2:5 Paul continues his use of grief/pain language (Gk. lyp-), with two instances of the verb in this verse. The use of the perfect tense in both cases may suggest that Paul still feels the sting of this grief, but the overarching logic of this passage goes in a different direction: forgiveness.

First, however, Paul wants to clarify for the Corinthians that his severe letter in the recent past, as well as his present sentiments, do not reflect petty wound licking on his part. The apostle’s magnanimity is doubtless underappreciated by the Corinthians. It is not Paul but the Corinthians themselves who have suffered most from this rebellious minority that had risen up against Paul. Paul shows us his profound understanding of the nature of the church here. Even though Paul was the object of rejection and thus, at a human level, has the most reason for bitterness, he sees beyond this. With mature objectivity Paul understands that a faction within the church at Corinth, whoever the object of their contempt, cuts at the very heart and health of the church there. Paul has already written movingly to the Corinthians of the profound danger of divisiveness in an earlier letter (1 Corinthians 3). He once again displays what he taught in 1 Corinthians by his own example in 2 Corinthians.

2:6 It now becomes clear that the “anyone” Paul refers to in verse 5 is not hypothetical but an actual person, the ringleader of the faction. This offender, leader of a rebellious minority, has apparently received “punishment” (i.e., excommunication) by the faithful “majority” in the Corinthian church. But for what has he been punished?

Various theories have been put forward, but it is not the task of the exegete or the preacher to speculate where God has been silent. Given the general tenor and content of 2 Corinthians as a whole, it is plausible that some kind of verbal insubordination or undermining of Paul’s apostolic credentials was at the heart of the sin, but we simply do not know.

Fronting the word “sufficient” or “enough” (Gk. hikanos), Paul emphasizes that what the offender has received thus far is fully sufficient. It is time to let up. The noun used for “punishment” (epitimia) is used only here in the NT. Its verbal counterpart (epitimaō), however, meaning to rebuke, reprove, or censure, occurs throughout the Synoptic Gospels, such as when Jesus rebukes a storm (Luke 8:24), an unclean spirit (Luke 9:42), or even the disciples (Mark 8:33). The only Pauline use of the verb is 2 Timothy 4:2, where Paul enjoins Timothy to “reprove, rebuke [using epitimaō], and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” These verbal uses suggest that we understand “punishment” in 2 Corinthians 2:6 not as retributive but as restorative. Had the offender remained impenitent, doubtless Paul would have been forced to “hand him over to Satan,” as he did Hymenaeus and Alexander (1 Tim. 1:20).

2:7 But apparently the offender has been penitent. Paul does not say this outright, but it is a clear deduction in light of how Paul instructs the Corinthians to handle him.

Paul gives two exhortations for how the Corinthians should respond to the offender, but the two actions are really two natural elements of the single action of reembracing this brother. They are to “forgive and comfort him.” The “rather” (Gk. mallon) suggests that these actions are the present alternative, not an addition, to the recent discipline. The posture of punishment must now die away. Their sole calling is to embrace. This does not mean that in order truly to forgive and comfort this man the Corinthians must pretend he has done nothing wrong. Rather, writes C. S. Lewis,

Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it. That, and only that, is forgiveness.10

Paul is summoning the Corinthians up into the very heart of God. In embracing their colleague afresh they are doing, on a microcosmic and human level, what God has done on a macrocosmic and divine level in embracing sinners back into his heart through the atoning work of his Son. They are to hug this sinner back into their very heart. In the same way that the two hands and arms of a body tenderly dress a wound on the foot, directed by the head, so the members of the body of Christ at Corinth are to tend to this brother gently, directed by Christ their head. If they do not, he will be overwhelmed with despair.

2:8 Having urged the Corinthians to “comfort” (Gk. parakaleō) the offender (v. 7), Paul “begs” (parakaleō) them to drive home their love for him; that is, he warmly, if solemnly, exhorts them. The word used for “confirm” means to ratify a decision legally (cf. the only other NT use of the verb in Gal. 3:15). But, strikingly, it is their love that they are to ratify. Paul is saying: Do not merely exonerate this brother in a detached, relationally sterile way, coolly allowing him back into the community at arm’s length; rather, fold him back into your fellowship with a love that reflects the love with which God himself has embraced your own penitence.

