Homilies on 2 Corinthians

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–1.6 · 2.1–2.5 · 2.6–3.1 · 3.2 · 3.4 · 4.1 · 5.1–5.5 · 6.1–7.1 · 7.2–7.6 · 7.7–8.4 · 9.1–9.4 · 10.1–10.4 · 11.1–11.3 · 12.1–12.5 · 13.1–13.2 · 14.1 · 15.1–15.5 · 16.1–16.4 · 17.1–17.3 · 18.1 · 19.1–19.4 · 20.1–20.2 · 21.1–21.4 · 22.1–23.1 · 23.2–23.6 · 24.1–24.4 · 25.1–25.3 · 26.1–26.2 · 27.1–27.4 · 28.1–29.1 · 29.2 · 30.1–30.2

1. 1.1Chrysostom explains why Paul wrote a second letter (his delay in coming and the Corinthians’ improvement), why Timothy is named with him and the letter is addressed to all Achaia, and why Paul opens by blessing the God of mercies and comfort as a tactful defense of his delay.
2. 1.4Comfort in Christ exceeds suffering; like Abraham, Job, and Paul, the believer can rejoice in trials, and bearing loss of goods or of a child with thanksgiving is itself a kind of martyrdom.
3. 1.6Chrysostom consoles bereaved parents: the dead child is not lost but laid up safely, will rise more splendid, and should be sought where Christ the King is, not in the tomb.
4. 2.1Paul’s afflictions and comforts serve the Corinthians’ salvation, which is made effective in their own endurance, and his firm hope for them shows how much they had improved.
5. 2.2Paul names his near-fatal affliction in Asia, explains the ‘sentence of death’ as an expectation God did not allow to be fulfilled, and teaches that deliverance from danger is a daily proof of the resurrection and a fruit of the Corinthians’ prayers.
6. 2.4Prayer for others moves God, who shows mercy to those made worthy of it and heeds a united multitude when it has virtue, so Christians should pray and give thanks for one another.
7. 2.5Christians should give thanks for common blessings and for others’ virtue, and the church’s prayer for the catechumens, led by the deacon, teaches every believer to pray that God will open their inner ears and teach them himself.
8. 2.6The litany asks God to open the catechumens’ hearts and reveal the gospel of righteousness, and to give them a godly mind, sober reasoning, and a virtuous life grounded in constant attention to God’s law.
9. 2.7The petitions for the catechumens form a chain of godly mind, meditation, and obedience; they ask deliverance from the devil, the slanderer, worthiness for baptism, the washing of regeneration, and blessings on their households.
10. 2.8The last petitions of the litany ask the angel of peace and a Christian end for the catechumens, who then receive the blessing; Chrysostom rebukes the faithful who chatter during these prayers and during their own.
11. 3.1Paul’s further comfort and boast is the testimony of his conscience that he lived everywhere, and above all at Corinth, in simplicity and by God’s grace rather than by worldly wisdom, as the Corinthians themselves know.
12. 3.2Paul and the Corinthians are each other’s boast before Christ’s judgment; Paul explains that he did not come as planned because he was ruled by the Spirit, not by fleshly fickleness, while his preaching, being God’s, is never ‘yes and no’.
13. 3.4God’s promises are always ‘Yes’ in Christ, and the anointing, sealing, and pledge of the Spirit make believers kings, priests, and prophets; Abraham’s offering of Isaac shows all three, as a king mastering his thoughts, a priest at the altar, and a prophet who saw Christ’s day.
14. 4.1Chrysostom reconciles Paul’s ‘sparing’ them with the Spirit’s guidance, explains how Paul grieved and was gladdened by their grief, expounds his plea to forgive and restore the repentant offender lest Satan outwit them through excessive sorrow, and lists the true remedies of repentance beyond mere outward austerity.
15. 5.1Paul’s distress at Troas when he did not find Titus shows how much a brother’s presence matters; God leads the apostles in triumph and spreads through them the fragrance of Christ, which saves some and condemns others; true preachers ascribe everything to God and live before his eye, not men’s.
16. 5.4Prayer is a sacrifice offered like Abraham’s, alone and with contrite heart; to pray against one’s enemies contradicts the very posture of a suppliant, and the only enemy to pray against is the devil.
17. 5.5Unlike the three youths and Joseph, who uttered no curses against their oppressors, Christians who pray for harm to their enemies speak absurd and devilish words; they should pray for those who wrong them, since Christ’s sacrifice was offered for enemies.
18. 6.1Paul needs no letters of recommendation, since the Corinthians, written on his heart and on their own hearts by the Spirit, are his letter and Christ’s; he ascribes his sufficiency to God, who made him a minister of a new covenant of the Spirit, which gives life, not of the letter, which kills.
19. 6.3The Law punished sinners with death, but grace through baptism makes sinners righteous and alive, a greater work than raising the dead, which the Spirit also empowers others to do.
20. 6.4Having been given life by the Spirit, Christians must keep the soul alive by its proper works; a soul given to greed, cruelty, or foul speech is dead and foul-smelling, like the rich man’s in the story of Lazarus, while living souls speak like Paul, Peter, Job, Jacob, and Joseph.
21. 7.1The ministry of the Law, carved on stone and glorious in Moses’ face, ministered death by punishing sin without causing it; the ministry of the Spirit, who gives life, must be far more glorious.
22. 7.2The ministry of righteousness far surpasses the fading glory of the Law; the veil on Moses’ face, which still lies on the hearts of the Jews when the Law is read, shows not a fault in the Law but their hardness, since the Law itself foretold its end in Christ.
23. 7.4The veil is removed when one turns to the Lord, who is the Spirit; believers, beholding the Lord’s glory with unveiled face, are transformed by the Spirit, whose lordship Chrysostom proves against those who refer the verse to the Son; worldly cares quench this glory and make men slaves of money and lust.
24. 7.6Lust is not compelled by beauty or by demons alone but grows from our own carelessness, curious looking, familiarity, and idleness, as shown by those who admire beauty without desire.
25. 7.7Lust is cured by avoiding the sight and company that feed it, by filling the soul with good occupations, by the fear of God, and by considering what bodily beauty really is, and turning instead to the lasting beauty of the soul.
26. 8.1Paul’s ministry is of mercy, carried on openly without craft; those who do not see the gospel are blinded by their own unbelief, God permitting it, and ‘the god of this age’ refers neither to an evil creator nor to the devil but to God, who leaves unbelievers in the darkness they chose.
27. 8.3Paul preaches Christ, not himself, and makes himself the Corinthians’ slave; God the Father, who created light, has shone in their hearts with a light greater than Moses’ glory, revealing the Trinity, and has put this treasure in fragile earthen vessels to show that the power is his.
28. 8.4God shows his power by working great things through weak means, as in the Old Testament and above all through twelve unlearned apostles who persuaded the world to believe in a crucified man and to embrace virginity and contempt for wealth, which no sorcery could achieve.
29. 9.1Paul’s unbroken endurance in constant afflictions shows God’s power; the daily ‘dying of Jesus’ in the apostles proves the resurrection, while their sufferings bring life to the Corinthians, and they speak in the same spirit of faith as the psalmist.
30. 9.2Faith in the resurrection, shared with the Old Testament saints, renews the inner man as the outer wastes away; the unseen things are eternal, so it is folly to say ‘give me today’; God’s justice, attested even by conscience and by pagans, guarantees a judgment, and even now the virtuous are happier than the self-indulgent.
31. 9.4God’s long-suffering is not to be abused; as men toil long for uncertain worldly gain, Christians should toil briefly for the certain kingdom, since at the judgment no one can help them and the punishments there are endless.
32. 10.1Paul encourages the afflicted: the decay of the body, the earthly tent, leads to an eternal dwelling from heaven, the incorruptible body, which we should long for; but only those clothed with glory will not be found ‘naked’, for all rise, though not all to honor.
33. 10.2Paul groans not to be rid of the body but for its corruption to be swallowed up by life, as God intended from creation and pledged by the Spirit; Christians can therefore face death with courage, desiring to be at home with the Lord, though what matters most is to please him whether here or there.
34. 10.3Departing the body is not enough without virtue, for all must appear before Christ’s judgment seat to receive according to what they did in the same body that rises; Chrysostom bids his hearers picture that judgment, where loss of glory and the torments of Gehenna await the unrepentant.
35. 10.4In Gehenna no one can bring comfort, and not even righteous relatives can intercede, so no one should trust in righteous ancestors; the thought of judgment should be used as a remedy against each passion, kindling love for the things to come.
36. 11.1Mindful of the judgment, Paul acts so as to give no ground even for suspicion, and speaks of himself only to arm the Corinthians against the false apostles; the love of Christ, who died for all when all were dead, binds believers to live for him, and in him they know no one according to the flesh.
37. 11.2Christ still has his body, but freed from its weaknesses; whoever is in Christ is a new creation, receiving all things new, the heavenly realities in place of the old types; God, the one offended, took the first step to reconcile the world through the Son, not counting sins, and entrusted the apostles with the ministry of reconciliation.
