2 Corinthians 1:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Here the Apostle beautifully resolves the objection that had arisen. They could have said to him: if you promised to come to us but postponed your intention, and later change what you now say, as you did concerning your journey to us, then woe to us.

May the same thing not happen in the preaching itself! Therefore, so that they would not think this and be troubled, he says, "God is faithful, that our word to you was not yes and no."

In the preaching, he says, this did not happen, but only on the road and in journeys. In the preaching our words always remain firm and unchanging. For by "word" here he means the preaching.

He refutes an objection that arises. Someone could very justly have said: if what you say is not firm, and you often say "yes" but it turns out "no," then we fear that your teaching and preaching may be the same.

It too may be "yes" and "no," that is, inconstant and unstable. In refuting this objection, he says that the promise to come to them was his own matter, and therefore it was not fulfilled.

But as for the preaching, it is the work of God. What is from God is inaccessible to falsehood. Therefore he said, "God is faithful," that is, true.

Since He is true, His word to you, preached by us, is neither inconstant nor unstable, sometimes "yes" and sometimes "no."

Therefore, when He is proclaimed as Son by the Father, who says concerning Him, "This is My Son" (Mt 3:17 and elsewhere), and again, "From the womb before the morning star I begot You" (Ps 109:3), while some call Him a creature and a thing made, how will He not be "Yes and No"? For what is begotten by nature cannot be a creature. What is created cannot become a child by nature. But since Christ is the truth, and in Him there was Yes, as Paul says, then, being Son and proclaimed as such, He cannot be a thing made or a creature.

The Apostle says the same in his words to the Galatians: "For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor" (Gal. 2:18). By these words Paul indicates that the preaching of God in him is faithful. For fornicators act otherwise. Some preachers, so as not to offend their hearers, omit from their discourses much that is true.

He said this in answer to the words, "Did I act with lightness?" He calls them themselves as witnesses that he always set before them an undoubted preaching, always teaching one and the same thing, admitting no change.

Our word to you was not yes and no. The Apostle appeals to his own preaching among the Corinthians. He says that, as there was nothing frivolous in this preaching, and as He whom he preached is unchangeable, so all the Apostle's actions bear the same character of constancy and truth.

For special attention, the following words of the Apostle stand out in this section: "God is faithful, that our word to you was not Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes... to the glory of God through us." That is, our preaching is as firm and unchanging as Christ Himself is unchanging and one. "He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us" is God. He anointed us as certain spiritual kings, priests, and prophets in the mystery of Chrismation; cf. Rev 1:6. He "has also sealed us," as a sign that we belong to Him. He "has given the pledge of the Spirit" in our hearts, betrothing and espousing us to Himself.

Certain ill-disposed people drew an excessive conclusion from the Apostle's change in his travel plan. They suggested that the teaching of the Apostles in general was unstable. Refuting this very false conclusion, the Apostle reminds the Corinthians that they always proclaimed one and the same teaching concerning Jesus Christ the Savior. For He Himself is always equal to Himself, as the Father is faithful to Himself. So also are all the promises of God, which proved to be faithfully and exactly fulfilled in Jesus Christ, to the glory of God. This glory is spread through the concordant gospel of all the Apostles. Together with the Apostle Paul, two other Apostles also preached to the Corinthians: Silvanus and Timothy.

They might have thought that if his yes is not yes, and his no is not no, then concerning one and the same thing he has now yes and now no.

And what if his gospel is the same? To prevent this, he says: no, do not think so. My gospel is unchangeably true, as God is true.

So Saint Chrysostom says, "Here the Apostle refutes an objection that arises. They could have said to him: if you first set it in your promise to come to us and afterward change what you said before, and if with you there is no yes, yes, and no, no, then woe to us."

"Has the same thing not happened in the preaching itself? So that they would not think this and be troubled, he says, 'God is faithful, that our word to you was not yes and no.'"