(14) For if I have boasted any thing to him of you.--It is obviously implied that he had boasted. He had encouraged Titus, when he sent him, with the assurance that he would find many elements of good mingled with the evil which he was sent to correct. And now St. Paul can add: "I was not shamed" (the tense requires this rendering) "when he came back with his report."
Even so our boasting, which I made before Titus.--The words "I made" are, as the italics show, not in the Greek. Some of the better MSS. give, indeed, "your boasting," and with this reading the sense would be: "As what I said of you to Titus turned out to be true, so I recognise that what you said to him of yourselves, of your zeal and longing (as in 2 Corinthians 7:11), was spoken truly." The Received reading rests, however, on very good authority, and certainly gives a better sense: "We spoke truly to you of your faults; we spoke truly to Titus of your good qualities."
Verse 14. - I am not ashamed. The due rendering of the tenses brings out the sense much more accurately. "Because if I have boasted anything to him on your behalf, I was not put to the blush;" in other words, "One reason of my exceeding gladness was that you fully justified that very favorable picture of you which I had drawn for Titus when I was urging him to be the bearer of my letter." Is found a truth; literally, proved itself to be a truth. Here again there is a most delicate reference to the charge of levity and unveracity which had been brought against him (2 Corinthians 1:17). I always spoke the truth to you; but I might well have feared that, in speaking of you to Titus, my affection for you had led me to overstep the limits of perfect accuracy. But you yourselves, by proving yourselves worthy of all I said of you, have established my perfect truthfulness, even in the only point where I might have thought it doubtful. Nothing could exceed the tact and refinement, the subtle delicacy and beauty, of this gentle remark.
7:12-16 The apostle was not disappointed concerning them, which he signified to Titus; and he could with joy declare the confidence he had in them for the time to come. Here see the duties of a pastor and of his flock; the latter must lighten the troubles of the pastoral office, by respect and obedience; the former make a due return by his care of them, and cherish the flock by testimonies of satisfaction, joy, and tenderness.
For if I have boasted anything to him of you,.... As of their faith in Christ, of their liberality to the saints, their affection for him, and obedience to him as children to a father:
I am not ashamed; since these all appeared to be true; as he must have been had they been otherwise:
but as we spake all things to you in truth; that is, our preaching among you was true; all the doctrines we delivered to you were truth; our word was not yea and nay, but uniform, and all of a piece:
even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth; some understand this of the boasting which the apostle made concerning Titus, in his epistle to them, highly commending him, and which they found to be in all things exactly true; but the words rather design his boasting of the Corinthians unto Titus, which was found to be true by him.
Even so our boasting, which I made before Titus.--The words "I made" are, as the italics show, not in the Greek. Some of the better MSS. give, indeed, "your boasting," and with this reading the sense would be: "As what I said of you to Titus turned out to be true, so I recognise that what you said to him of yourselves, of your zeal and longing (as in 2 Corinthians 7:11), was spoken truly." The Received reading rests, however, on very good authority, and certainly gives a better sense: "We spoke truly to you of your faults; we spoke truly to Titus of your good qualities."
I am not ashamed; since these all appeared to be true; as he must have been had they been otherwise:
but as we spake all things to you in truth; that is, our preaching among you was true; all the doctrines we delivered to you were truth; our word was not yea and nay, but uniform, and all of a piece:
even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth; some understand this of the boasting which the apostle made concerning Titus, in his epistle to them, highly commending him, and which they found to be in all things exactly true; but the words rather design his boasting of the Corinthians unto Titus, which was found to be true by him.