Dominus in aedificationem, et non in destructionem vestram, non pudefiam;
John Calvin
at hand against all the disobedient.
When your obedience shall be fulfilled How prudently he guards against alienating any by excessive severity! For as he had threatened to inflict punishment upon the rebellious, that he may not seem to provoke them, he declares that another duty had been enjoined upon him with regard to them — simply that of making them obedient to Christ. And, unquestionably, this is the proper intention of the gospel, as he teaches both in the commencement and in the close of the Epistle to the Romans. (Romans 1:5, and Romans 16:26.) Hence all Christian teachers ought carefully to observe this order, that they should first endeavor with gentleness to bring their hearers to obedience, so as to invite them kindly before proceeding to inflict punishment upon rebellion. 1656 Hence, too, Christ 1657 has given the commandment as to loosing before that of binding. 1658
2 Corinthians 10:7-11
2 Corinthians 10:7-11 7. Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's.
7. Quae secundum faciem sunt videtis: si quis sibi confidit, quia sit Christi, hoc reputet etiam ex se ipso rursum, quod sicuti ipse Christi, ita et nos Christi.
8. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:
8. Nam etsi abundantius glorier de potestate nostra, quam dedit nobis Dominus in aedificationem, et non in destructionem vestram, non pudefiam;
9. That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. 9. Ne autem videar terrere vos per Epistolas. 10. For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
10. (Siquidem Epistolae, inquiunt, graves sunt ac robustae; praesentia
1656"Auant qu'entrer a les menacer, et leur denoncer la peine de rebellion;" — "Before proceeding to threaten them, and denounce upon them the punishment of rebellion."
1657"Et pour ceste cause Jesus Christ luy-mesme;" — "And for this reason Jesus Christ himself."
1658"Calvin manifestly alludes here to John 20:23, in commenting on which he says, "As the embassy of salvation and of eternal life has been committed to the Apostles, so, on the other hand, they have been armed with vengeance against all the ungodly, who reject the salvation offered to them, as Paul teaches. (2 Cor. 10:6.) But this is placed in last order, because it was proper that the true and real design of preaching the gospel should be first exhibited. That we are reconciled to God belongs to the nature of the gospel; that believers are adjudged to eternal life may be said to be accidentally connected with it. For this reason, Paul, in the passage which I lately quoted, when he threatens vengeance against unbelievers, immediately adds — after that your obedience shall have been fulfilled; (2 Cor 10:6;) for he means, that it belongs peculiarly to the gospel to invite all to salvation, but that it is accidental to it that it brings destruction to any." — Calvin on John, vol. 2, p. 273. — Ed.