CHAPTER ONE. 'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.' It is asked why in all his Epistles, contrary to the custom of writing, he places his own name first, and then that of those to whom he writes; but this is a matter of apostolic authority and order, because he writes to those beneath him, just as judges are wont to direct their precepts to those whom they govern. 'By the will of God.' As he says to the Galatians: 'Not from men, nor through man'; at the same time to show that he was not sent without the will of the Father: for no one is ignorant that the will of God is just and reasonable. 'And Timothy our brother.' Paul did not say 'and Timothy,' because they were not both apostles. But to the Philippians, where authority was not so necessary, he begins thus: 'Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ:'
because both are servants. 'To the church of God which is at Corinth.' For there was a church there, and one that was not of God. 'With all the saints who are in all Achaia.' The 'saints' here can be taken not only as the baptized, but also as the priests of God, as in the first Epistle: 'With all who call upon the name of the Lord.' And to the Philippians: 'With the bishops and deacons'; but he placed the priests afterward, lest to those of little understanding he might seem not to have included them in the Church. 'Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.' As we are wont at the beginning of letters to pray for health, in place of this the Apostle always sets grace. 'Blessed be God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.'
He gives thanks to God that they receive consolation for this end, that they themselves may console others. 'The Father of mercies.' Because from him is all mercy. 'And the God of all consolation.' Of all consolation, because he consoles perfectly, and the consolation is not less than the tribulation. 'Who consoles us in all our tribulation.' Not in some. 'That we may be able ourselves also to console those who are in every distress.' For this reason he delivers us, that we ourselves may be able to console others, and so he gives us a pattern for consoling others. 'Through the exhortation by which we ourselves also are exhorted by God.' And through the exhortation by which we ourselves are consoled by God, we recognize that God abandons no one, and much more in the future will reward even those whom he does not desert in the present.
'For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us.' Sufferings for the name of Christ. 'So also through Christ our consolation abounds.' As Peter was delivered from prison, and Paul was confirmed by a vision of the Lord and by a voice in the temple. 'But whether we are afflicted, it is for your exhortation and salvation, or whether we are consoled, it is for your consolation.' Because we exhort you unto salvation, or that we may offer you an example of endurance. 'Or we are exhorted for your exhortation, which works endurance of the same sufferings which we too endure.' For this reason we are delivered, that you yourselves may be reassured that you ought not greatly to dread sufferings; or that we may exhort you to bear patiently these things, which have consolation both present and to come.
'That our hope for you may be firm, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also shall you be of the consolation.' Because we are certain. 'For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning our tribulation which befell us in Asia.' He recounts his own sufferings, that they may recognize that they suffer little, especially since those men had endured such things who had been appointed in Christ's stead: by comparison with their master let the disciples blush to grieve over their own injury, when they have learned that their master bore greater things. 'That we were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength.' By the pressure of tribulations. 'So that we were even weary of living.' So that we longed to die. 'But we ourselves had within us the sentence of death.'
Death itself taught us that every human aid had failed, and that the remedy was to be hoped for from him alone, to whom even to raise the dead is possible. 'That we should not trust in ourselves.' Or even that we might despair of life. This passage makes against those who are catholic and yet presume to attribute something to their own merits. 'But in God, who raises the dead, who has rescued us from such great perils, and does rescue.' Not in our own prudence or caution, nor in our own virtues, because 'cursed is he who places his trust in the arm of his flesh.' 'In whom we hope, that he will yet also rescue us.' He foreknows that he will yet suffer, who hopes to be delivered. 'You also helping.' As Peter too was delivered from prison by the prayers of the Church:
and at the same time it is to be noted that no one is said to be helped unless he too labors. 'In prayer for us.' The prayer of the whole Church avails much. 'That from the persons of many thanks may be given for us for the gift which is in us through many.' That from a gathering of many persons—namely infants, young men, and old men—thanks may be rendered to the Lord for this, that we have been given to you. 'For this is our glory, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and sincerity of God.' Therefore I glory in tribulations, because my conscience does not reproach me for preaching for the sake of gain or glory, but for seeking your salvation in simplicity. 'And not in carnal wisdom, but in the grace of God we have conducted ourselves in the world.'
