12:13 For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except [it be] that I myself was not {m} burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.
(m) I was not slothful with my own hands, so that I might not be burdensome to you.
12:13 What is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, etc.? They had enjoyed every privilege of the most highly favored churches, and, perhaps, complained that he had preached without charge to them. See notes on 2Co 11:7-12.
Forgive me this wrong. If this was a wrong, he asked forgiveness.
12:11-21 We owe it to good men, to stand up in the defence of their reputation; and we are under special obligations to those from whom we have received benefit, especially spiritual benefit, to own them as instruments in God's hand of good to us. Here is an account of the apostle's behaviour and kind intentions; in which see the character of a faithful minister of the gospel. This was his great aim and design, to do good. Here are noticed several sins commonly found among professors of religion. Falls and misdeeds are humbling to a minister; and God sometimes takes this way to humble those who might be tempted to be lifted up. These vast verses show to what excesses the false teachers had drawn aside their deluded followers. How grievous it is that such evils should be found among professors of the gospel! Yet thus it is, and has been too often, and it was so even in the days of the apostles.
