1. Assisting. He has repeated the instructions of embassy with which the ministers of the gospel have been furnished by God. After they have faithfully communicated these instructions, they must also use their endeavor, that they may be carried into effect, in order that their labor may not be in…

2. For he saith, In an acceptable time. He quotes a prediction of Isaiah, exceedingly appropriate to the exhortation of which he speaks. It is without doubt of the kingdom of Christ that he there speaks, as is manifest from the context.

3. Giving no offense We have already on several occasions remarked, that Paul sometimes commends the ministry of the gospel generally, and at other times his own integrity.

4. In much patience. The whole of the enumeration that follows is intended to show, that all the tests by which the Lord is accustomed to try his servants were to be found in Paul, and that there was no kind of test to which he had not been subjected, in order that the faithfulness of his ministry…

5. In tumults In proportion to the calmness and gentleness of Paul’s disposition was there the greater excellence displayed in his standing undaunted in the face of tumults; and he takes praise to himself on this account – that while he regarded tumults with abhorrence, he nevertheless encountered…

Knowledge may be taken in two senses – either as meaning doctrine itself, or skill in acting properly and knowingly. The latter appears to me the more likely, as he immediately adds – the word of truth The Spirit is taken by metonymy, to denote spiritual graces.

7. By the armor of righteousness By righteousness you must understand – rectitude of conscience, and holiness of life. He employs the metaphor of armor, because all that serve God require to fight, inasmuch as the devil is always on the alert, to molest them.

8. By honor and dishonor This is no slight test for subjecting a man to trial, for to a man of a noble spirit nothing is more unpleasant, than to incur disgrace. Hence we may observe in all histories, that there have been few men of heroism that have not fallen back, on being irritated by insults.

12. Ye are not straitened in us That is, “It is owing to your own fault that you are not able to share in this feeling of cheerfulness, which I entertain towards you.

13. Now the same requital He softens his reproof by addressing them kindly as his sons, and also by this exhortation, by which he intimates that he still entertains good hopes of them. By the same requital he means – mutual duty, for there is a mutual return of duty between a father and his sons.

14. Be not yoked As if regaining his authority, he now reproves them more freely, because they associated with unbelievers, as partakers with them in outward idolatry.

15. What concord has Christ with Belial? As to the etymology of the word Belial, even the Hebrews themselves are not agreed The meaning, however, is not doubtful.

16. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Hitherto he has in general terms prohibited believers from associating with the wicked. He now lets them know what was the chief reason, why he had prohibited them from such an association – because they had ceased to reckon the profession of…

17. Wherefore come out from the midst of them. This exhortation is taken from Isa. 52:11, where the Prophet, when foretelling the deliverance, at length addresses the priests in these terms.

18. I will be a Father unto you. This promise does not occur in one passage merely, but is repeated in various instances. Paul has added it with this view, that a recognition of the great honor to which God has exalted us, might be a motive to stir us up to a more ardent desire for holiness.