He grants a pardon to the incestuous man upon his doing penance.

¹ But I determined this within myself, not to return again to you in sorrow.

² For if I make you sorrowful, then who is it that can make me glad, except the one who is made sorrowful by me?

³ And so, I wrote this same thing to you, so that I might not, when I arrive, add sorrow to sorrow for those with whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you in all things, so that my joy may be entirely yours.

⁴ For with much tribulation and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears: not so that you would be sorrowful, but so that you might know the charity that I have more abundantly toward you.

⁵ But if anyone has brought sorrow, he has not sorrowed me. Yet, for my part, this is so that I might not burden all of you.¹

1. 2:5The Latin verb ‘contristavit’ is intransitive in the first part of the verse, but this makes the English phrasing somewhat awkward, ‘If anyone has sorrowed [no object], he has not sorrowed me.’ So the phrasing ‘has brought sorrow’ is used.(Conte)

⁶ Let this rebuke be sufficient for someone like this, for it has been brought by many.

⁷ So then, to the contrary, you should be more forgiving and consoling, lest perhaps someone like this may be overwhelmed with excessive sorrow.

⁸ Because of this, I beg you to confirm your charity toward him.

⁹ It was for this reason, also, that I wrote, so that I might know, by testing you, whether you would be obedient in all things.

¹⁰ But anyone whom you have forgiven of anything, I also forgive. And then, too, anyone I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it was done in the person of Christ for your sakes,¹

1. 2:10I 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.(Challoner)

¹¹ so that we would not be circumvented by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his intentions.

¹² And when I had arrived at Troas, because of the Gospel of Christ, and a door had opened to me in the Lord,

¹³ I had no rest within my spirit, because I was not able to find Titus, my brother. So, saying goodbye to them, I set out for Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always brings triumph to us in Christ Jesus, and who manifests the fragrance of his knowledge through us in every place.

¹⁵ For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ for God, both with those who are being saved and with those who are perishing.

¹⁶ To the one, certainly, the fragrance is of death unto death. But to the other, the fragrance is of life unto life. And concerning these things, who is so suitable?¹

1. 2:16The 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.(Challoner)

¹⁷ For we are not like many others, adulterating the Word of God. But instead, we speak with sincerity: from God, before God, and in Christ.