And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall mourn over many who have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and licentiousness which they have committed.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul is saying that some have repented but others have not. This contradicts Novatian, who claims that fornicators cannot repent or be received back into communion. Paul is affirming that they have indeed repented, and because of this they have been received back into the peace of the church. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Lest my God will humble me among you. Lest He sadden me, and cause me to sorrowfully punish many of you, viz, those who persist in their sins. The Apostle"s words point to the public penance inflicted on those who were strictly called penitents. Cf. Augustine (Ep. ad Salvinam, 108).
Just as the Apostle and every preacher rejoice chiefly in the progress of their disciples, and to be able to say, "Ye are my joy and crown," so do they mourn most to see them fall away into sin, and make no return for all their exhortations and labour. Again, such an one is forced to punish against his will and with grief. The words of Nero at the beginning of his rule are well known: when obliged to sign a sentence of capital punishment against some criminals, he exclaimed: "Would that I knew not letters."
And have not repented of the uncleanness. Oftheir effeminacy and other lusts, which make them sin against nature, and subject her to violence. The Apostle draws a distinction between uncleanness and fo...
And yet to these persons themselves repentance is granted, and the hope of lamenting and atoning is left, according to the saying of the same apostle: "I fear lest, when I come to you, I shall bewail many of those who have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness which they have committed.".
Also in the same: "But I fear lest perchance, when I come to you, God may again humble me among you, and I shall bewail many of those who have sinned before, and have not repented, for that they have committed fornication and lasciviousness."
Concerning those who though within the church persisted in their evil deeds, he spoke thus to the Corinthians with these words of comfort: “I fear that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, immorality and licentiousness they practiced.” The apostle would not be saddened or humiliated in mourning over them if he believed that the forgiveness of sins would be granted to sinners and the wicked who continue to exasperate the divine justice without conversion of heart. The forgiveness of sins has no effect except in the conversion of the heart. We refer to those who have been converted by divine aid through the exercise of their own freedom of choice and whose lives are genuinely changed for the better. These converts will still occasionally sin, either through ignorance or through the stubbornness of a will that is knowingly lured by evil. They do not, however, stop asking ...
Paul would come as their accuser and judge, and yet he regards this as a humbling from God, not as a cause of exaltation. He had no desire to assume such an unpleasant role.
And the word again, too, is as smiting them. For he means, 'What happened before is enough;' as he said also in the beginning [of the Epistle], to spare you, I came not as yet to Corinth. Chap. 1:18, 23 Do you see how he shows both indignation and tender affection? But what means, will humble me? And yet this is glorious rather, to accuse, to take vengeance, to call to account, to be seated in the place of judge; howbeit he calls it a humbling. So far was he from being ashamed of that [cause of] humbling, because, his bodily presence was weak, and his speech of no account, that he wished to be even for ever in that case, and deprecated the contrary. And he says this more clearly as he proceeds; and he counts this to be especially humbling, to be involved in such a necessity as the present, of punishing and taking vengeance. And wherefore did he not say, 'lest when I come I shall be humbled,' but, lest when I come my God will humble me. 'Because had it not been for His sake, I should ha...
For in saying, toward the end of the Epistle, "Lest, when I shall have come, God humble me, and I bewail many of those who have formerly sinned, and have not repented of the impurity which they have committed, the fornication, and the vileness"
