2 Corinthians 10:14
As far as you with the gospel
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγέλιον euangelion · gospel
Original
Translations
We are not overstepping our bounds, as if we had not come to you. Indeed, we were the first to reach you with the gospel of Christ.
For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ:
for we do not stretch ourselves too much, as not reaching to you, for even to you we came in the good news of the Christ,
우리가 너희에게 미치지 못할 자로서 스스로 지나쳐 나아간 것이 아니요 그리스도의 복음으로 너희에게까지 이른 것이라
우리는 마치 너희에게 다다르지 아니한 것 같이 우리의 분량을 넘어 뻗어나가지 아니하노니 우리는 그리스도의 복음을 선포하는 가운데 너희에게도 이르렀느니라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on 2Cor 10:12-18 as a whole
If we would compare ourselves with others who excel us, this would be a good method to keep us humble. The apostle fixes a good rule for his conduct; namely, not to boast of things without his measure, which was the measure God had distributed to him. …
Read the whole commentary →Wesley 2Cor 10:14
We are come even to you - By a gradual, regular process, having taken the intermediate places in our way, in preaching the gospel of Christ.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
Some newcomers in Corinth seem to have said that Paul was reaching beyond his proper field in claiming the Corinthian church. He answers with a plain fact: it was he and his companions who first came to Corinth with the gospel of Christ.
We are not overstepping our bounds, as if we had not come to you. Indeed, we were the first to reach you with the gospel of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:14In chapters 10 to 13 of 2 Corinthians Paul defends his apostleship against men who commend themselves. "When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they show their ignorance" (2 Corinthians 10:12). Paul measures by another rule: the field God has assigned him, "a field that reaches even to you" (2 Corinthians 10:13). This verse gives the ground for that claim, and verses 15 and 16 look beyond Corinth to lands still to be reached.
The noun stands in the dative with en: en tō euangeliō tou Christou, ‘in the gospel of Christ’, that is, bringing the gospel, preaching it as they came. "We were the first to reach" renders in the aorist, ephthasamen. The verb can mean simply ‘to arrive’, but its older sense is ‘to come before, to get there first’, and many read it so here: Paul brought the gospel to Corinth before anyone else. The verb before it, huperekteinomen, is ‘to overstretch’, the picture of someone straining to reach what lies beyond his arm. Corinth, Paul says, is not beyond his reach. He has been there, with the gospel.
The KJV has "for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ." The LSV is barer: "for even to you we came in the good news of the Christ." The BSB alone brings out the sense of arriving first: "we were the first to reach you with the gospel of Christ." Each is a fair reading; the BSB's makes Paul's argument plainest, since the one who founded a church cannot be said to have intruded on it.
Wesley describes how Paul came: "By a gradual, regular process, having taken the intermediate places in our way, in preaching the gospel of Christ" Wesley. The road ran through Macedonia and Athens before it reached Corinth (Acts 18:1). Matthew Henry notes Paul's rule, "not to boast of things without his measure, which was the measure God had distributed to him" Matthew Henry, and adds a warning of his own: "And of all flattery, self-flattery is the worst" Matthew Henry.
Acts tells of that arrival. Paul taught in the synagogue; Crispus, its leader, believed with his household, "And many of the Corinthians who heard the message believed and were baptized" (Acts 18:8). In a vision the Lord told him to keep speaking, "because I have many people in this city" (Acts 18:10), and he stayed a year and a half. Paul's field was not a line drawn on a map but the road the gospel had actually travelled.
The gospel reaches a city when someone walks the road to bring it. Wherever it has arrived, someone came that far, on a road God marked out.