2 Corinthians 7:2 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Receive us’: really the term means, be open hearted to us, make room for us. It does not mention the heart, but that is what is implied. He said it previously. ‘We have wronged no man.’ Well, they thought he had wronged people because the false teachers, the Judaisers, who were misleading the Corinthian church and contaminating it with works doctrine; they had constantly criticised the apostle and they had made accusations about him. And among the criticisms had evidently been the claim that he wronged people, and he corrupted and defrauded people. None of which were true, but these charges were certainly true of the false teachers. They wronged people and wrongly accused people who stood up to them or contradicted them. They corrupted people with their false teaching and with their sinful example and their greed. They were noted for their greed. And they defrauded people, took offerings and spent them on their self-enrichment. Just like the prosperity teachers of our own day.Well, the apostle does not need to defend himself because the Corinthians had come to see through the false teachers. We read it in verse 7 – We were comforted, he says, ‘not by his coming only’ – the coming of Titus – ‘but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire.’ The Corinthians had put things right. They had realised that the apostle Paul had been maligned. ‘Your mourning’: mourning that they had believed these things. ‘Your fervent mind toward me’: your readiness to accept the word of God from me. So they had learned better. The apostle reminds them: open your hearts to us. Now he might say, you know perfectly well we wronged no man.