2 Corinthianschapter 2
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Speaks with:2 Corinthians 7×32 Corinthians 1×22 Corinthians 12×2Galatians 5×21 Corinthians 5×2Galatians 6×2
Summary
Chapter summary
If I should come again, I should make you sorry. So Paul wrote the painful letter instead. The offender has been punished enough; now confirm your love toward him. Satan's devices are known. Paul went to Troas to preach the gospel, and a door was opened unto him of the Lord, but he had no rest because Titus his brother had not arrived. Thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ. Not as many, corrupting the word. Calvin reads the chapter as apostolic tenderness married to apostolic firmness.
Context
Epistle · Paul — 2 Corinthians overview
- A. 1–4 The Letter Written With Many Tears
- B. 5–11 Forgive Him, or Satan Gains the Advantage
- C. 12–17 Led in Triumph: The Fragrance of Life and Death
The outline
A.The Letter Written With Many Tearsvv. 1 to 4
Read vv. 1 to 4 →B.Forgive Him, or Satan Gains the Advantagevv. 5 to 11
Read vv. 5 to 11 →C.Led in Triumph: The Fragrance of Life and Deathvv. 12 to 17
Read vv. 12 to 17 →
The world behind this chapter
2 Corinthians 2The history
Behind this chapter lie events not recorded in Acts: a distressing visit Paul made to Corinth, and a letter written with many tears that he sent instead of coming again. That letter does not survive under its own name, and its relation to the letters we have is debated.
The offender he speaks of has been punished by the majority — a formal act of the congregation. Ancient associations did discipline members, but reinstating someone was the harder move, and Paul presses for it so that the man is not overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
The triumph image at the end would have been vivid to anyone who knew Rome. A victorious general paraded through the city with his army, his spoils, and his captives, while incense burned along the route — the same smell meaning glory to the victors and execution to the prisoners. Paul places himself in that procession, led along by God, spreading a fragrance that is life to some and death to others.
Titus not being at Troas is a small, human detail: Paul had a door open for the gospel there and could not settle to it because his friend had not arrived with news from Corinth.
What it meant to them
The first hearers were told that discipline had a finish line. Forgive him, comfort him, reaffirm your love for him — so that Satan does not outwit a church that gets the punishment right and the restoration wrong.
They also learned what Paul thought he was doing among them. Not peddling God's word for profit, as many did, but speaking in Christ as one sent from God, in God's sight.
Sources cited
- F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 2 Corinthians 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.