But if any has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overburden you all.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
By “you all” Paul means the saints among the Corinthians. For they were divided into those who were saints and those who were not, but it is the former he is addressing here. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
He hath not grieved me. The fornicator did not grieve me only.
But in part. He grieved, says Anselm, many other good men as well as me; those, viz, who banished from their society with ignominy the man that I had already excommunicated.
That I may not overcharge you all. Overcharge you by putting on you the suspicion that there are not many who are grieved on account of the incestuous person. In the First Epistle (v2) he seems to have charged them all with consenting to, or with treating lightly, the sin of incest.
And if any one (he means the same incestuous man) hath caused grief, or caused me to grieve, he hath not grieved me, that is, not me only, but all the virtuous Christians at Corinth: but in part, that I may not charge you all with this fault. The sense seems to be, but in part, that is, it was only one man, and some that joined with him, by showing themselves unconcerned for his scandalous crime, so that I do not blame the rest: or as it was but in part, that is, it was only a passing trouble for a little time, since by admonitions and severities, he soon repented. (Witham)
When last I wrote to you, I was in great anguish on account of the crime of the incestuous man; but my grief was moderated by the consideration of the behaviour of the rest of the Church of Corinth, which had remained steadfast in faith and virtue. (St. Gregory and St. Augustine)
It is not the whole Church of Corinth that has caused me this grief, but only one of you: I say this, that you may not believe that I wi...
Paul’s anger and indignation at the man who had committed fornication was shared by all the Corinthians. He thus softens their anger with him by declaring that they also suffered in his indignation.
Having first praised them as feeling joy and sorrow for the same things as himself, he then strikes into the subject of this person, having said first, my joy is the joy of you all. But if my joy is the joy of you all, need is that you should also now feel pleasure with me, as you then were pained with me: for both in that you were made sorry, you made me glad; and now in that you rejoice, (if as I suppose you shall feel pleasure,) ye will do the same. He said not, my sorrow is the sorrow of you all; but having established this in the rest of what he said, he has now put forward that only which he most desired, namely, the joy: saying, my joy is the joy of you all. Then, he makes mention also of the former matter, saying,
But if any has caused sorrow he has caused sorrow not to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) to you all.
I know, he says, that you shared in my anger and indignation against him that had committed fornication, and that what had taken place grieved in ...
But if ye shall have forgiven any, so (do) I; for I, too, if I have forgiven ought, have forgiven in the person of Christ, lest we be overreached by Satan, since we are not ignorant of his injections."
