2 Corinthians 2:5Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

First he praised them because they had the same joys and the same sorrows as he. Having said beforehand, "my joy is the joy of all" (v. 3), the Apostle then begins to speak about the incestuous man.

If my joy, he says, is also your joy, then you must now rejoice together with me, just as you then grieved together with me.

As at that time you brought me consolation and joy by your grief, so now you will do the same by your joy, if only you share in my joy.

The Apostle did not say, "My sorrow is the sorrow of you all." Yet he expressed the same thing elsewhere in other words.

Here he mentioned only what was needed, namely joy, saying that "my joy is the joy of you all."

Through this he wishes to establish love for the one who had fallen into fornication, about whom he wrote in the first epistle.

At Paul's command they had all turned away from him as from one inspiring loathing.

Therefore, lest they be scandalized at Paul as inconsistent when he again commands the opposite, namely, to receive him and show him affection, he offers his word very prudently.

He makes them also participants in the forgiveness, saying: Just as he grieved all of us together, so all together must rejoice over his forgiveness.

For he did not grieve me only, he says, but all of you in part. That is, he struck you with a certain small sorrow.

I will not say that he completely grieved you as he did me. Still, so as not to burden the man who fell into fornication, I say that he grieved you in part.

If anyone has caused grief, by taking his father's wife, he has not grieved me alone. In part, that is, only according to his measure, he grieved me. Perhaps by this he points to their former sin, so that, as he forgave them, they also should forgive that sinner. "That I may not burden you all" may mean either, so as not to speak against you all, or, I did not burden you all by asking something of you all.

All those of whom he speaks as a part are the saints, and in this they differ from the rest. For two parts may be distinguished in the people, as the Apostle mentioned in the First Epistle. Those of whom he speaks as a part are grieved by the error of their brothers, as the Apostle himself is.

The Apostle intended to say something greater and to show that the whole body of the Church shared in the sorrow. But leaving the others aside, he mentioned only them. This is expressed by the words "in part" and "that I may not burden." Then he reveals his fatherly compassion.

If anyone has offended me. The Apostle names neither the offender nor the offense, so as not to grieve the repentant man, and to show that he himself has forgotten even his sin.

The conduct of the incestuous man was especially grievous for the Apostle, because in it there appeared a visible betrayal of the height of Christian life. But it touched no less all the members of the Corinthian Church. In that Church there seemed not to have been a man so zealous for Christian purity as to rebuke the sinner, who could not have been approved even by the pagans.

"From defending himself he now proceeds to defend the one who had fallen into fornication" (Chrysostom).

This text stands precisely at the transition from the previous thought to the following declaration of mercy for the repentant sinner.

Above he said that if he wrote to them sternly, he wrote with sorrow and tears. He did not write so in order to sadden them, but to manifest love.

Where is the love? It is in this, that by pronouncing a strict sentence on the one who sinned, he was defending them, removing the stain from them, cleansing them, and making them joyful.

For, he says, the man who committed such an unheard-of crime did not grieve me alone, but in part also you.