THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS - Chapter 2 - Verse 2
Verse 2. For if I make you sorry. "If when I should come among you
I should be called on to inflict sorrow by punishing your offending
brethren by an act of severe discipline as soon as I came, who would
there be to give me comfort but those very persons whom I had
affected with grief? How little prepared would they be to make me
happy, and to comfort me, amidst the deep sorrow which I should
have caused by an act of severe discipline. After such an act—an
act that would spread sorrow through the whole church, how could
I expect that comfort which I should desire to find among you?
The whole church would be affected with grief; and though I might
be sustained by the sound part of the church, yet my visit would be
attended with painful circumstances. I resolved, therefore, to remove
all cause of difficulty, if possible, before I came, that my visit
might be pleasant to us all." The idea is, that there was such a
sympathy between him and them—that he was so attached to them—
that he could not expect to be happy unless they were happy; that
though he might be conscious he was only discharging a duty, and
that God would sustain him in it, yet that it would mar the pleasure
of his visit, and destroy all his anticipated happiness by the
general grief.
This book has been accessed more than 2073903 times since June 1, 2005.
