Homilies on Second Corinthians: Homily XXIX
2 Cor. xiii. 1
This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every word be established.
The wisdom of Paul and his much tender affection, one may observe in many other circumstances, but especially in this, his being so abundant and vehement in his admonitions, but so tardy and procrastinating in his punishments. For he did not chastise them immediately on their sinning, but warned them once and again; and not even so, upon their paying no attention, does he exact punishment, but warns again, saying, “This is the third time I am coming to you;” and ‘before I come I write again.’ Then, that his procrastinating may not produce indifference, see how he corrects this result also, by threatening continually and holding the blow suspended over them, and saying, “If I come again I will not spare;” and “lest when I come again I should mourn for many.” These things, then, he doeth and speaketh, in this too imitating the Lord of all: because that God also threateneth indeed continually and warneth often, but not often chastiseth and punisheth. And so in truth also doth Paul, and therefore he said also before, “To spare you I came not as yet to Corinth.” What is, “to spare you?” Lest finding you to have sinned and to continue unamended, I should visit with chastisement and punishment. And here, “This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every word be established.” He joins the unwritten to the written, as he has done also in another place, saying, “He that is joined to an harlot is one body; for the twain,” saith He, “shall become one flesh.” (1 Cor. vi. 16.) Howbeit, this was spoken of lawful marriage; but he diverted its application unto this thing conveniently, so as to terrify them the more. And so he doth here also, setting his comings and his warnings in the place of witnesses. And what he says is this: ‘I spoke once and again when I was with you; I speak also now by letter. And if indeed ye attend to me, what I desired is accomplished; but if ye pay no attention, it is necessary henceforth to stop speaking, and to inflict the punishment.’ Wherefore he says,
Ver. 2. “I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand when I was present the second time; so now being absent I write to them that sinned heretofore and to all the rest, that if I come again, I will not spare.”
‘For if at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word shall be established, and I have come twice and spoken, and speak now also by this Epistle; it follows, I must after this keep my word. For think not, I pray you, that my writing is of less account than my coming; for as I spoke when present, so now I write also when absent.’ Seest thou his fraternal solicitude? Seest thou forethought becoming a teacher? He neither kept silence nor punished, but he both foretells often, and continues ever threatening, and puts off the punishment, and if they should continue unamended, then he threatens to bring it to the proof. ‘But what didst thou tell them before when present, and when absent writest?’ “That if I come again, I will not spare.” Having showed before that he is unable to do this unless he is compelled, and having called the thing a mourning, and a humbling; (for he saith, “lest my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for them that have sinned heretofore, and not repented;— Chap. xii. 21.) and having made his excuse unto them, namely, that he had told them before, once and twice and thrice, and that he does and contrives all he can so as to hold back the punishment, and by the fear of his words to make them better, he then used this unpleasing and terrifying expression, “If I come again, I will not spare.” He did not say, ‘I will avenge and punish and exact satisfaction:’ but again expresses even punishment itself in paternal language; showing his tender affection, and his heart to be grieved along with them; because that he always to “spare” them put off. Then that they may not think now also that there will be again a putting off, and merely a threat in words, therefore he both said before, “At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every word be established;” and [now], “If I come again, I will not spare.” Now what he means is this: ‘I will no longer put off, if (which God forbid) I find you unamended; but will certainly visit it, and make good what I have said.’
[2.] Then with much anger and vehement indignation against those who make a mock of him as weak, and ridicule his presence, and say, “his presence is weak, and his speech of no account;” (Chap. x. 10.) aiming his efforts at these men, he says,
Ver. 3. “Seeing that ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me.”
