1:23 The seriousness with which Paul is laying open his heart and sincerity before the Corinthians is clear in the opening words here, as he calls God to witness (lit.) “against my soul/life.” Paul is invoking God himself as one who testifies to his integrity of motive (“against me” means God is unable to condemn Paul’s motives due to their sincerity). Others may question Paul’s purposes, but the all-searching God knows the truth, and to him the apostle appeals. The pathos of Paul’s defense is poignant. Elsewhere Paul states that God is his witness (Rom. 1:9; Phil. 1:8; 1 Thess. 2:5), but only here does Paul summon God to the courtroom and elicit his judgment.

The first word in the second half of the sentence is “sparing,” perhaps a deliberate emphasis by Paul. It was to spare the Corinthians that Paul did not visit them. Paul was not driven by less noble motives. Paul was not even neutral. It was positively for their benefit that he did not come.

1:24 Having just spoken of “sparing” the Corinthians, Paul could now be accused of wielding a certain unhealthy authoritarianism over them. So he immediately heads off this objection by denying that he and his coworkers “lord it over” the Corinthians’ faith. The word used here is the verb form of the noun kyrios (Lord), which occurs 717 times in the NT. Jesus uses this verb in speaking of Gentile rulers’ lording it over their subjects in a way out of accord with Christian discipleship (Luke 22:25).

To lord over someone is to put them in selfish subjection to one’s own pleasure and wishes; the opposite would be to work to nurture others’ joy, which is precisely what Paul states is in fact his impelling motive in how he has conducted himself toward the Corinthians. The term translated “work with” is a noun that means “coworkers” and is related to our English word synergy, in which two elements are uniquely productive only together. Paul’s actions toward the Corinthians, despite apparently petulant suspicions on their end, have had the goal of the Corinthians’ truest joy. This is pastoral ministry: doing what one knows eventuates in real joy for one’s people even when they think something else is more urgent.

Paul grounds what he has been saying with a terse concluding statement (just four words in Greek): “for you stand firm in your faith.” They have been rooted and established. In this verse as a whole, then, Paul is saying: “I am not manipulating you with apostolic authoritarianism; on the contrary, I am out for your own good and happiness—after all, you yourselves are firmly rooted in your faith, so it is not as if such manipulation would get me anywhere.” With these closing words Paul is doubtless also quietly encouraging and exhorting the Corinthians, who, as the letter unfolds, apparently are not as firm in the faith as they should be.

2:1 Paul further grounds his actions in not visiting Corinth. “I made up my mind” is the Greek word elsewhere translated “judge.” Woodenly, “I judged with myself this, not again in pain to you to come.” That Paul carefully determined not to visit them reinforces his earlier point that he has not been wishy-washy or vacillating in his conduct toward the Corinthians (cf. 1:17).

We always do well to bear in mind when reading the NT that the apostles comfortably hold up both the sovereign will of God over life and, as here, the meaningfulness of careful, deliberate decision making. This latter reality is the human-responsibility side of biblical teaching, which complements, if mysteriously, the divine-sovereignty side. In another place Paul had told the Corinthians that he would visit them “if the Lord wills” (1 Cor. 4:19; cf. James 4:13–15). God determines. Paul decides. Neither cancels out the other.

What exactly had Paul decided? “Not to make another painful visit to you.” In 2 Corinthians 1:15–17 Paul expresses his desire to visit the Corinthians. But here he acknowledges his ultimate conclusion. The following verses explain why.

2:2 To this point Paul has testified to his concern for the Corinthians’ own well-being and joy as impelling his difficult decision not to visit them. Now Paul ties his own inner welfare to that of his testy friends in Corinth. Their joy is his. Their grief is his.

But note the pathos of what Paul says. He implies that if his relationship with the Corinthians gets torpedoed, no one else can bring him joy. Paul is driving home the unique preciousness of his pastoral relation to this church. They are not, as perhaps Paul is being accused of back in Corinth, one more church plant on Paul’s résumé, used to build up his own authority and impressiveness as an apostle. His very heart is bound up with their spiritual well-being.

Twice in this verse Paul uses a Greek root that occurs a total of five times in 2:1–4. The noun is lypē and means pain, grief, or sorrow. The verb lypeō accordingly means to grieve or make sorrowful. Each of the underlined sections in table 3.1 represents a single Greek word from this root.

TABLE 3.1: References to Pain in 2 Corinthians 2:1–4

This is the same root Paul will use in chapter 7 when speaking of godly grief versus worldly grief (7:5–13). While the contrast in chapter 7 is between two different kinds of grief, the contrast here is between grief (lyp- in this context rendered “pain”) and joy, which occurs four times in 1:24–2:3 (chara, 1:24; euphrainō, 2:2; chairō, 2:3; chara, 2:3).

2:3–4 Continuing to bind up his own joy with the Corinthians’, Paul now refers to the letter that he sent in lieu of visiting them. In the previous verse Paul was concerned with causing the Corinthians pain; now the reverse concern is mentioned—that they would cause him pain. The delicacy of the situation comes through, as does Paul’s deeply anguished yet carefully diplomatic appeal. Any course of action he took was fraught with potential objections from his detractors in Corinth—a state of affairs with which pastors and Christian leaders today are readily familiar.

His decision not to visit would, he knew, induce questions about his sincerity. And he knew his letter would raise suspicions as to his motives. But he felt he had to stay away and write instead. This is the “tearful letter” that was written in between 1 and 2 Corinthians and has been lost to history (cf. Introduction: Date and Occasion). Though we do not have a copy of it, this letter evidently sought to rebuke and correct error in the Corinthian church. In this way the letter would pave the way for an eventual visit from Paul (cf. 13:1), generating spiritual health in Paul’s absence and preventing the need for a face-to-face rebuke that would have been even more painful than the “tearful letter.” Thus this previous letter caused pain, but a lesser and more temporary pain than its necessary alternative (cf. 7:8). Paul concludes 2:3 (“I felt sure . . . the joy of you all”) by reinforcing the interlocking reality of his own joy and the Corinthians’. Paul was not only lessening his own grief by writing instead of coming; he was also lessening that of the Corinthians.

In true Christian community, there is no such thing as independent welfare or grieving. Rather, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26). What Paul had taught in 1 Corinthians 12 he now lives in 2 Corinthians 2.

We call Paul’s earlier letter the “tearful letter” because of what he says in verse 4. Here the apostle opens up and lets us peer into his deepest heart for the Corinthians. Here we see his ultimate purpose and driving motive in all he has done with regard to the church in Corinth. Paul has been providing reasons for his actions throughout this paragraph (note the “For” beginning verses 1 and 2), but here (with a final “For”) he gives his deepest reason for his conduct: love. Once again, what he taught in 1 Corinthians (ch. 13) he lives in 2 Corinthians.

Paul says he wrote “out of much affliction.” The word “affliction” immediately draws the reader’s mind back to chapter 1, where the same word (Gk. thlipsis) was used repeatedly to recount Paul’s grave trial in Asia (1:4 [2x], 8). There and here the word likely refers to external harassments of body. But this was not the only adversity out of which Paul wrote. There was also an inner adversity: “anguish of heart,” resulting in “many tears.” The only other NT usage of the word for “anguish” here (Gk. synochē) is in Luke 21:25, with its reference to “distress of nations” in Jesus’ eschatological discourse. The word is used at times in contemporary Greek literature for a prison or place of physical confinement. The point is that Paul felt profoundly emotionally hemmed in.

The raw emotional and psychological state out of which Paul wrote his previous letter, despite the rebuke it apparently contained, was not fueled by anger or frustration or impatience. Its bottom purpose was so that the Corinthians would feel loved by Paul. This is not a tepid or yawning love but an “abundant” love—a word that occurs twelve times in the NT, more than half of these in 2 Corinthians (1:12; 2:4; 7:13, 15; 11:23 [2x]; 12:15). See especially 12:15 for a parallel testimony of Paul’s love for the Corinthians.