11 I have been forced by you to become foolish, though it was right for my praise to have come from you: for in no way was I less than the chief of the Apostles, though I am nothing. 12 Truly the signs of an Apostle were done among you in quiet strength, with wonders and acts of power. 13 For what is there in which you were made less than the other churches, but in the one thing that I was not a trouble to you? Let me have forgiveness for this wrong.
14 This is now the third time that I am ready to come to you; and I will not be a trouble to you: my desire is for you, not for your property: for it is not the children's business to make store for their fathers, but the fathers for the children. 15 And I will gladly give all I have for your souls. If I have the more love for you, am I to be loved the less? 16 But let it be so, that I was not a trouble to you myself; but (someone may say) being false, I took you with deceit. 17 Did I make a profit out of you by any of those whom I sent to you? 18 I gave orders to Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus make any profit out of you? were we not guided by the same Spirit, in the same ways? 19 It may seem to you that all this time we have been attempting to put ourselves in the right; but we are saying these things before God in Christ. For all things, dear brothers, are for your profit. 20 For I have a fear that, when I come, you may not be answering to my desire, and that I may not be answering to yours; that there may be fighting, hate, angry feeling, divisions, evil talk about others, secrets, thoughts of pride, outbursts against authority; 21 And that when I come again, my God may put me to shame among you, and I may have grief for those who have done wrong before and have had no regret for their unclean ways, and for the evil desires of the flesh to which they have given way.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 2 Corinthians 12:11-21
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 12:11-21
(Read 2 Corinthians 12:11-21)
We owe it to good men, to stand up in the defence of their reputation; and we are under special obligations to those from whom we have received benefit, especially spiritual benefit, to own them as instruments in God's hand of good to us. Here is an account of the apostle's behaviour and kind intentions; in which see the character of a faithful minister of the gospel. This was his great aim and design, to do good. Here are noticed several sins commonly found among professors of religion. Falls and misdeeds are humbling to a minister; and God sometimes takes this way to humble those who might be tempted to be lifted up. These vast verses show to what excesses the false teachers had drawn aside their deluded followers. How grievous it is that such evils should be found among professors of the gospel! Yet thus it is, and has been too often, and it was so even in the days of the apostles.