2 Corinthians 6:13

Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Now for a recompence in the same.—Better, perhaps, as a return, as expressing the idea of reciprocity. Children should requite the care and love of parents. (Comp. 2Corinthians 12:14.) They, the Corinthians, are his spiritual children. (Comp. 1Corinthians 4:15.) What does he demand of them, but that they should love him in return for his love? What they needed in their spiritual life was breadth and expansiveness of affection.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:11-18 It is wrong for believers to join with the wicked and profane. The word unbeliever applies to all destitute of true faith. True pastors will caution their beloved children in the gospel, not to be unequally yoked. The fatal effects of neglecting Scripture precepts as to marriages clearly appear. Instead of a help meet, the union brings a snare. Those whose cross it is to be unequally united, without their wilful fault, may expect consolation under it; but when believers enter into such unions, against the express warnings of God's word, they must expect must distress. The caution also extends to common conversation. We should not join in friendship and acquaintance with wicked men and unbelievers. Though we cannot wholly avoid seeing and hearing, and being with such, yet we should never choose them for friends. We must not defile ourselves by converse with those who defile themselves with sin. Come out from the workers of iniquity, and separate from their vain and sinful pleasures and pursuits; from all conformity to the corruptions of this present evil world. If it be an envied privilege to be the son or daughter of an earthly prince, who can express the dignity and happiness of being sons and daughters of the Almighty?

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Now for a recompence in the same - "By way of recompence, open your hearts in the same manner toward me as I have done toward you. It is all the reward or compensation which I ask of you; all the return which I desire. I do not ask silver or gold, or any earthly possessions. I ask only a return of love, and a devotedness to the cause which I love, and which I endeavor to promote."

I speak as unto my children - I speak as a parent addressing his children. I sustain toward you the relation of a spiritual father, and I have a right to require and expect a return of affection.

Be ye also enlarged - Be not straitened in your affections. Love me as I love you. Give to me the same proofs of attachment which I have given you. The idea in this verse is, that the only compensation or remuneration which he expected for all the love which he had shown them, and for all his toils and self-denials in their behalf 2 Corinthians 6:4-5, was, that they would love him, and yield obedience to the laws of the gospel requiring them to be separate from the world, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18. One ground of the claim which he had to their affection was, that he sustained toward them the relation of a father, and that he had a right to require and to expect such a return of love. The Syriac renders it well: "Enlarge your love toward me." Tyndale renders it: "I speak unto you as unto children, which have like reward with us; stretch yourselves therefore out; bear not the yoke with unbelievers."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. Translate, "As a recompense in the same kind … be enlarged also yourselves" [Ellicott]. "In the same way" as my heart is enlarged towards you (2Co 6:11), and "as a recompense" for it (Ga 4:12).

I speak as unto my children—as children would naturally be expected to recompense their parents' love with similar love.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Be ye also enlarged, both in love to me, and also in obedience; it is but a just recompence for that great affection which I have borne, and upon all occasions showed to you; and also for that faithfulness which I have showed in discharging the duty of my relation to you. For I speak as a father unto children, it being but reasonable, that children should recompense to their fathers their love to them, and be as exact and faithful in their duty to their parents, as their parents are in their duty towards them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now for a recompence in the same,.... That your love to me may answer mine to you; that as you have my heart, I may have yours, and the same room in your heart, as you have in mine. The Vulgate Latin version reads, "having the same recompence"; and the Arabic version renders it, "grant to me the same recompence"; and the Syriac version, "recompense to me my usuries that are with you"; that is, repay me with affection, let love be returned for love.

I speak as unto my children; which relation subsisting between us requires mutual affection; for as a father should love his children, so children should love their father:

be ye also enlarged; in your love to me, as I am to you; and then, as if he should say, you will bear with, and take in good part the following exhortation and advice.