Not teaching craftily, as is carnal wisdom, which is sold for a price, but freely, as we received from God, or preached for God's sake. 'But more abundantly toward you.' From whom we did not even receive the sustenance that was rightly owed to us. 'For we write no other things to you.' I do not blush, because you too know that what I say is certain. 'Than what you read and acknowledge.' Reading these things in the letter, which you may acknowledge in your conscience. 'But I hope that you will acknowledge them even to the end.' I will not change my purpose. 'As also you have acknowledged us in part.' Because the end is not yet: but when the end comes, then you shall fully acknowledge. 'That we are your glory, as you also are ours.'
Such is the glory of the disciples in a good teacher, as also the master glories in good disciples. 'In the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.' When both true masters and good disciples shall be proven. 'And in this confidence I wished to come to you first.' In this consciousness, that we sought nothing of yours but your salvation. 'That you might have a second grace, and pass through you into Macedonia.' And again to come from Macedonia to you, and by you to be set forward into Judea. Because at the first coming you had the first grace; or certainly he wished penance to be understood as the second grace, because the first is that of baptism. 'When therefore I had wished this, did I use levity?' Because he had not fulfilled his promise, lest they should think this to be a matter of levity, he excuses himself truthfully and wisely.
'Or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh?' According to the carnal will. It is carnal, when no cause exists, not to do what you promise, as many carnal men are wont to do. 'That with me there should be Yes, and No.' Therefore I do not purpose according to the flesh, so that I may not lie. 'But God is faithful: for our word which was among you is not in it Yes, and No: but in it there is Yes.' There is no doubtfulness in it, nor have we ever lied to you. 'For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not in him Yes and No.' Against the Manichaeans, who affirm that Christ had a false flesh: and against the Arians, who deny that the Son always existed: since he himself spoke to Moses:
'I am who I am'; and: 'He who is has sent me to you'; because he both was, and is, and always is; because he never is not. 'But there was Yes in him.' That is, truth and immutability; as Moses says: 'He who is has sent me.' For he truly is, who is always the same. 'For as many as are the promises of God, in him is Yes.' Therefore also through him we say Amen to God—the fulfillment of truth. 'Unto our glory.' All the truth of the promises is in Christ, which through us is completed unto the glory of God. 'But he who confirms us.' Because he had said 'through us,' now he shows all this to be done by God, who worked all these things in them, lest human weakness should arrogate anything to itself. 'With you in Christ'—by virtues. 'And who has anointed us, God.'
By the Holy Spirit, or by the chrism. 'And who has sealed us.' Everything precious that is within is sealed. 'And has given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.' Every earnest is given in proportion to the greatness of the price: how great then is the reward, whose earnest is so great? that is, the grace of the Spirit. 'But I.' He renders the reasons why he did not go, which is to be imputed not to his own levity but to their infirmity. 'I call God as witness against my soul.' Whom alone the secrets of the soul do not deceive. 'That, sparing you, I came no more to Corinth.' Lest I should punish you more sharply among you. 'Not that we lord it over your faith.'
Not that you believed in order that we might lord it over you, as the priests do under the law, and that we therefore terrify you; but we do all things for your amendment, that both here in conscience and eternally you may rejoice. Not that you should again be compelled as slaves through fear, but we ourselves give aid to your liberty, lest, while you know not how to keep its measure, you fall into worse. 'But we are helpers.' Fellow workers. 'Of your joy. For by faith you stand.' You are free, if you do not sin. The conscience rejoices when it recalls good works. The teacher's joy is the progress of the disciples. CHAPTER II. 'But I determined this with myself.' I considered, or I resolved. 'That I would not come again to you in sorrow.' I who had first come in joy, when you believed.
'For if I make you sorrowful, who then is he that makes me glad?' To this end I make you sorrowful, that I may rejoice over you. 'Except him who is made sorrowful by me?' For he who is made sorrowful understands that he has sinned; like a sick man, who still feels the pain, is able to receive health. 'And this same thing I wrote to you.' Therefore I wrote, that, corrected by the letters, you might make me rejoice when present. 'That I might not, when I come, have sorrow upon sorrow.' For I have sorrow, because you sin: therefore the sorrow is increased, if you do not perfectly amend. 'From those over whom I ought to have rejoiced.' Over whom I ought never to have been made sorrowful, or over whose amendment I ought to rejoice. 'Trusting in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.' Trusting
that you all understand that then you have true joy, if I rejoice. 'For out of much tribulation and anguish of heart.' Here too it is to be understood how solicitous the apostles were for the salvation of all. 'I wrote to you through many tears.' The former Epistle. 'Not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know what charity.' Not that your grief delights me, but because it cannot be cured otherwise. 'I have more abundantly toward you.' Lest they should say: 'We are not the only ones who have sinned.' Out of a more abundant solicitude you can prove a greater charity. 'But if anyone has caused sorrow, he has not made me sorrowful.' Because through his sin you too, being reproved, profit the more; or because, having amended, he did not make me wholly sorrowful. 'But in part.' As if a good man he did harm.
