He grants a pardon to the incestuous man upon his doing penance.
2:1. But I determined this with myself, to come to you again in sorrow.
2:2. For if I make you sorrowful, who is he then that can make me glad,
but the same who is made sorrowful by me?
2:3. And I wrote this same to you: that I may not, when I come, have
sorrow upon sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice: having
confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
2:4. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you
with many tears: not that you should be made sorrowful: but that you
might know the charity I have more abundantly towards you.
2:5. And if any one have caused grief, he hath not grieved me: but in
part, that I may not burden you all.
2:6. To him who is such a one, this rebuke is sufficient, which is
given by many.
2:7. So that on the contrary, you should rather forgive him and comfort
him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
2:8. Wherefore, I beseech you that you would confirm your charity
towards him.
2:9. For to this end also did I write, that I may know the experiment
of you, whether you be obedient in all things.
2:10. And to whom you have pardoned any thing, I also. For, what I have
pardoned, if I have pardoned any thing, for your sakes have I done it
in the person of Christ:
I also. . .The apostle here granted an indulgence, or pardon, in the
person and by the authority of Christ, to the incestuous Corinthian,
whom before he had put under penance, which pardon consisted in a
releasing of part of the temporal punishment due to his sin.
2:11. That we be not overreached by Satan. For we are not ignorant of
his devices.
2:12. And when I was come to Troas for the gospel of Christ and a door
was opened unto me in the Lord,
2:13. I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother:
but bidding them farewell, I went into Macedonia.
2:14. Now thanks be to God, who always maketh us to triumph in Christ
Jesus and manifesteth the odour of his knowledge by us in every place.
2:15. For we are the good odour of Christ unto God, in them that are
saved and in them that perish.
2:16. To the one indeed the odour of death unto death: but to the
others the odour of life unto life. And for these things who is so
sufficient?
The odour of death, etc. . .The preaching of the apostle, which by its
fragrant odour, brought many to life, was to others, through their own
fault, the occasion of death; by their wilfully opposing and resisting
that divine call.
2:17. For we are not as many, adulterating the word of God: but with
sincerity: but as from God, before God, in Christ we speak.