The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Second Epistle to the Corinthians
It may be urged here that S. Augustine (de Trin . lib. iii. c. i) and S. Thomas here say that we may have certain knowledge that we possess faith. I answer: We know certainly that we believe and cling to Christ, but whether we do this by Divine or human faith, whether so earnestly, firmly, divinely as our righteousness and salvation require, we know not, but can only conjecture.
Except ye be reprobates . “ A reprobate ,” says Anselm, “ is one who either knows not , or has deserted the upright faith and honest heart that he received in his baptism.” Theophylact hence says that S. Paul hints that the Corinthians were corrupt in life and character. You do not, he seems to say, recognise that Christ is in you, because you are wicked and of evil life. Evil living is the beginning and the cause of apostasy and heresy. It was lust and pride that caused Luther, Calvin, Bucer, Ochino, and all the Protestant leaders, whether priests or monks, to throw off the habit of the Catholic faith and the Roman Church, and to throw themselves into forbidden nuptials, apostasies, and heresies.
Secondly, it is better to take reprobates, as in ver. 7, in the sense of despicable. From the signs of grace and of the miracles wrought among you by Christ, you know that Christ is in you, unless perchance you have been rejected by Christ, and deprived of the light He gives, and so reduced to your former darkness and abject state. Hence I said : “ Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith ; ” see if your faith is honest : if it is, you know that Christ is in you; if you do not know, it is a sign that your faith is useless, that you have been rejected by Christ, and are no longer believers.
Ver. 6 . — But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates . Not rejected by Christ, and deprived of His grace, and so mean and inglorious. You see indeed the opposite: you see Christ working powerfully in me, converting the Gentiles, punishing the rebellious, approving all that I do, co-operating with me, and giving me a successful issue in all things, so making me well known through all Achaia, nay through all the world.
Ver. 7 . — Now I pray to God that ye do no evil. S. Augustine from this lays down, in opposition to the Pelagians, that grace is required not only to do good works, but to abstain from evil, to resist temptations, to keep ourselves unspotted from the world and the flesh. To overcome the more grievous temptations is impossible for nature unassisted by the grace of God.
Not that we should appear approved. I am not labouring to have my fame and power approved by you, and to manifest to you the power I have to effectually punish those among you who do wrong : for all this I care little. One thing I do care for, and that is, that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates . Reprobates may mean, as Gagneius thinks, “esteemed wicked.” Or better still, it means regarded as rejected, as abjects — deprived of power, inglorious, without authority to punish. If they were obedient, this authority would not be exercised, and so might, by those so disposed, be denied. It is clear, therefore, that reprobate is not here used as the opposite of predestinated, or of devout or holy, but of approved and highly thought of (Theophylact and
Ver. 8 . — For we can do nothing against the truth , but for the truth. Truth, not mental or verbal, but that truth of life which is righteousness and equity. We cannot, he says, do anything against those who live as Christians righteously, against those who do what is good ; we cannot show against them our power to punish. But, on behalf of truth or righteousness, we can both punish those who violate it, and praise and reward those who follow after it.
Secondly, Theophylact explains it to mean : We cannot pass any sentence against the truth, so as to punish a man who does not merit punishment ; but we can, and ought to pass sentence for the truth, and punish the guilty. This meaning follows from the first, and is plainer and easier.
Others take the passage thus : As we cannot pass it over if you do anything against the truth, i.e., against righteousness and your Christian calling; so, if you act according to righteousness, we cannot punish you, because we can do nothing against the truth. All our power is to be jealously guarded, and used on behalf of truth and righteousness.
Ver. 9. — For we are glad when we are weak. I rejoice to be looked upon as weak, owing to my not being called upon to display my power to punish you, through your abounding grace and virtues, and freedom from guilt (Theodoret, Theophylact, Anselm).
The innocent are called, and are, strong, as here, because they have no reason to fear Apostle, or devil, or angel, or death, or hell, or anything in the world. The Latin Version reads “ because” for when — we are glad because we are weak. The meaning is the same. S. Paul is speaking conditionally : he does not say that he actually is weak and they strong, but that if it is so, if at any time it so happen, then he is glad.
Ver. 11. — Be perfect. The Greek word used here denotes to mend a torn garment. S. Paul is alluding to the vices, evil habits, and especially the lukewarmness of the Corinthians. He says in effect : Make yourselves whole again, correct your old faults, curb the license of your lives, re-knit your severed friendship, union, and concord, so that you may have nothing to correct, nothing calling for punishment at my hands. Or, again, the word used is one bidding them agree amongst themselves and with their head, even as members in a body agree with each other under a common head.
Be of good comfort. Exhort one another to better things (Latin version). Have consolation in mutual agreement (Vatablus).
Be of one mind. Have the same convictions, the same will : be of one mind and one soul.
Live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. God is the author and giver of peace, and is well pleased with peace : as its guardian, He will be with you (Anselm). Eadmer, in his life of Anselm, relates that he was wont to say that those who in this life conform their wills to the will of others, so far as righteousness allows, merit at God's hands to have Him conform Himself after this life to their will, and live at peace with them. On the other hand, those who quarrel here with the wills of others will hereafter find no one to conform his will to theirs. It is the just rule of God’s justice, that with whatever measure we mete it shall be measured to us again. God acts in the same way in rewarding other virtues and punishing other sins.