2 Corinthians 2

2 Corinthians 2:1

From a tender and affectionate regard to you, I chose rather to delay my promised visit; that your having rectified your disorders before I came, might render it more welcome to you and agreeable to myself

2 Corinthians 2:2

For, if by sharp reproofs and censures I had grieved any of you, nothing but the deep repentance and remarkable reformation of those very persons could 12 R have turned my sorrows into joy

2 Corinthians 2:3

And for this reason I did, and do now again, write to you, that all your disorders may be rectified before I come, that I may not have my mind burdened with grief by you, whose steadfastness in the faith, holiness, and order, of the gospel should be a comfort to me; and I hope that every thing relative to the glory of Christ and the good of his church, will be your joy as well as mine

2 Corinthians 2:4

For it was in great distress of spirit, on account of their deplorable and dangerous condition, that I directed you to excommunicate the incestuous person, or other manifest apostates from Christ. And I mention it now, not to awaken and renew your grief, but to manifest my deep concern for you and other Christians, and for the repentance and salvation of the most notorious delinquents

2 Corinthians 2:5

But, if the incestuous person, or others notoriously scandalous, have, by their drawing upon themselves that awful censure, given uneasiness to me, or to such of you as are conscientiously concerned for the glory of God or good of their soul; (for I did not intend, in my former epistle, to charge you all as connivers at his criminal conduct.) 6, 7. Yet now, when the censure passed upon him by your church rulers, according to my direction, has been blessed by God to render him deeply penitent, ye ought to regard him as pardoned by God, and to encourage, comfort, and restore, him to your church fellowship, and behave towards him in the most compassionate manner, lest, through the overwhelming distress of his mind, he sink into utter despair

2 Corinthians 2:8

I did not more earnestly charge you to censure him when he was persisting in his wickedness than I now beseech you to restore him to your religious fellowship, and behave towards him as a brother, that he may plainly see that your censure of him proceeded from your earnest care to promote his spiritual advantage

2 Corinthians 2:9

And by your restoring as well as excommunicating him, you will give full proof of your submission to my apostolic authority, which indeed was a part of my end in writing to you

2 Corinthians 2:10

And, to encourage you to this restoration of him to church fellowship, I, who concurred in his excommunication, hereby declare myself satisfied with his repentance; and, to testify my concern for his and your order, peace, and comfort, I do, in the name, and as in the presence, of Jesus Christ, declare him forgiven by God, and fit to be restored to the communion of the church

2 Corinthians 2:11

And I am the more concerned for his being kindly and speedily restored, lest Satan, who envies the success of my ministry, the recovery of offenders, and the edification and increase of the church, should take occasion to prejudice any against us, as if we were of a rigid and unforgiving temper; or to discourage other offenders, and hurry them into despair or apostasy: for we have had much experience of his malicious designs and subtle stratagems to hinder the success of the gospel, and the peace and prosperity of the church

2 Corinthians 2:12

The remarkable opportunity of preaching the gospel, which has Christ for its author, matter, and end, with the great success which the Lord gave me at Troas, helped also to retard my visit to you

2 Corinthians 2:13

Yet, amidst that comfortable success which I had there, such was my anxiety for the return of my dear brother Titus from you to inform me of your spiritual concerns, and what effect my former epistle had upon you, that it made me set off and travel into Macedonia to meet him; where, to my great satisfaction, I found him, and received from him a comfortable account of your affairs

2 Corinthians 2:14

Now blessed be the Father of mercies and God of all comfort that, notwithstanding all the opposition, trouble, and vexation, which have befallen me and my fellow labourers in the gospel, he enables us always to rejoice in what Christ is to us, and hath done, and will do for us; and that by our ministrations he spreads abroad his precious, heart-captivating, and delightful, declarations and offers of redeeming grace, and makes our labours acceptable to himself through Christ

2 Corinthians 2:15

For in the faithful discharge of our commission we are well-pleasing to God on Christ’s account, and through the reference which our doctrines and services bear to him, whether our hearts be effectually wrought upon by it to the salvation of their souls, or whether they obstinately reject it to their everlasting damnation,—he favourably accepting our labours in the Sex not according to our success, but according to the right principles motives, and ends, diligence and integrity, in fulfilling them

2 Corinthians 2:16

As to some indeed, our preaching of this pure, precious, and heart-ravishing, gospel of Christ is altogether disagreeable to their carnal and corrupt heart; and, through their obstinate rejection and perverse abuse of it, eventually increases their spiritual death, condemnation, and everlasting destruction: but to others it conveys, with inexpressible delight, spiritual quickening, pardon, and comfort, and issues in their complete enjoyment of eternal life.—What man then, without the special assistance of Christ and his Spirit, is able to discharge this important work in a duly humble, holy, disinterested, zealous, faithful, earnest, and affectionate, manner?

2 Corinthians 2:17

For we are not like your judaizing or upstart preachers, who adulterate and debase the pure and glorious gospel by mingling with it legal observances and human inventions, to serve their own pride and avarice, but with the utmost integrity and plainness we preach it true and genuine, without any additions, alterations, or secular views;—as by the authority and direction, and in the presence and view, of God himself, and looking for all assistance and acceptance through Christ, who is the great subject of our ministrations

REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. II.—What tender love and deep concern ministers ought to have for the edification of their people! And great is the sympathy and charity they ought to exercise towards them. With grief and pain should they observe their faults, or proceed in necessary censuring of them, uniting therewith an earnest care to promote their repentance and restoration to church fellowship. And church censures ought to be taken off whenever the proper ends for which they are inflicted are gained. To deny our forgiveness to such as we have ground to hope God has forgiven, is a disobedience to Christ, and gives Satan an opportunity of rendering the persons censured desperate or profane, and of representing Christ’s followers as odiously rigid. For many are his wiles to dishonour Christ’s cause and prevent the salvation of souls. But God, to the joy of his servants, makes the gospel of his grace gloriously triumphant at last, to the salvation of some and redoubled damnation of others. How delightful then on the one hand, and awful on the other, and how important and difficult, is the work of a gospel minister! Great grace from God is necessary to enable men to preach his gospel purely, heartily, candidly, and conscientiously, always dependant on Christ. And, alas, awful is the guilt, the danger, of multitudes, who adulterate it with human inventions, or who preach it in an unfaithful manner, and from carnal motives and ends; or who make the work of the ministry but a secondary business!