Geneva Study Bible

Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Corinthians 6:13. A demand for the opposite of the said στενοχωρεῖσθε ἐν τοῖς σπλ. ὑμ. just said.

The accusative τὴν αὐτὴν ἀντιμισθίαν is not to be supplemented either by habentes (Vulgate), nor by εἰσενέγκατε (Oecumenius, Theophylact), nor to be connected with λέγω (Chrysostom, Beza, and others); it is anacoluthic (accusative absolute), so that it emphatically sets forth an object of discourse, without grammatically attaching to it the further construction. It is otherwise in 2 Corinthians 3:18. There is not an interruption, but a rhetorical breaking off of the construction. These accusatives, otherwise explained by κατά, are therefore the beginning of a construction which is not continued. See Schaefer, ad Dem. V. pp. 314, 482 f.; Matthiae, p. 955. Comp. Bernhardy, p. 132 f.; Dissen, ad Pind. p. 329, ad Dem. de Cor. p. 407; Winer, p. 576 [E. T. 774].

αὐτήν] Paul has blended by way of attraction the two conceptions τὸ αὐτό and τὴν ἀντιμισθίαν. See Fritzsche, Dissert. II. p. 114 ff. Rückert arbitrarily says: Paul wished to write ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ὑμεῖς πλατύνθητε, τὴν ἐμὴν ἀντιμισθίαν, but, by prefixing the latter, he brought the idea of ὡσαύτως also into the first clause, where it necessarily had now to appear as an adjective. He certainly has not only placed, but also thought τὴν ἀντιμισθίαν first, but at the same time τὸ αὐτό was also in his mind.

The parenthetic ὡς τέκνοις λέγω justifies the expression τὴν αὐτ. ἀντιμισθίαν; for it is the duty of children to recompense a father’s love by love in return. Comp. 1 Timothy 5:4. Chrysostom: οὐδὲν μέγα αἰτῶ, εἰ πατὴρ ὢν βούλομαι φιλεῖσθαι παρʼ ὑμῶν. The notion of children yet untrained (Ewald) would be indicated by something like νηπίοις (1 Corinthians 3:1).

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Corinthians 6:13. τὴν δὲ αὐτὴν ἀντιμισθίαν κ.τ.λ.: now for a recompense in like kind (an accus. abs.)—I speak as unto children, sc., who should respect and imitate their parents (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:14)—be ye also enlarged, sc., in heart.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. Now for a recompence in the same] “St Paul details the circumstances of his ministry, and he asks in return, not the affection of the Corinthians, nor their admiration, but this: that they ‘receive not the grace of God in vain,’ and again ‘be ye also enlarged.’ ” Robertson. Tyndale, whom Cranmer follows, has a curious mistranslation here, I promyse you lyke rewarde with me as to my children.

be ye also enlarged] i.e. return my affection by shewing a similar sympathy with mine for all who are Christ’s.

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Corinthians 6:13. Τὴν) supply κατὰ, according to.—αὐτὴν) the same; that you may have the same feeling, as we.—ἀντιμισθίαν, recompense) which you owe to me as a father; comp. Galatians 4:12.—ὡς τέκνοις λέγω, I speak as to children) He hints in this parenthesis, that he demands nothing severe or bitter.—πλατύνθητε, be ye enlarged) A double exhortation. Throw yourselves open before the Lord, and then before us; comp. 2 Corinthians 8:5; be enlarged, that the Lord may dwell in you, 2 Corinthians 6:14—ch. 2 Corinthians 7:1, receive us, ch. 2 Corinthians 7:2.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - Now, for a recompense in the same. He begs them to give him "a reward in kind;" in other words, he wishes them to be as frank with him as he has been to them. As unto my children. And therefore, as a spiritual father, I may surely ask for sympathy. St. Paul uses the same metaphor in 1 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Thessalonians 2:11. Be ye also enlarged. Treat me as I have treated you (comp. "Be as I am," Galatians 4:12). 2 Corinthians 6:13