Do we begin again to commend ourselves?
&c.] The apostle having asserted that he and his fellow
ministers always triumphed in Christ, and made manifest the
savour of his knowledge in every place; were a sweet savour of
Christ to God, did not corrupt the word of God, as some did, but
sincerely and faithfully preached Christ; some might insinuate
from hence, that he was guilty of arrogance and vain glory;
wherefore to remove such a charge, or prevent its being brought,
he asks, "do we begin again to commend ourselves?" we do not;
what we say, we say honestly, sincerely, in the simplicity of our
hearts, without any view to our own glory and applause among men,
or for any worldly profit and advantage, or to ingratiate
ourselves into your affections; we have no such views: some read
these words without an interrogation, "we do begin again to
commend ourselves"; as we have done already, in this and the
former epistles; and as it is but just and right that we should
vindicate our characters, support our good name and reputation,
and secure and maintain our credit, which some would maliciously
deprive us of:
though we have no need, as some others, of epistles of
commendation
to you, or letters of commendation from you;
our persons, characters, and usefulness are too well known, to
require commendatory letters front others to you, or from you to
others. The false apostles are here struck at, whose practice it
was to get letters of commendation from place to place; which
they carried about and made use of for their temporal advantage,
having nothing truly good and excellent in them to recommend them
to others. The apostle does not hereby condemn letters of
recommendation, which in proper cases may be very lawfully given,
and a good use be made of them; only that he and other Gospel
ministers were so well known, as to stand in no need of them.
