Chapter Two

¹ Chapter Two. But I determined this with myself, not to come again to you in grief. The word again shows that, You grieved me at another time also; but otherwise [he means], that, For this reason I did not come, lest I should grieve you again; which has indeed the same sense (for on this very account he too grieved them with the penalties, because they grieved him with their sins), only it is not equally severe.

² For if I grieve you, who then is he that gladdens me, except he who is grieved by me? Even though I grieve you, he says, in rebuking you and turning away from you, yet for this very reason I am gladdened, in that, as it seems, you set great store by me, so as to be stung whenever I turn away from you and rebuke you; for no one, he says, gladdens me so much as he who is grieved when he sees me angered. For he makes plain that he does not despise me. Whence also, by giving hopes of amendment, in this respect too he gladdens me.

³ And I wrote to you this very thing. What thing? That, sparing you, I did not come. And where did I write it? In this Epistle.

⁴ Lest, when I came, I should have grief from those over whom I ought to rejoice. For this reason, he says, I have now written to you, that you may be set right, and that I may not, coming upon you unamended, have grief over you, who ought to be giving me occasions of gladness.

⁵ Having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. I wrote, he says, having confidence that you will be set right, and that from this I shall rejoice. And my joy is the joy of you all. So that for this reason I said, Lest I should be grieved—not looking to my own interest, but to yours. For I know that, if you see me rejoicing, you rejoice; and if grieving, you grieve.

⁶ For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you through many tears. Since he said above, He who is grieved gladdens me, lest they should say, This very thing you are eager for, to grieve us, that you yourself may be gladdened; for this reason he says that, I myself also grieve exceedingly, more than you who sin. For it was not out of affliction simply, but out of much; nor through tears simply, but through many, and out of anguish of heart, I wrote; for despondency seizes my heart, constraining and straitening it, and on this account I wrote. Just as if some father who is a physician, cutting or cauterizing his child, is grieved on both sides—both because he is in pain, and because he is compelled to cut him—yet in another way is gladdened, because of the hope of healing; so I too, seeing you sinning, am grieved; but in another way I am gladdened at your being grieved, because of the hope of your amendment.

⁷ Not that you should be grieved, but that you should know the love which I have more abundantly toward you. The consistent thing would have been to say, Not that you should be grieved, but that you should be set right; but he does not say this; rather, he sweetens the discourse, wishing to draw them to himself, by showing that he loves them more abundantly than the other disciples, and that, even if he grieves, he grieves out of love, and not out of anger. For it belongs to the greatest love that, when you sin, I am grieved, and hasten to rebuke you, and thereby grieve you. But if I had left you unhealed, it would have been [a mark] of negligence.

⁸ But if anyone has caused grief, he has grieved not me, but in part—that I may not overburden—all of you. Through these words he wishes love to be confirmed toward the one who had committed fornication, concerning whom he wrote in the former Epistle; for at Paul’s command all had turned away from him as abominable. Lest, then, being commanded the contrary—that is, to receive him, and to forgive him—they should again be scandalized at Paul as inconstant, he handles the discourse most wisely, and makes them partakers of the pardon, saying that, Just as he grieved us in common, so in common again be gladdened at his pardon. For he has grieved, he says, not me alone, but you all also, in part; that is, He grieved you a little—that I may not say that he grieved you utterly—so as not to overburden him; since in truth he grieved you also, in like manner as me; but nevertheless, that I may not overburden him who committed the fornication, in part, I say, you were grieved.

⁹ Sufficient for such a one is this rebuke, which was [inflicted] by the many. He does not say, To the one who committed fornication, but, To such a one, as also in the former Epistle. But there, indeed, he was unwilling even to name him; while here, sparing him, he does not even anywhere make mention of the sin; teaching us also to be more compassionate toward the contrite.

¹⁰ So that, on the contrary, you should rather forgive and comfort him. Not only, he says, loose the rebuke, but bestow something more upon him, and comfort him; that is, recover him, heal him; just as if one who is scourging another should be urged not only to release him, but also to heal his stripes. And well did he say, Forgive. For lest that man should suppose that he was let off as having sufficiently confessed and repented enough, he shows that he receives the remission not so much from his repentance as from their favor.

¹¹ Lest such a one be swallowed up by the excessive grief. He must be received, he says, and comforted, and healed, lest he be swallowed up, as it were by some wild beast, or by a storm and surge—[that is, by] grief; and lest either he come to a halter, like Judas, through despair, or spring away, not bearing the pain of the immoderate rebuke, and be hurled headlong into a greater wickedness. And observe how he restrains that man also, lest he become more slothful after the remission. For I did not receive you, he says, because you have wholly washed off the defilement, but lest you suffer something more grievous through your weakness. And mark, that the penalties must be defined not according to the nature of the sins, but according to the disposition of those who sin.

¹² Wherefore I beseech you to confirm love toward him. No longer as a teacher does he command, but as an advocate he beseeches the judges to confirm—that is, to ratify—love, and not simply, and as it chanced, to receive him. And he shows also their virtue, if indeed, having formerly so loved the man as even to support him, they now, on account of the sin, so turned away from him that Paul must even beseech on his behalf.

¹³ For to this end I also wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things. He frightens them, that, fearing the condemnation of disobedience, they may readily forgive the man. For to this end, he says, I wrote, that I might know the proof of you—that is, the virtue that is in obedience; that, just as you hearkened to me in rebuking him, so now also you may hearken in comforting him; for this is the meaning of whether you are obedient in all things. And yet it was not for this that he wrote, but for that man’s salvation; nevertheless, where no harm is done, he gratifies them also.

¹⁴ But to whom you forgive anything, I also. Through these words he softens the contentiousness and obstinacy that perhaps would rise up among them, so as not to forgive the man. For behold, he sets them as taking the lead in the favor, and himself as following, saying that, To whom you forgive, to that man I also forgive.