38. 11.3God himself, though offended, beseeches the world through Christ and his apostles to be reconciled; he made the sinless one to be ‘sin’, a condemned and accursed man, so that sinners might become God’s righteousness by grace; one who truly loves Christ fears offending him more than Gehenna.
39. 12.1The Corinthians must not receive God’s grace in vain by falling back into sin, for the present is the acceptable time of grace and salvation, which will end at Christ’s second coming.
40. 12.2This day of grace makes virtue easy; Paul commends his ministry by blameless endurance in every kind of hardship, by his own labors and purity, by the Holy Spirit and unfeigned love, using both honor and dishonor as weapons of righteousness.
41. 12.4The apostles, seemingly dying, sorrowful, and poor, were in fact preserved, joyful, and rich in all things, as only the faithful can see; Christians should likewise rejoice in suffering, fasting, and almsgiving, and lament not their poverty but their smallness of soul.
42. 12.5The poor should not lament, since Paul bore far greater cares; the poor enjoy heaven, sun, air, and the fruits of the rich man’s labor as much as or more than the rich, and their plain diet gives health, while luxury breeds corruption and disease.
43. 13.1Before rebuking the Corinthians, Paul shows his love: his open mouth and enlarged heart hold them all with room to spare, while they are restricted in their affection for him; his other letters show the same burning love for every church.
44. 13.2Paul asks for the love owed to a father; he warns the Corinthians against being yoked with unbelievers, since they are God’s temple, and calls them to holiness of body and spirit; Chrysostom attacks vainglory in almsgiving and argues from Scripture that the poor are nearer to salvation than the rich.
45. 14.1Paul asks the Corinthians to make room for him, having wronged no one, and tempers his rebuke with praise and joy at Titus’s report of their longing and zeal; Chrysostom urges congregations to share their pastors’ indignation at sinners, since true kindness binds the offender until he is healed, and penance is measured by the soul’s correction, not by time.
46. 15.1Paul does not regret the severe first letter, since it produced godly grief leading to repentance and salvation, unlike worldly grief, which brings death; the Corinthians’ eagerness, indignation, fear, longing, and zeal proved them innocent in the matter. Paul wrote out of love for the whole church; true rule, like fatherhood, is shown by love for those ruled, and ruling is the highest of arts, over others and over oneself.
47. 15.4Church leadership is a higher rule than civil government, aiming to prevent and heal sin for the sake of heaven; like farming, an art that depends on God and teaches the resurrection, it shapes souls, governing willing subjects as a father and judging even the inner desires.
48. 15.5The church’s rule judges even hidden sins, appoints leaders by character rather than money, teaches the soul’s true concerns, and heals sinners such as adulterers by excommunication and repentance rather than by execution; its fruits, contempt of death and wealth, the monastic life, and virginity, prove its power.
49. 16.1Chrysostom explains Paul's joy over Titus's report from Corinth (2 Cor 7:13–16) and how Paul introduces the collection by praising the Macedonians, who out of deep poverty and affliction gave beyond their means and first gave themselves to the Lord (2 Cor 8:1–6).
50. 16.4Chrysostom calls almsgiving a grace greater than raising the dead, warns against giving grudgingly or seeking repayment in this life, and urges his hearers to live as sojourners on earth so as to be citizens of heaven.
51. 17.1Chrysostom shows how Paul urges the Corinthians to give without commanding them, through their own past readiness and above all the example of Christ, who became poor so that we might become rich, while asking only for gifts according to their means (2 Cor 8:7–13).
52. 17.2Chrysostom explains Paul's 'equality' between the Corinthians' money and the Jerusalem saints' spiritual riches and the lesson of the manna, then rebukes the fear of needing others, since all people depend on one another and the poor are the most useful of all.
53. 17.3Chrysostom argues that wealth multiplies dependence while poverty frees from it, that God made people need one another to bind them in friendship, and that the rich who hoard or profiteer while Christ goes hungry have no defense; he closes with the golden rule.
54. 18.1Chrysostom explains Paul's commendation of Titus and the two brothers sent with him for the collection, and his care to avoid any suspicion over money (2 Cor 8:16–24); from 'in the face of the churches' he shows how much the people share with the priest in ordination, prayer and the Eucharist, and urges that good counsel be accepted from anyone, as Moses accepted Jethro's.
55. 19.1Chrysostom explains Paul's tactful 'it is superfluous for me to write' and his use of the Corinthians' own reputation and the Macedonians' emulation to spur their giving, as he sends the brothers ahead so that his boasting may not prove empty (2 Cor 9:1–4).
