For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.
The verse stands within a call for believers to examine themselves whether they are in the faith and to prove themselves whether Jesus Christ is in them, lest they be reprobates or unfit. Paul's gladness is that he may be weak if the Corinthians are strong, and the same gladness belongs to ministers when believers are strong even at the cost of their own weakness. That gladness is joined to a wish and a prayer to God for believers, even their perfection. Perfection here means doing no evil and doing that which is honest. It is sought not in order that ministers themselves should appear approved, but that believers should live rightly before God.
Nothing can be done against the truth but for the truth, so believers are to live in truth. For that end correction is put in writing while absent, in order to avoid using sharpness when present. The authority given is to be used for edification and building up, and not for destruction or tearing down.
The verse stands within a call for believers to examine themselves whether they are in the faith and to prove themselves whether Jesus Christ is in them, lest they be reprobates or unfit. Paul's gladness is that he may be weak if the Corinthians are strong, and the same gladness belongs to ministers when believers are strong even at the cost of their own weakness. That gladness is joined to a wish and a prayer to God for believers, even their perfection. Perfection here means doing no evil and doing that which is honest. It is sought not in order that ministers themselves should appear approved, but that believers should live rightly before God.
Nothing can be done against the truth but for the truth, so believers are to live in truth. For that end correction is put in writing while absent, in order to avoid using sharpness when present. The authority given is to be used for edification and building up, and not for destruction or tearing down.