1Cor 4:19, 16:5 | JFB | STEP | 19. ALFORD translates, "But come I will"; an emphatical negation of their supposition ( ). shortly —after Pentecost ( ). if the Lord will —a wise proviso ( ). He does not seem to have been able to go as soon as he intended. and will know —take cognizance of. but the power —I care not for their high-sounding "speech," "but" what I desire to know is "their power," whether they be really powerful in the Spirit, or not. The predominant feature of Grecian character, a love for power of discourse, rather than that of godliness, showed itself at Corinth.

1 Corinthians 4:19

19. ALFORD translates, "But come I will"; an emphatical negation of their supposition (1Co 4:18).

shortly—after Pentecost (1Co 16:8).

if the Lord will—a wise proviso (Jas 4:15). He does not seem to have been able to go as soon as he intended.

and will know—take cognizance of.

but the power—I care not for their high-sounding "speech," "but" what I desire to know is "their power," whether they be really powerful in the Spirit, or not. The predominant feature of Grecian character, a love for power of discourse, rather than that of godliness, showed itself at Corinth.

1 Corinthians 16:5

5-7. His first intention had been (2Co 1:15, 16) to pass through them (Corinth) to Macedonia, and again return to them from Macedonia, and so to Judea; this he had announced in the lost epistle (1Co 5:9); now having laid aside this intention (for which he was charged with levity, 2Co 1:17, &c., whereas it was through lenity, 2Co 1:23; 2:1), he announces his second plan of "not seeing them now by the way," but "passing through Macedonia" first on his way to them, and then "tarrying a while," and even "abiding and wintering with them."

for I do pass—as much as to say, "This is what I at last resolve upon" (not as the erroneous subscription of the Epistle represents it, as if he was THEN at Philippi, on his way through Macedonia); implying that there had been some previous communication upon the subject of the journey, and also that there had been some indecisiveness in the apostle's plan [PALEY]. In accordance with his second plan, we find him in Macedonia when Second Corinthians was written (2Co 2:13; 8:1; 9:2, 4), and on his way to Corinth (2Co 12:14; 13:1; compare Ac 20:1, 2). "Pass through" is opposed to "abide" (1Co 16:6). He was not yet in Macedonia (as 1Co 16:8 shows), but at Ephesus; but he was thinking of passing through it (not abiding as he purposed to do at Corinth).