Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Corinthians · About this commentary
His Spirit Was Refreshed
2 Corinthians 7:13-16
13 Therefore we have been comforted. In our comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. · WEB
Paul had risked his credibility with a colleague by praising this congregation, and the report vindicates him.
Therefore we have been comforted. The word appears twice more in the verse, closing the sequence that began with a title for God 2 Corinthians 1:3 and has now run through a traveling companion.
And the comfort is compounded rather than direct: in our comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. Paul is consoled by watching somebody else be consoled. The verb for refreshed belongs to rest after labor.
Verse 14 then discloses something he had kept back: if in anything I have boasted to him on your behalf, I was not disappointed.
He had talked them up to Titus before sending him. That is a risk a man only takes if he means it, and it put his judgment on the line in front of a colleague who was about to check it. Had Corinth received Titus badly, Paul would have been wrong about them in the presence of the one man whose opinion he needed.
And the way he states the vindication ties it back to the charge of duplicity: as we spoke all things to you in truth, so our glorying also which I made before Titus was found to be truth. What he said to their faces and what he said about them behind their backs turned out to match. That is exactly the accusation of chapter 1 answered by evidence rather than by oath — the man accused of saying yes and no 2 Corinthians 1:18 said the same thing in both rooms.
Verse 15 records how they received Titus: with fear and trembling. The phrase is strong, and it is offered as a compliment — they took the visit seriously.
And verse 16 closes the letter's long defense on a single line: I rejoice that in everything I am confident concerning you.
What follows immediately is a request for money. The confidence is stated first, and the two chapters after it will draw on the account just opened.
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