In the opening chapter of this second epistle, Paul explained to the Corinthians why there had been a change in

his programme.

He had intended to visit them, to go on to Macedonia, return again to them, and then be brought on his way by

them to Judea. He had evidently carefully planned this itinerary, and had been equally careful to give them full

information.

`When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness?' (2 Cor. 1:17).

What does the apostle mean by `lightness' here? The Revised Version translates the word `fickleness'. He uses

the word in a slightly different grammatical form in 2 Corinthians 4:17, when he speaks of `our light affliction'.

As James says:

`Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell,

and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow ` ye ought to say, If the Lord will' (Jas. 4:13-15).

So Paul, while he, as a prudent man made his plans, did not forget that it was not within the province of any man

to say of his own purpose `Yea Yea, and Nay Nay' not because he was fickle, or that his word was not his bond, but

that all must be held under the possible cancelling or alteration of such plans by the revelation of the Will of the

But, while such must ever be the case, he immediately passed on to the message he gave them and said in effect:

`Whatever you do, do not gather from this that the message I brought you was of this character':

`For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, ` was not yea and nay, but in Him was yea.

For all the promises of God in Him are YEA, and in Him AMEN, unto the glory of God by us' (2 Cor. 1:19,20).

We turn from the promises which are Yea and Amen in Christ to the covenant whose glory excelleth (2 Cor. 3)

but on the way we halt for a moment to share in the triumph of the Mighty Victor. In 1 Corinthians 15:57 the

apostle said:

`But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ',

and in 2 Corinthians 2:14, he again says:

`Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ',

which, as it reads in the Authorized Version is a result of our triumph in Christ. In Colossians 2:15 we meet the

word `triumph' again where it reads:

`And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it'.

In 2 Corinthians 2:14 Paul envisages a Triumphant Procession of a Conqueror, leading strings of captives in his

train. The figure changes a little, to the incense bearers, `a sweet savour', and to the fact that the captives were

divided into two groups, those who were destined to execution, and those who were to receive a pardon.

`Here though the details of the metaphor are intricately involved, the general conception which was in the thoughts

of the apostle, and swayed his expression, is derived from the customs of a Roman triumph' (Farrar - Life and

work of St. Paul).

Should the reader wish to be acquainted more particularly with what comprised a Roman triumph, he will find a

fairly full description in Claudius, the God, chapter 22, by Robert Graves.

Turning now to chapter 3 we find the expansion of the relative values of the old and new Covenants focused

upon two faces. The face of Moses, and the face of Jesus Christ.

`But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not

stedfastly behold THE FACE of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away ` And