¹⁵ For I too, if I have forgiven anything, to whom I have forgiven it, [I did so] for your sakes in the person of Christ. Lest they should think themselves lords of forgiving, and on this account also be negligent of releasing the man, he shows them that he himself has already forgiven such a one, so that they can no longer set themselves in array against him. But lest they be wounded as being overlooked, he says, For your sakes I forgave him; for I knew that this is acceptable to you. Then, lest he should seem to have pardoned for men’s sake, he added, In the person of Christ—that is, According to God, and in the sight of Christ, and as though Christ commanded this, and as being a representative of him, I pardoned; or, “to the glory of Christ.” If, then, the pardon is done to the glory of Christ, how must not this man be pardoned, that Christ may be glorified?

¹⁶ That we be not overreached by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his devices. Lest the harm become common, he says, and the number of Christ’s flock be diminished. And well did he name the thing covetousness; for the devil takes not the things that belong to himself, but seizes our things also; and especially if [he does so] through a method of our own—that is, through repentance that becomes immoderate; wherefore he also called the devil’s malice and craft “devices,” and [showed] how under a pretext of piety he destroys. For he trips men up not only by fornication, but also by immoderate grief. How then is it not covetousness, when he captures us even out of our own things?

¹⁷ Now when I came to Troas for the Gospel of Christ, and a door had been opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother. He said above that afflictions came upon him in Asia, and showed how he was delivered from them; now again he teaches that he was afflicted in another way too, by not finding Titus. For when the comforter is not present, the trial is more grievous. So why do you blame me for the delay, who fell in with so many constraints, which did not allow us to travel as we wished? And he does not say simply that he sojourned at Troas, but, For the Gospel—that is, in order to preach. How then did you not preach, and that when a door had been opened to you? I preached indeed, but not for long, because I found not Titus. For I had no rest—that is, I was afflicted, I was pained, because of his absence. Did you then on this account abandon the work of God? Not on this account, but because the work was hindered in his absence. For I indeed greatly desired to preach, but the absence of Titus became a hindrance; for he was a great help when present.

¹⁸ But taking leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia. That is, I did not spend more time there, being straitened. For a great door had been opened—that is, much work; only by the absence of my fellow-worker I was hindered.

¹⁹ But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ. Since he had recounted many griefs—the one in Asia, the one in Troas, the one because of not coming to them—lest he should seem to be enumerating these as one lamenting, he says that, I give thanks to God, because he always leads us in triumph—that is, he shows us conspicuous. For a triumph is the procession, with victory and trophies, of a king or general through the midst of the city. And so God too makes us conspicuous with the trophies over the devil. Our dishonors, at least, are our glory; for then the devil falls. And these things come to pass in Christ—that is, on account of Christ and the preaching; or because in Christ we are led in triumph, that is, we are glorified, bearing Christ as a kind of trophy, and in his splendor we too are glorified.

²⁰ And who makes manifest through us the fragrance of the knowledge of him in every place. A costly ointment, he says, is the knowledge of God, which we make manifest to all men; or rather, not the ointment itself, but the fragrance of it. For the present knowledge is not exceedingly clear, but through a mirror and in an enigma. As, then, he who smells the fragrance knows indeed that there is an ointment lying somewhere, but of what nature in its substance, no longer; so we too know that it is, but what it is in its substance, no longer. We are, as it were, a royal censer, and wherever we go, we carry about also the fragrance of the spiritual ointment—that is, of the knowledge of God. Having said above, then, that We are always led in triumph, he now says that, In every place also we make men fragrant. For every place and time is filled with our things. So that we must bear nobly even this, that we are glorified now also, even before the things to come.

²¹ We are a fragrance of Christ to God, among those who are being saved, and among those who are perishing. Either he means this, that We offer ourselves a sacrifice, dying for Christ; or that, At the slaying of Christ, we too are offered up as a kind of incense. And what he means is this: that whether some are being saved, or are perishing, the Gospel abides, holding its own excellence, and we abide being this which we are. And just as the light, even if it darkens the weak, is nonetheless light; and honey, even if it be bitter to those who are jaundiced, is nonetheless sweet; so also the Gospel is fragrant, even if some, disbelieving, perish. And we are a fragrance, and not simply, but, to God. And when he gives the verdict, who is there to gainsay?

²² To the one a fragrance of death to death; to the other a fragrance of life to life. Since he said, We are a fragrance among those who are perishing, lest you should think that they too are acceptable, he added these words, and says that of this fragrance some so receive it as to be saved, others so as to perish; just as the ointment is said to choke both swine and beetles; and Christ is a rock of offense, and set for a fall. This shows that the fire burns up the thorns, but refines the precious things.

²³ And who is sufficient for these things? Since he uttered great things, that We are a fragrance, and that We are led in triumph, again he is modest, and says that for these things our weakness did not suffice, except for the power of God; for his is the whole, and nothing is ours.

²⁴ For we are not, like the many, peddling the word of God. Here he indicates the false apostles, who declared the grace of God to be their own achievement; and he says that, For this reason I said, Who is sufficient? and I referred the whole to God, because I am not, like the false apostles, peddling and adulterating the gift of God. And he intimates that they also falsified the teaching with the sophistries of outward wisdom, and sold for money that which ought to be given freely. But we are not such; he adds, then:

²⁵ But as from sincerity, but as from God, in the sight of God, in Christ we speak. That is, from a pure and guileless mind, and as having from God the things which we speak, and not as ourselves achieving them from our own resources. And in Christ—not in our own wisdom, but resounding with the power that is from him. And he said in the sight of God in order to show the uprightness of his heart and its boldness. For so pure is our heart, that we make it manifest to God.