2 Corinthians 7:3
I speak not this to your condemnation. For we have said before, that you are in our hearts, to die together, and to live together.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Non ad condemnationem vestram dico : prædiximus enim quod in cordibus nostris estis ad commoriendum et ad convivendum.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- πρὸς κατάκρισιν οὐ λέγω, προείρηκα γὰρ ὅτι ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν ἐστε εἰς τὸ συναποθανεῖν καὶ συζῆν.
Haydock's commentary
I speak not this to your condemnation; he means not to condemn them in general, though some had been blameable.
Great is my glorying. I have great joy in the greatest part of you. (Witham)
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 XXI. Description of the Perfect Man, or Gnostic
Here I find perfection apprehended variously in relation to Him who excels in every virtue. Accordingly one is perfected as pious, and as patient, and as continent, and as a worker, and as a martyr, and as a Gnostic. But I know no one of men perfect in all things at once, while still human, though according to the mere letter of the law, except Him alone who for us clothed Himself with humanity. Who then is perfect? He who professes abstinence from what is bad. Well, this is the way to the Gospel and to well-doing. But gnostic perfection in the case of the legal man is the acceptance of the Gospel, that he that is after the law may be perfect. For so he, who was after the law, Moses, foretold that it was necessary to hear in order that we might, according to the apostle, receive Christ, the fulness of the law. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily XIV
2 Cor. vii. 2, 3 Open your hearts to us: we wronged no man, we corrupted no man, we took advantage of no man. I say it not to condemn you; for l have said before, [as I have also declared above] , that ye are in our hearts to die together and live together. Again he raiseth the discourse about love, mitigating the harshness of his rebuke. For since he had convicted and reproached them as being beloved indeed, yet not loving in an equal degree, but breaking away from his love and mixing up with other pestilent fellows; again he softens the vehemence of his rebuke, saying, “Make room for us,” that is, “love us;” and prays to receive a favor involving no burden, and advantaging them that confer above them that receive it. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on Second Corinthians, Homily XIV
Ver. 3 . “I say it not to condemn you.” How is this evident? “For I have said before,” he adds, “that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.” This is the greatest affection, when even though treated with contempt, he chooseth both to die and live with them. ‘For neither are ye merely in our hearts,’ he says, ‘but in such sort as I said. For it is possible both to love and to shun dangers, but we do not thus.’ And behold here also wisdom unspeakable. For he spake not of what had been done for them, that he might not seem to be again reproaching them, but he promiseth for the future. …