2 Corinthians 7

2 Corinthians 7:2-16

Titus Brings Good News (7:2-16) The short passage, 6:11-13 and 7:2-4, interrupted by the longer section 6:14-7:1, brings to a temporary climax the letter we have been reading. We say “temporary climax” because it is very like Paul to come up to a climax, as a great symphony rises to a finale, and then begin all over again perhaps on another theme. (Other examples are Romans 8 followed by chapter 9; I Corin­thians 15 followed by chapter 16.) Paul has been speaking off and on about the relations between himself and the Corinthian Christians. Now he makes it clear that if there is any rift, any cloud, about that relationship, it is in their hearts, not his. No one could make a stronger statement than he makes in these verses. They are in his heart (his and Timothy’s) to live and die together; he is proud of them; he is overjoyed. The rest of chapter 7 is all centered in the arrival of Titus with good news. Paul started to speak of this in 2:12-13, and now returns to the point. After a time of disappointment, when he could not locate or communicate with Titus, that man at last arrived; Paul does not say when or where. But the same over­whelming joy which Paul describes in the early verses of the chapter, shines through all of it. We can see that he had at one time wished he had not written that “severe letter.” Paul himself would one day write, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger” (Ephesians 6:4); he might well have felt that he had made his letter too strong, so that all the Corinthians might break out in open revolt against him. But now Paul sees that his regret was needless.

He points out to the Corinthians all the good which his letter had accomplished. They were shocked into a good frame of mind and spirit; they had acted vigorously in the case of the offending church member. Paul feels that the whole case has come out in a personal vindication for himself, and this seems to be his main reason for rejoicing in the incident. It is said that when Oliver Cromwell sat for his portrait he insisted that all his warts be plainly shown in the picture. We do not admire the warts, but we do admire the man who was candid about them. So we have said that this letter of Paul’s re­veals some character traits which Luke never brings out. Here, for example, we have a man obviously oversensitive, highly emo­tional, bragging before he was sure of his facts, distinctly self-assertive. He even admits, among friends, that his motive in writing the letter mainly had to do with none of the figures in the unpleasant incident (which is never definitely described), but with his wish to have the Corinthians realize how strong they were for Paul (7:12). These features present Paul as a man it would not have been entirely easy to live with. And yet, as with Cromwell’s warts, we cannot help admiring the man for his frankness. The com­plete sincerity of this intense man, the way he raises the blinds, so to speak, and invites us to look right into his heart, disarms our criticisms. After all, what would a milder man have made of the situation at Corinth? The mess there, which is always left a little shadowy in all the correspondence, called for severe meas­ures and immediate action; Paul was there with what it took. Yet he was wise enough to realize that if he went in person, his own explosiveness might touch off some fatal fireworks. So he let the gentler Titus be the go-between. And it worked. But Paul knows whom to thank: not himself, not Titus, not the Corinthians, but God who had wrought in their hearts.