2 Corinthians 7:12

ἄρα εἰ καὶ ἔγραψα κ. τ. λ.: consequently, although I wrote to you, i.e., wrote a severe letter, it was not for his cause that did the wrong, sc., the incestuous son of 1 Corinthians 5:1, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, sc., his father, but that your diligence on our behalf might be made manifest to yourselves (“chez vous,” so πρὸς ὑμᾶς, 1 Thessalonians 3:4) in the sight of God. He does not mean that this was the only reason for writing (cf. 2 Corinthians 2:9), and that the more obvious reason was not in his mind; but he states strongly (expressing himself by an idiom common in the O.T., e.g., Jeremiah 7:22) a principal cause of his writing, viz., that the Corinthian Church might be recalled to a true sense of what was due to its founder, as if it were the only cause. See on 2 Corinthians 2:9, and, for a discussion of the whole question, see Introd., p. 10 ff.