11See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. 12So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. 13By all this we are encouraged.
In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. 14I had boasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well. 15And his affection for you is all the greater when he remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling. 16I am glad I can have complete confidence in you.
Dig Deeper
Years ago while I was teaching high school, I had a class of students that was a fun but a particularly rowdy bunch. The thing was that this class had 8 or 10 of the most difficult-to-handle students in the entire school. They were usually pretty good for me but could have a great tendency to give other teachers fits. We were having a guest speaker come in to my class one day, a guest who was also a friend of mine. I was a little bit nervous as to how they would respond to and treat my friend, and to make matters worse, I was going to have to be gone that day, so another teacher was filling in for me in that class. Yet, I was convinced that they had learned how to behave and told my friend that I was confident that the class would be great. To make a long story short, things didn’t go very well at all; they gave the guest a very hard time. I was quite embarrassed and my credibility was damaged.
The situation here is almost precisely the opposite. Paul was unsure of how the Corinthians would react to him. He decided to send Titus to them in reconciliation rather than having to come himself in judgment. Before going, however, Titus was seemingly hesitant, not sure of how the Corinthians would treat him based on their difficulties with Paul. Paul was confident in the fact that God had been working in and through the Corinthians and that they would receive him well. Yet, he was extremely anxious over the situation, and it only get worse when Titus didn’t return right away. There was much that was on the line here for Paul. The Corinthians were his letter of recommendation (2 Cor. 3:2-3). They were the embodiment of his ministry and how they acted would either vindicate or indict his ministry of the gospel. Imagine Paul’s relief and pure joy when he finally did hook up with Titus and found out that not only did the Corinthians receive Titus well, but Titus had loved his time with the Corinthians and had been greatly refreshed.
As we have seen previously, some people in the Corinthian congregation had incited many others against the leadership of Paul and challenged the legitimacy of his apostleship. Paul has warned the entire congregation that rejecting him was really a rejection of the gospel itself, and would endanger them of joining the ranks of unbelievers (6:14). He had also charged them, as a congregation, with not defending him and his ministry the way that they should have. When Paul sent Titus, he found complete repentance on their part, but he also found that just as Paul was anxious to see if they would accept him and Titus on his behalf, the Corinthians were anxious to see if Paul would accept them. They had taken action in their repentance and had demonstrated true, godly sorrow, but for them, it remained to be seen if Paul would give his blessing and accept them once again into the type of relationship they had had with him at first.
This is what he means in verse 12, which would otherwise seem a bit strange. In verse 11, Paul holds up a mirror and says “just look at how true repentance has shown in your lives.” It had produced earnestness to repair their status as Paul’s spiritual children. Paul then lists a process of six other corollaries that come as a result of earnestness, each resulting from the previous action. The majority of the congregation had taken action on their repentance, including pronouncing judgment and enacting punishment on at least one individual who had spoken out against Paul (2:6). Now Paul wants to reassure them that they have demonstrated godly repentance and that he has accepted them once again with open arms. They needed to see the fruit and sincerity of their own repentance. It is amazing and challenging for us as Paul’s readers so far removed from this situation to see that Paul was the injured party and yet even here his primary concern is for them. He wants them to know and embrace the work of God in their life and to see his glory reflecting off of their faces as the work of the Messiah and the Spirit takes hold in their lives (2 Cor. 3:18).
This repentance has given Paul great encouragement, but he is even more encouraged to see that everything he told Titus about them has been vindicated. God really is working in their lives and through Paul’s ministry. This must have been an incredible mixture of joy, encouragement, relief, and vindication all rolled together into one. This is a special relief for Paul, because his credibility has been brought into question in Corinth. Their repentance has shown Paul to be credible in two major ways. First, he has been proven credible in telling the Corinthians about the power of the gospel to change the lives of people who would be obedient to it. That has certainly happened in the case of the Corinthian Church. Second, he has been shown credible in his confidence in them and God’s power. Had Titus arrived and found that they had not punished the offender(s) or that they would not receive Titus well, then Paul would have been proven to be a wishful thinker who was at best engaging in unfounded optimism. The situation has shown that Paul is not interested in looking good or making up lies to foster a good reputation, he is only interested in the truth of the Messiah in their lives.
Titus got to Corinth, though, and was greatly encouraged by their humility in obedience and that they received him with fear and trembling. This is probably an allusion to Isaiah 19:16, which describes the dread that will come over Egypt when it realizes that God has raised up against her. This further demonstrates Paul’s belief that rejecting him was a rejection of the gospel and of the true God. Those in Corinth have realized that and have responded appropriately to the severity of the situation. Because of this Paul affirms once again (v. 4) that he can have great confidence in them. Paul is still walking a fine line here between being encouraged and being affirmed by those who have repented and still wanting to bring back into the fold those who haven’t fully done so yet. His hope, no doubt, was that the encouraging, but firm tone of this letter will accomplish that. He ends this section on a positive tone, though, which will put him in a much better situation to move on to the topic of his next section: the completion of his collection, and event that will require great financial sacrifice on the part of the Corinthians.
Devotional Thought
Paul and the Corinthians have been through a great deal together? Yet they both have demonstrated a great deal of humility, forgiveness, and love. When someone offends you, do you show this kind of forgiveness and acceptance or do you tend to hang on to bitterness? In Ephesians 4:31 we are told to “get rid of all bitterness.” Have you done that? Is there any bitterness that you are hanging on to?
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