2 Corinthians 7:2

2. Paul’s exhortation to acceptance of his apostleship, 2 Corinthians 7:2-16.

a. From his purity and tender affection, 2 Corinthians 7:2-4 .

2. Receive us Accept and acknowledge me (with my co-labourers) as your founder-apostle. Paul blends the elevation of the Corinthians to a high platform of holiness with this acceptance. In his review of his gospel scheme, 2 Corinthians 5:13-21, and of his apostolic elevation, in 2 Corinthians 6:1-11, a sublime piety is the claim. In the earnest exhortation of 2 Corinthians 6:11 -vii, 1, this is the view: that Paulinism is pre-eminently a holy Christianity. This appeal, receive us, therefore means, do you on this high plane receive us who present and occupy that plane. Let us stand in union on the same high level of an exalted Christianity.

Have… have… have The Greek aorist tense requires these three haves to be omitted. The three verbs then left, all point to a particular period; namely, (like a similar passage at 2 Corinthians 11:7-9,) the period of St. Paul’s first visit to Corinth and first founding that Church. Acts 18:1-18. We have wronged no man. This passage makes beautiful reference to the magnanimous appeal of Samuel to Israel, as he closed his prophetic office, asserting the purity of his administration, (1 Samuel 12:3,) “Witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?” St. Paul refers, no doubt, to the insinuations of his detractors at Corinth.

Wronged By any kind of injustice.

Corrupted By any false or demoralizing doctrine; as the word signifies in 1 Corinthians 15:33.

Defrauded In any money matters. Comp. Acts 20:33-34. St. Paul here intimates that his holiness consisted not purely in religious emotions, but also in plain, downright equity of dealing. Piety without honesty is a poor article. Sublimated religious professions are a sad deception unless sustained by true, square, conscientious dealing in the shop, the store, the market, or the exchange. Piety has a great deal to do with money. It is in a true sense a “cash article.”