2 Corinthians 7:12

‘So although I wrote to you, it was not for his cause who did the wrong, nor for his cause who suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be made openly clear to you in the sight of God.'

But he wants them to be clear why he had written to them. It had not been in order to allocate blame or to seek punishment for the guilty, but that the responsibility of all of them towards him might become abundantly clear, and that they might themselves be aware of their need to have the right earnest response to him in the sight of God. In 2 Corinthians 2:9 he had said that he wrote as he did to see if they would stand the test and be obedient in everything, and in 2 Corinthians 2:4 that it was not to cause them pain but to let them know the depth of his love for them. Now he confirms that it was to face them up with what their response to him should be before God Himself.

‘For his cause who did the wrong.' This may be the person mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:1, but only if he had then mustered the Corinthians against Paul and had succeeded in turning Paul into their enemy. However, 2 Corinthians 2:10 would seem to rule him out, for in his case there was very much to be forgiven, and that by God. Otherwise we must see him as someone who was trying to take over the leadership and had tried to wreck Paul's reputation in order to do it. But that he was a genuine man at heart would seem to be indicated by his seemingly genuine repentance on the receipt of the severe letter (which seems to rule out an outsider). Thus he might be seen as misguided and self-opinionated rather than as bad.

‘Nor for his cause who suffered the wrong.' Either Paul himself, or one of his co-workers who had also suffered, Paul ignoring the wrong done to himself.