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Receive us - Χωρησατε ἡμας . This address is variously understood. Receive us into your affections - love us as we love you. Receive us as your apostles and teachers; we have given you full proof that God hath both sent and owned us. Receive, comprehend, what we now say to you, and carefully mark it.
We have wronged no man - We have never acted contrary to the strictest justice.
We have corrupted no man - With any false doctrine or pernicious opinion.
We have defrauded no man - Of any part of his property. But what have your false teachers done? They have beguiled you from the simplicity of the truth, and thus corrupted your minds. 2 Corinthians 11:3. They have brought you into bondage; they have taken of you; devoured you; exalted themselves against you, and ye have patiently suffered all this. 2 Corinthians 11:20. It is plain that he refers here to the false apostle or teacher which they had among them.
Receive us - Tyndale renders this: “understand us.” The word used here ( χωρήσατε chōrēsate) means properly, give space, place, or room; and it means here evidently, make place or room for us in your affections; that is, admit or receive us as your friends. It is an earnest entreaty that they would do what he had exhorted them to do in 2 Corinthians 6:13; see the note on that verse. From that he had digressed in the close of the last chapter. He here returns to the subject and asks an interest in their affections and their love. We have wronged no man - We have done injustice to no man. This is given as a reason why they should admit him to their full confidence and affection. It is not improbable that he had been charged with injuring the incestuous person by the severe discipline which he had found it necessary to inflict on him; note, 1 Corinthians 5:5. This charge would not improbably be brought against him by the false teachers in Corinth. But Paul here says, that whatever was the severity of the discipline, he was conscious of having done injury to no member of that church. It is possible, however, that he does not here refer to any such charge, but that he says in general that he had done no injury, and that there was no reason why they should not receive him to their entire confidence. It argues great consciousness of integrity when a man who has spent a considerable time, as Paul had, with others, is able to say that he had wronged no man in any way. Paul could not have made this solemn declaration unless he was certain he had lived a very blameless life; compare Acts 20:33. We have corrupted no man - This means that he had corrupted no man in his morals, either by his precept or his example. The word ( φθείρω phtheirō) means in general to bring into a worse state or condition, and is very often applied to morals. The idea is, here, that Paul had not by his precept or example made any man the worse. He had not corrupted his principles or his habits, or led him into sin. We have defrauded no man - We have taken no man‘s property by cunning, by trick, or by deception. The word πλεονεκτέω pleonekteōmeans literally to have more than another, and then to take advantage, to seek unlawful gain, to circumvent, defraud, deceive. The idea is, that Paul had taken advantage of no circumstances to extort money from them, to overreach them, or to cheat them. It is the conviction of a man who was conscious that he had lived honestly, and who could appeal to them all as full proof that his life among them had been blameless.