2:9 The relational strategy Paul has been outlining is the reason he writes his tearful letter in the first place. “That I might test you” is more woodenly “that I might know your testing/approval [dokimē].” Testing for what? Their “obedience”—most likely their obedience to Christ through his apostolic representative, Paul. And not a fickle or partial obedience, but a total obedience—“in everything.” This is indeed the only kind of obedience there is. If we are obedient in some areas but not in others, this only proves that we are still serving the self, picking and choosing where we will submit due to our own fleshly preferences.

But note exactly the obedience Paul is looking for: their love for the sinner. We can easily think of obedience only as dutifully stifling our deepest desires and marching forward in deference to a higher authority. To be sure, this kind of determined obedience is at times part of the Christian life. But here the obedience called for is to melt into full-hearted love and reignited fellowship for a fallen comrade.

2:10 Paul now makes clear that he is not showing any favoritism in exhorting the Corinthians to reembrace this sinner. This man is not getting a free pass that others in a similar situation would not be granted. Having zoomed in to this specific case of offense in verse 6, he now zooms out again: “Moreover,” he says in effect, “if anyone is in need of forgiveness from you, then I am in solidarity with you Corinthians in that.”

The Corinthians’ forgiveness results in Paul’s joint agreement and coforgiveness. To look at things the other way round, it is also true that Paul’s acts of forgiveness, whatever they might be regarding, are on account of the Corinthians. That is, the apostle has led the way in extending forgiveness toward this ringleader in his penitence. Paul has been the lead forgiver. Forgiveness is not for some to execute. It is not a spiritual gift. It is normal Christianity. We note Paul’s pastoral diplomacy in the phrase “if I have forgiven anything”; Paul is not having trouble remembering what he has forgiven but is nobly downplaying the offense against him in light of the offender’s penitence. This is what healthy gospel instincts in a leader look like.

By saying his forgiving “has been for your sake,” Paul means that his act of forgiving the offender is an open door through which he is beckoning the Corinthians to follow him. He not only teaches forgiveness; he models it. He knows what he himself has been forgiven (Acts 9:1; 1 Tim. 1:13–14). Perhaps Paul has this very conversion on the way to Damascus in mind as he concludes this verse with the phrase “in the presence of Christ” (a Hebraism that speaks literally of being in the “face” of someone). The living Christ is looking on as Paul models forgiveness for the Corinthians. All horizontal forgiveness is fueled by a heart awareness of vertical realities—Christ’s own presence and, not least, his own forgiveness of his former enemies who are now his people (cf. Matt. 18:21–35).

2:11 In Greek the sentence continues into verse 11 with a purpose clause: “so that we would not be outwitted by Satan.” This is a sobering note on which to conclude this section. For the Corinthians not to embrace the fallen brother is to be outwitted by Satan. Withholding of forgiveness is satanic. It may feel righteous, morally serious. But it is to align with hell rather than heaven. The Greek verb used here (pleonekteō) occurs five times in the NT, four of them in 2 Corinthians (2:11; 7:2; 12:17, 18; cf. 1 Thess. 4:6). In the other three uses in this epistle Paul denies that he (and Titus) have “taken advantage of” the Corinthians. Here, the only instance of the verb in the passive, Paul warns against being taken advantage of by Satan. For the Corinthians to join Paul in extending heartfelt forgiveness is to outmaneuver Satan, to register a tactical victory over him on the battlefield (cf. Eph. 6:11–12).

“For” is roughly equivalent to “After all” or “Remember that.” Paul grounds his exhortation not to be outwitted by Satan in the truth that he and the Corinthians perceive Satan’s thoughts and desires. The word rendered “designs” occurs four other times in this letter, regarding the “minds” of old covenant citizens (2 Cor. 3:14), the “minds” of unbelievers, taking every “thought” captive (10:5), and the Corinthians’ “thoughts” being led astray by Satan (11:3). The common thread in these uses is the subtle yet pervasive deceits of the unregenerate mind. Be alert, Paul says. Guard against Satan’s wily strategies.