'That I may not overburden you all.' Therefore I write that he be received, so that he may not weigh you down, if through your harshness he should despair. 'Sufficient for such a one is this rebuke, which is inflicted by the many.' He speaks not only of that man who defiled his father's bed, but of everyone who sins: because many had sinned, as the first Epistle teaches. 'So that on the contrary you should rather forgive and console him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up by more abundant sorrow.' That you should grant pardon, and console him with the words of the Prophet: 'I do not desire the death of the sinner, but only that he be converted.' And: 'On whatever day the wicked man shall be converted.' Lest, through despair of pardon, he be swallowed up, absorbed in the depth of vices or by the devil, and be led to the precipices of unbelief and blasphemy.
'Wherefore I beseech you, that you confirm your charity toward him.' That through the prophecy he may recognize himself to have obtained pardon, whereby God said: 'I do not desire the death of the dying.' 'For to this end I wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things.' Therefore I write this second letter, that I may see whether, as you obeyed in excommunicating, so you may obey in receiving back. For that obedience is perfect and true which despises in nothing. 'But to whom you have forgiven anything'—for 'you shall have forgiven'—'I also.' As I have punished together with you, so I also forgive together with you. 'For I too, what I have forgiven'—and what I have forgiven, not in my own person, but Christ's, who said: 'Whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.' 'If I have forgiven anything, it was for your sakes.' Lest you be burdened.
'In the person of Christ.' Because we bear the person of Christ. 'That we be not circumvented by Satan.' For he likewise circumvents through our excessive severity, so that souls perish by despairing, just as also through our excessive kindness by not correcting: whence Solomon says: 'Turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left.' Although the whole Epistle is against the Novatians, yet here it is most evidently shown that they, circumvented by the devil, deny penance. 'For we are not ignorant of his devices.' These are his wiles, that through immoderate goods he may deceive the incautious. 'But when I had come to Troas for the Gospel of Christ.'
Now he wishes to prove to them how much more he loves them, and how solicitous he is for their sake, who, when all things were prosperous for him, yet had no rest because he did not find Titus, whom he had sent to them, that he might report to him whether they had amended themselves—this so that they may understand that he did all things for the sake of charity. 'And though a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit.' A door, an entrance, or an opportunity for one preaching, or because God opened the hearts of those to whom he preached. 'Because I did not find Titus my brother.' Because he had not returned to me, to make me more certain concerning you. 'But bidding them farewell, I set out quickly.' From there I departed, although I had an occasion for preaching:
and I bade farewell to those who had believed, whose heart's door God had opened. 'Into Macedonia.' Whence also I might more quickly hear concerning you. Macedonia is nearer to Achaia. 'But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ Jesus.' He makes us triumph, or he himself triumphs in us. 'And manifests the odor of his knowledge through us in every place.' And because those first believing could recognize some little something, as it were the odor of the faith. 'Because we are the good odor of Christ unto God.' The odor of the knowledge of God is manifested through teaching and signs. And it is an odor for this reason, because it is perceived rather than seen. The good odor is holy preaching and a good life: those who love such, live by the good odor; those who envy, die by the good odor. 'In those who are saved.' By his grace.
'And in those who perish.' His judgment is most just. In those who are saved, such as Tabitha: and in those who perish, such as Hymenaeus and Alexander. 'To the one indeed the odor of death unto death, but to the other the odor of life unto life.' How does one odor confer both life and death? for just as the sight of the sun brings brightness to healthy eyes, but blindness to bleary ones; so the teaching of Christ is life to the obedient, death to the gainsayers. Again otherwise: The good odor is the baptism of Christ: he who receives this in the catholic Church lives by the good odor; he who receives it in heresy dies by the good odor. Again otherwise: You loved one who does well, you have lived by the good odor; you envy and disparage one who does well, you have died by the good odor. 'And who is so sufficient for these things?'
