But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul is saying that God’s preaching through him has been faithful. Flatterers, on the other hand, frequently fail to mention things which are true in order not to offend people. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. I call the true God to witness, who is a faithful and true witness, that in teaching you I did not deceive you, and, therefore, that it was not my intention to fail you when I promised to come to you.
This teaches the preacher to beware of lightness and fickleness of life, lest the people infer from it that the truth which he preaches is equally unfixed and uncertain.
But God is faithful: The sense seems to be, as God is faithful, or I appeal to God, who is faithful, that in what I have preached to you, there is not yes and no; my doctrine concerning the faith in Jesus Christ, is and was always the same. Whether I, or Silvanus, or Timothy preached the Son of God, that is, what we taught concerning the Son of God, was not yes and no, was not first one thing, and then another; but in him was yes only, that is, in him, and his doctrine, which we have taught, all is yes, firm, and unchangeable.
And all the promises of God, of sanctification and salvation, made to us in him, by his merits and grace, are equally yes, certain, and infallible; and therefore by him, and his promises are Amen to God, must needs be true, unto our glory, will turn to the salvation and glory of his elect in heaven. (Witham)
Paul had to explain why he could not keep his promise, so that the Corinthians would not distrust his preaching. In fact, what Paul preached was reliable. His promise to come to them had been from himself, but the message he proclaimed was from God, and God cannot lie.
He skillfully overturns a rising objection. For one might say, If after having promised, you have put off coming, and yea is not yea, and nay nay, with you, but what you say now you unsay afterwards, as you did in the case of this Journey: woe is unto us, if all this were the case in the Preaching too. Now lest they should have these thoughts and be troubled thereat, he says, But as God is faithful, our word toward you was not yea and nay. This, says he, was not the case in the Preaching, but only in our travels and journeyings; whereas whatever things we have said in our preaching, these abide steadfast and unmoveable, (for he calls his preaching here, word.) Then he brings proof of this that cannot be gainsaid, by referring all to God. What he says is this; 'the promise of my coming was my own and I gave that promise from myself: but the preaching is not my own, nor of man, but of God, and what is of God it is impossible should lie.' Whereupon also he said, God is faithful, that is, ...
