2 Corinthians 2:2

For if I make you sorry So all the principal English translators. But the rendering gives a false impression to a modern ear. The best equivalent in modern English is -if I painyou." The idea of sorrow for the sin does not appear to have been introduced as yet. The - I" in this passage is emphatic; -if I, whose sole delight is to see you happy, inflict pain, it is with the object of bringing about happiness in the end." The connection of this verse with the preceding implied in the word -for" seems to be as follows: "I wroteto cause pain, it is true, but it was in order that such pain should be removed before I came." Cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 7:8.

who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? The apparent selfishness of this passage, in which St Paul appears to think that the grief he has caused is amply compensated for by the pleasure he receives from that grief, is explained by the words in the next verse, -having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all." See note there. The meaning would seem to be that St Paul wished not to come to Corinth in sorrow, but in joy, and that this end was attained by the result of the rebukes of his Epistle, which produced pain, and pain reformation, and reformation a pure and heavenly joy on the part of all, of St Paul, of the Corinthian community, and of the offender himself, conditions obviously the most favourable to an Apostolic visit. Cf. ch. 2 Corinthians 7:11-12, where the same idea is more fully expressed.