Paul was afraid that if he rebuked a few he would cause pain to many, because all the members of a body suffer when one of them is in pain.

Paul had obviously had one bad experience at Corinth and wanted to avoid another one, for a second occasion would be even worse.

Paul did not want to hurt the Corinthians, but he saw it as the necessary prelude to the joy which would come from their obedience.

What Paul is saying is that even if he were to make the Corinthians sorry he would be glad, since their sorrow would be proof of how much they held him in esteem.

It is shameful, indeed, that they who are sick in body place so much confidence in physicians that, even if these cut or burn or cause distress by their bitter medicines, they look upon them as benefactors, while we do not share this attitude toward the physicians of our souls when they secure our salvation for us by laborious discipline. The apostle says, however: Who is he then who can make me glad, but the same who is made sorrowful by me. . . . It behooves one who looks to the end, therefore, to consider him a benefactor who causes us pain which is according to God.

The purification of the people is the apostle’s joy.

Paul had already said that he was gladdened by their sorrow. This may have seemed arrogant and harsh, so to soften the impact he adds this: He knew that if he were happy they would be happy and that if he were sad, they would be sad too. . . . It is with weighty meaning that I do not come to you, because I feel not hate or aversion but rather exceeding love.

It is obvious that when someone admonishes another and in the process he himself suffers more grief over it than the person being rebuked, he is not doing this in order to cause grief but to show what deep love he has for the other. Someone who rebukes another without feeling this way merely tramples on his feelings.

Paul shows here that he was not less affected than those who had sinned, but more. He could hardly bear the pain which the Corinthians’ wrongdoing was causing him.

By you all Paul means the saints among the Corinthians. For they were divided into those who were saints and those who were not, but it is the former he is addressing here.

Paul’s anger and indignation at the man who had committed fornication was shared by all the Corinthians. He thus softens their anger with him by declaring that they also suffered in his indignation.

Notice that Paul nowhere mentions the crime, because the time had now come to forgive.

Paul reveals the zeal of the Corinthians, for they had all turned against this man, just as he had ordered them to.

Community life offers more blessings than can be fully and easily enumerated. It is more advantageous than the solitary life both for preserving the goods bestowed on us by God and for warding off the external attacks of the Enemy. . . . For the sinner, moreover, the withdrawal from his sin is far easier if he fears the shame of incurring censure from many acting together—to him, indeed, might be applied the words: To him who is such a one, this rebuke is sufficient which is given by many—and for the righteous man, there is a great and full satisfaction in the esteem of the group and in their approval of his conduct.

However, be mindful of this: if you become lazy and indifferent, sin will seize you at one time or another. Therefore, show concern, if not for your brother, then at least for yourself. Repel the disease, overpower the decay, and interrupt the spreading of the cancerous sore. Paul spoke of these things and of much more than these. Since he ordered the Christians in Corinth to hand the fornicator among them over to Satan, he said later that the sinner changed and became better. For such a one this punishment by the majority is enough. Therefore, reaffirm your love for him. Even though Paul made him a common enemy, an adversary to all, expelled him from the fold and cut him off from the body, note how much concern he showed in order to bind him back indissolubly and rejoin him to the church. For he did not say, simply love him but reaffirm your love for him. In other words, reveal your friendship as certain, unshakable, fervent, ardent and fiery; present your love with the same strength as the previous hatred. What happened? Tell me, did you not surrender him to Satan? Yes, he said, but not for him to remain in Satan’s hands, but to be quickly delivered from his tyrannical dominion. Pay careful attention, however, to the very thing I was saying about how much Paul feared discouragement as a great weapon of the devil. He said, Reaffirm your love for him, and then added the reason, lest such a one should be swallowed up by excessive sorrow.

A person who is swallowed up in too much affliction will turn in desperation to committing sins. True repentance, on the other hand, is a turning away from sin. If this person repents, he will prove that he is sorry for what he has done.

Paul asks the Corinthians not only to lift the censure but also to restore the man to his former status, for to punish a man without healing him means nothing. Note too how Paul keeps the man himself humble, so that he will not become worse as a result of having been forgiven. For although he had both confessed and repented, Paul makes it clear that he obtained forgiveness not so much by his repentance as by God’s free gift.

Through your love the offender will know that he has received forgiveness.

Paul no longer commands but begs, not as a teacher but as an equal. He puts the Corinthians in the judgment seat and takes on the part of an advocate, asking them to reaffirm their love for him.

Paul’s command now is that they should unite the member to the body, return the sheep to the flock and show him their most sincere love and affection.

As far as anyone can tell, Paul was commending the Corinthians for their obedience in other respects. They had already put matters right in their church administration, and now he was asking them to be obedient in this matter as well.

Paul needs to see that the Corinthians are as obedient in restoring the sinner as they had been in punishing him. For the punishment might have proceeded in part from envy and malice, but if they now proceed to restore him in love, that will show that their obedience is pure. This is the test of true disciples: if they obey not only when ordered to do something but on their own as well.

Paul is practicing what he preaches. He has the right to give orders, but he cannot refuse to do himself what he is asking others to do. In the first letter he condemned this man’s crime, in the hope that everyone would loathe him for it,^[1] but now he wants him to be received back and prays that they will no longer show any anger toward him. The Corinthians evidently did not have the apostle’s wisdom and did not understand that this ought to be done immediately.

Paul lets the Corinthians take the lead and tells them that he will follow. This is the best way to soften an exasperated and contentious spirit. Then, lest he should make them careless and they should refuse forgiveness, he again constrains them by saying that he himself has already forgiven the man.

Paul did not want this brother, being filled with sorrow and being rigorously excluded from the love of the church, to despair of himself. The devil, who is always subtle in his tricks, would then see that this man’s mind was an easy prey, approach him and suggest that at least he should enjoy the things of the present, given that he has been denied any hope of future reward. Thus the brother would perish, being possessed by the devil, even though an opportunity for repentance had been given him.

Satan can destroy even under the show of piety. For he can destroy not only by leading into fornication but even by the opposite, the immoderate sorrow which can follow on repentance for it. To take us by sin is his proper work, but to ensnare us in our repentance is an even more subtle disgrace, because that is our weapon, not his.

The problem is not merely to recognize Satan’s designs but to play into them. Paul knows their dynamics, not so as to be engaged in them but so as not to be entrapped by them.

Paul means that when he got to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, there were people who received the message.

In Acts [16:9] it says that a man of Macedonia appeared to Paul in a dream and asked him to come over and help them. Paul does not mention this incident in his letter, evidently because he realized that this was not the right time to say such things about himself.

And again, in his second letter to the Corinthians, the same apostle says, When I had come to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother, but bidding them farewell, I went into Macedonia. To whom did he declare farewell except to those who had believed, that is to say, to those in whose hearts a door was opened for him to preach the gospel? But note well what he adds: Now thanks be to God, who always makes us triumph in Christ and manifests the aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved and in those who perish; to some indeed the odor of death to death but to others the fragrance of life to life. Behold why this most intrepid soldier, this most invincible defender of grace, gives thanks. Behold why he gives thanks—that the apostles are the good odor of Christ to God, both in those who are saved by his grace and in those who perish in virtue of his judgment.

Lacking the consolation of Titus’s presence Paul found the work unbearable, because there was so much opposition to him. For although some people had opened their hearts and accepted the Word of God, there were many unbelievers who reacted with impudent hostility. One lone voice could not teach the new believers and fend off these attacks at the same time. Therefore Paul said goodbye to those who had received him and left for Macedonia.

Paul did not say that the absence of Titus hindered the salvation of those who were about to convert, nor that he neglected them for this reason, but that he continued to be concerned for Titus, showing thereby how serious a matter a brother’s absence is.

Paul mentions Titus here for a purpose. Since he was the one who took the letter to Corinth, Paul wanted the church there to appreciate his worth.

For God to lead us in triumph in Christ is to make us victors in the faith of Christ, so that when unbelief has been trodden underfoot, faith may have its trophy.

Paul was in constant affliction everywhere he went, but this did not draw him into despair. On the contrary, he rejoiced and gave thanks, because although persecution might seem like a disgrace, in fact it was a very great honor.

A whole band of soldiers, Ammon and Zeno and Ptolemy and Ingenuus, and with them an old man Theophilus, had taken their stand before the tribunal. When a certain man was being tried as a Christian and was inclined toward denying the faith, they, standing by, gnashed their teeth, and made signs with their faces, and stretched out their hands and gestured with their bodies. When the attention of all was directed toward them, before any could otherwise seize them, they rushed up first to the bench, saying that they were Christians, so that the governor and his assessors became fearful. Those who were being tried appeared most courageous in the face of what they were about to suffer, while their judges were afraid. And these paraded from the court and rejoiced in their testimony, as God led them in triumph gloriously.

By washing the feet of his disciples with his own hands as he sent them forth to noble deeds, the Savior manifested in an excellent way their journeying to bestow graces upon the nations.^[1] He purified that journeying in anticipation by his own power. The perfume left its aroma after it and suggests the sweet-smelling accomplishments that reach everyone. The suffering of the Lord, indeed, has filled us with its fragrance.

Put an altar of incense in your innermost heart. Be a sweet aroma of Christ.

The aroma of the knowledge of God comes from Christ and through Christ. The reason why Paul said aroma was this: Some things are recognized by their smell, even though they are invisible. God, who is invisible, wishes to be understood through Christ. The preaching of Christ reaches our ears just as an aroma reaches our nostrils, bringing God and his only begotten Son right into the midst of his creation. A person who speaks the truth about Christ is just such a good aroma from God, worthy of praise from the one who believes. But one who makes erroneous assertions about Christ has a bad smell to believers and unbelievers alike.

Paul calls the knowledge of God an aroma. Its presence is sensed rather than seen.

Whether a person is saved or lost, the gospel continues to have its own power. The light, even when it blinds someone, is still light. Honey, though it is bitter to those who are sick, is still sweet. So also the gospel has a sweet savor to all, even if those who do not believe it are lost.

Why, then, if the law is good, is it called a ministry of death? Because sin, that it might be shown to be sin, worked death for me through that which is good. Do not marvel when it is said of the preaching of the gospel, We are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in them that are being saved and in them who perish, to the one an aroma of life to life, to the other an aroma of death to death. Now the law is called a ministry of death to the Jews, for whom it was written on stone, to symbolize their hardness of heart. But this does not apply to those who fulfill the law in charity. For charity is the fulfillment of the law. TO SIMPLICIAN—ON

For, as the apostle says, We are a good aroma of Christ, but he adds, To some a fragrance of life to life, but to others an odor of death to death. So also the prophetic word is a sweet fragrance to those who believe, but to the doubting and unbelieving and those who confess that they are Pharaoh’s people, it becomes a detestable odor.

To unbelievers the preaching of the cross is the smell of death. On hearing the Word of God they receive it as if it were a plague from which death knocks on the door. But to others it is the fragrance of life. To believers the Word of God is a messenger of eternal life. It affects them in accordance with their faith.

If anyone is lost he has only himself to blame. Soothing ointment is said to suffocate pigs. Light is blinding to the weak. It is in the nature of good things not only to correct what is close to them but also to destroy the opposite, and in this way their power is displayed.

Through an evil man divine providence can both punish and comfort. For the impiety of the Jews was the Jews’ downfall and yet provided salvation for the Gentiles. Again, divine providence through a good man can both condemn and help, as the apostle says: To some we are the scent of life to life, but to others we are the scent of death to death. But every tribulation is either a punishment of the impious or a testing of the just. . . . Further, peace and quiet from disruptive times can both profit the good and corrupt the evil.

Paul is alluding to various false apostles who used to corrupt the Word of God through bad interpretation. Some of them were so zealous for Jewish tradition that they did not teach properly about Christ.

Paul will not imitate the false apostles, who claim rewards for themselves. For corruption occurs when one sells for money what one ought to give freely. Paul speaks in Christ, not by his own wisdom but by the power which comes from him.