But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his cunning, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul is saying that glory has been given to him not so that he might praise himself but so that he might cast blame on those who, in the name of Christ, were preaching against Christ and by whom the Corinthians were being seduced. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Sponsa et Ecclesia; quam cast am esse oportet, et ab iis quae strut intus, cogitation bus, quae sunt contrariae veritati; et ab iis, qui tentant extrinsecus, hoc est ab iis, qui sectantur haereses, et persuadent vobis fornicari ab uno viro, nempe omnipotenti Deo: "Ne sicut set pens decepit Evam".
Jam veto vel invitum cogit Paulam generationem ex deceptione deducere, cure dicit: "Vere or autem, ne sicut serpens Evam decepit, corrupti sint sensus vestri a simplicitate, quae est in Christo."
But I fear lest by any means . . . your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. Beware of the false apostles, who are panders of Satan, adulterers of the genuine doctrine of Christ, and therefore of the Church and of your souls.
So your minds shall be corrupted by those false teachers, from the simplicity in Christ, from the sincerity and purity of the gospel doctrine. (Witham)
'For although the destruction be yours [alone], yet is the sorrow mine as well.' And consider his wisdom. For he does not assert, although they were corrupted; and so he showed when he said, When your obedience is fulfilled, 2 Corinthians 10:6 and I shall bewail many which have sinned already; 2 Corinthians 12:21 but still he does not leave them to get shameless. And therefore he says, lest at any time. For this neither condemns nor is silent; for neither course were safe, whether to speak out plainly or to conceal perpetually. Therefore he employs this middle form, saying, lest at any time. For this is the language neither of one that entirely distrusts, nor entirely relies on them, but of one who stands between these two. In this way then he palliated, but by his mention of that history threw them into an indescribable terror, and cuts them off from all forgiveness. For even although the serpent was malignant, and she senseless, yet did none of these things snatch the woman from puni...
Paul does not say that this will happen, but he is afraid that it might. He stands midway between trust and doubt, hoping that they will do the right thing but not being entirely certain of it.
