2 Corinthians 6:11
Our mouth is open to you, O ye Corinthians, our heart is enlarged.
Open 2 Corinthians 6:11 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Os nostrum patet ad vos, o Corinthii ; cor nostrum dilatatum est.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- Τὸ στόμα ἡμῶν ἀνέῳγεν πρὸς ὑμᾶς, Κορίνθιοι, ἡ καρδία ἡμῶν πεπλάτυνται·
Haydock's commentary
On verses 11 to 13
Our mouth is open to speak with freedom and confidence.
Our heart is enlarged, dilated, as it were, with the warmth of love and charity.
But you are straitened in your own bowels; you have not the like charity and love for me, nor for all your brethren, and for all mankind, &c. (Witham)
The apostle here complains, that the Corinthians have not the same affection for him, which he has for them: as if he should say, however enlarged your heart may be, through the love you have for me, it can never equal the ardour of my love for you. He alludes to those who followed some false teachers, of whom he says a little after: Though I love you more, I am less loved.
But having the same recompense, by a just return have the same affection for me, as I have for you. (St. Chrysostom)
Let your heart be dilated for me, and receive the advice I give you as coming from a father, who most tenderly loves his children. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter I. Preface, The Author’s Object, The Utility of Written Compositions
If, then, both proclaim the Word, the one by writing, the other by speech, are not both then to be approved, making, as they do, faith active by love? It is by one’s own fault that he does not choose what is best; God is free of blame. As to the point in hand, it is the business of some to lay out the word at interest, and of others to test it, and either choose it or not. And the judgment is determined within themselves. But there is that species of knowledge which is characteristic of the herald, and that which is, as it were, characteristic of a messenger, and it is serviceable in whatever way it operates, both by the hand and tongue. “For he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. …
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus
On 2 Cor. vi. 11 . “Our heart is enlarged.”
St Augustine Reply to Faustus the Manichæan, Faustus denies that the prophets predicted Christ. Augustin proves such prediction from the New Testament, and expounds at length the principal types of Christ in the Old Testament
14. Omitting therefore many passages in these Books where Christ may be found, but which require longer explanation and proof, although the most hidden meanings are the sweetest, convincing testimony may be obtained from the enumeration of such things as the following: That Enoch, the seventh from Adam, pleased God, and was translated, as there is to be a seventh day of rest into which all will be translated who, during the sixth day of the world’s history, are created anew by the incarnate Word. That Noah, with his family is saved by water and wood, as the family of Christ is saved by baptism, as representing the suffering of the cross. That this ark is made of beams formed in a square, as the Church is constructed of saints prepared unto every good work: for a square stands firm on any side. …
St Augustine Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, 1 John V. 1-3
6. See, brethren, how many things we pass, in which is not the end. These we use as by the way; we take as it were our refreshment at the halting places on our journey, and pass on. Where then is the end? “Beloved, we are sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be;” here is this said, in this epistle. As yet then, we are on the way; as yet, wherever we come, we must pass on, until we attain unto some end. “We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. That is the end; there perpetual praising, there Alleluia always without fail. This, then is the end he has spoken of in the Psalm: “I have seen the end of all perfection:” and as though it were said to him, What is the end thou hast seen? “Thy commandment, exceeding broad.” This is the end: the breadth of the commandment. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily XXXII on Rom. xvi. 17, 18
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. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily XIII
2 Cor. vi. 11, 12 Our mouth is open unto you, O ye Corinthians, our heart is enlarged, ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own affections.
St Athanasius Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.), Such a doctrine precludes all real distinctions of personality in the Divine Nature. Illustration of the Scripture doctrine from 2 Cor. vi. 11, &c
§§13, 14. Such a doctrine precludes all real distinctions of personality in the Divine Nature. Illustration of the Scripture doctrine from 2 Cor. vi. 11 , &c.
St Athanasius Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.), Such a doctrine precludes all real distinctions of personality in the Divine Nature. Illustration of the Scripture doctrine from 2 Cor. vi. 11, &c
14. And this the divine Apostle knows, when he writes to the Corinthians, ‘Be ye not straitened in us, but be ye yourselves dilated, O Corinthians;’ for he advises identical persons to change from straitness to dilatation. And as, supposing the Corinthians being straitened were in turn dilated, they had not been others, but still Corinthians, so if the Father was dilated into a Triad, the Triad again is the Father alone. And he says again the same thing, ‘Our heart is dilated;’ and Noah says, ‘May God dilate for Japheth,’ for the same heart and the same Japheth is in the dilatation. …