Homilies on Second Corinthians

“Lest by any means if there come with me any from Macedonia, we, (that we say not ye,) should be put to shame in this confidence.” The shame is greater when the spectators he has arrayed against them are many, even those same persons who had heard [his boasting.] And he did not say, 'for I am bringing with me Macedonians.' 'for there are Macedonians coming with me;' lest he should seem to do it on purpose; but how [said he?] “Lest by any means, if there come with me any from Macedonia?” 'For this may happen,' he says, 'it is matter of possibility.'

For thus he also made what he said unsuspected, but had he expressed himself in that other way, he would have even made them the more contentious. See how he leads them on, not from spiritual motives only, but from human ones as well. 'For,' says he, 'though you make no great account of me, and reckon confidently on my excusing you, yet think of them of Macedonia,' “lest by any means, if they come and find you;” and he did not say 'unwillingly,' but “unprepared,” not having got all completed.

But if this be a disgrace, not to contribute quickly; consider how great it were to contribute either not at all, or less than behooved. Then he lays down what would thereupon follow, in terms at once gentle and pungent, thus saying, “We, (that we say not ye,) should be put to shame.” And he tempers it again, saying, “in this confidence” not as making them more listless, but as showing that they who were approved in all other respects, ought in this one also to have great fearlessness.