recognized ministry, in order to produce the end which faith in God alone could produce. The Apostle used his authority for edification. He had gained his point when he had led their souls up to God, so as to act in the acknowledgment of the rightful supremacy of God over their consciences. He dared not put his authority in the place of their faith, He dared not transact that for them which he would gladly do in concert with them. He would gladly " help their joy." Many among the Corinthians would readily allow him “to have dominion over their faith." This is what the saints have in all ages desired. They desire to be led by men—men of God, indeed—but they desire to be led, and this when the higher leading of the Spirit of God is the privilege of each individual saint.
There is no faith in attaching oneself to a gifted teacher, but there must be faith in order to be led by the Spirit. The Apostle knew full well the readiness with which saints cling to the lesser and forego the higher blessing, and he desired so to use his authority for their edification as to lead them to a higher blessing—to stand by faith in God. He hesitated not to depreciate (if the expression be allowable) ministers, where the Corinthians were so ready to “glory in man." “These things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that ye might learn in us not to think above that which is written." Where there was authority unquestionably from God, and service the most devoted to God, the Apostle could see the danger of man displacing God, to the great damage of the souls of saints, " for," says he, " by faith ye stand."
" The man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people." It was fitting that it should be so, because it corresponded with his ministry, his glorious ministry. But when the excelling glory of the new ministry was introduced, it was the ministry itself that claimed regard, not the minister. The glory of the ministry was of that order that it could only be in safe keeping in earthen vessels, “that the excellency of the power may be of God," and not of the vessel. When the ministry exalts the person of the minister the ground of faith is lost—the man is admired rather than “the righteousness," and " the spirit," of which he is the minister. It is on the ground of that righteousness and that spirit that we have direct intercourse with God, and we “stand by faith." This is the great practical point. No present authority, however legitimate, no creed, however orthodox, no regulations, however wise, can supply the place of standing by faith, which is the ground of all healthy action in the Church.
The Apostle gained his object with the Corinthians; he had so used his power that it was for their edification, but it was at the expense of deep exercise Of soul, and at the risk of personal character in the very point where a man is most sensitive, so that nothing short of the consciousness of acting before God could have sustained him. The Corinthians, aroused as to their consciences, were turned to judging themselves before God. Their sorrow was godly, and it wrought so in them (2 Cor. 7:1111For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. (2 Corinthians 7:11) ad fin.), that the Apostle could write to them on the subject of a contribution for the poor saints (2 Cor. 8, 9.). The last four chapters of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians are very peculiar, but still bearing on the Apostle's own conduct, which appeared to some so questionable as to lead them to speak most disrespectfully of him (2 Cor. 10:11Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: (2 Corinthians 10:1)). His weapons were " not carnal," such as human wisdom, eloquence, power, influence, but " mighty through God; " and as he had wielded them effectually to the restoration of many to the simplicity of faith, so, when the time came, these weapons would be found effectual " to revenge all disobedience." In this we discover 'an important " way " of our God. When faction and dissension have come in among Christians, accompanied by strife and personalities, they often seek redress among themselves—but this is not the way of God. He waits for a while, obedience to him is thereby proved-and when the soul is brought into its right place before Him the time is arrived for dealing with refractory or disorderly individuals. We must set ourselves right with God before God will set us right one with the other. This is the way of God, hard to us indeed, because of our readiness to view personal offense in a much stronger light than that of the heart's departure from God.