哥林多後書講道集 第 21 章

'Now I Paul myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.'

'But I beseech you, that being present I may not be bold with that confidence with which I reckon to be daring against some who reckon of us as though we walked according to the flesh.'

Having finished the discourse concerning almsgiving as was fitting, and having shown that he loves them more than he is loved, and having recounted the things concerning his endurance and his trials, he now seasonably takes hold of the more reproving words, hinting at the false apostles, and confining his discourse to the weightier matters, and commending himself.

For this indeed he works throughout the whole epistle.

Whence also, perceiving himself, he often corrects himself, saying this very thing:

'Do we begin again to commend ourselves?' And as he proceeds he says, 'We do not again commend ourselves, but give you occasion of glorying;'

and after these things, 'I have become foolish in glorying; you compelled me.'

And he uses many such corrections.

And one would not err in calling this epistle an encomium of Paul;

for thus he sets down with abundance both the things of grace and the things of his endurance.

For since there were among them certain men who were highly conceited, and

setting themselves above the Apostle, and slandering him as a braggart, and as though he were nothing, nor taught anything sound (for this very thing was especially a proof of their corruption)—

see how he begins his rebuke against them;

Did you see how great the weight, how great the dignity? For what he wishes to say is this:

'I beseech you, do not compel me, nor allow me to use my power against those who make light of us and reckon us to be carnal men.'

This is weightier than those things which in the former epistle he said in threatening them: 'Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of meekness?' But now, 'As though I were not coming to you, some are puffed up.'

'But I will come and will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.'

For here too he shows both things—both his power, and his philosophic and long-suffering temper;

seeing that he thus exhorts, and with such earnestness, so as not to be compelled to come to a display of his own punitive power, and to strike and chastise them, and to demand the uttermost penalty.

For this he hinted at, saying, 'But I beseech you, that being present I may not be bold with that confidence with which I reckon to be daring against some who reckon of us as though we walked according to the flesh.'

But meanwhile let us bring the discourse back to its beginning.

Great is the emphasis, great is the weight;

just as elsewhere he says, 'Behold, I Paul say to you;'

and again, 'As Paul the aged;'

and elsewhere again, 'Who has been a helper of many, and of myself also.'

So also here, 'Now I Paul myself.'

Great indeed is this too—that he himself entreats;

but the other is greater, which he added when he said:

'By the meekness and gentleness of Christ.'

For indeed, wishing greatly to shame them, he puts forward the meekness and the gentleness, thereby making his supplication the greater;

as if he were saying, 'Reverence the very gentleness of Christ, through which I entreat you.'

And he said these things, at the same time showing that even if they should bring ten thousand necessities, he himself is the more inclined toward this, because of being meek;

yet it is not because of weakness that he does not proceed to extremities, since Christ also did thus.

'Who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.'

What then is this? Either he speaks in irony, uttering the words of those men.

For those men said this: that when he is present, he is worthy of no account, but is mean and contemptible;

but when he is absent, he puffs himself up and boasts and rises up against us and threatens.

This at any rate he also hints at further on, saying:

'For his letters,' they say, 'are weighty;'

'but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.'

Either, then, he speaks in irony, showing much weightiness, and saying:

'I the lowly, I the mean when present, as those men say, and when absent lofty;'

or else, that even if he utters great things, it is not out of arrogance, but out of taking confidence in them.

'But I beseech you, that being present I may not be bold with that confidence with which I reckon to be daring against some who reckon of us as though we walked according to the flesh.' Did you see how great the indignation, and how clear the reproof of what was said? For 'I beseech you,' he says, 'do not compel me to show that even when present I am strong and have power.'

For since they were saying that when absent he is very bold toward them and exalts himself, he uses their very words;

'I beseech you therefore, that they may not compel me to use my power.'

For this is what 'with that confidence' means.

And he did not say, 'with which I am prepared,' but, 'with which I reckon.'

'For I have not yet decided this, but they themselves furnish me the occasion;'

And yet he did this not in avenging himself, but the gospel.

But if, where it was necessary to defend the preaching, he is not stern, but shrinks back and delays, and entreats that so great a necessity may not arise;

much more on his own behalf he would never have done any such thing.

'Grant me this favour, then,' he says, 'namely, not to force me to show that even when present I am able to deal boldly against whomsoever it may be needful,'

that is, to punish them and to exact retribution.

Do you see how he was not vainglorious, nor did he do anything for display, seeing that even where there was need he calls the matter 'boldness'? For he says, 'I beseech you that I may not, when present, be bold with the

confidence with which I count to be bold against certain persons.'

For this above all belongs to a teacher: not to avenge himself quickly, but to set right, and always to delay and be slow in inflicting punishments.

