12:19 {7} Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in {n} Christ: but [we do] all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.
(7) He concludes that he does not write these things to them as though he needed to defend himself, for he is guilty of nothing: but because it is appropriate for them to doubt nothing of his fidelity, who instructed them.
(n) As it becomes him to speak truly and sincerely, that professes himself to be in Christ, that is to say, to be a Christian.
12:19 Think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? He must guard against a misapprehension. He is not defending himself before a human bar.
We speak before God in Christ. He speaks as before God.
[We do] all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. Says what will tend to edify them. His only object is to build them up.
12:19 Think ye that we again excuse ourselves - That I speak this for my own sake? No. I speak all this for your sakes.
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.
