2 Corinthians 2:7 - Exposition

Contrariwise ; i.e. contrary to the line taken or to the view expressed by the severer portion of the community. Rather . The word is omitted in A and B. To forgive him . The word is used of the mutual attitude of gracious forbearance which ought to exist among Christians(Forgiving one another," Ephesians 4:32 ; Colossians 3:13 ), so that they might be not only Christians, but as Gentiles ignorantly called them, Chrestians (" kind-hearted," Ephesians 4:1-32 :82). And comfort ; i.e. "strengthen," "encourage." The "him" is emitted in the Greek, with the same delicate, compassionate reticence which leads St. Paul to speak of this person "a man of such of a kind." In Galatians 6:11 St. Paul suddenly breaks off the course of his remarks to give similar advice in a tone of peculiar solemnity; and in 2 Thessalonians 3:15 he warns against any excess in the severity which he enjoins in the previous verse. Such a one . Like the indefinite "one" in 1 Corinthians 5:5 . In the Greek it is compassionately placed last in the clause. Should be swallowed up . The same metaphor, of being swallowed in an abyss, occurs in 1 Corinthians 15:54 . In 1 Peter 5:8 it is said that Satan is ever striving to "swallow up" men. With overmuch sorrow; rather, with the, or his, excessive grief . Despair might drive the man to suicide, or apostasy, or the wretchlessness of unclean living.