The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Chapter 2
ii. He exhorts them (ver. 6 ) to re-admit the fornicator, on his repentance, who had been excommunicated by him (1 Cor. v.), and (ver. 10) he absolves him from the sentence of excommunication and from his penance.
iii. He tells them (ver. 14 ) that he sheds everywhere a good odour of Christ, which is life to the good and faithful, and death to the evil and unbelieving.
Ver. 1. — But I determined this with myself, I determined not to come to you from a desire to spare you. Cf. chap. i. 23.
Ver. 2. — For if I make you sorry. Although I made you sorry by rebuking you in my First Epistle, yet I am now made glad with you in seeing the repentance and sorrow, both of yourselves and the fornicator . The “for if” is not causal but explanatory.
Who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? He who is grieved and made penitent by my reproof is the one who most makes me glad, i.e ., the incestuous person whom I excommunicated (1 Cor. v. 5).
Ver. 3. — Lest when I came I should have sorrow, I wished by sending you a letter first to rebuke and correct your evil ways, lest I should be forced to do so in person, which would be very painful to me.
Having confidence in you all, I had complete confidence that you would at once take away whatever might displease me, because you regard my joy as yours, and my grief therefore as yours also. I knew, therefore, that what displeased me would displease you. S. Paul says all this to prepare the Corinthians for his arrival, and to induce them to amend themselves, lest he should be deeply grieved at seeing them not yet amended.
Ver. 5. — He hath not grieved me. The fornicator did not grieve me only.
But in part. He grieved, says Anselm, many other good men as well as me ; those, viz., who banished from their society with ignominy the man that I had already excommunicated.
That I may not overcharge you all. Overcharge you by putting on you the suspicion that there are not many who are grieved on account of the incestuous person. In the First Epistle (v. 2) he seems to have charged them all with consenting to, or with treating lightly, the sin of incest.
Ver. 6 . — Sufficient to such a man is this punishment. The public separation and shame of excommunication. Hence it follows that the man repented after his excommunication, and is here absolved by the Apostle.
Ver. 7. — So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him. Forgive him the rest of his term of penance by admitting him to your fellowship again. Cf. ver. 10.
Ver. 8 . — That ye would confirm your love toward him . By declaring in public assembly of the Church that you once more embrace him as a brother. There is an allusion in the Greek verb to the fixed days of assembly for legal trials or elections, and the Apostle therefore alludes to the fixed days of assembly in the Church, and bids the Corinthians confirm their love then toward the incestuous person by re-admitting him.
Ver. 9. — For to this end also did I write. Viz., this Epistle, to the end that I might induce you to confirm your love toward him.
That I might know the proof of you. A proof of your obedience.
Ver. 10. — To whom ye forgive anything , I forgive also. You have asked through Titus that he may be forgiven, and I make the same request of you. So Theodoret explains these words. Cf. also chap. vii. 7. It is clear from ver. 7 that this forgiveness had not yet taken place, and the meaning therefore is : As, when you were gathered together and my spirit I excommunicated him (1 Cor. v.), so now do I join with you in forgiving him, as you will forgive him at my exhortation.
Observe against Luther that this Epistle was written to the rulers of the Church, or rather to the Church itself, that it might exercise this power of absolving, not corporately, but by the prelates. Yet out of courtesy he wishes even the laity to co-operate in the absolution, consent, prayers, desire, and compassion to forgive this scandal which had been given to them and the Church, and to remit the due canonical penance or punishment. Cf. 1 Cor. v. 4. Hence he goes on to say, “ For your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ.” S. Paul here asserts that he forgave in the exercise of his power and jurisdiction as the vicar of Christ ; and he orders his sentence to be publicly proclaimed in the Corinthian Church, by the bishop or some other officer, and implies that the Corinthians forgave merely through their prayers, consent, and execution of the sentence of absolution. S. Chrysostom lays this down clearly when he says : “ As when he ordered the man to be cut off he did not allow that with them was any authority to forgive , since he said, “I have judged to deliver such an one to Satan,” so again did he admit them into partnership with him when he said, “When ye are gathered together, to deliver him.” He was aiming at two ends , one that the sentence might be passed , and the other that it should not be carried out without them, lest he should seem to do them an injury by so acting. Neither does he pass sentence alone, lest the Apostle should seem to be isolated and to despise them.”
If I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave it in the person of Christ, I forgave it, i.e., I determined to forgive it (ver. 7), and now by this letter and by the bearer, whether Titus or some other, I forgive it. This is a Hebraism, by which the past is put for the present.
It may be asked, What was it that the Apostle forgave ? I reply,
1. that this forgiveness consisted in giving absolution from excommunication , and at the same time, or rather still more, in giving full indulgence for the incest, i.e., remission of all the penalty due because of it. It is evident from 1 Cor. v. that the punishment inflicted was excommunication, and with it the penalty of ignominious exclusion from the Church, and the handing over of his body to be afflicted by Satan. Here, however, he absolves him from every chain by which he had been bound.
2. To forgive, properly speaking, refers to guilt or punishment. Of excommunication alone is it strictly said, “ I absolve.”
3. He re-admits him to grace, both on account of the zeal of the Corinthians and the contrition of the incestuous person, and relaxes his punishment and shame and rebuke, lest from too much sorrow he should despair. This indulgence is referred to by the word anything . Whatever part of the punishment you have asked may be forgiven him, I forgive him.
4. He remits the punishment not merely, as Calvin thinks, before the Church, but in God’s judgment : this is expressed by the phrase in the person of Christ, otherwise there would not have been any indulgence or mercy shown here to the fornicator. It is better to be visited on earth with infamy and corporal punishment than before the tribunal of God to be handed over to the fire, either of purgatory or of hell.
Hence S. Thomas and others rightly lay down that the Apostle and the Church give indulgences. So, in olden times, martyrs, when in prison, sent to the Bishops men who had lapsed, praying them to relax their punishment, as appears from Tertullian (ad Martyr . c. 1), Cyprian (Epp. 11, 21, 22); and the Council of Nice (c. xi. and xii.) grants to those that have lapsed that, according to the willingness with which they bore the punishment inflicted on them, might the Bishop give indulgence. Cf. Baronius, vol. i. p. 592. Observe that the reason for giving indulgence was the fear that the penitent might despair. Hence, formerly, indulgence was not given unless a good part of the penalty had been paid, and that lest the vigour of discipline and of satisfaction, which is the third part of repentance, should be relaxed. Cf. S. Cyprian (ad Martyr . lib. iii. Epp . 6). The Council of Trent (sess. xxv.), in its decree on indulgences, orders that moderation should be shown in giving indulgences, according to the ancient practice of the Church, lest ecclesiastical discipline should, by excessive leniency, be rendered lax.