2 Corinthians 1:23

But I call God for a witness upon my soul, that to spare you I forbare to come to Corinth. Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for in faith ye stand fast.

I call God for a witness ... Some call this an oath; but others deny it. Even God himself, for a righteous purpose, "interposed with an oath" (Hebrews 6:17); and Paul's appeal to God as witness in this passage would seem to indicate that the prohibition of Christ in Matthew 5:34ff should not be applied to the kind of oath (if it is an oath) in evidence here. Certainly, it would appear that courts of justice should be allowed to administer oaths, even to Christians. See more on this in my Commentary on Matthew, p. 67.

To spare you, I forbare to come ... Here Paul finally got around to the dogmatic reason why he changed some of his plans of going to Corinth. The situation was so bad there that he considered it profitable and righteous to wait a while until they had more time to repent of their sins. An earlier confrontation might have resulted in thwarting God's will among them. As these words stand in the English Revised Version (1885), they seem to imply that Paul had not yet gone to Corinth (after the founding of the church); but Tasker pointed out that a permissible translation is, "I came not any more,"[22] thus avoiding a denial of the "painful visit" which was probably made between the writing of the two epistles.

Not that we have lordship ... Paul's statement that he would "spare" the Corinthians by delaying another visit could have had implications of apostolic authority not intended by Paul; therefore he at once entered a disclaimer of any "lording it over" God's heritage. Not even an apostle might do such a thing as that (1 Peter 5:3).

There is then no scriptural warrant for hierarchical domination or lordship in the church of Christ.

Absolute authority is not vested in any supposed apostolic office or succession, but in the person and office of Christ.[23]

Not even the apostle Peter, upon whom such an overwhelming burden of overlordship has been imposed during the historical progression of Christianity, did not consider himself as an ecclesiastical overlord any more than did Paul (1 Peter 5:2).

For in faith ye stand fast ... The literal Greek rendition gives this as "In the faith ye have stood firm."[24] The meaning is clearly that the Corinthians are continuing in the Christian religion; and there is no statement in the passage about salvation being "by faith." Translators never miss an opportunity to plug the favorite heresy of "salvation by faith only"; and despite the fact that they no longer dare to add the word "only," that is definitely intended as the meaning in such renditions as this.

The chapter break here is right in the middle of Paul's line of thought. Chapter 1 should have ended at verse 14, or have been extended through verse 4 of chapter 2.

[22] R. V. G. Tasker, The Second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1958), p. 50.

[23] Philip E. Hughes, op. cit., p. 49.

[24] The Emphatic Diaglott (Brooklyn: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society).