The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians
2 Corinthians 2
Chapter II · Vol. IV, pp. 372–373
1 Having showed the reason why he came not to them, 6 he requireth them to forgive and to comfort that excommunicated person, 10 even as himself also, upon his true repentance, had forgiven him, 12 declaring withal why he departed from Troas to Macedonia, 14 and the happy success which God gave to his preaching in all places.
1 But I determined this with myself, athat I would not come again to you in heaviness.
a ch.1.23;12.20,21;13.2,10. 1 Co.4.21.
2 For bif I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?
3 And cI wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
4 Ford out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love1 which I have more abundantly unto you.Cited in WLC 144
5 Bute if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.2
e 1 Co.5.5,2. Ga.4.12;5.10.
2 'But if any one have occasioned sorrow, he has not so much grieved me as, in some measure (that I may not overcharge him) all of you.' This is the punctuation of the Syriac, is adopted by Griesbach and others, and seems necessary to give distinct meaning to the passage. C.—Paul here reverts to the case of the incestuous person mentioned in the first epistle, and recommends that, as he had repented, he should be readmitted into the church. The construction of this verse is difficult, and the meaning of the Greek is not brought out in our version. Alford gives it as follows:—'Now if any one hath occasioned sorrow (a delicate way of pointing out the one who had occasioned it), he hath grieved, not me, but, more or less, that I be not too heavy on him, all of you.' Paul indicates that he was not the party aggrieved, but the church in which the scandal had taken place.—P.
6 Sufficient to such a man is this punishment,3 which was inflicted of many.4Cited in WCF 30.2 · HC 85
3 Or, censure, 1 Co.5.4,5. ch.13.10. 1 Ti.5.20.
4 'Enough to such a person was this punishment inflicted by the great part.' The punishment he had received was the sentence pronounced by the majority of the church, and it had produced the desired effect—the man had repented. Now, therefore, the church had another duty to perform—that of comforting the penitent, and strengthening him by prayer and sympathy.—P.
7 Sog that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.Cited in WLC 173 · WCF 30.2
g ch.12.13. Ga.6.1,2. Ep.4.16,32. Col.2.13;3.13. 1 Th.5.14. He.12.12,13.
9 For to this end also did I write, hthat I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
10 Toi whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person5 of Christ;
11 Lestj Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
A.M. cir. 4064. A.D. cir. 60.
j Lu.22.31. 1 Co.7.5. ch.11.3. Ep.6.11,12. 2 Ti.2.25,26. 1 Pe.5.8.
12 Furthermore, when I came to kTroas to lpreach Christ's gospel, and na door was opened unto me of the Lord,
13 Io had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.
o ch.7.5,6.
14 Nowp thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and qmaketh manifest the savour6 of his knowledge by us in every place.Cited in WLC 190
p Ro.8.37. ch.4.7-12. Phi.4.4;3.3. Ps.149.2. 1 Th.5.16. Is.61.10.
q Ro.10.17,18;15.19. 1 Ti.1.15. Ca.1.3. Col.1.6,23.
6 The allusion to a 'savour' is generally referred to the perfume of flowers strewn in the way of triumphant conquerors. But should it not rather be referred to sacrifice, in which the knowledge of Christ really lies? Ep.5.2.—C.
15 For we are unto God ra sweet savour7 of Christ, in them that are saved,8 and in them that perish:Cited in WLC 190 · WCF 5.6
r 1 Co.1.18. ch.4.3.
7 Savour. As Christ was a sacrifice of a 'sweet savour' to God, even so are we in him: for by the cross of Christ we are crucified to the world, and the world to us, Ga.6.13,14.—C.
8 We are a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved—because we have been successful messengers.—And in them that perish—because we have been faithful witnesses.—C.
