And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

People's New Testament

12:15 I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. As a loving father, he will gladly spend and be spent for them; even without the return of his love.

Wesley's Notes

12:15 I will gladly spend - All I have. And be spent - Myself.

King James Translators' Notes

for you: Gr. for your souls

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

15. I will . spend-all I have.

be spent-all that I am. This is more than even natural parents do. They "lay up treasures for their children." But I spend not merely my treasures, but myself.

for you-Greek, "for your souls"; not for your mere bodies.

the less I be loved-Love rather descends than ascends [Bengel]. Love him as a true friend who seeks your good more than your good will.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.