1901 224 — 2 Cor. 12:12. Is it not instructive to read that, though "signs and wonders and mighty deeds" are undoubtedly "signs of an apostle," yet a very different thing, a most passive virtue, takes precedence of them all? In the apostle "patience" was the supreme or at least first-named sign. The inference is obvious. Patience should, a fortiori, characterise those who are not apostles. R. B.
A Comment.
1901 256 — 2 Cor. 12:12. Many since Chrysostom have assumed that "patience" is here laid down as the pre-eminent sign of an apostle. This is not said; but the truth is yet weightier. Irony and seriousness withal pervade these closing chapters of this touching Epistle. In the face of "the overmuch apostles," surely none of the twelve, but pseudo-apostles (2 Cor. 11:13), those pretenders who imposed on too many of the Corinthians, we read, "The signs indeed of the apostle were wrought out among you in all endurance by signs and wonders and powers." Faith and love kept him from mentioning himself; so that the rebuke fell unsparingly on those who sought to exalt themselves by undermining him. "Patience," instead of being "the supreme or at least first-named sign," is the deep substratum of grace which lay under them all. It is characteristic of God ("the God of patience"); it shone above all in Christ; it distinguished the apostle beyond all others. But how strange "the inference" that "patience should, a fortiori, characterise those who are not apostles"! Are not premiss and inference equally at fault? There is no need of straining what is so strictly personal; for we as Christians are "strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory unto all endurance (or, patience) and long-suffering with joy."
Jesus in the Days of His Flesh.
1901 368 There is no "loitering" in the path of the Blessed One through the world; no seeking, as we may seek, for ease. Life with Him is taken up with the untiring activities of love. He lives not for Himself. God and man have all His thoughts and His service. Does He seek for solitude? It is to be alone with His Father. Does He seek for society? It is to be about His Father's business. By night or day He is always the same: — on the Mount of Olives praying, in the temple teaching, in the midst of sorrow comforting, where sickness is healing: every act declares Him to be the One who lives for others. He has a joy in God man cannot understand, a care for man that only God could show. Never do we find Him acting for Himself. If hungry in the wilderness, He works no miracle to supply His own need; if others are hungering around Him, the compassion of His heart flows forth, and He feeds them by thousands.
How easy to make a false step, and how hard to retrace! It is the old difficulty of repentance toward God and insuperable to nature, it is only overcome by the faith that takes Christ as all, and ourselves as nothing but sinful and lost, and now to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. For if Christ is in us the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness.