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📚But I determined this with myself, that I would not come to you again in sorrow. 2 📚For if I make you sorrowful, who is he then who makes me glad, but the same one who is made sorrowful by me? 3 📚And I wrote this same thing to you, so that, when I came, I would not have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy; having confidence in all of you, that my joy is the joy of all of you. 4 📚For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you.2:1-4 See 2 Cor 1:23. Some scholars think the letter Paul means in vs 3,4 is 1 Corinthians. It is much more likely that it was another letter, now lost, which God’s Spirit did not choose to make a part of the New Testament.⚜
Forgiveness to those who had caused grief
5 📚But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but to some extent, not to be too severe, all of you. 6 📚Sufficient for such a man is the punishment which was inflicted by many of you.
2:6 By “punishment” he means church discipline – excommunication or stopping fellowship with the man, or something similar (compare 1 Cor 5:13; 2 Thess 3:17).⚜
7 📚So that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive him, and encourage him, or perhaps such a one would be swallowed up with too much sorrow. 8 📚Therefore I plead with you to reaffirm your love toward him.
2:7-8 The purpose of church discipline is not simply to punish but to bring the sinning Christian to repentance. These verses indicate that the man had repented and was grieving because of his sin. Believers, Paul says, should see this and know when to stop disciplining and start forgiving and comforting. He does not say they should forgive and comfort before discipline and repentance. When Christians sin, church leaders should be neither too soft and easy with them, nor too harsh and hard. There should be discipline and there should be love as well.⚜
9 📚For to this end also I wrote, that I might see if you would stand the test and be obedient 📖 in all things. 10 📚Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if I forgave anyone anything, it was for your sakes that I forgave it in the presence of Christ,
2:5-10 If 1 Corinthians is the letter Paul mentions in vs 3,4, the man he references in these verses would be the one in 1 Cor 5:1-5. But it is probable that Paul is referring to someone else altogether – someone who had in some way sinned against Paul personally. The language here indicates this. But in either case the lessons are the same. When a person who has sinned accepts church discipline and repents he should be forgiven and restored to fellowship.⚜
2:10 Paul had already forgiven the man the wrong he had done to him personally. Now the man had repented and Paul was willing to consider his sin as a small matter. This would be impossible if he was referring to the sin of the man in 1 Cor 5:1-5 – that was no small matter, and Paul would never have counted it as such. But Paul was glad to forgive any wrong done against him personally. On this kind of forgiveness see Matt 6:12, 14, 15; 18:21-35; Eph 4:32; Col 3:13. Paul knew the eyes of Christ were upon him, and that Christ had forgiven him far more than he had forgiven others.⚜
11 📚so that Satan might not take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
2:11 Satan’s purpose is to ruin the lives of believers, wreck churches and bring dishonor to Christ. He has schemes (plural) to accomplish this. He will try to make Christians sin, then try to arrange matters so that they will live in despair of forgiveness. Or he may try to get the church to accept them even without their repentance. He will try to destroy peace and harmony in the church through one or more of its members. He will try to make church leaders either too easy with sin or too harsh with those who fall. See notes on Satan at 1 Chron 21:1; Matt 4:1; John 8:44.⚜
Competent for Christ’s service through Christ
12 📚Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door 📖 was opened to me by the Lord, 13 📚I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus 📖 my brother. But taking leave of them, I went on from there to Macedonia 📖.
14 📚Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and spreads everywhere the aroma 📖 of his knowledge through us.
2:14 In spite of problems in the churches and persecution in the world, God leads His servants on from victory to victory. Compare Rom 8:37. Notice the words “always” and “in Christ” – our efforts apart from Him will not be victorious, not ever. Though they may meet with what some people consider success, that will be only a worldly kind of success, which God can not reward.⚜
15 📚For we are to God a fragrance 📖 of Christ among those who are saved, and among those who perish. 16 📚To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient 📖 for these things?
2:16 The gospel when preached by Christ’s servants brings life to those who believe it, death to those who reject it. Compare John 3:36. So to those who refuse to believe in Christ the gospel is like a deadly, killing odor, but to those who believe it is the fragrance of eternal life.⚜
17 📚For we are not like many, adulterating 📖 the word of God. But as sincere 📖 men, but as men belonging to God, in the sight of God 📖 we speak in Christ.