Matthew Poole and continuators on 2 Corinthians 10:1

1 NOw I Paul my self beseech you by the meekness, and gentleness of Christ , who in presence am base among you , but being absent, am bold towards you .

Meekness respecteth the Spirit or inward man, being a Vertue that moderateth inward anger and rash passions. Gentleness more respecteth the outward conversation. The Apostle mentioneth both these Vertues, as eminent in Christ, who is our great Example, and to whom all Christians are bound to be conformable.

He here repeateth the words of those who, in this Church, reproached him; they reported him a man, who, when he was there in presence with them, was lowly and humble enough:

but when he was absent from them, then he wrote imperiously and confidently enough. The sense of the words is plainly this, I Paul (of whom some amongst you say, That when I am there with you I am low and humble enough, even to some degrees of baseness; but when I am absent, then I write like a Lord, boldly and confidently) I beseech you to consider the temper of our common Lord and Saviour, to remember how free he was from rash anger and passion, how gentle he was in his conversation, and by the obligation that is upon you, to love and practise those Vertues which you saw, or have heard of, in him.

Hitherto the Apostle, (who in his former Epistle had blamed this Church for so many things, and dealt sharply with them) in this Epistle, hath treated them as if they had been a people that had had no [illegible: 1 letter]aults, or none but what in obedience to his former Epistle they had reformed, and become a new lump: which argueth, that the major part of the Members of it were a good and an obedient people, by whose prevalent Vote they had reformed much that was amiss. But in these four last Chapters, to let us know that there was yet some of the old leaven amongst them, he useth another stile; taking notice, that he understood there was amongst them another (though possibly the lesser) Party who had much vilified him; and justifying himself against their whisperings and calumnies, not without some sharp reflections upon them.

Marginal references: Or, in outward appearance.