2 Corinthians 2:4

But not such are our circumstances; rather should another fare ill, there are many to grieve with him: should he obtain distinction, many to find pleasure with him. Not so again the apostle: “For whether,” saith he, “one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.” And the words of him who gives these admonitions, are at one time, “What is my hope or joy? are not even ye?”at another, “Now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord;”at another, “Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you;”and, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?”

Who is there then to pray over us, since Paul hath departed? These who are the imitators of Paul. Only let us yield ourselves worthy of such intercession ( συνηγορίας ), that it may not be that we hear Paul’s voice here only, but that hereafter, when we are departed, we may be counted worthy to see the wrestler of Christ. Or rather, if we hear him here, we shall certainly see him hereafter, if not as standing near him, yet see him we certainly shall, glistening near the Throne of the king. Where the Cherubim sing the glory, where the Seraphim are flying, there shall we see Paul, with Peter, and as a chief and leader of the choir of the Saints, and shall enjoy his generous love. For if when here he loved men so, that when he had the choice of departing and being with Christ, he chose to be here, much more will he there display a warmer affection. …

Ver. 4 . “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears, not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.”

He goes on to apologize for his Epistle, when, (the sin having been corrected,) to treat them tenderly was unattended with danger; and he shows the advantage of the thing. For he did this indeed even before, when he said, “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you: not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have toward you.” (c. ii. 4 .) And he does it also now, establishing this same point in more words. And he said not, ‘I regretted indeed before, but now I do not regret:’ but how? “I regret not now, though I did regret.” ‘Even if what I wrote,’ he says, ‘was such as to overstep the [due] measure of rebuke, and to cause me to regret; still the great advantage which has accrued from them doth not allow me to regret.’ And this he said, not as though he had rebuked them beyond due measure, but to heighten his praises of them. …

Moral. Let there not be one idle word; for from idle words we fall also into foul words. The present is no season of loose merriment, but of mourning, of tribulation, and lamentation: and dost thou play the jester? What wrestler on entering the ring neglects the struggle with his adversary, and utters witticisms? The devil stands hard at hand, “he is going about roaring” ( 1 Pet. v. 8 .) to catch thee, he is moving everything, and turning everything against thy life, and is scheming to force thee from thy retreat, he is grinding his teeth and bellowing, he is breathing fire against thy salvation; and dost thou sit uttering witticisms, and “talking folly,” and uttering things “which are not befitting.” Full nobly then wilt thou be able to overcome him! We are in sport, beloved. Wouldest thou know the life of the saints? Listen to what Paul saith. …

“Always,” not only while I am praying. “With joy.” For it is possible to do this with grief too, as when he says elsewhere, “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears.” ( 2 Cor. ii. 4 .)

These things we know from the writers that are without: but if ye will, I will adduce instances from the Scripture too. Saul was the first king, and ye knew how he perished, after experiencing numberless ills. After him, David, Solomon, Abia, Hezekiah, Josiah, in like sort. For it is not possible, without affliction and toil, and without dejection of mind, to pass through the present life. But let us be cast down in mind, not for such things as these, for which kings grieve, but for those things, whence we (thus) have great gain. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret.” ( 2 Cor. vii. 10 .) On account of these things we should be grieved, for these things we should be pained, for these things we should be pricked at heart; thus was Paul grieved for sinners, thus did he weep. …

For consider, I pray; Paul, he that was bold in the face of fire, hard as adamant, firm and unshaken, on every side compact, riveted in the fear of God, and inflexible; for, “who (said he) shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword”? ( Rom. viii. 35 .) he that was bold in the face of all these things, and of earth and sea, he that laughed to scorn the adamantine gates of death, whom nothing ever withstood, he, when he saw the tears of some whom he loved, was so broken and crushed, the adamantine man, that he did not even conceal his feelings, but said straightway, “What do ye, weeping and breaking my heart?” ( Acts xxi. 13 .) What sayest thou, tell me? Had a tear the power to crush that soul of adamant? Yea, he says, for I hold out against all things except love. …

1. I am induced to write to you, a stranger to a stranger, by the entreaties of that holy servant of Christ Hedibia and of my daughter in the faith Artemia, once your wife but now no longer your wife but your sister and fellow-servant. Not content with assuring her own salvation she has sought yours also, in former days at home and now in the holy places. She is anxious to emulate the thoughtfulness of the apostles Andrew and Philip; who after Christ had found them, desired in their turn to find, the one his brother Simon and the other his friend Nathanael. …