2 Corinthians 2:1-17
1 But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness.
2 For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?
3 And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
5 But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.
6 Sufficient to such a man is this punishment,a which was inflicted of many.
7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
8 Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.
9 For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.
10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the personb of Christ;
11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord,
13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.
14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:
16 To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
17 For we are not as many, which corruptc the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.
What a remarkable light is thrown on his first letter by his declaration that he wrote it "out of much affliction and anguish of heart," and "with many tears." Referring thus to his first letter, Paul singled out from it the flagrant case of the incestuous person, speaking of him with extreme delicacy. It is evident that, for the most part, the Church at Corinth was in accord with the apostle, for they had carried out his injunction, and had disciplined the wrongdoer. Also, the result had been salutary in his case, for the apostle writes of the guilty man being in danger of being "swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow." He now urged the congregation to manifest their love by restoring the. man to fellowship. As the apostle had urged them to exercise discipline to defeat the foe, he now counseled them to manifestation of love for the man, also to defeat the foe.
Perhaps nowhere in the New Testament is the subject of the ministry so clearly set in relation to its sublimities. The apostle described the triumphant nature of the true work of the ministry. The figure is of a Roman triumph. In such a triumph the conspicuous personages were the victor and the vanquished. The apostle spoke of himself and those engaged in the ministry as victors. Their work is likened to a long triumphant march. That is Paul's estimate of the true nature of the ministry. So great a conception is it that he exclaims, "Who is sufficient for these things?" The words that follow are really connected with what precedes the question; they declare that the reason for the victory lies in the fact that there has been no corrupting, or making merchandise, of the Word of God.