(6) God, that comforteth those that are cast down.--The fact of his own experience seems almost to present itself to his thoughts as constituting an attribute of the divine character. In the word for "cast down" (lowly) we may, perhaps, trace an allusion to the same word used of him by others as a disparaging epithet. (See Note on 2Corinthians 10:1.)

Verse 6. - Who comforteth those that are cast down. "The Comforter of the humble comforted us, even God." The word "humble" has in classical Greek the sense of "mean," "abject." Pride, not humility, was the virtue even of Stoic morality. Christ was the first to reveal the beatitude of lowliness (Matthew 11:29; Luke 1:52). Doubtless the word still retained some of its old associations, and had been used of St. Paul in a disparaging sense (2 Corinthians 10:1). But he whom his opponents accused of so much egotism, ambition, and arrogance, meekly accepts the term and applies it to himself. God (2 Corinthians 1:4). "The God... of consolation" (Romans 15:5). By the coming of Titus. This was the cause of that outburst of joy in 2 Corinthians 2:13, 14, which passage here finds its explanation. The absence of Titus from the Acts is another proof of the fragmentariness of that book. It is evident that he was an ardent, able, active fellow worker, and most beloved friend of the apostle (Galatians 2:1, 3; 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus 1:4; Titus 3:12). We learn most about him from this Epistle.

7:5-11 There were fightings without, or continual contentions with, and opposition from Jews and Gentiles; and there were fears within, and great concern for such as had embraced the Christian faith. But God comforts those who are cast down. We should look above and beyond all means and instruments, to God, as the author of all the consolation and good we enjoy. Sorrow according to the will of God, tending to the glory of God, and wrought by the Spirit of God, renders the heart humble, contrite, submissive, disposed to mortify every sin, and to walk in newness of life. And this repentance is connected with saving faith in Christ, and an interest in his atonement. There is a great difference between this sorrow of a godly sort, and the sorrow of the world. The happy fruits of true repentance are mentioned. Where the heart is changed, the life and actions will be changed. It wrought indignation at sin, at themselves, at the tempter and his instruments. It wrought a fear of watchfulness, and a cautious fear of sin. It wrought desire to be reconciled with God. It wrought zeal for duty, and against sin. It wrought revenge against sin and their own folly, by endeavours to make satisfaction for injuries done thereby. Deep humility before God, hatred of all sin, with faith in Christ, a new heart and a new life, make repentance unto salvation. May the Lord bestow it on every one of us.Nevertheless, God that comforteth those that are cast down,.... Or "humble ones": such as are humbled under the afflicting hand of God, and have low and mean apprehensions of themselves; these God looks unto, dwells with, revives their hearts, cheers their drooping spirits, and fills them with comforts; he has been used to do so with such persons; he has raised comfort to them; they may expect it, and the apostle experienced it; and which he refers to God as the author of it, as he had done in the beginning of this epistle, calling him "the God of all comfort"; he was the efficient cause, the means by which it was effected was the coming of Titus:

comforted us by the coming of Titus; to whom the apostle bore a very great affection, he being his son in a spiritual sense, a companion with him in his travels, and of great usefulness and service in the ministration of the Gospel; so that the very sight of him gave him pleasure; and the more, inasmuch as he had for some time longed to see him, that he might have some account from him of the affairs of this church.