56. 19.2Chrysostom shows how Paul spurs the Corinthians by the prospect of shame before the Macedonians and urges them to give promptly, generously and willingly, as a 'blessing' and a sowing that reaps a harvest, since God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:4–8).
57. 19.3Chrysostom explains Paul's prayer for 'sufficiency' and the psalm 'he has scattered, he has given to the poor', rebukes those who lavish money on mimes and prostitutes but fear poverty when the poor ask, and defines sufficiency as what one needs to live in health.
58. 19.4Chrysostom urges his hearers to seek only what they need, and then to rise to the generosity of the widow of the gospel and above all of the widow of Zarephath, who gave her last food to Elijah and surpassed even Abraham in hospitality; righteousness and love of money cannot dwell together.
59. 20.1Chrysostom explains Paul's prayer that God multiply the Corinthians' seed and the fruits of their righteousness, and how the collection both relieves the saints and moves them to glorify God and pray for the givers, rejoicing even in gifts to others (2 Cor 9:10–14).
60. 20.2Chrysostom explains Paul's thanksgiving for God's 'indescribable gift', warns against drunkenness and gluttony, and calls the merciful man a priest and the poor believer an altar, more awesome than the church's altar because it is itself the body of Christ.
61. 21.1Chrysostom explains how Paul, turning to rebuke the false apostles, entreats the Corinthians by Christ's meekness not to force him to use his punishing power when he comes, answering ironically the charge that he is bold only in his letters (2 Cor 10:1–2).
62. 21.2Chrysostom explains that Paul's warfare uses not fleshly but divinely powerful weapons that cast down the strongholds of Greek pride and take every thought captive to Christ, and that Paul delays punishment until the faithful are separated from the false apostles (2 Cor 10:2–6); he then praises Paul's victories over demons and magic.
63. 21.4Chrysostom urges his hearers to imitate Paul, whose writings still overthrow error even when heretics like Marcion and Mani cut them in pieces, compares their misuse of Paul with the opposite errors about the created world, and commends constant reading of Paul's letters.
64. 22.1Chrysostom explains how Paul rebukes both the deceivers and the deceived for judging by appearances, claims to be Christ's no less than his rivals, and mentions his God-given authority for building up only with restraint, insisting he is the same in letters and in person (2 Cor 10:7–12).
65. 22.2Chrysostom explains Paul's refusal to boast beyond the measure God assigned him or in others' labors (2 Cor 10:12–18), defends Paul's later boasting as necessary, and urges his hearers to remember their sins committed after baptism and not to put off repentance, since death is uncertain.
66. 23.1Chrysostom explains Paul's careful preface to his self-praise and his 'godly jealousy' for the Corinthians, whom he has betrothed as a pure virgin to Christ, comparing this with Abraham's servant seeking a bride, and his fear that they may be deceived as Eve was (2 Cor 11:1–3).
67. 23.2Chrysostom explains Paul's ironic 'you would do well to bear with' another gospel, which he takes to mean that the intruders added nothing the apostles had left out; Paul ranks himself with Peter, James and John, admits only to being unskilled in speech, and turns his refusal of support from Corinth into a point of pride (2 Cor 11:3–8).
68. 23.4Chrysostom explains how Paul shames the Corinthians by saying he 'robbed other churches' and was supplied by the Macedonians while he served Corinth, and how his vow not to burden them and his boast in Achaia spring from love (2 Cor 11:8–11).
69. 23.5Chrysostom explains that Paul refused support at Corinth to deprive the false apostles of their one boast (2 Cor 11:12), then reminds the rich of the funeral and judgment that end all pomp, and comforts the poor: wrongs borne patiently are counted against our debt of sin, as the Babylonian captivity and David's patience with Shimei show.
70. 23.6Chrysostom warns that the robber harms himself more than his victim, argues that love of money is less natural and less excusable than sexual desire (Paul permits marriage and even a second marriage, but never greed), and points to the foolish virgins, shut out of the bridal chamber for avarice despite their virginity.
71. 24.1Chrysostom explains that the false apostles mask their deceit as Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:13–15), and how Paul, compelled to boast, repeatedly excuses it as 'foolishness' that is wrong in itself but justified by its purpose (2 Cor 11:16–17).
72. 24.2Chrysostom explains Paul's ironic concession that he too will boast 'according to the flesh' and his rebuke of the Corinthians, who 'gladly bear with fools' that devour, enslave and insult them, while despising Paul, who could have done the same but would not (2 Cor 11:18–21).
