II. (1) BUT I DETERMINED THIS WITH MYSELF. — Better, _I determined for myself._ The chapter division is here obviously wrong, and interrupts the sequence of thought. St. Paul continues his explanation. He did not wish to come again, _i.e.,_ to make his second visit to Corinth, in grief, and if he h... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS HE THEN THAT MAKETH ME GLAD? — The force of the “for,” with which the verse opens, lies below the surface. He had wished to avoid a visit that would cause sorrow to himself and others, and events had shown that he was right. But it might be said, perhaps had been said, that he didn’t seem to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WROTE THIS SAME UNTO YOU. — Here, again, we have to read between the lines. The pronoun, which does not refer to anything that has been actually said, shows with what definiteness certain passages in his first letter were stamped upon his memory. The question might be asked, “Why had he writte... [ Continue Reading ]
OUT OF MUCH AFFLICTION AND ANGUISH. — Men might think that it had cost him little to write sharp words like those which he has in his mind. He remembers well what he felt as he dictated them — the intensity of his feelings, pain that such words should be needed, anxiety as to their issue, the very t... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT IF ANY HAVE CAUSED GRIEF. — The man who had been the chief cause of his sorrow is now prominent in his thoughts. He will not name him. He is, as in 1 Corinthians 5:1, and here in 2 Corinthians 2:7, “a man,” “such a one.” The abrupt introduction of the qualifying clause, “but in part,” and the ab... [ Continue Reading ]
SUFFICIENT TO SUCH A MAN IS THIS PUNISHMENT. — Better, perhaps, _this censure,_ or _rebuke:_ the Greek word _epitimia_ being different from those in Matthew 25:46, and in Hebrews 10:29. It is natural to infer that this was somewhat after the pattern of the course marked out in 1 Corinthians 5:3. A m... [ Continue Reading ]
YE OUGHT RATHER TO FORGIVE. — The indignation which St. Paul had felt has passed, on his hearing of the offender’s state, into pity and anxiety. The time had come for words of pardon and comfort and counsel. What if he should be “swallowed up,” and sink as in the great deep of sorrow? Suicide, madne... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT YE WOULD CONFIRM YOUR LOVE. — The word for “confirm” (better, perhaps, _ratify_ — comp. Galatians 3:15) suggests the thought of an act as formal and public as the rebuke had been. The excommunicated man was to be re-admitted to fellowship by a collective act of the Church.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR TO THIS END ALSO DID I WRITE... — The tense of the Greek verb, which may be what is known as the Epistolary aorist, used by the writer of the time at which he writes, would not be decisive as to what is referred to, and the words may mean: “I write to you thus to see whether you are as obedient... [ Continue Reading ]
TO WHOM YE FORGIVE ANY THING, I FORGIVE ALSO. — The procedure of 1 Corinthians 5:3 is again, obviously, in his mind. Though absent in body, he had made himself a sharer spiritually in that censure. He now, anticipating their compliance with his request, makes himself a sharer in the sentence of abso... [ Continue Reading ]
LEST SATAN SHOULD GET AN ADVANTAGE OF US. — Literally, _lest we should be cheated_ (or _out-maneuvered_) _by Satan._ The phraseology is that of one who is, as it were, playing a game against the Tempter, in which the souls of men are at once the counters and the stake. The Apostle’s last move in tha... [ Continue Reading ]
FURTHERMORE, WHEN I CAME TO TROAS. — The article, perhaps, indicates the Troad as a district, rather than the city, just as it does in the case of Saron. (See Note on Acts 9:35.) The case of the offender had come in as a parenthesis in 2 Corinthians 2:5. He returns to the train of thought which it h... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAD NO REST IN MY SPIRIT. — Instead of coming himself straight from Ephesus, as he had at first intended, and had intimated probably in the lost letter of 1 Corinthians 5:9, or by Timotheus (1 Corinthians 4:17), or pressing on through Macedonia, as he purposed when he wrote the First Epistle (1 Co... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW THANKS BE UNTO GOD. — The apparent abruptness of this burst of thanksgiving is at first somewhat startling. We have to find its source, not in what the Apostle had written or spoken, but in what was passing through his memory. He had met Titus, and that disciple had been as a courier bringing ti... [ Continue Reading ]
WE ARE UNTO GOD A SWEET SAVOUR OF CHRIST. — If we believe this Epistle to have been written from Philippi, it is interesting to note the recurrence of the same imagery of a “sweet savour” in the Epistle to that Church (Philippians 4:18). Here the mind of the writer turns to the sterner, sadder side... [ Continue Reading ]
TO THE ONE WE ARE THE SAVOUR OF DEATH UNTO DEATH. — As with other instances of St. Paul’s figurative language, we note the workings of a deeply, though unconsciously, poetic imagination. Keeping the image of the triumph in his mind, he thinks of the widely different impression and effect which the o... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WE ARE NOT AS MANY, WHICH CORRUPT THE WORD OF GOD. — More accurately, _We are not as most, as the greater number._ There is a ring of sadness in the words. Even then the ways of error were manifold, and the way of truth was one. Among Judaisers, and the seekers after Greek wisdom, asserters of l... [ Continue Reading ]