Who by himself, or by his own powers, unless he inspire and grant it, without whom we can do nothing? for who can comprehend this, how the grace of God saves some and abandons others? 'For we are not, as very many, adulterating the word of God, but out of sincerity.' He looses the false apostles, who mix human sense with the divine preaching, as he says in Isaiah: 'Your tavern-keepers mix water with the wine'—that is, they mingle words of flattery with pure doctrine, by which men grow warm not so much with drunkenness as they grow tepid with delight. 'As from God, before God.' It went before, and knowing that we speak from him, before him. 'In Christ we speak.' In the person of Christ, as he himself taught. CHAPTER III. 'Do we begin again to commend ourselves?'
'or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you, or from you?' It is not that we may be commended to you that we praise you, but lest you be seduced by others, we are compelled to recall these things. 'Whom the grace of virtues does not commend, them the letters of friends worthily commend.' 'You are our epistle.' As he says in the first Epistle: 'You are the seal of my apostleship': a letter of commendation. 'Written in our hearts.' It is in our consciences that we, preaching to you, have believed. 'Which is known and read by all men'—being made manifest. It is manifest to all that you believed in Christ through us, the Holy Spirit confirming our teaching by miracles: or hence you shall be truly known to be Christ's, in that you have received his Spirit.
For you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, and written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. That is, the invisible Spirit. Not on tablets of stone. The Jews received the Law on hard material, signifying their hardness: just as the veil of Moses displayed the veil upon their heart. Although we too have the Law of Christ written down, nevertheless at first, not as though absent but as present, we received the words of the Lord upon the written tablets of our heart; whereas the Gospels were afterwards set down in writing for the remembrance of those who should come after. From this point he now introduces the difference between the Law and grace. But on the fleshly tablets of the heart. Where there is faith and the grace of the Spirit. He wishes to show that more has been conferred upon us, who received the Law within the heart.
If therefore those were without excuse who had the Law from without, how much more we who have received the words from the mouth of Christ within our heart! And such confidence we have. By which we know that you have believed in Christ through us, or rather because it is not any human letter that commends us, but the grace of God. Through Christ unto God. Not through ourselves, who without Him are nothing. Not that we are sufficient to think anything. If we are not sufficient even to think, how much less to do! As also the Lord says in the Gospel: Without me you can do nothing. From this let us acknowledge that through ourselves we are nothing, unless we are governed by the mercy and grace of the Lord.
He therefore wishes to show that he does nothing by his own strength or prudence, since assuredly a few men, were it not for the grace of God, could never have saved the whole world. And he set this down beforehand for this reason: because he was about to say that he had undertaken a ministry as much greater than that of Moses as the New Testament is greater than the Law; lest he should seem to arrogate anything to himself. This he said in order both to call them back from the false apostles, and lest they should ascribe anything to their own merits. From us, as though from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God. As though it were our own wisdom or strength, so that human frailty should count nothing to its own powers. Who has also made us fit ministers of the New Testament. He has made us fit for the fulfilling of this. Not of the letter, but of the Spirit.
Not of the letter of the Law, but of the spiritual precepts. Nor is the letter an evil thing because it kills: but those are evil whom it convicts of transgression; for the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law: it increases the desires of sin, and thence it kills; for the Law is mere letter to those who have learned to read it but cannot fulfil it: it is not a helper of those who read, but a witness against those who sin, which puts sinners to death. For the rest, he himself said: The Law is holy, and the commandment holy. Why then is it called the ministration of death, if the Law is good? Do not marvel, since even concerning the preaching of the Gospel it has been said: We are a sweet savour of Christ unto God, in them that are saved and in them that perish, and so forth.
For the Law was called the ministration of death with respect to the Jews, to whom also it was written upon stones, to figure their hardness: not with respect to those who fulfil the Law through charity. For the very Law which is figured in the letters of stone says: You shall not commit adultery; you shall not be unchaste, and so forth. But it kills sinners when they transgress. How then is the Law spiritual? Some suppose that the understanding of the letter kills: not understanding that neither everywhere can the literal history, nor everywhere can allegory, be maintained. For some things are said figuratively. If we should wish to turn a precept into allegory, we enervate all its force, and the door to transgression is opened. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
While it makes men believers and pours in a spiritual understanding, so that each thing may be fittingly understood. But if the ministration of death, engraved in letters upon stones, was in glory. To the insensible, inasmuch as the hard hearts of the Jews deserved it. So that the children of Israel could not gaze upon the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance. Against the Manichaeans: the Apostle could never compare things that are contrary, nor proclaim his own glory as less than that of Moses, unless it were because the same God is the founder of both Testaments. Which is done away. Because the visible glory is done away through the glory of the Gospel.
