The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. I.e., as Ambrose says, the Spirit Himself! God has not given us a pledge of gold or of silver, i.e., gold or silver as a pledge, but He has given us His Holy Spirit, inasmuch as He has infused into us His charity, and the virtues of the Spirit of holiness, whereby as sons we cry “Abba, Father,” in full trust in God as our Father. For this Spirit is a pledge of our heavenly inheritance of glory laid up for us, and God has given us this Spirit to assure us through Him, as a pledge and earnest, that we shall attain our future inheritance if only we imitate our Father, and call upon Him as sons, and obey Him, and retain inviolate His Spirit as a pledge.
Ver. 6. — Therefore we are always confident . We confidently and boldly endure, nay, long for dangers and death for the sake of Christ and His Gospel. So Theophylact. The word, therefore, points to this daring confidence as the result of hope for this eternal inheritance , and of the possession of a pledge of it in the Holy Spirit.
Knowing that whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. As long as we are in the body here, so long are we absent in banishment from the sight of the Lord God, our Father, and from our inheritance ; we are living like foreigners in a strange land, as long as we are in this mortal body. Because we are enrolled as citizens of heaven and heirs of God, we are pilgrims here; therefore we hasten to be free from this pilgrimage and to attain our heavenly country, to enter into the inheritance of God, our Father. Therefore we boldly meet dangers and death, and enter upon them as the road to heaven. S. Bernard (de Praecep . et Dispens . c. xxvii.) says : “ What is all care for the body but absence from the Lord ? And what is absence but exile ? Therefore we are in exile away from the Lord, and live in exile in the body , while our endeavour after God is hampered by the burdens laid upon it by the body, and while charity is wearied with its cares.”
Ver. 7. — For we walk by faith , not by sight. For we do not yet behold the nature and beauty of God face to face. So Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, and Œcumenius. Therefore they are wrong, whoever they be, that say that the Blessed see God, not directly in His Essence, but by means of some appearance which represents His Essence, in the same way that the appearance of colour received on the retina represents to the eye the colour of the wall. It is no such kind of sight that the Apostle here means, but that by which an object is plainly seen in itself. For faith is opposed to sight; we do not see, but darkly believe what is future and absent.
Ver. 8. — Willing rather to be absent from the body. “ Having a good will” (the Latin version); “greatly desiring” (the Syriac); “wishing with all our heart” (Chrysostom). We choose rather to be absent from the body, that we may come to appear before the presence of God and enjoy the sight of His countenance.
Hence it is proved that souls behold God immediately after death ; for the reason given for preferring to be absent from the body is that we may be present with the Lord, or, as Erasmus and Vatablus rightly translate the words, “ that we may be at home with the Lord.” But if we shall be still exiles when separated from the body, and do not at once reach the home of our Father, but must still linger on the way and live still in exile, then we should not desire to be absent from the body, nay, we should prefer to spend our exile in it, as the natural abode of our soul, rather than in some unknown place.
Ver. 9. — Wherefore we labour . We vie with each other in our zeal, our ministry, our endeavours to please God ; we strive not to be surpassed by any one in this contest.
Whether present or absent. These are mutually opposed. If we are absent from God we are present with the body, and vice versa.
We should notice that the Greek word here used strictly means to live at home amongst one's own people ; and the opposite denotes living out of one's country and in exile. Hence Erasmus and Vatablus translate, “ whether present at home, or living in exile abroad.” But the Apostle seems to use the words in a more extended sense ; for he applies the words which we have translated “present or absent” to life in the body and also to life with God. But we cannot properly speaking be said both to be at home in the body, and, when separated from the body, with God ; and, again, we cannot be said both to be in exile in the body and with God ; and, therefore, we take the meaning to be to dwell or to be present, and in the other case, to leave, to be absent. For as long as we live in this body we are absent from the Lord ; and, on the other hand, as long as we inhabit heaven we are present with the Lord and absent from the body. But still there is no reason why the Apostle should not mean to be at home and to be in exile.
Observe that the Apostle said in ver. 1, that we have two houses, one earthly and the other heavenly, and that in both we are at home ; for the body is our natural home, and heaven our supernatural. Consequently, our exile is two-fold. While in the body we are exiles from heaven, and, when separated by death from the body, we pass to another land and are exiles from the body. The Apostle’s meaning then is : In whatever state we may be, whether absent from God and present with the body, or vice versa, we endeavour to please God, that we may be able to appear before His presence and enjoy the light of His countenance. For unless we please God, neither shall we be able, while present in the body and absent from the Lord, to come into His presence, nor while absent from the body and present with the Lord, shall we be able to abide in His presence and enjoy it in bliss. We strive, then, while here to attain both ; we endeavour both to come into His presence, and to merit to remain in it for ever. “He who pleases God here,” say Ambrose and Anselm, “will not be displeasing to Him there.”
Others take the clause to mean, “ whether living here or departing from the body to go to the Lord,” &c. In other words, we do all that we can to please God down to the very last breath of life, when the soul leaves the body. This is adopted by Tertullian (de Resurr. Carnis , c. xliii.) ; but since these words of the Apostle, as I have said, have a more extended meaning, the former sense is more probable. This last restricts them too closely to the body.
Ver. 10. — For we must all appear . The particle for gives the reason of what has just been said. We strive to please the Lord in all our works, in order that, at the tribunal of Christ, before which we all must stand, we may be gifted with a glorious body, and with the blissful presence of God and the Beatific Vision. We would not be deprived of it with those who, by their evil works, have displeased God.
Before the judgment seat of Christ We must all be made manifest to Christ the Judge and to all men before the dread tribunal, that each may see the good and evil deeds of every one. Hence it follows that Paul and the other Apostles must also be judged, but in such a way that at the same time they may be judges of others, and condemn those who have refused to believe (S. Matt. xix. 28).
That every one may receive the things done in his body , &c. Glory or punishment will be awarded in proportion to each one’s merits or demerits. Observe 1. that the deeds of the body are also deeds of the soul ; for the soul in this life does nothing and can do nothing without the body; so much so, that for thought itself it needs the help of images drawn from corporeal things. In this way what the soul does by the instrumentality of the body is done by the body.
2. Chrysostom points out that each one’s own deeds are here spoken of, because the merits of others, as, e.g., of our parents, will not avail us before the judgment-seat of Christ. Cf. Ezek. xiv. 14, 20. If we would think of this tribunal when we are tempted by our companions, by lust, by pride, by gluttony, we should easily overcome them all, and should not suffer ourselves to be drawn by lust from obedience to the law of God. Cf. Chrysostom (Horn. 10 Moral.).
The Pelagians inferred from this verse that infants have no sin, and that there is no such thing as original sin ; for it is said here that Christ, when He comes to judgment, will only call into question the sins that each has committed in his body. But infants have done nothing, nor could do anything of their own ; and, therefore , they conclude that they have no sin on which Christ can pass judgment.