Notes
Ver. 1. From a tender and affectionate regard to you I chose rather to delay my promised visit, that your having rectified your disorders before I came might render it more welcome to you and agreeable to myself. 2. For if by sharp reproofs and censures I had grieved any of you, nothing but the deep repentance and remarkable reformation of those very persons could have turned my sorrows into joy. 3. And for this reason I did, and do now again, write to you, that all your disorders may be rectified before I come, that I may not have my mind burdened with grief by you, whose steadfastness in the faith, holiness, and order of the gospel, should be a comfort to me; and I hope that everything relative to the glory of Christ and the good of his church will be your joy as well as mine. 4. For it was in great distress of spirit, on account of their deplorable and dangerous condition, that I directed you to excommunicate the incestuous person, or other manifest apostates from Christ. And I mention it now, not to awaken and renew your grief, but to manifest my deep concern for you and other Christians, and for the repentance and salvation of the most notorious delinquents. 5. But if the incestuous person, or others notoriously scandalous, have, by their drawing upon themselves that awful censure, given uneasiness to me, or to such of you as are conscientiously concerned for the glory of God or good of their soul (for I did not intend in my former epistle to charge you all as connivers at his criminal conduct); 6, 7. Yet now, when the censure passed upon him by your church-rulers, according to my direction, has been blessed by God to render him deeply penitent, ye ought to regard him as pardoned by God, and to encourage, comfort, and restore him to your church-fellowship, and behave towards him in the most compassionate manner, lest, through the overwhelming distress of his mind, he sink into utter despair. 8. I did not more earnestly charge you to censure him when he was persisting in his wickedness than I now beseech you to restore him to your religious fellowship, and behave towards him as a brother, that he may plainly see that your censure of him proceeded from your earnest care to promote his spiritual advantage. 9. And by your restoring as well as excommunicating him you will give full proof of your submission to my apostolic authority, which indeed was a part of my end in writing to you. 10. And to encourage you to this restoration of him to church-fellowship, I, who concurred in his excommunication, hereby declare myself satisfied with his repentance; and to testify my concern for his and your order, peace, and comfort, I do, in the name and as in the presence of Jesus Christ, declare him forgiven by God, and fit to be restored to the communion of the church. 11. And I am the more concerned for his being kindly and speedily restored, lest Satan, who envies the success of my ministry, the recovery of offenders, and the edification and increase of the church, should take occasion to prejudice any against us, as if we were of a rigid and unforgiving temper, or to discourage other offenders, and hurry them into despair or apostasy; for we have had much experience of his malicious designs and subtle stratagems to hinder the success of the gospel, and the peace and prosperity of the church. 12. The remarkable opportunity of preaching the gospel, which has Christ for its author, matter, and end, with the great success which the Lord gave me at Troas, helped also to retard my visit to you. 13. Yet amidst that comfortable success which I had there, such was my anxiety for the return of my dear brother Titus from you, to inform me of your spiritual concerns, and what effect my former epistle had upon you, that it made me set off and travel into Macedonia to meet him, where, to my great satisfaction, I found him, and received from him a comfortable account of your affairs. 14. Now blessed be the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, that, notwithstanding all the opposition, trouble, and vexation which have befallen me and my fellow-labourers in the gospel, he enables us always to rejoice in what Christ is to us, and hath done and will do for us; and that by our ministrations he spreads abroad his precious, heart-captivating, and delightful declarations and offers of redeeming grace, and makes our labours acceptable to himself through Christ. 15. For in the faithful discharge of our commission we are well-pleasing to God in Christ's name, and through the reference which our doctrines and services bear to him, whether our hearers be willingly wrought upon by it to the salvation of their souls, or whether they obstinately reject it to their everlasting undoing—he favourably accepting our labours in his Son, not according to our success, but according to the right principles, motives, and ends, diligence and integrity, in fulfilling them. 16. As to some indeed our preaching of this pure, precious, and heart-ravishing gospel of Christ is altogether disagreeable to their carnal and corrupt heart, and through their obstinate rejection and perverse abuse of it eventually increases their spiritual death, condemnation, and everlasting destruction; but to others it conveys, with inexpressible delight, spiritual quickening, pardon, and comfort, and issues in their complete enjoyment of eternal life.—What man then, without the special assistance of Christ and his Spirit, is able to discharge this important work in a duly humble, holy, disinterested, zealous, faithful, earnest, and affectionate manner? 17. For we are not like your judaizing or upstart preachers, who adulterate and debase the pure and glorious gospel by mingling with it legal observances and human inventions to serve their own pride and avarice, but with the utmost integrity and plainness we preach it true and genuine, without any additions, alterations, or secular views, as by the authority and direction, and in the presence and view, of God himself, and looking for all assistance and acceptance through Christ, who is the great subject of our ministrations.
Ver. 2. He who, being brought to godly sorrow by my reproof, causes me to rejoice by this evidence of his repentance unto life.—Note, What could give greater earthly joy to a parent than the recovery of a dear child from a disease that threatened death? Such was the joy of the apostle at the rescue of a sinner from the snare of Satan. C.
Ver. 10. For your sakes. That by setting you an example of a forgiving spirit I might confirm you in the spirit of tenderness and forgiveness.—In the person of Christ. Acting in his name and under his authority. C.
Ver. 11. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us. By leading the guilty into despair or apostasy, or the church into undue severity of discipline—a fault which disfigured some portions of the primitive, as much as relaxation or neglect many portions of the modern churches. See the Canons called Apostolical, Canons of the Council of Nice, History of the Donatists, Novatians, &c. C.
Reflections.—What tender love and deep concern ministers ought to have for the edification of their people! And great is the sympathy and charity they ought to exercise towards them. With grief and pain should they observe their faults, or proceed in necessary censuring of them, uniting therewith an earnest care to promote their repentance and restoration to church-fellowship. And church-censures ought to be taken off whenever the proper ends for which they are inflicted are gained. To deny our forgiveness to such as we have ground to hope God has forgiven is a disobedience to Christ, and gives Satan an opportunity of rendering the persons censured desperate or profane, and of representing Christ's followers as odiously rigid. For many are the wiles of Satan to dishonour Christ's cause and prevent the salvation of souls. But God, to the joy of his servants, makes the gospel of his grace gloriously triumphant at last, to the salvation of all who believe in Jesus Christ. How delightful then and blessed the work of a minister, and how important and difficult is the work of a gospel minister! Great grace from God is necessary to enable men to preach his gospel purely, heartily, candidly, and conscientiously, always dependent on Christ. And, alas! awful is the guilt, the danger of multitudes, who adulterate it with human inventions, or who preach it in an unfaithful manner, and from carnal motives and ends, or who make the work of the ministry but a secondary business.