<p>2:3 - see on 1 Cor. 8:9; 2 Cor. 12:7.</p><p><i>And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling- </i>For Paul, his glory was not in heroic &quot;deeds of the body&quot; see on Gal. 1:10 but rather in the fact that when he first preached to the Corinthians, he was suffering from &quot;weakness... much fear and trembling&quot;- a reference to anything from agitated nervous breakdown to malaria. We have Gal. 4:13 in the same vein: &quot;You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at the first&quot;. So it could be that this is a reference to his physical weakness at the time he preached to the Corinthians. But William Barclay understands the Greek words to more imply &ldquo;the trembling anxiety to perform a duty&rdquo;, and I tend to run with this. The words are a reflection of the heart that bled within Paul. The man who has no fear, no hesitancy, no nervousness, no tension in the task of preaching&hellip;may give an efficient and competent performance from a platform. But it is the man who has this trembling anxiety, that intensity which comes from a heart that bleeds for ones hearers, who will produce an effect which artistry alone can never achieve. He is the man who will convert another. It has truly been said that &ldquo;the need is the call&rdquo;. To perceive the needs of others is what calls us and compels us to witness, coupled with our own disappointment with ourselves, our race, our nature.</p>