2 Corinthians 3:1

II. THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE, 2 Corinthians 3:1 to 2 Corinthians 6:10.

1. It is above commendation, above Mosaicism, 2 Corinthians 3:1 to 2 Corinthians 4:6.

1. Again The last verse contains a powerful self-assertion, and St. Paul is immediately reminded that among the imputations reported by Titus as made against him was his self-eulogy; especially, perhaps, in 1 Corinthians 9:15; 1 Corinthians 9:21.

Some His Judaic opponents.

Epistles of commendation Recommendatory letters. Such letters all affiliated associations are obliged to use to authenticate messengers, or members, from one locality to another. Such, for instance, are our “certificates of membership” at the present day. Commendatory letters were in use among the Jews also; and in the early Church, the bishops furnished certifications for clergy circulating in other dioceses. By such letters was Apollos commended from Ephesus to Corinth. Acts 18:27. So Timothy is commended to the Corinthian Church in 1 Corinthians 16:10-11, and Titus and his comrades in this epistle, 2 Corinthians 8:18-19.

To you The clear implication is, that his detractors came with such letters from somewhere. And the fountain head is indicated by the entire narration of Acts 15:1-33, as being at Jerusalem. See our notes on that passage. A set of ultra-Judaists came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, proclaiming that the retention of circumcision by Christians was necessary to salvation. St. Paul says, (Galatians 2:12,) that a similar set came to Antioch from James, the resident apostle at Jerusalem. And Renan, in his “St. Paul,” talks of “a counter-mission organized by James” against St. Paul, and assures us that James furnished the Judaists with credentials. All such fancies touching the conduct and position of that illustrious man are dispersed by Luke’s narration of his course towards the ultra-Judaic party at the Council of Jerusalem. Acts 15:1-33. The Judaic emissaries were a small extreme section, whom James refused to countenance. Doubtless the emissaries that now had come from Jerusalem were of the same type. In about a year from the time of writing this epistle, Paul and James met in council at Jerusalem, as described in Acts 21:18-20, where see notes; and James rejoiced in the labours and successes of our great apostle. Indeed, Luke’s narrative of the invasion of Antioch by the Judaists may be read as a fair type of their visitation at Corinth. The epistles of commendation they brought bore, doubtless, the signature, not of James, but of the ultra clique in Jerusalem.