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2Co_9:8 ff. After Paul has aroused them to ample and willing giving, he adds further the assurance, that God can bestow (2Co_9:8-9), and will bestow (2Co_9:10-11) on them the means also for such beneficence. Finally, he subjoins the religious gain, which this work of contributing brings, 2Co_9:11, ἥτις κατεργάζεται κ . τ . λ ., on to 2Co_9:14.
2Co_9:8. The δέ is continuative; δυνατός , however, is with, emphasis prefixed, for the course of thought is: God has the power, and (2Co_9:10) He will also do it. The discourse sets out from possibility, and passes over to reality.
πᾶσαν χάριν ] every showing of kindness. This refers to earthly blessing, by which we have the means for beneficence; see the sentence of aim, that follows. Chrysostom correctly says: ἐμπλῆσαι ὑμᾶς τοσούτων ὡς δύνασθαι περιττεύειν ἐν τῇ φιλοτιμίᾳ ταύτῃ . Theodoret and Wolf, at variance with the context, hold that it applies to spiritual blessings; Flatt and Osiander, to blessings of both kinds.
περισσεῦσαι ] transitive: efficere ut largissime redundet in vos. See on 2Co_4:15.
ἐν παντὶ πάντοτε πᾶσαν ] in all points at all times all, an energetic accumulation. Comp. on Eph_5:20; Php_1:3-4.
πᾶσαν αὐτάρκειαν ἔχοντες ] having every, that is, all possible self-sufficing; for this is the subjective condition, without which we cannot, with all blessing of God, have abundance εἰς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθόν . Hence Paul brings out so emphatically this necessary subjective requirement for attaining the purpose, which God connects with his objective blessing: in order that you, as being in every case always quite self-contented, etc. Αὐτάρκεια is not the sufficienter habere in the sense of external position, in which no help from others is needed (as it is taken usually; also by Emmerling, Flatt, Rückert, Osiander), but rather (comp. Hofmann also) the subjective frame of mind, in which we feel ourselves so contented with what we ourselves have that we desire nothing from others,—the inward self-sufficing, to which stands opposed the προσδεὲς ἄλλων (Plato, Tim. p. 33 D) and ἐπιθυμεῖν τῶν ἀλλοτρίων . Comp. 1Ti_6:6; Php_4:11, and the passages in Wetstein. It is a moral quality (for which reason Paul could say so earnestly ἐν παντὶ πάντ . πᾶσ ., without saying too much), may subsist amidst very different external circumstances, and is not dependent on these,—which, indeed, in its very nature, as τελειότης κτήσεως ἀγαθῶν (Plato, Def. p. 412 B), it cannot be. Comp. Dem. 450. 14; Polyb. vi. 48. 7 : πρὸς πᾶσαν περίστασιν αὐτάρκης .
περισσεύητε εἰς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθόν ] that you may have abundance (comp. ἐν παντὶ πλουτιζόμενοι , 2Co_9:11) for every good work (work of beneficence; comp. Act_9:36, and see Knapp, Opusc., ed. 1, p. 486 ff.). If Rückert had not taken αὐτάρκεια in an objective sense at variance with the notion, he would not have refined so much on περισσ ., which he understands as referring to the growth of the Corinthians themselves: “in order that you, having at all times full sufficiency … may become ever more diligent unto every good work.” De Wette also refines on the word, taking the participial clause of that, which in spite of the περισσεῦσαι takes place in the same: “inasmuch as you have withal for yourselves quite enough,” which would present a very external and selfish consideration to the reader, and that withal expressed of set purpose so strongly!