2 Corinthians 2:2

2 If by merely showing up I would put you in an embarrassingly painful position, how would you then be free to cheer and refresh me?

2 Corinthians 2:2 Meaning and Commentary

2 Corinthians 2:2

For if I make you sorry
That is, should he come among them, and be the means of fresh grief and sorrow:

who is he then that maketh me glad?
such was his love and affection for them, and sympathy with them, that should they be grieved, he should grieve also; they were the only persons he could take any delight in at Corinth; wherefore should they be in heaviness, he would be so too, and then what pleasure would he have in being among them? since not a man of them would be in a condition and capacity to make him cheerful:

but the same which is made sorry by me.
The Ethiopic version without any authority reads this clause, "except he whom I have made glad"; but the apostle is to be understood either of some particular man, the incestuous person, who had been made sorry, by that awful punishment of being delivered up to Satan, inflicted on him; or else the singular number being put for the plural collectively, is to be understood of all the members of the church at Corinth, who had been greatly grieved by the sharp reproofs he had given them; and therefore unless this trouble was removed, he could not expect to have much comfort and pleasure with them.

2 Corinthians 2:2 In-Context

1 That's why I decided not to make another visit that could only be painful to both of us.

2 If by merely showing up I would put you in an embarrassingly painful position, how would you then be free to cheer and refresh me?

3 That was my reason for writing a letter instead of coming - so I wouldn't have to spend a miserable time disappointing the very friends I had looked forward to cheering me up. I was convinced at the time I wrote it that what was best for me was also best for you.

4 As it turned out, there was pain enough just in writing that letter, more tears than ink on the parchment. But I didn't write it to cause pain; I wrote it so you would know how much I care - oh, more than care - love you!

5 Now, regarding the one who started all this - the person in question who caused all this pain - I want you to know that I am not the one injured in this as much as, with a few exceptions, all of you. So I don't want to come down too hard.