ACC ~ 2 Corinthians 1 v4

TWO KINDS OF CONSOLATION. AMBROSIASTER: Paul mentions two kinds of consolation. One is the sort by which people who are suffering distress unjustly on account of the name of Christ find consolation in being set free. The other is the consolation of those who, when they are grieved because of sins, receive consolation from the fact that hope of forgiveness is promised to them when they mend their ways. This happens amid a community of those who have received consolation from God and been rescued from distress. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE CAUSE OF HIS ABSENCE. CHRYSOSTOM: The Corinthians were very upset that the apostle had not come to them, in spite of his promise, and that he had spent all his time in Macedonia, apparently preferring them to the Corinthians. Paul therefore prepares to meet this feeling against him by declaring the cause of his absence, though without stating it directly. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 1.3.

PENITENTS RECONCILED. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: Paul sets this down beforehand because he is about to say that the man who had been condemned because of his sin should be reconciled by God’s comforting power. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

COMFORT FROM THE SPIRIT. GREGORY OF NYSSA: But what does it mean to say that the kingdom of God is within us? What else than the gladness which comes from on high to souls through the Spirit? For this is like an image and a deposit and a pattern of everlasting grace which the souls of the saints enjoy in the time which is to come. So the Lord summons us through the activity of the Spirit to salvation through our afflictions and to a sharing in the goods of the Spirit and his own graces. For he says: “Who comforts us in our afflictions, that we also may be able to comfort those who are in any distress.” ON THE CHRISTIAN MODE OF LIFE.

1 Cor