2 Corinthians 7:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Here Paul resumes the message he had been giving back in chapter 2:12, where he says, ‘Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.’ And then on to chapter 7:5, ‘For when we were come into Macedonia’ – the apostle picks up where he left off in chapter 2. So we have been looking at a tremendous digression, and such a precious and valuable digression, inspired of God. And now the apostle comes back to that piece of narrative that he had interrupted.‘For when we come into Macedonia,’ seeking for Titus, ‘our flesh had no rest.’ Here he uses flesh to stand for the entire man. ‘But we were troubled.’ The Greek indicates pressed, pressed in on every side. ‘Without were fightings, within were fears.’ That means that from the outside, he had enemies. The Jews realised he was there and they began to persecute. So there were constant problems, fightings from without. And within were fears – anxieties about the church at Corinth mainly I should imagine. At that point he had not yet heard the good news from Titus. He was looking for Titus who was on his way from Corinth. Titus was late in his journey. Had Corinth reformed? Or had they been, so to speak, swallowed up by the false teachers? What was the situation?