For he said this, dealing at once a blow at these, and at the same time lashing those also. Now what he means is this; ‘Since ye are desirous of proving whether Christ dwelleth in me, and call me to an account, and on this score make a mock of me as mean and despicable, as if I were destitute of that Power; ye shall know that we are not destitute, if ye give us occasion, which God forbid.’ What then? tell me. Dost thou therefore punish, because they seek a proof? ‘No,’ he says; for had he sought this, he would have punished them at the first on their sinning, and would not have put off. But that he does not seek this, he has shown more clearly as he proceeds, saying, “Now I pray that ye do no evil, not that we may appear approved, but that ye may be approved, though we be as reprobates.” (Ver. 7.)
He doth not employ those words then as assigning a reason, but rather in indignation, rather as attacking those that despise him. ‘For,’ he says, ‘I have no desire indeed to give you such a proof, but if you yourselves should furnish cause and should choose to challenge me, ye shall know by very deeds.’ And observe how grievous he makes what he says. For he said not, ‘Since ye seek a proof of me,’ but “of Christ that speakest in me, showing that it was against Him they sinned.” And he did not say merely, ‘dwelling in me,’ but “speaking in me,” showing that his words are spiritual. But if he doth not display His power nor punish, (for thenceforward the Apostle transferred what he said from himself to Christ, thus making his threat more fearful,) it is not from weakness; for He can do it: but from long suffering. Let none then think His forbearance to be weakness. For why marvellest thou that He doth not now proceed against sinners, nor in his forbearance and long suffering exacts satisfaction, seeing that He endured even to be crucified, and though suffering such things punished not? Wherefore also he added,
Ver. 3, 4. “Who to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you. For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth through the Power of God.”
These words have much obscurity and give disturbance to the weaker sort. Wherefore it is necessary to unfold them more clearly, and to explain the signification of the expression as to which the obscurity exists, that no one may be offended, even of the simpler sort. What then, at all, is that which is here said, and what the term “weakness” designates, and in what signification it is used, it is necessary to learn. For the term is indeed one, but it has many meanings. For bodily sickness is termed ‘weakness:’ whence it is even said in the Gospel, “Behold, he whom Thou lovest is weak,” (John xi. 3, 4.) concerning Lazarus; and He Himself said, “This weakness is not unto death;” and Paul, speaking of Epaphras, “For indeed he was weak nigh unto death, but God had mercy on him;” (Philip. ii. 25 .) and of Timothy, “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often weaknesses.” (1 Tim. v. 23.) For all these denote bodily sickness. Again, the not being established firmly in the faith is called ‘weakness;’ the not being perfect and complete. And denoting this Paul said, “Him that is weak in the faith receive ye but not to doubtful disputations:” (Rom. xiv. 1, 2.) and again, “One believeth that he may eat all things; another, who is weak, eateth herbs,” denoting him who is weak in the faith.
Here then are two significations of the term ‘weakness;’ there is yet a third thing which is called ‘weakness.’ What then is this? Persecutions, plottings, insults, trials, assaults. And denoting this Paul said, “For this thing I besought the Lord thrice. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My power is made perfect in weakness.” (Chap. xii. 8, 9.) What is “in weakness?” In persecutions, in dangers, in trials, in plottings, in deaths. And denoting this he said, Wherefore, I take pleasure in weakness. Then showing what kind of weakness he means, he spake not of fever, nor of doubt about the faith; but what? “in injuries, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For when I am weak, then am I strong.” (Chap. xii. 10.)
That is to say ‘when I am persecuted, when I am driven up and down, when I am plotted against, then am I strong, then the rather I prevail over, and get the better of them that plot against me, because that grace resteth upon me, more largely. It is then in this third sense that Paul useth “weakness;”
and this is what he means by it; aiming again, as I said also before, at that point, his seeming to them to be mean and contemptible. For indeed he had no desire to boast, nor to seem to be what he really was, nor yet to display the power which he possessed of punishing and revenging; whence also he was accounted to be mean. When then as so accounting they were going on in great indifference and insensibility, and repented not of their sins, he seizes a favorable opportunity, discourses with much vigor upon these points also, and shows that it was not from weakness he did nothing, but from long-suffering.