73. 24.3Chrysostom defends Paul's boasting by its purpose, citing Samuel's account of his integrity before Saul, Amos's and Micah's claims to their calling, and David's account of the lion and the bear before Goliath, all spoken for the good of their hearers.
74. 24.4Chrysostom denounces envy as the devil's offspring, shown in Cain and in Saul's jealousy of David, and argues that human glory is a slavery to many masters, so that one should flee from envy of the praised to the glory of the age to come.
75. 25.1Chrysostom explains Paul's reluctant boast in his Jewish descent and his catalogue of sufferings: lashes, beatings, stoning, shipwreck, dangers everywhere, hunger and nakedness, and above all his burning care for all the churches, ending with his escape from Damascus in a basket (2 Cor 11:21–33).
76. 25.3Chrysostom celebrates Paul's sufferings as the church's victory over the devil, comparing him to a soldier, a fire, the trumpets of Jericho and David against Goliath, matches each hardship with the salvation it won for others, and urges his hearers to boast only, if at all, in insults suffered for Christ.
77. 26.1Chrysostom explains why Paul says boasting is unprofitable and speaks only in veiled terms of 'a man in Christ' caught up to the third heaven and paradise fourteen years before, refusing to say whether it was in the body (2 Cor 12:1–5); the rapture put Paul on a level with the apostles who had been with Christ.
78. 26.2Chrysostom explains that Paul's 'thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan' means the adversaries who persecuted him, not a headache, and that God's power is perfected in such weakness (2 Cor 12:6–10); affliction purifies the soul as Scripture and the church's own history show, and the honored tombs of the apostles, where emperors seek their intercession, prove that the Crucified lives.
79. 27.1The end of Homily 26 describes the power of the saints' relics over demons at the martyrs' shrines; Homily 27 begins with Paul calling himself a fool, blaming the Corinthians for compelling his boasting, and pointing to the signs of an apostle done among them 'in all endurance' (2 Cor 12:11–12).
80. 27.2Chrysostom explains Paul's ironic 'forgive me this wrong' for not burdening the Corinthians, and his promise to come a third time seeking not their money but themselves, as parents lay up for children, gladly spending himself for those who love him less (2 Cor 12:13–15).
81. 27.3Chrysostom urges his hearers to imitate Paul's love, condemns those who fail to love even those who love them, and denounces envy as a madness worse than a serpent in the bowels, which has invaded even the church and set its members against one another.
82. 27.4Chrysostom compares the church to a plant that envious members pull up instead of watering and to a dead body whose members do not act, and urges his hearers to rejoice in others' praise and so become one body held together by its Head.
83. 28.1Chrysostom explains Paul's defense against the charge that he took the Corinthians' money craftily through his envoys, appealing to them as witnesses that Titus and the brother took nothing (2 Cor 12:16–18), and his fatherly fear of finding them in strife and of being found severe when he comes (2 Cor 12:19–20).
84. 28.2Chrysostom explains Paul's fear of being 'humbled' by having to punish unrepentant sinners in Corinth and his mourning over their uncleanness and sexual immorality (2 Cor 12:20–21), then shows how vice cannot bear the presence of virtue: Ahab before Elijah, and above all Herod and Herodias before John the Baptist, whose severed head still cries out in every church.
85. 29.1The end of Homily 28 shows Herodias's trophy turned against Herod, haunted by John even after his death; Homily 29 explains Paul's patient warnings before his third visit, 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses,' his threat not to spare, and his answer to those who demand proof that Christ speaks in him (2 Cor 13:1–3, 7).
86. 29.2Chrysostom explains Paul's warning that Christ, though 'crucified out of weakness', lives and is powerful among the Corinthians, distinguishing three meanings of 'weakness'; Paul prays they will do no evil so that he need not prove his power by punishing them (2 Cor 13:3–9); Chrysostom ends by denouncing vainglory as the pursuit of shadows, a madness worse than frenzy.
87. 30.1Chrysostom explains Paul's closing: he writes sharply while absent so as not to need severity when present, using the authority God gave for building up (2 Cor 13:10), and then bids them rejoice, be perfected, comforted, of one mind and at peace, and greet one another with a holy kiss, a kindling of love unlike Judas's kiss (2 Cor 13:11–12).
88. 30.2Chrysostom explains the holy kiss as kissing the entrance of Christ's temple, the mouth that receives the Lord's body in communion, defends the full deity of the Spirit and the Son from Paul's varied naming of the persons in the closing blessing (2 Cor 13:12–14), and urges love of God, who commands everything for our good, as his rules on marriage, reconciliation and almsgiving show.