2 Corinthians 6:12
You are not straitened in us, but in your own bowels you are straitened.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Non angustiamini in nobis : angustiamini autem in visceribus vestris :
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- οὐ στενοχωρεῖσθε ἐν ἡμῖν, στενοχωρεῖσθε δὲ ἐν τοῖς σπλάγχνοις ὑμῶν·
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
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 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XLIV on Acts xx. 17-21
“I am pure,” he says, “from the blood of all men.” ( v. 26 .) This was fit and proper for Paul to say, but we dare not say it, conscious as we are of numberless faults. Wherefore for him the ever vigilant, ever at hand, the man enduring all things for the sake of the salvation of his disciples, it was fit and proper to say this: but we must say that of Moses, “The Lord was wroth with me for your sakes” ( Deut. iii. 26 ), because ye lead us also into many sins. For when we are dispirited at seeing you make no progress, is not the greater part of our strength struck down? For what, I ask you has been done? Lo! by the grace of God we also have now passed the space of three years, not indeed night and day exhorting you, but doing this, often every third day, or every seventh. What more has come of it? We accuse, we rebuke, we weep, we are in anguish, although not openly, yet in heart. …
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 John Chrysostom The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians, Ephesians 4:1-3
“Giving diligence,” he proceeds, “to keep the unity of the Spirit.” What is this “unity of Spirit?” In the human body there is a spirit which holds all together, though in different members. So is it also here; for to this end was the Spirit given, that He might unite those who are separated by race and by different manners; for old and young, rich and poor, child and youth, woman and man, and every soul become in a manner one, and more entirely so than if there were one body. For this spiritual relation is far higher than the other natural one, and the perfectness of the union more entire; because the conjunction of the soul is more perfect, inasmuch as it is both simple and uniform. And how then is this unity preserved? “In the bond of peace.” It is not possible for this to exist in enmity and discord. …
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. …