2 Corinthians — Chapter 2

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul writes from Macedonia in about AD 55–56. He is still explaining why he did not come to Corinth as planned (1:15–24). Behind this chapter lies a hard year. Paul had made a short, unplanned "painful visit" to Corinth, not recorded in Acts, and during it someone in the church badly wronged him. He went back to Ephesus and, instead of returning, wrote a letter "with many tears" (v4), which Titus carried. Most scholars think that letter is lost. Then Paul waited, sick with worry, for news. The chapter moves from that pain to forgiveness for the man who caused it, and then, mid-story, breaks into one of Paul's great bursts of praise. The account of finding Titus is put on hold at v13 and picked up again at 7:5, and everything between is a long reflection on what gospel ministry really is.

Paul's Change of Plans (vv1–4)

• "I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you" (v1). "Another" implies the last one was painful. Together with 12:14 and 13:1–2, where Paul talks of coming "a third time," this shows he had already been back once since founding the church (Acts 18).
• "Who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?" (v2). Paul and the Corinthians are bound together. If he hurts them, he hurts the very people who give him joy. A second confrontation would have left everyone wounded.
• "I wrote as I did" (v3). Paul chose a letter instead of a visit, giving them time to act before he came. "I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all." He believes the best of them, even while waiting to hear.
• "Out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears" (v4). Which letter is this? Older commentators often took it to be 1 Corinthians. Most modern scholars think it was a separate letter, now lost, written after the painful visit, because 1 Corinthians doesn't read like a letter written in tears and doesn't deal with a personal offense against Paul. A minority think part of it survives as 2 Corinthians 10–13. Whichever it was, not every letter Paul wrote was preserved as Scripture.
• "Not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you" (v4). The aim of rebuke is love. Paul hurt them the way a surgeon hurts a patient, to heal (Prov 27:6: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend").
• Commentators: Henry: "We should always give pain unwillingly, even when duty requires that it must be given." Guzik takes the tearful letter to be a lost letter, not 1 Corinthians, and points out that strong correction often comes from those who love us most. He also notes the wisdom of giving people room and time to repent rather than piling on a second rebuke. JFB reads v1 as plain evidence of an earlier visit "in heaviness."

Forgive the Sinner (vv5–11)

• "If anyone has caused pain" (v5). Paul doesn't name him, which is itself a kindness. Who was he? The older view, held by Calvin, Henry, JFB and Guzik, is that he is the man of 1 Corinthians 5 who was living with his father's wife. The church disciplined him, and now he has repented. Many modern scholars, and the Tyndale notes, think he is someone else, a man who publicly insulted or defied Paul during the painful visit. They point to 7:12, which speaks of "the one who did the wrong" and "the one who suffered the wrong," wording that fits a personal offense. Either way, the instruction is the same.
• "Not to me, but in some measure… to all of you" (v5). Paul refuses to make it about himself. A sin like this wounds the whole church. "Not to put it too severely": he chooses his words carefully so as not to crush the man further.
• "This punishment by the majority is enough" (v6). The church acted on Paul's letter and disciplined him, probably by removing him from fellowship (1 Cor 5:4–5, 13). "The majority" suggests the church decided together, and that a minority may have disagreed, either thinking it too harsh or not harsh enough. Paul says: it's enough. Discipline has a purpose, and once it has done its work it should end.
• "Turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow" (v7). "Overwhelmed" is literally "swallowed up," the same verb used of death in 1 Corinthians 15:54. Discipline that never ends can drown a repentant person. "Forgive" here is charizomai, from charis, "grace." To forgive is to give grace freely (Eph 4:32; Col 3:13).
• "Reaffirm your love for him" (v8). Kyroō was a legal word for ratifying a contract (Gal 3:15). Paul asks the church to make its love official and public, just as the discipline was.
• "That I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything" (v9). The letter tested whether they would take sin seriously. Now forgiving is part of the same obedience. A church can fail by being too soft (1 Cor 5:2) or too hard, and Corinth has done the first and is in danger of the second.
• "Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive" (v10). Paul stands with the church's decision. "If I have forgiven anything": he plays down his own injury. "In the presence of Christ": forgiveness is done before Christ, who forgave us first.
• "So that we would not be outwitted by Satan" (v11). "Outwitted" (pleonekteō) means to get the better of someone, to take more than one's share, to cheat. Satan wins if sin goes unchecked, and he also wins if a repentant sinner is left in despair and the church becomes cold and proud. "We are not ignorant of his designs." In Greek "ignorant" (agnoeō) and "designs" (noēma, thoughts, schemes) come from the same root, a small wordplay: we're not without knowledge of his schemes (Eph 6:11; 1 Pet 5:8).
• Commentators: Henry warns that "Even sorrow for sin should not unfit for other duties, and drive to despair," and that "Satan has many plans to deceive, and knows how to make a bad use of our mistakes." JFB calls "any" in v5 "a delicate way of referring to the incestuous person" and notes that the Greek of v7 reads "with HIS overmuch sorrow," his own grief threatening to swallow him. It also points out the sound-play between "ignorant" and "devices" in v11, which the lexicon supports. Guzik agrees with Henry and JFB on the man's identity, though he grants that others disagree. He says the church's slowness to restore him was as wrong as its earlier slowness to discipline him.

