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2Co_2:4. Reason assigned for the πεποιθὼς κ . τ . λ … For if I in writing the Epistle had not had that confidence, the Epistle would not have caused me so much grief and so many tears. In the very contrast of this confidence with the necessity of having to write in such a manner lay the great pai.
ἐκ and διά vividly represent the origin of the letter as a going forth and a pressing through: out of much affliction and anxiety of heart I wrote to you through many tears. And this Paul might say, even if he had not himself held the pe.
θλίψις and συνοχή (anxiety, Luk_21:25 : not so among the Greeks, but see Schleusner, Thes. V. p. 212) do not refer to outward, but to inward suffering, as both are defined by καρδίας . Rückert concludes from the calm tone of the first Epistle that Paul “had from prudent consideration known how to impose such restraint on his state of feeling, that the Epistle might not reflect any faithful picture of it.” But this would have been cunning dissimulation, not in keeping with the apostle’s character. No; it was just his specially tender care for the Corinthians which on the one hand increased his pain that he needed to write such rebukes, and on the other hand did not allow his vehement emotion to emerge in that Epistle; hence we must not say that the quiet character of our first Epistle is not psychologically in keeping with the utterance of this passage. In particular, 5 might have caused the apostle anxiety and tears enough, without our needing to suppose an intermediate letter (see on 2Co_2:3).
δακρύων ] Comp. Act_20:19; Act_20:31. Calvin aptly says: “mollitiem testantur, sed magis heroicam, quam fuerit illa ferrea Stoicorum durities.”
οὐχ ἵνα λυπηθῆτε , ἀλλὰ κ . τ . λ .] This added explanation regarding the purpose of his letter, to him so painful, is intended also to corroborate the πεποιθὼς κ . τ . λ ., of which he has given assuranc.
τὴν ἀγάπην ] placed first for emphasi.
περισσοτ .] ἢ ( εἰς ) τοὺς ἄλλους μαθητάς , Theophylact, who, following Chrysostom, also directs attention to the winning tenderness of the words ( καταγλυκαίνει δὲ τὸν λόγον βουλόμενος ἐπισπάσασθαι αὐτούς ). Comp. 2Co_1:12. The love of the apostle for his churches has along with its universality its various degrees, just as the love of a father for his children. The Philippians also were specially dear to him.