2 Corinthians 2:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

So fire is shown to be fire, and reveals its proper power, not only when it gives light or purifies gold, but still more when it burns thorns.

Christ too will reveal His greatness when "He will slay the Antichrist with the breath of His mouth and destroy him by the manifestation of His coming" (2 Thess 2:8).

"And who is sufficient for these things?" Since the Apostle had said many great and extraordinary things, calling himself both a sacrifice and the fragrance of Christ, and ascribing universal triumph to himself, he again strives to moderate what he said.

He refers all this to God. Therefore he says: "And who is sufficient for these things?" "All this," he says, "belongs to Christ, and nothing is ours."

Do you see his difference from the false apostles? They boast that they bring something of their own to the preaching of Christ. He, on the contrary, counts it his boast that he calls nothing his own.

"For our boast is this," he says, "the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not by fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, we conducted ourselves in the world" (2 Cor 1:12).

As they counted the acquisition of earthly wisdom as their boast, so he, on the contrary, counts ignorance of it as his boast.

Therefore here too he says: "And who is sufficient for these things?" If we are insufficient for this by ourselves, then everything that happens with us and through us is the work of grace.

Especially remarkable here is the comparison of the apostolic Gospel with fragrance. This comparison is also applied to its bearers, the Apostles, since vessels containing fragrant things also give forth fragrance.

This comparison is profoundly faithful, since it defines the high significance of apostolic preaching from different sides.

Saint John Chrysostom says: "The Gospel is always a saving fragrance. Yet when some smell this fragrance, they are saved, while others perish.

But whether someone is saved or perishes, the preaching of the Gospel always retains its dignity. Light remains light even when it blinds. Honey does not cease to be sweet in its nature, even if it seems bitter to the sick.

In just the same way, the Gospel of Christ always has its own proper fragrance, although those who disbelieve this Gospel perish.

The fragrance of the preaching is manifested still more by the perdition of the ungodly. Thus the power of the Gospel is revealed not only in the salvation of the good, but also in the perdition of the ungodly.

For the sun especially blinds weak eyes because it shines very brightly."

Christ the Lord is essential life for us all. The good tidings concerning Him contain life-giving principles for all by their very essence. Yet because of accidental moral dispositions, for some they are life, and for others death.

“But whether someone is saved or perishes, the preaching of the Gospel always retains its dignity. Light remains light even when it blinds those weak in sight, though it blinds them. Honey does not cease to be sweet in its essence, even if it seems bitter to the sick.

In exactly the same way, the good tidings of Christ always have their proper fragrance, even though those who do not believe these good tidings perish. For the good tidings do not destroy them; their own hardness destroys them.

By the destruction of the impious, the fragrance of the preaching is revealed even more. Thus the power of the good tidings is revealed not only in the salvation of the good, but also in the destruction of the impious.

The sun blinds weak eyes precisely because it shines very brightly. Likewise the Savior, though He is set for the fall and rising of many (Lk 2:34), does not cease to be Savior even when a countless multitude falls.

Therefore the good tidings are always a saving fragrance. Yet when they smell this fragrance, some are saved and others perish, in such a way that whoever perishes is himself the cause of his own destruction” (Chrysostom).

“And who is sufficient for these things?” In saying that the saving word of the good tidings is, for some, a fragrance from death to death, and for others, a fragrance from life to life, the Apostle naturally raises the question in everyone: how can this be?

Assuming this question as though it had already been put to him, he answers it: “Who is sufficient for these things?” Who can explain how this happens? God wills only good and gives only good. Christ the Lord is our Savior and Life.

The good tidings of salvation in Him are a life-giving word. Whence, then, comes destruction? Only from us. But how from us? Only if we begin to mix our own reasonings into the good tidings, and therefore preach them impurely.

But this, he says, cannot be said of us, as is clear from the following verse. Thus why the word of the good tidings produces such opposite effects remains incomprehensible. Who is sufficient, that is, capable, to understand and explain this?

This understanding of the words and their connection with what follows appears the most direct, if one has in mind the twofold effect of the good tidings. But one may view the preceding discourse otherwise.

The Apostle only incidentally hinted that the good tidings also become a fragrance unto death. His chief aim was to present the life-giving and victorious power of the word of the good tidings.

In that case, by the words “and who is sufficient for these things?” the Apostle clearly wished to turn away from himself every honor of sharing in this victorious power, and to refer everything to God.

That the word of the good tidings goes through the world like a conqueror on a triumphal chariot does not come from us. No one among men could accomplish this. It is victorious in itself by the power of God hidden within it, or accompanying it and imparting to it its all-effective force.

Thus Chrysostom says: “Since the Apostle has said many great and extraordinary things, ascribing to himself triumph everywhere, he again tries to moderate what he has said, referring everything to God.

He speaks as though saying: all this belongs to Christ, and nothing belongs to us. The false apostles boast of the preaching as their own. The true Apostle, on the contrary, counts it as praise for himself that he calls nothing his own.

Therefore he says, ‘And who is sufficient for these things?’ From this it followed of itself: if we of ourselves are not sufficient for this, then everything that happens with us and through us is the work of grace.”

In that case the following words will have this meaning: everything in the good tidings is God’s work, the work of grace. Here nothing is ours, nor can anything be ours.

Our whole concern is directed toward this: not to mix anything of our own into the word of the good tidings, but to hand it on pure, as it was received. Thus we allow it to act unhindered with the full measure of its proper power.