2 Corinthians 1:23 to 2 Corinthians 2:4. Paul now states the real and sufficient reason for his apparent vacillation. He had already paid a visit to Corinth (cf. 2 Corinthians 13:2) which had been full of pain to himself as well as to others. It had become only too probable that another visit would lead to even sadder experiences. In fact, it was to spare them that he had not fulfilled his promise. Not that it was true, as some said, that he wished to dictate to them in matters of faith. Far from that, the object of himself and his fellow-workers was simply to cooperate with the church in cultivating their joy. In respect of their faith they were fully established.
Was it likely that the apostle would come a second time to cause pain, when the very people he would pain would be the people on whom he depended for joy? Instead of coming he had sent a letter (the lost epistle), in which he probably explained why he was not coming, as well as dealt faithfully with their want of loyalty to himself. By that letter he had hoped to bring them into such a frame of mind that he might exchange sorrow for joy, and once more that joy would not be for himself alone, but shared by them and him. That letter had been written in what was little less than an agony of pain and anxiety a description which cannot be applied to our First Epistle and yet its purpose was not to give pain but to prove the reality of Paul's affection.