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The Sorrow
Paul encouraged the church not only by sending them letters but also by visiting them. And in 2 Corinthians 2, we can tell that his encouragement for the church sometimes involved rebuking. In that chapter, Paul talked about his past visit to the Corinthian church that brought sorrow to them. Than what was the cause of their sorrow? Why did Paul had to rebuke the church?
“For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you.”
- 2 Corinthians 2:1
The Cause
As Paul wrote in chapter 2, the sorrow was caused by the sin of church member. Because by Paul’s rebuke for his / her sin, people had to face the reality of this problem in the church. As you can tell from the story mentioned in 1 Corinthians, this was not the sin of the entire church, but it was the sin of one person. But it turned out to be the cause of sorrow of entire church.
“For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.”
- 2 Corinthians 2:6-7
The Sin in the Corinthian Church
By reading the reference verses and also some commentaries, I think that the sin that Paul talked about in 2 Corinthians 2 was the sexual immorality which he mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5. As Paul said in that chapter, the sin of immorality in the church was so serious that Paul described it as “the sins that is not seen even among the Gentiles.”. There was a man, who had his father’s wife. In 1 Corinthian 5, but he even said that he delivered this man to Satan.
“It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.”
- 1 Corinthians 5:1
The Immorality in the Church
The sin of sexually Immorality became a serious problem in the church, not only with the person who did it but also with the church people who surrounds the person. As it’s written in 1 Corinthians 5, not only that they did not punish the sexual immoral people but they boasted and did not even try to get rid of this sin from the church. Instead of feeling sorrow, they were pleased with themselves. So Paul declared punishment to the sexual immoral people and handed them to Satan temporally so that his spirit will be forgiven in the day of the Lord. So Paul had to write a letter to comfort them and to encourage them, so that the same sort of thing will not happen again in the church.
The Punishment and the Forgiveness
Paul told the church to forgive and comfort the one who sinned, because he earned enough judgement for what he did. Paul punished him by handing him to Satan. But this does not mean that he abandoned him permanently but it was a temporal thing for him to repent, so that he will be brought back to Christ. But this punishment brought a great sorrow to the church, so Paul told them to forgive the repented sexual immoral person, so that he will not be swallowed up with such a sorrow. As Paul said in 2 Corinthian 2:10, forgiving someone also means that forgiving that person in the presence of Christ. So the forgiveness is a very responsible thing.
“Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ…”
- 2 Corinthians 2:10
Paul the Helper of Joy
As you can tell from this chapter, the letters by Paul or his visits to the church was sometimes a joy for the church, but like this case, it sometimes brought in sorrow. Because Paul’s work for the church was to encourage their faith, so that they will be able stand firm with their strong faith. In order to achieve that mission, he sometime gave them harsh words to rebuke them for their sins, or he sometime encouraged them for they good works. And he did all these things by love in Christ as the “helper of joy (1:24)”.
“Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.”
- 2 Corinthians 1:24
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