2 Corinthians 12:17

17 Have I gained any selfish advantage over you through any one of the messengers I have sent to you?

2 Corinthians 12:17 Meaning and Commentary

2 Corinthians 12:17

Did I make a gain of you
He appeals to the Corinthians against such calumnies and false insinuations, whether ever he had circumvented them in such a manner, or had ever used such artful methods to pillage them; or whether ever he had discovered any covetous disposition towards anything of theirs; or had employed any persons to draw out their substance from them, and get it for himself: he owns he had sent some persons to them on different errands, and asks if he had dealt fraudulently with them,

by any of them whom,
says he,

I have sent to you:
he desires them to name one single person of the many who came to them from him, that had received any money from them for him; or that they had any reason to believe he had employed for such purposes; and if they could not pitch on a single instance, they ought therefore to look upon this as a downright slander and calumny.

2 Corinthians 12:17 In-Context

15 And as for me, most gladly will I spend all I have and be utterly spent for your salvation.

16 If I love you so intensely, am I the less to be loved? Be that as it may: I was not a burden to you. But being by no means scrupulous, I entrapped you, they say!

17 Have I gained any selfish advantage over you through any one of the messengers I have sent to you?

18 I begged Titus to visit you, and sent our other brother with him. Did Titus gain any selfish advantage over you? Were not he and I guided by one and the same Spirit, and did we not walk in the same steps?

19 You are imagining, all this time, that we are making our defense at your bar. In reality it is as in God's presence and in communion with Christ that we speak; but, dear friends, it is all with a view to your progress in goodness.