But whom does he mean when he says these are those he threatens? Those who reckon us as walking according to the flesh.

For those men slandered him as a hypocrite, as wicked, as a boaster.

'For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.'

Here now he also strikes fear by the turn of phrase;

'for we are indeed clothed with flesh,' he says, 'I admit it, but we do not live by the flesh.'

Or rather, he did not even say this, but for the present he reserves it;

and he discourses concerning the preaching, showing that it is not human, nor in need of help from below.

Wherefore he did not say, 'We do not live according to the flesh,' but, 'We do not war according to the flesh';

that is, 'We have taken up war and battle, yet we do not fight with fleshly weapons, nor through any human alliance.'

'For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly.'

For what kind of weapons are fleshly? Wealth, glory, power, eloquence, cleverness, intrigues, flatteries, hypocrisies, and the other things like these.

'But ours are not such; rather, of what sort? Mighty before God.'

And he did not say, 'We are not fleshly,' but, 'Our weapons.'

For, as I said, for the present he discourses concerning the preaching, and ascribes all the power to God.

And he does not say 'spiritual,' although this would have been the contrast to 'fleshly,' but 'mighty,' by this hinting at that as well, and showing that the weapons of those men are weak and impotent.

And consider his freedom from pride.

For he did not say, 'We are mighty,' but, 'Our weapons are mighty before God.'

'It was not we who fashioned them to be such, but God Himself.'

For since they were scourged, driven about, and suffered countless irremediable things—which were marks of weakness—

showing the strength of God, he says:

for this above all displays His strength, that through these very things He prevails.

So that even if we too are clothed with them, yet it is He who through them wages war and works mightily.

Then he also goes on to give them a long commendation, saying:

'To the pulling down of strongholds.'

And that you may not, on hearing 'strongholds,' suppose something perceptible to the senses, he says:

by the metaphor showing the vividness, and by what he adds intimating the spiritual nature of the warfare.

For these strongholds besiege souls, not bodies;

wherefore also they require greater weapons.

And by 'strongholds' he means the pride of the Greeks, and the strength of their sophistries and syllogisms.

'But nevertheless,' he says, 'all these weapons, when set against them, He confuted.'

'For we cast down reasonings, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.'

He continued the metaphor, that he might make the vividness the greater.

'For even if there be strongholds,' he says, 'even towers, even anything else whatsoever, it yields and gives way to these weapons.'

'And bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.'

And yet the term 'captivity' is ill-sounding;

for it is the abolition of freedom.

Why then has he used it? In another signification.

For the term 'captivity' signifies two things: both the falling away from freedom, and being taken by force, so as not to rise up again.

According to this second meaning, then, he took it.

Just as when he says, 'I robbed other Churches,' he does not mean taking secretly, but stripping bare and taking everything;

so also here, in saying, 'Bringing into captivity.'

For the battle is not on equal terms, but with much ease.

He did not say 'one and two,' but 'every';

nor did he say merely 'We conquer and prevail,' but also, 'We bring into captivity';

just as above too he did not say, 'We bring engines against the strongholds,' but, 'We cast them down';

for indeed great is the abundance of these weapons.

'For we do not war with words,' he says, 'but with deeds against words; not in fleshly wisdom, but in the spirit of meekness and of power.'

'How then,' he says, 'were we likely to be ambitious and to boast through words, and to threaten through letters, as those men slandered us saying that «His letters are weighty», seeing that our strength did not lie in these things?'

And having said, 'Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,' since the notion of

captivity is a burdensome word, he quickly did away with its harshness thereupon by saying:

'To the obedience of Christ';

from slavery to freedom, from death to life, from perdition to salvation.

'For we did not come simply to cast down, but to transfer to the truth those who set themselves in opposition.'

'And being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.'

Here he struck fear into these also, not into those men only.

'For we wait for you,' he says, 'so that, when by exhortation and by threat we shall have set you right and purified you and drawn you away from fellowship with those men, then, those men being left alone as incurably diseased, we may bring on them the punishment, once we see you genuinely separated.'

'For you obey even now, yet not perfectly.'

'And yet if you had done it now, you would have wrought the greater gain,' he says.

'For if I had done it now, I should have involved you also in the punishment.'

'But it was necessary to punish those men, yet to spare us.'

'But if I had spared you, I should have seemed to do it out of favouritism;'

'but now I do not wish this, but first to set you right, and then to proceed against those men.'

What could be gentler than those bowels of compassion? Who, when he saw his own kinsfolk mingled with strangers, wishes indeed to bring on the blow, yet spares, and holds back his indignation, until those others withdraw, that he may smite these alone;

or rather, that he may not smite even these.

