2 Corinthians 6:12 - Exposition

Ye are not straitened in us. Any narrowing of the sympathy or straining of the relations between us does not rise in any way from me. (For the verb, see 2 Corinthians 4:8 .) Ye are straitened in your own bowels; rather, in your own hearts . Any tightening or pressure of the feelings which should exist between us rises solely from your own hearts. Enlarge and open them, as I have done, and we shall once more love each other aright. The verb has already occurred in 2 Corinthians 4:8 ("distressed"). Your own bowels . It is to be regretted that the Authorized Version adopted the meaningless and often rather incongruous word "bowels" for the Greek word σπλάγχνα used in its Hebraic sense of "feelings," "affections" (So 2 Corinthians 5:4 ; Isaiah 16:11 ). This literalism is always out of place, and especially in Phil 7, 12, 20.