But it is done away in such a way that it advances, just as infancy is done away in youth, and the seed in the fruit: the fruit is indeed better than the seed, yet there is never fruit without seed; and the seed does not perish but is multiplied in the fruit. So it is done away, as he himself says in the first Epistle regarding prophecy and knowledge that are to be destroyed, saying: When that which is perfect shall come, that which is in part shall be done away. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit rather be? For just as injury is done to the Old Testament if it be said not to have been founded by the same God as the New, so injury is done to the New if it be compared with the Old. Be in glory? Ours, which is not done away, because it is perfect. For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation. He has explained the ministration of death.
Much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. By which righteousness He justifies freely, or awaits men unto repentance. In eternal glory. For that which shone in this respect was not even glorified, on account of the surpassing glory. In comparison with the glory of the Gospel, the glory of the Law is overshadowed: just as when the sun has risen the light of a lamp is dimmed, although in its own time it seems to have great brightness. This the Lord showed when, ascending the mountain alone, He is said to have shone with the splendour of the sun: although Moses and Elijah are recorded to have been seen in glory, and therefore the voice of the Father bade us now hear Him alone. For if that which is done away was through glory, much more shall that which remains be in glory.
If a Testament that was to be done away was given through glory, how shall that which remains not be in glory? Having therefore such hope. Such hope of glory, by which we walk through faith. We use much confidence. In this, that God has made us fit. And not as Moses put a veil over his face. We now do not so, because here all Christians see the glory. So that the children of Israel could not gaze upon his face. Until its unveiling: so also the Law is not understood, until at its end men believe in Christ: for He Himself is the end of the Law, unto whom we must attain. Which is done away. The veil is done away at the end, and now in Christ. But their minds were blinded even unto this present day. For unless you believe, you shall not understand.
This same veil remains in the reading of the Old Testament. The figure of which he bore upon his face. Unveiled. So long as he does not believe in Christ. Which is done away in Christ. Who is the end of the Law. But even unto this present day, when Moses is read, the veil is laid upon their heart. The veil of ignorance in the hearts of the Jews. But when he shall have turned to God, the veil shall be taken away. When any one of them is converted as Moses was converted. Now the Lord is the Spirit. There is nothing obscure in Him, nor anything composed; the Spirit is free, and therefore cannot receive a veil, but rather Himself reveals. Now where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But he who has the Spirit of the Lord discerns all things freely: for we search into all things by the Spirit. But we.
The faithful. All of us with unveiled face. Not a few, as Moses. Beholding the glory of the Lord. Evidently and clearly we understand the glory of the Lord, or perceive it by faith. Into the same image. Which Christ showed on the mountain, as elsewhere: Who shall transform the body of our lowliness. We are transformed. Daily we strive after this. From brightness. From the present glory, which does not flow away but advances toward the future. Into brightness, as by the Spirit of the Lord. From glory to glory. CHAPTER IV. Therefore, having this ministration. The apostolate. According as we have obtained mercy. Because through ourselves we were not fit for so great a ministry, we continually implore His mercy, which goes before us. We faint not. We faint not in all tribulations.
But we renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness. Through the grace of God we cast away from men the hidden things of the vices. For it is a disgrace for a Christian to live disgracefully. Nor adulterating the word of God. Like those who gladden men with the word of God, yet mingle in a base speech, and creep along the ground, excusing sins through flattery. But by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men. But it is so manifest to all that what we say is true, that even the conscience of those who resist bears witness to us. Before God. Before God we do this, not for the sake of men: although by this very thing we also please men.
But if our Gospel is also hidden, it is hidden to them that are perishing. As though someone had said to him: But not all understand your preaching. But the unbelievers, he says, or the false apostles, do not understand. For those who believe, God revealing it, do understand. In whom God. In the false apostles. The god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. This can be taken to mean that the god of the world is as the prince of the world: because he claims for himself the principality over unbelievers. But on account of those who calumniate, it must be pronounced thus, that we say: God has blinded the minds of the unbelievers of this world by reason of their unbeliefs, as the Saviour Himself says: For judgment I came into the world, that they who see might become blind. And the Apostle himself said elsewhere: