And I have written this very [letter] [to you], that coming I may not have grief from those from whom I ought to have joy; trusting in you all that my joy is [that] of you all.
Paul had planned to visit Corinth, but he sent a letter instead — and here he explains why. He wrote a hard letter first, so that his visit later would not be a time of grief — and he still expects joy from them.
Rather than arrive while matters were still raw, Paul let his writing do its work first.
The apostle had made up his mind to put off his visit until he could make it under happier circumstances. Now, as he wrote this second letter, the heaviness was passing. Brighter things were coming into view. His first letter had made them sorry, as he intended. Their sorrow now made him glad, as verse 2 of chapter 2 shows. He had sent that letter ahead on its mission, so that when he did come among them, his coming might be one of settled confidence and joy.
Paul had a reason for keeping his distance.
It was to spare them that he had not come to Corinth. Their state made him afraid. He might have to use his apostolic authority in a way that would make him seem their lord rather than their servant. His absence from them was the fruit of his love toward them. It was meant to call into action the faith in which they stood. They were to act in the responsibility which was their own, and he left them free to do so. His earlier letter, with any touch of severity in it, was only the witness of the love he had toward them more abundantly, a love that was working for their blessing in this way.
Paul speaks of "those who should have made me rejoice." That expectation had a reason behind it.
Normally we expect joy from believers, and above all from those to whom we may have been a spiritual blessing, as with the apostle and the Corinthians. He therefore writes this second letter to remove everything that might raise a cloud between himself and these believers.
Paul says his joy and their joy are one and the same. Neither side can be glad while the other grieves.
He is convinced that their grief was his, and that his joy was theirs. What a wonderful power there is in Christ! He produces fellowship in grief over evil, and in the joy of grace — a fellowship that rises above self with its divisive character and its consequences. His desire was the happiness of the saints. No wonder, then, that he shrank from going where and when his visit must be one of grief.
Paul's joy rests on the Lord. That is why the wrong among them had to go first.
When he came to them, he did not want sorrow. He wanted the normal joy of seeing the truth prosper in souls who were, after all, his own brothers and sisters. For in reality Paul's joy is the proper joy of all believers, because it is joy in the Lord and in the pure truth of His Word. So he could be confident that this was their joy too. It had needed the first letter to clear away the rubbish that hid their true joy.
Paul says he is "sure of all of you." Even if their confidence in him had failed, his trust in them held.
Much still lingered among them that made joy impossible while it went unjudged. This is the voice of a love that hopes all things and is not quick to take offence: the Lord lives in His servant's words. If they had lost confidence in him, he still trusted them. He counts on them in the Lord. In His light he views them not as they are, but as they should be, as bearers of that Name, and his letter is the witness of this. He ought to have joy from them, for they were his own children in the faith. He does not doubt that when they read his words and thought them over, they would approve both his motive and his work.
- Visit delayed. Paul would not come while a visit could only wound. He waited for a happier time.
- Absence as love. Staying away spared them. It left them free to act in their own responsibility.
- A letter first. He sent the letter ahead, so that his coming could be one of confidence and joy.
- Joy in common. His grief was theirs and his joy was theirs. Only Christ produces such fellowship in sorrow over evil and in the joy of grace.
- Trust ahead of proof. Even if they doubted him, he still counted on them in the Lord, seeing them not as they were but as they should be.
For out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you, with many tears; not that ye may be grieved, but that ye may know the love which I have very abundantly towards you.
Paul had already sent a letter that cut deep, and here he lifts the curtain on what it cost him to write it. Behind the sternness stood a weeping man. He says so for one reason: he wanted them to read his severity as love.
Read on its own, the earlier letter to Corinth sounds firm and sharp. No reader could have guessed the state of the man holding the pen.
In verse 4 we get a very touching and valuable glimpse of the manner and spirit of Paul's writing. Reading his earlier letter, we can see its powerful, cutting style. We can notice how well suited it was to humble them, with its touches of holy irony. But we would hardly have known that he wrote it "out of much affliction and anguish of heart … with many tears," if he had not told us. Yet so it was. Foolish and worldly though they were, he loved them with a tender affection. So the inspired Word of God flowed to them through the human channel of a loving, afflicted heart. And it worked with great power.
The tears were not vague sentiment. They answered to a real situation in Corinth, and to a reversal: the church was at ease, while the man far away was in agony.
Returning now to his earlier letter, he reveals to us the state of mind in which it was written. His language had the sternness that truth requires when it deals with things hateful in the sight of God. Yet feelings of another kind were at work in his heart. They were reigning as kings in the thoughtless pride of their position, forgetting Him whose grace had raised them there. He himself was humbled and brought low. They were puffed up while open scandals went on among them. He was in an agony of grief. With many tears he wrote.
The sorrow in this verse runs both ways. Paul is not describing pain he handed out; he is describing pain he carried, and his aim was to remove what was hurting them as much as it hurt him.
Clearly the apostle speaks not only of causing grief but of receiving it. That is always the way according to God in His church, whatever it may be in the world. He wrote to remove what ought to pain them as it pained him. Then he and they could rejoice together when he came.
Paul had not come to Corinth. They could have read that absence as coldness — a man who names the fault, prescribes the cure, and walks off.
He had to deal with sin among them, but not in any cold, legal spirit. Such a spirit would expose the wrong, point out the right course to take, and then leave the matter there. Because he had not come to them, they might draw that wrong conclusion. So he writes to assure them: behind his first letter there was "much affliction and anguish of heart," and behind his grief there was deep love for them.
Rules for action are one thing. The spirit that carries them out is another. Here the sorrow starts with the man who was in the right.
Not until we come to 2 Corinthians 2 do we learn what it cost the apostle to write 1 Corinthians 5, as the Holy Spirit dictated it… There is a deeper and wider truth: those who are right should teach the wrong ones their proper place by taking it themselves. Paul — the right one — is the first to enter into the sorrow, with a breaking heart. He does it to draw the Corinthians to where he was, so that they in turn might draw the guilty one into the same place.
Some at Corinth had doubted Paul's motives. They called him unstable, or said he pushed himself forward. The tears settled that charge without argument.
He had written to them out of much affliction and anguish of heart, with many tears. That refuted the charge of either fickleness or self-exaltation. He did not write to grieve them, but so that they might know his very abundant love toward them.
Kelly weighs that last word. The love was very abundant, he says. But it was hardly greater than his love for others, though some read it that way.
- Cost — A man in distress and in tears wrote that severe letter. Its strong words hid the breaking heart behind them.
- Cause — They stayed proud and at ease over open scandal, so he carried the grief they would not feel.
- Correction — Naming a wrong and walking away is a cold, legal spirit. Paul's grief showed that faithfulness and affection were never in competition.
- Company — The one in the right enters the sorrow first. His grief draws in the assembly, and theirs draws the guilty one to the same place.
- Consequence — He wrote not to cause pain but to show love. The tears themselves answered those who doubted him.