But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, though I think to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul is referring here to those who did not accept that his teaching was spiritual. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
But I beseech you that I may not be bold. I beseech you to lovingly receive my admonitions, lest when I come to you and see your disobedience, rebellion, and contumacy, I use my boldness and power to inflict excommunication and other spiritual. punishment, which I am thought to have already inflicted arbitrarily (Anselm). The Latin version reads the passive, I am thought, but Theophylact takes it actively—I think, I propose to boldly punish some evil-disposed persons.
Which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. As though we lived a carnal life, or better, as though we used carnal means, such as fleshly, human, and political Wisdom of Solomon , in doing by letter what I dare not do in person.
The Apostle says that they walk, fight, and glory according to the flesh, who, after the manner of carnal and, crafty men, walk and boast in outward gifts, such as birth, prudence, eloquence, good looks, sagacity, and by means of these seek to gain the applause of men, and so win th...
I beg of you now to hear my apology, that I may not be obliged to make us of my authority, when present among you, which they say I have abused, and usurped over you. There is in this discourse a little irony against the facility with which the Corinthians heard the enemies of St. Paul. He alludes to those false teachers who decried his doctrine, by preaching up the observance of the ceremonial parts of the law, for they were Jews, and had introduced many new practices into the Church. We may here take notice, that these observations are applicable to the epistles of St. Paul to the Galatians, and Philippians, for they are the same false teachers whom he there attacks, and who accused St. Paul of being a hypocrite, a seducer, in a word, one who walked according to the flesh. (Estius and St. Chrysostom)
Having completed his discourse on almsgiving, Paul now turns to less pleasant matters, concluding his epistle with denunciations of the false apostles. He offers explanations of himself and his ministry. Indeed, it would not be wrong to say that the whole epistle is an apology for Paul, because he makes so much mention of the grace and patience given to him.
