Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 5:12

"We are not again commending ourselves unto you, but [speak] as giving you occasion of glorying on our behalf, that ye may have wherewith to answer them that glory in appearance, and not in heart." — 2 Corinthians 5:12 (ASV)

For we commend not ourselves again to you.—The better manuscripts omit “For,” which may have been inserted for the sake of an apparent sequence of thought. In reality, however, what follows is more intelligible without it. He has scarcely uttered the preceding words when the poison of the barbed arrow—the sneer to which he had referred in 2 Corinthians 3:1—stings him again. He hears his enemies saying, “So he is commending himself again,” and these words are his answer to that taunt. “No,” he says, “that is not the case. Instead, by appealing to the witness of the work done in your consciences, we give you an ‘occasion’ (or starting-point) for a boast, which we assume that you, the great body of the Church of Corinth, will be ready to make for us.”

That you may have somewhat to answer.—The opponents, of whom we are to hear more later (see Notes on 2 Corinthians 10:7–18; 2 Corinthians 11:12–33), rise up once more in his thoughts. “That such as these should be boasting of their work and their success!” What did they glory in? In appearance. These words may apply to anything external—claims of authority, training, knowledge, and the like. The use of the word, however, in 2 Corinthians 10:1 seems to imply a more definite meaning. People contrasted what we would call the dignified “presence” of his rivals with his personal defects: the weakness of his body, his short stature. “Take your stand,” he seems to say, “against that boast, based on the work done by us in your consciences.”