Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin
John Calvin
And, I hope, will acknowledge even to the end. As the Corinthians had not yet perfectly returned to a sound mind, so as to be prepared to weigh his fidelity in a just and even balance, 1162 but at the same time had begun to abate somewhat of their perverse and malignant judgment respecting him, he intimates, that he hopes better as to the future. "You have already," says he, "to some extent acknowledged me. I hope that you will acknowledge more and more what I have been among you, and in what manner I have conducted myself." 1163 From this it appears more clearly what he meant by the word {ἐπιγινώσκειν}. (acknowledge 1164 ) Now this relates to a season of repentance, for they had at the beginning acknowledged him fully and thoroughly; afterwards their right judgment had been beclouded 1165 by unfair statements, but they had at length begun to return in part to a sound mind.
14. For we are your glorying. We have briefly adverted to the manner in which it is allowable for saints to glory in God's benefits — when they repose themselves in God alone, and have no other object of aim. Thus it was a ground of pious glorying on the part of Paul, that he had, by his ministry, brought the Corinthians under obedience to Christ; and of the Corinthians, on the other hand, that they had been trained up so faithfully and so virtuously by such an Apostle — a privilege that had not been allotted to all. This way of glorying in men does not stand in the way of our glorying in God alone. Now he instructs the Corinthians, that it is of the greatest importance for themselves that they should acknowledge him to be a faithful, and not a merely pretended, servant of Christ; because, in the event of their withdrawing from him, they would deprive themselves of the highest glory. In these words he reproves their fickleness, inasmuch as they voluntarily deprived themselves of the highest glory, by listening too readily to the spiteful and envious.
In the day of the Lord By this I understand the last day, which will put an end to all the fleeting 1166 glories of this world. He means, then, that the glorying of which he is now speaking is not evanescent, as those things are that glitter in the eyes of men, but is abiding and stable, inasmuch as it will remain until the day of Christ. For then will Paul enjoy the triumph of the many victories that he had obtained under Christ's auspices, and will lead forth in splendor all the nations that have, by means of his ministry,
1162"C'est à dire, pour en iuger droitement;" — "That is to say, to judge of it aright." 1163"Que vous cognoistrez de plus en plus comme i'ay conversé entre vous, et comme ie m'y suis gouuerné, et ainsi auouërez ce que maintenant i'en di;" — "That you will acknowledge more and more how I have conducted myself among you, and how I have regulated myself, and thus you will assent to what I now say."
1164"Que c'est qu'il a entendu par le dernier des deux mots desquels nous auons parler, lequel nous auons traduit Auouer;" — "What it was that he meant by the last of the two words of which we have spoken, which we have rendered — Acknowledge.
1165"Obscurci et abbastardi en eux par les propos obliques des faux — Apostres et autres malins;" — "Obscured and corrupted by the unfair statements of the false Apostles, and other malicious persons."
1166"Vaines et caduques;" — "Empty and fading."