Triumph in Christ (vv12–17)

• "When I came to Troas" (v12). Troas was a port on the northwest coast of modern Turkey, the crossing point to Macedonia (Acts 16:8–11). Paul expected to meet Titus there. "A door was opened for me in the Lord": a real opportunity to preach (1 Cor 16:9).
• "My spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus" (v13). Paul walks away from an open door because he can't stop worrying about Corinth. It is a striking admission. He was not a machine. He loved this church, needed his friend, and could not settle until he knew. He crossed to Macedonia, and the story picks up again at 7:5–7, where Titus arrives with good news.
• "But thanks be to God" (v14). Thinking of how it all turned out, Paul breaks off into praise. "Who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession." The verb thriambeuō refers to the Roman triumph, a victory parade granted to a conquering general. He rode in a chariot through Rome with his troops, the plunder and the prisoners of war, some of whom would be executed when it ended. The only other use of the word is Colossians 2:15, where Christ parades the defeated powers.
• Captive or soldier? The lexicon gives "lead in triumph," and in a Roman triumph those "led" were the conquered. So many scholars, and the Tyndale notes, think Paul pictures himself as Christ's captive: a former enemy, conquered by grace, now displayed to the world as proof of his victory (1 Cor 4:9). Others read Paul as a soldier marching in the victor's train. Both readings agree that the triumph is Christ's, not Paul's, and that Paul is simply glad to be in it.
• "Spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere" (v14). Incense burned along the parade route, and the whole city could smell the victory. Through Paul's preaching the knowledge of Christ spreads like that scent, "everywhere," even out of a painful season.
• "We are the aroma of Christ to God" (v15). "Aroma" (euōdia) is the word for the "pleasing aroma" of Old Testament sacrifices (Gen 8:21). The same word describes Christ's self-offering in Ephesians 5:2. Paul's life and message rise to God as a pleasing offering, whatever people make of it.
• "To one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life" (v16). The same incense meant triumph to the victors and doom to the captives heading for execution. The gospel works the same way. To those who believe it is life, and to those who reject it, it confirms their judgment (1 Cor 1:18; Luke 2:34). The preacher does not control which. "Who is sufficient for these things?" No one, on his own. Paul answers his own question in 3:5–6: "our sufficiency is from God."
• "We are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word" (v17). Kapēleuō was the word for a small-time huckster, the kind of market trader known for watering down wine (Isa 1:22) and putting a thumb on the scale. Both ideas are in it: preaching for profit, and diluting the message to make it sell. Paul's critics in Corinth were taking payment and preaching a different gospel (11:4, 20).
• "As men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ" (v17). "Sincerity" (eilikrineia) means unmixed, unadulterated, the opposite of watered-down wine. Paul's message comes from God, is spoken before God, and is delivered in Christ.
• Commentators: Henry notes, "In ancient triumphs, abundance of perfumes and sweet odours were used," and draws the lesson that "A believer's triumphs are all in Christ." On v16 he adds, "The work is great, and of ourselves we have no strength at all." JFB reverses the image beautifully: "Our only true triumphs are God's triumphs over us." On v17 it describes the peddlers as "adulterating, as hucksters do wine for gain." Guzik reads Paul as marching in the victor's procession and stresses that the same gospel brings life to some and judgment to others. He sees v17 as Paul refusing to water down the message to make it more profitable.

Pointing to Christ

Two pictures sit side by side in this chapter. In one, a sinner who has repented is not left to drown in sorrow, but is forgiven, comforted and welcomed back, because Christ has forgiven us. In the other, Christ marches through the world as a conquering King, leading people he has won from rebellion, with the fragrance of his knowledge spreading everywhere. Both rest on the same truth: Christ's victory was won by giving himself up as "a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God" (Eph 5:2).

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik examines Paul's tears, the restoration of the disciplined man, Satan's devices, and the triumphal procession metaphor.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of 2 Corinthians -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

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Reflection

• Correction Rooted in Love (v.4) — Paul says he wrote his earlier hard letter through much distress and many tears, not from cold superiority. When you have to confront someone, does it come from grief over the relationship or from a desire to win?
• Restoring the Repentant (vv.7-8) — Once the offender had repented, Paul told the church to forgive and comfort him rather than prolong his punishment, warning that excessive sorrow could overwhelm him. Is there someone who has repented that you're still holding at arm's length?
• Aware of Satan's Devices (v.11) — Paul says unforgiveness gives Satan an opening, since he exploits both unrepented sin and a community's refusal to restore. Do you recognize the patterns Satan uses against you — accusation, bitterness, division — or does he catch you unaware?
• Carried Along in Christ's Triumph (v.14) — Paul pictures believers swept into God's victory procession, spreading the knowledge of Christ everywhere like fragrance. Do you live like someone already caught up in a won battle, or like the outcome is still in doubt?
• The Weight of Being Christ's Fragrance (v.16) — Paul asks who is adequate for a ministry that is the aroma of life to some and death to others, a question he doesn't fully answer until the next chapter. Where are you relying on your own adequacy instead of God's?