The letter of 2 Corinthians demonstrates probably more than any other
epistle the personality of the Apostle Paul. We see a pastoral heart,
the interests of a man who poured his sweat, tears, and soul into
founding a local body of believers in a city full of idolatry and
wickedness. He is now years removed from sending off his first epistle
to this church, and he had to really take the wood to them about
numerous issues – orderly worship, divisions, the rich shaming and
humiliating the poor within the church in the context of the Eucharistic
agape feast, applauding gross sexual immorality in the name of exalting
freedom in Christ, etc. 1 Corinthians would not have been an easy
letter to read!
Yet we see in
2 Corinthians 1:12-15
Paul’s hopeful confidence that the Corinthian church’s love will
overwhelm and overcome any antipathy the church might have held against
him for communicating such a stern missive. As Paul considers that he
does not know the nature of the Corinthians’ sentiments toward him at
this point due to his tough letter, to say nothing of all the poison
poured into their ears by the Judaisers, he yet reiterates in trusting
and loving terms the very words he’d written in chapter 13 of his first
letter to them – Love hopes all things. He gives no indication that he
expects them to reject him when he arrives.
And yet we see that in fact he had already tentatively planned to
come to Corinth some time before, but then rejected the plan.
Specifically:
1:15In this confidence I intended at first to come to
you, so that you might twice receive a blessing; 16that is, to pass your
way into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you
to be helped on my journey to Judea…23But I call God as witness to my
soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth. 24Not that we
lord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in
your faith you are standing firm. 2:1But I determined this for my own
sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again. 2For if I cause you
sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful? 3This
is the very thing I wrote you, so that when I came, I would not have
sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; having confidence in you
all that my joy would be the joy of you all. 4For out of much
affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so
that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which
I have especially for you.
Here we can see some of Paul’s philosophy of pastoring, mentoring,
leading, ministering. Paul, the very Apostle to the Gentiles, the guy
whom God used to write almost half of of the New Testament, the guy who
saw perhaps more converts than anyone in the earliest church, the guy
who received crazy amazing revelations from the Lord (and a thorn in the
flesh to keep him from exalting himself), he is explicitly unwilling to
lord it over anyone’s faith.
These are the same Corinthians who demonstrated so many enormous
spiritual problems as laid out in 1 Corinthians. The same who thought it
was just great that a man was sleeping with a woman who was married to
his father. And on and on. Paul sees himself as, what? A mature and
powerful man, standing above the rest of the stupid sheep? A man above
questioning (
Acts 17:11)? No. Rather, he is a worker with them for their joy, in which he reflects precisely the sentiments of the Apostle Peter (
1 Peter 5:3).
Why did Paul decide not to come to Corinth again? It is because he
loves the Corinthian church. He longs to see them again, for they are
his spiritual children (
3 John 4)
and he has deep affection for them. Yet he was afraid that he would be
made sorrowful by his coming to them; what if he found them to be still
unfaithful to the truth? Notably, notice the juxtaposition of two
sentiments he had about his planned (and apparently aborted) visit, in
verse 1:15 and in verse 1:23 and 2:1. 1:15 notes that he wanted to pass
through twice, stopping each time, to bless (
χαριν, “
charis“) the Corinthians, yet 1:23 and 2:1 express a wariness that he might cause them sorrow by his visit(s).
So which is it? That he would bless them, or cause them sorrow?
Why would Paul be sorrowful, and cause sorrow if he came to them this
second time? Find the answer in v3 – “This is the very thing I wrote
you, so that when I came, I would not have sorrow…” He wrote his first
epistle to the Corinthians so that he would not be grieved when he came
to them again. And what constitutes the majority of that epistle?
Rebuke, correction, and reproof. As noted above, the Corinthian church
was a mess, and he wrote that epistle to clean it up. But remember, this
is the first century AD. No email, no Skype, no Twitter. How was Paul
supposed to know whether the epistle had been well-received by the
Corinthians? What if they tore it up in a rage and gnashed their teeth
at the man who had “judged” them?
No doubt Paul agonized in prayer over their reception of his tough-love epistle (see
2 Cor 2:4,
7:6-8,
11:28),
and was thankfully relieved at the report from them brought by Titus
later on (mentioned in 7:6-7). This report from Titus may be how he knew
that they did end up disciplining the man in question and that the man
did repent (2:6-8). But this report apparently didn’t give Paul the
peace of mind he would probably have preferred about their state of mind
and heart as well as their consistency in putting away sin, whether the
sins he had rebuked them for or new ones.
We see at the beginning of chapter 2 that Paul decided to write 1
Corinthians instead of coming directly to them to bring the rebuke face
to face. His motive was that having to correct and reprove so many
people for so many things would have caused a strain in their
relationship. His hope was that they would repent, having been grieved
by the things he said in his letter that would lead to a godly sorrow (
2 Cor 7:10)
leading to a repentance without regret, so that they would know the
love he had for them, “so that when I came, I would not have sorrow from
those who ought to make me rejoice; having confidence in you all that
my joy would be the joy of you all” (2:3). It is very interesting to me,
and an unexpected discovery from the text, that while many people today
react against things like debates and rebukes over written media like
the Internet, Paul himself chose a letter to bear difficult words rather
than a face to face meeting, deciding to put off the face to face
meeting until afterwards, when possibly the letter would have had the
desired effecting of repentance.
Let us take special note of vv9-11.
9For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to
the test, whether you are obedient in all things. 10But one whom you
forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I
have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of
Christ, 11so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are
not ignorant of his schemes.
