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2 Corinthians 10:8

Adam Clarke
Bible Commentary

For, though I should boast, etc. - I have a greater authority and spiritual power than I have yet shown, both to edify and to punish; but I employ this for your edification in righteousness, and not for the destruction of any delinquent. "This," says Calmet, "is the rule which the pastors of the Church ever propose to themselves in the exercise of their authority; whether to enjoin or forbid, to dispense or to oblige, to bind or to loose. They should use this power only as Jesus Christ used it - for the salvation, and not for the destruction, of souls."

Albert Barnes
Notes on the Whole Bible

For though I should boast … - If I should make even higher claims than I have done to a divine commission. I could urge higher evidence than I have done that I am sent by the Lord Jesus.

Of our authority - Of my authority as an apostle, my power to administer discipline, and to direct the affairs of the church.

Which the Lord hath given us for edification - A power primarily conferred to build up his people and save them and not to destroy.

I should not be ashamed - It would be founded on good evidence and sustained by the nature of my commission. I should also have no occasion to be ashamed of the manner in which it has been exercised - a power that has in fact been employed in extending religion and edifying the church, and not in originating and sustaining measures suited to destroy the soul.

Matthew Henry
Concise Bible Commentary
In outward appearance, Paul was mean and despised in the eyes of some, but this was a false rule to judge by. We must not think that none outward appearance, as if the want of such things proved a man not to be a real Christian, or an able, faithful minister of the lowly Saviour.
Ellen G. White
SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6 (EGW), 1062

1-3. See EGW on 2 Timothy 3:14, 15. 6BC 1062.1

14 (2 Corinthians 8:12). Light for Those Who Are Willing—God's Spirit can only enlighten the understanding of those who are willing to be enlightened. We read that God opened the ears of Lydia, so that she attended to the message spoken by Paul. To declare the whole counsel of God and all that was essential for Lydia to receive—this was the part Paul was to act in her conversion; and then the God of all grace exercised His power, leading the soul in the right way. God and the human agent cooperated, and the work was wholly successful (Letter 150, 1900). 6BC 1062.2

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