{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/wesley/co2011.htm","path":"bib/cmt/wesley/co2011.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/wesley/co2011.htm","text":"Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley, [1754-65]\n \n2 Corinthians 11:1\n \nco2 11:1\nI wish ye would bear - So does he pave the way for what might otherwise have given offence. With my folly - Of commending myself; which to many may appear folly; and really would be so, were it not on this occasion absolutely necessary. \n2 Corinthians 11:2\n \nco2 11:2\nFor - The cause of his seeming folly is expressed in this and the following verse; the cause why they should bear with him, Co2 11:4. \n2 Corinthians 11:3\n \nco2 11:3\nBut I fear - Love is full of these fears. Lest as the serpent - A most apposite comparison. Deceived Eve - Simple, ignorant of evil. By his subtilty - Which is in the highest degree dangerous to such a disposition. So your minds - We might therefore be tempted, even if there were no sin in us. Might be corrupted - Losing their virginal purity. From the simplicity that is in Christ - That simplicity which is lovingly intent on him alone, seeking no other person or thing. \n2 Corinthians 11:4\n \nco2 11:4\nIf indeed - Any could show you another Saviour, a more powerful Spirit, a better gospel. Ye might well bear with him - But this is impossible. \n2 Corinthians 11:6\n \nco2 11:6\nIf I am unskilful in speech - If I speak in a plain, unadorned way, like an unlearned person. So the Greek word properly signifies. \n2 Corinthians 11:7\n \nco2 11:7\nHave I committed an offence - Will any turn this into an objection? In humbling myself - To work at my trade. That ye might be exalted - To be children of God. \n2 Corinthians 11:8\n \nco2 11:8\nI spoiled other churches - I, as it were, took the spoils of them: it is a military term. Taking wages (or pay, another military word) of them - When I came to you at first. And when I was present with you, and wanted - My work not quite supplying my necessities. I was chargeable to no man - Of Corinth. \n2 Corinthians 11:9\n \nco2 11:9\nFor - I choose to receive help from the poor Macedonians, rather than the rich Corinthians! Were the poor in all ages more generous than the rich? \n2 Corinthians 11:10\n \nco2 11:10\nThis my boasting shall not be stopped - For I will receive nothing from you. \n2 Corinthians 11:11\n \nco2 11:11\nDo I refuse to receive anything of you, because I love you not? God knoweth that is not the case. \n2 Corinthians 11:12\n \nco2 11:12\nWho desire any occasion - To censure me. That wherein they boast, they may be found even as we - They boasted of being \"burdensome to no man.\" But it was a vain boast in them, though not in the apostle. \n2 Corinthians 11:14\n \nco2 11:14\nSatan himself is transformed - Uses to transform himself; to put on the fairest appearances. \n2 Corinthians 11:15\n \nco2 11:15\nTherefore it is no great, no strange, thing; whose end, notwithstanding all their disguises, shall be according to their works. \n2 Corinthians 11:16\n \nco2 11:16\nI say again - He premises a new apology to this new commendation of himself. Let no man think me a fool - Let none think I do this without the utmost necessity. But if any do think me foolish herein, yet bear with my folly. \n2 Corinthians 11:17\n \nco2 11:17\nI speak not after the Lord - Not by an express command from him; though still under the direction of his Spirit. But as it were foolishly - In such a manner as many may think foolish. \n2 Corinthians 11:18\n \nco2 11:18\nAfter the flesh - That is, in external things. \n2 Corinthians 11:19\n \nco2 11:19\nBeing wise - A beautiful irony. \n2 Corinthians 11:20\n \nco2 11:20\nFor ye suffer - Not only the folly, but the gross abuses, of those false apostles. If a man enslave you - Lord it over you in the most arbitrary manner. If he devour you - By his exorbitant demands; not - withstanding his boast of not being burdensome. If he take from you - By open violence. If he exalt himself - By the most unbounded self - commendation. If he smite you on the face - (A very possible case,) under pretence of divine zeal. \n2 Corinthians 11:21\n \nco2 11:21\nI speak with regard to reproach, as though we had been weak - I say, \"Bear with me,\" even on supposition that the weakness be real which they reproach me with. \n2 Corinthians 11:22\n \nco2 11:22\nAre they Hebrews, Israelites, the seed of Abraham - These were the heads on which they boasted. \n2 Corinthians 11:23\n \nco2 11:23\nI am more so than they. In deaths often - Surrounding me in the most dreadful forms. \n2 Corinthians 11:24\n \nco2 11:24\nFive times I received from the Jews forty stripes save one - Which was the utmost that the law allowed. With the Romans he sometimes pleaded his privilege as a Roman; but from the Jews he suffered all things. \n2 Corinthians 11:25\n \nco2 11:25\nThrice I have been shipwrecked - Before his voyage to Rome. In the deep - Probably floating on some part of the vessel. \n2 Corinthians 11:27\n \nco2 11:27\nIn cold and nakedness - Having no place where to lay my head; no convenient raiment to cover me; yet appearing before noble - men, governors, kings; and not being ashamed. \n2 Corinthians 11:28\n \nco2 11:28\nBeside the things which are from without - Which I suffer on the account of others; namely, the care of all the churches - A more modest expression than if he had said, the care of the whole church. All - Even those I have not seen in the flesh. St. Peter himself could not have said this in so strong a sense. \n2 Corinthians 11:29\n \nco2 11:29\nWho - So he had not only the care of the churches, but of every person therein. Is weak, and I am not weak - By sympathy, as well as by condescension. Who is offended - Hindered in, or turned out of, the good way. And I burn not - Being pained as though I had fire in my bosom. \n2 Corinthians 11:30\n \nco2 11:30\nI will glory of the things that concern my infirmities - Of what shows my weakness, rather than my strength. \n2 Corinthians 11:32\n \nco2 11:32\nThe governor under Aretas - King of Arabia and Syria of which Damascus was a chief city, willing to oblige the Jews, kept the city - Setting guards at all the gates day and night. \n2 Corinthians 11:33\n \nco2 11:33\nThrough a window - Of an house which stood on the city wall.","title":"Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible: 2 Corinthians: 2 Corinthians Chapter 11","type":"page"}