Bible Commentaries
2 Corinthians 13

Mend Your Ways, or Else—! (12:19-13:10)

After all, Paul says, it is not himself he has been defending; it is Christ, and it is for their sake rather than his own. Paul can see through the slanders of his critics; but some in Corinth can­not, and if they are misled their fate will not be good. Further, Paul feels that if the Corinthians follow these false apostles, they will drop right back into the quarreling, disorderly church they used to be; and the harmony not only among themselves but between themselves and Paul, themselves and God, will be broken.

Paul hangs his third visit over the Corinthians as a kind of threat. When the second visit was, no one knows; but 12:14 probably, and 13:1-2 certainly, show that there was a second visit not mentioned in Acts. It may have been very short.

Paul promises, in effect, not only to have the authority of an apostle, but to use it. He is not going to rush in blindly. Any charges (this is all vague as to details, but they no doubt knew what he meant) must be formally made and sustained by two or three witnesses. Nobody is going to be dealt with on mere suspicion.

But then Paul reminds these people, as he has before, that they themselves have all the right and power to deal with their local problems and problem-members. Examine yourselves, he says. Test yourselves. Even if they are spiritually stronger than he, and consequently better able than he to deal with their prob­lems (a pretty wild supposition, to be sure), Paul will be glad of that. What I want and pray for, he says, "is your improvement."

Paul, by the way, is far from thinking that "what is to be is bound to be." He talks as a man can honestly talk only when he feels that men affect their "fate" by their own decisions. His language here (as well as elsewhere)—"I hope," "we pray," "un­less indeed you fail to meet the test," "in order that when I come I may not have to be severe"—is not the language of a man who believes the future is already packaged and will finally be handed across time’s counter just as it is wrapped up at this moment.

Verses 11-14

Farewell and Benediction (13:11-14)

Furthermore, Paul !eaves off his letter writing with a con­structive and not a critical thought. This may not be so much of an anticlimax, after all. After pointing out that his authority is for the purpose of building up, not tearing down, he closes with two benedictions, one with some "if’s" attached, and then, after still other words of farewell, another benediction with no if’s at all.

We said that this letter is a plea for harmony. This is cer­tainly how Paul brings it to an end:

"Mend your ways" (your ways of discord and disorder); "Heed my appeal" (for agreement with one another and with me);

"Live in peace" (not peace on Sunday only!);

^{f. . and the God of love and peace will be with you."}

^{Not even an Apostle’s benediction is automatic. Blessings can­not always be scattered like the rain, on the just and on the un­just. The blessings of God come, as Jesus had taught, to those who will receive them, not to those whose lives shut them out.}

^{Like all Paul’s letters, and like a musical symphony, this one seems to come to an end before it does. The real finale is, as Paul meant it to be, the great benediction of the last sentence. This is the only time Paul groups God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Yet one may say that from this one "trini­tarian" blessing comes a light to illumine the rest of the New Testament. If Paul never, or extremely seldom, says Jesus is God, here he does something even more remarkable; he men­tions the Lord Jesus Christ first. For him, as for us, we do not understand Jesus by way of God; we come to God, we are laid hold of by God, we are reconciled to God, we know God, when we look into the face of Christ and receive through him the blessing of God Eternal. The God of Creation, speaking through the Law and the Prophets, and the Inmost God, the divine Spirit outpoured in the hearts of men, are one with the same Lord Jesus who for our sake was made to be sin, though he knew no sin—the same Lord Jesus in whose face shines the glory of God.}