For it is on this account that he threatens these men, and says that he wishes to take those others alone, so that those others also, being set right through fear, may remove away, and he may let his anger fall upon none.

For like an excellent physician, a common father, a champion and a guardian, so did he do all things, so did he care for all, removing hindrances, restraining those who worked ruin, running about in every place.

For he did not accomplish his ends by fighting, but coming as it were upon a victory ready and near at hand, he set up his trophies, razing, casting down, and overthrowing the strongholds of the devil and the devices of the demons, and he transferred the whole spoil over to the camp of Christ.

And he did not breathe even a little, leaping from these to those, and again from those to yet others, like some most excellent general setting up trophies every day—nay rather, every hour.

For entering into the battle-line with but a single tunic, he took the cities of his adversaries together with their men; and bows and spears and darts and all things—these Paul's tongue supplied.

For he had only to utter his words, and, fiercer than any fire, his sayings fell upon the enemy.

And the demons he drove away, while the men held captive by them he brought back to himself.

At any rate, when he cast out that wicked demon, five myriads of sorcerers came together and burned their books of magic, and went over to the truth.

And just as in war, when a tower has fallen or a tyrant has been brought down, all who were with him throw away their weapons and run to the victorious general,

so, when the demon had been cast out, they were all besieged, and casting away their books—nay rather, utterly destroying them—they ran to the feet of Paul.

But he, drawing up his forces against the whole world as against a single camp, nowhere stood still, but as though he were winged, he did all things.

And now he set straight the lame, now he raised the dead, and now he blinded another—I mean the sorcerer;

and not even when shut up in prison did he rest, but there too he brought over the jailer to himself, working this fair captivity.

Him therefore let us also imitate, according to our power.

And why do I say, according to our power? For it is possible even to draw near to him for whoever is willing, and to behold his prowess, and to imitate his manliness.

For even now he still does this, casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

And indeed many heretics have attempted to hack him in pieces;

yet even while in fragments he displays great strength.

For both Marcion and Manichaeus have made use of him, but by mutilating him;

yet nevertheless even so they are refuted from his very members.

For being with them but a single limb of this champion, it drives them utterly from their heights;

and a single foot among others pursues and casts down, that you may learn the abundance of his power, and that even when cut in pieces he suffices to overcome all who oppose.

"And yet this very thing," one says, "is a mark of perversion—that all who fight one another make use of him."

A mark of perversion indeed—yet let it not be of Paul, but of those who make use of him.

For he was not some intricate person, but plain and clear;

but these men perverted his words to their own notions.

"And why," one says, "was it so expressed, as to give handles to those who wished for them?" It was not he who gave them, but their own madness;

for they did not use these things as they ought.

Since this whole world too, wonderful and great, is a proof of the wisdom of God, and "The heavens declare the glory of God," and "Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night proclaims knowledge";

yet nevertheless many have stumbled against this too, and in opposite ways to one another;

and some so admired it beyond its worth as to think it itself to be God;

while others so misjudged its beauty as to think it unworthy to appear as the work of God's creation, and to ascribe the greater part of it to some evil matter.

And yet God secured against both errors, making the world fair and great, that it might not be thought foreign to His wisdom;

yet needy and not sufficient for itself, that it might not be suspected of being God.

But nevertheless those who were blinded by their own reasonings fell away into opposite notions, refuting one another and becoming accusers of one another, and thus pleading, even against the very reasonings by which they had gone astray, in defense of the wisdom of God.

And why do I speak of the sun and the heaven? Before their very eyes the Jews saw so many wonders wrought, and straightway they worshiped a calf.

Again they saw Christ driving out demons, and they called Him one possessed by them.

But this is no charge against Him who cast them out; rather it is an accusation of the mind of those who were blinded.

Do not therefore condemn Paul because of the mind of those who used him ill, but learn well his treasure and unfold his riches, and you will stand nobly against all, fenced round with his armor;

thus you will be able to silence both Greeks and Jews.

"And how," one says, "shall I do this, when they do not believe him?" From the things done through him, from the amendment wrought throughout the world.

For it was beyond human power to accomplish such great things; rather it was the strength of the Crucified inspiring him that made him such, and rendered him mightier than orators and philosophers and tyrants and kings and all men.

This man is able not only to arm himself and to smite his adversaries, but also to fashion others into the like.

In order, therefore, that we may become useful both to ourselves and to others, let us continually handle him, luxuriating in his writings as in a meadow and a paradise.

For thus shall we be able both to be delivered from vice, and to lay hold of virtue, and to attain the good things which have been promised, by the grace and love toward man of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.