Again, probably a reference to his first epistle to the Corinthians,
and in this specific context, he is probably referring to the sinning
brother from 1 Corinthians 5. Why does he say that he wrote that epistle
and that part of it to test their obedience in all things? Because
hearing a stern rebuke about one’s sin is hard, and exercising righteous
church discipline is harder still! Anyone who has participated in such
an action, done in a biblical, loving, and sober way, knows the truth of
that. Paul didn’t want the church to be taken advantage of by the
deceiver, and that is why he wrote the difficult words he wrote in 1
Corinthians 5. That is why he took the risk of causing the sorrow, of
rupturing the relationship. He knew that the painful reproof had to
precede the joy of relationship that was free of and untainted by sin.
He wouldn’t have to be constantly holding back his tongue when
fellowshipping with them, hating that they were carrying on in
wickedness, all the while smiling and appearing to think that all was
well. He wouldn’t have to swallow hard against that pit in his stomach,
and with trembling (
1 Cor 2:3,
2 Cor 2:16) take some brothers aside or, more difficult still, address the entire congregation with words bitter to his taste.
This hard letter, these hard words – did Paul consider them an evil?
Was he setting an example whereby we today might be inspired to pass
over sin and ignore wickedness so that we will not grieve people or
cause sorrow or difficulty?
We can find out answer to that question addressed again in
2 Cor 7:5-16.
5For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no
rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears
within. 6But God, who comforts the depressed (ταπεινός
– “lowly, humble, low to the ground, downcast”), comforted us by the
coming of Titus; 7and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort
with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing,
your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.
Matthew Henry comments:
“There seems to be a connection between
2Cor 2:13
(where the apostle said he had no rest in his spirit when he found not
Titus at Troas) and the fifth verse of this chapter: and so great was
his affection to the Corinthians, and his concern about their behaviour
in relation to the incestuous person, that, in his further travels, he
still had no rest till he heard from them…He was troubled when he did
not meet with Titus at Troas, and afterwards when for some time he did
not meet with him in Macedonia: this was a grief to him, because he
could not hear what reception he met with at Corinth, nor how their
affairs went forward. And, besides this, they met with other troubles,
with incessant storms of persecutions; there were fightings without, or
continual contentions with, and opposition from Jews and Gentiles; and
there were fears within, and great concern for such as had embraced the
Christian faith, lest they should be corrupted or seduced, and give
scandal to others, or be scandalized.”
But finally Paul did find Titus to receive the good report from
Corinth. Paul seems overjoyed by the reception with which Titus, who was
known to be an
apostolos of Paul, met there. Note that, along
with the longing and zeal for Paul, Titus reported on their mourning.
For what cause would they mourn? Over their sin, of course. This calls
to mind
Proverbs 28:23 – “He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue.” And why is that? Because of
Proverbs 27:6 – “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.”
8For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not
regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you
sorrow, though only for a while— 9I now rejoice, not that you were made
sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance;
for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you
might not suffer loss in anything through us.
Here we get a glimpse of the turmoil in Paul’s soul in the aftermath
of having sent his letter. One might be forgiven for suspecting a wry
smile on Paul’s face as he writes that he doesn’t regret sending the
letter
now, but he sort of regretted it after the messenger
carrying it had passed just out of sight. Causing sorrow was not
enjoyable for him, despite what some who hate holiness might be tempted
to think about the man who employed some measure of harsh language in
his epistles, but what Paul saw clearly is that sorrow must be caused
and sin must be called out in order to find out what kind of sorrow
would result. Would it be the good kind of sorrow or the bad kind?
If the bad kind, the Corinthians would have suffered loss, and Paul’s
letter of rebuke and correction would have been the trigger for it, as
the holy words, having fallen on deaf ears and obstinate hearts, would
have served to condemn them because of what they approved. This would
obviously have led to greater sorrow for Paul, that would not have been
resolved, given 2:2 – “For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad
but the one whom I made sorrowful?”
But at this point he rejoiced (7:9), as repentance was produced. The
sorrow was behind them, and him. “For behold what earnestness this very
thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of
yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what
avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be
innocent in the matter” (7:11). Paul was obligated to write to warn
them, knowing that he had to cause sorrow and hoping and praying the
sorrow would be the kind that “produces a repentance without regret,
leading to salvation” rather than the “sorrow of the world (which)
produces death” (7:10). Given the sinful state the Corinthian church was
in, however, there was only one way to find out. The friend, Paul, had
to wound them so as to provoke a reaction of self-examination, which the
friend hoped would lead to vindication.
Re-read Paul’s extravagant language in 7:7-16. He spoke of comfort,
longing, zeal for Paul, rejoicing, earnestness, godly sorrow,
vindication of themselves, indignation, fear, avenging of wrong, again
comfort, rejoicing, being refreshed, vindicated boasting, affection,
again rejoicing, having confidence in all things in them. This is the
same church about which 1 Corinthians was written! How did they get from
there to here? Simple – confrontation about sin in love but with
directness, prayer, the grace of God, and repentance.
Where did it all begin? What if Paul had succumbed to his fear and
had gone along with what has come to be the prevailing spirit of this
modern age, that love is always “nice” and doesn’t say hard things, that
criticism is always an “attack”? What if he had ignored their sin?
Among many other things, the triumph we see in 2 Corinthians 7 would be
absent from our Bibles today. Passing through the struggle, meeting and
wrestling with sorrow, such that greater and real joy is the product on
the other side – this is the example the Savior passed on to us, and it
gleams through the pages of such books as 1 & 2 Corinthians, 1
Peter, Hebrews, and so on.
What excuse do any of us have for observing sin and skating over it?
Let us be faithful to observe and repeat the examples that we have in
Scripture passages such as this.
Christopher Minor Rhol, I predict that James White did not answer these and that you cannot either. But I'm all ears.
Rhol Ogy I haven't listened to the whole debate, just the two cross-ex periods.
