THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
"But we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are not what you ought to be. But concerning us, I trust that you shall know that we are what we ought to be" (vv. 5, 6).
Above, the Apostle proved that if he does not punish the Corinthians, it is not because he does not have Christ in himself. Rather, he imitates His longsuffering, since the Lord Himself was crucified and did not avenge Himself.
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Now he proves the same thing in another way, and much more persuasively, drawing his proof from the disciples themselves. "Why should I speak of myself, the teacher, who has so many cares, to whom the whole world has been entrusted, and who has worked so many miracles?
"You yourselves, who are numbered among the disciples, if you are willing to examine yourselves, will see that Christ dwells also in you. If He is in you, He is much more in the teacher. If you have faith, then Christ is in you."
He said this of believers who worked miracles, for believers at that time did work miracles. Therefore the Apostle adds, "Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
"Unless indeed you are not what you ought to be. If He is in you, then much more is He in the teacher." It seems to me that the Apostle is speaking here of wonder-working faith.
"If you have this faith," he says, "then Christ is in you, unless you have become not what you ought to be." Do you see how he again alarms them, and shows with perfect clarity that Christ is with him?
Here, it seems to me, he also points the Corinthians to their life. Faith alone is not sufficient for receiving the spiritual power of miracle-working.
He had said that if they abide in faith, they have Christ in themselves. Yet many who had faith did not have this wonder-working power. Resolving the difficulty, he says, "unless indeed you are not what you ought to be."
That is, "unless your life is corrupt." "But concerning us, I trust that you shall know that we are what we ought to be."
He should have said, "Even if you have become unapproved, we are still not unapproved." But he does not speak so, lest he wound them. He says it covertly.
He does not affirm, "you are unapproved." Nor does he put it as a question, "Are you unapproved?" Leaving that aside, he expresses the same thing in a hidden way.
He says, "But concerning us, I trust that you shall know that we are what we ought to be." Here again there is a strong threat and great fear.
"If you wish," he says, "that I prove this to you by punishing you, we shall have no difficulty giving you such proof." Yet he does not speak in this way.
He speaks with greater severity and threat: "But concerning us, I trust that you shall know that we are what we ought to be."
"Even without this," he says, "you ought to have known our power, and that Christ speaks and acts in us. But since you wish to test this in deed, you shall know that we are what we ought to be," that we are not unapproved.
Then, because he had extended the threat far and placed punishment almost at the doors, he had brought the Corinthians to trembling. He had made them expect chastisement.
See how he again tempers his word with sweetness. See how he moderates their fear and shows his gentleness, his care for the disciples, his love of wisdom, his loftiness, and his freedom from vainglory.
He expresses all this in the words that follow: "Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is good, though we may seem unapproved.
"For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray for, your perfection" (vv. 7-9).
Where can one find a soul like Paul's? They despised him, humiliated him, mocked him, and ridiculed him as a worthless and insignificant man.
They called him boastful, as one who magnifies himself only in words, while in deed he can show no power at all. Yet he not only delays and does not wish to punish.
He even prays to God that he may not come to such necessity. "Now I pray," he says, "that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved.
"Rather, I pray that you should do what is good, though we may seem unapproved." What do these words mean?
"I ask and pray God," he says, "that I may find no one unreformed and no one unrepentant. I pray not only for this, but also that you may not even begin to sin.
"I pray that you do no evil. If you sin, then may you hasten to repent, anticipate me by your correction, and avert every anger.
"I am not concerned to appear approved before you. Quite the opposite, I am concerned that we should not appear approved.
"If you remain unrepentant in your sins, then it will be necessary to punish you and to subject your bodies to correction. So it was done with Sapphira and with the magician (Acts 5:13-14; Acts 8:11).
"Against him we displayed the proof of our power. But we do not pray for this. On the contrary, we pray not to show ourselves approved in such a matter.
"That is, we pray not to make trial of the power that is in us by punishing you, and by chastising sinners who are incurably sick.
"What, then, do we pray for? That you should do good. We pray that you may always abide in virtue and always be set right.
"We pray this even though we may seem not to be what we ought to be, because we do not display the punitive power within us."
He did not say, "we shall be unapproved," because he would not become unapproved even if he did not punish them. On the contrary, by this very thing he would show himself approved.
"But if some," he says, "regard us as contemptible and unworthy of honor because we do not display our power, we care nothing for this.
"It is better for us to bring such an opinion on ourselves from them, than to display the power given us by God in punishing men whose souls are beyond correction.
"For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth." So that he might not seem to act this way to please them, which is foreign to a soul free from vainglory, he added this.
He shows, rather, that he does what the very nature of the matter requires. Therefore the Apostle added, "For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth."
"If," he says, "we find you well ordered, having put away your sins through repentance, and having boldness toward God, then even if we wished it, we could not punish you.
"If we resolved to do so, God would not cooperate with us. He gave us this power so that we might pronounce judgment truly and justly, not contrary to the truth."
Do you see how everywhere he softens his speech and moderates the weight of his threat? Yet as much as he cared for this, so much did he wish to show his goodwill toward them.
Therefore he also added, "For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray for, your perfection."
"We rejoice especially in this," he says, "that we can do nothing against the truth. That is, we cannot punish you when you are pleasing to God.
"Since we cannot, we also do not wish to do so. Indeed, we desire the opposite.
"For this very reason we rejoice especially when we do not find that you give us a reason to show our power by punishing you.
"Even though by doing so we would appear glorious, approved, and strong, we desire the opposite. We desire that you be approved and blameless, and that we gain no glory from this."
Therefore he says, "For we rejoice when we are weak." What does "weak" mean? "When we are considered weak."
It does not mean when we are weak, but when we are thought to be weak. The enemies considered the Apostles such because they did not display their punitive power.
"Yet we rejoice when you live in such a way that you give us no occasion to punish you. It is pleasant for us to be considered weak in this respect, provided only that you are blameless."
Therefore he adds, "and you are strong," that is, approved and virtuous. "And we not only desire this, but also pray for it: that you may be blameless, perfect, and give us no occasion to punish you."