Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
All Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 2:11 Go To 2 Corinthians 2
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Lest Satan should get an advantage over us. Lest we be deceived, and lest that fornicator be, by excessive severity, driven by Satan to despair. The Greek verb means, lest we be seized unjustly, and taken possession of by Satan, just as misers, usurers, and tyrants defraud, and rob, and oppress. Hence Ambrose renders it, "Lest we be possessed by Satan." For, as Theophylact says, when Satan catches and deceives souls, he does not seize what is his own but what is ours and Christ"s. Hence Tertullian (de Pudicit. c. xiii.) reads for the following clause: "We are not ignorant of his devices," "We are not ignorant of his robberies."
For we are not ignorant of his devices. Plutarch relates an excellent saying of Chabrias, that "he is the best commander who knows intimately the plans of the enemy." In like manner he is the best Christian soldier and captain who knows thoroughly the devices and machinations of Satan. He transforms himself into an angel of light, that that which is a suggestion of our enemy the devil may seem to be the counsel of a friendly angel. We often experience suggestions of evil surmisings, bitterness of soul, anger, moroseness, cowardice, and we think that we are moved by some good cause and by reason, and that these things come forth from our own minds, when all the time they proceed from the devil, who suggests them to our ruin. The Christian, therefore, should, in such cases, reflect whether these suggestions are in accordance with charity, humility, patience, grace, and the law of Christ, and if he finds them to be opposed, let him be sure that they are of the devil: if he is in doubt, let him take counsel with his confessor, his superior, or some prudent man. S. Anthony, by long experience, learnt this and taught it: he was in the habit of constantly laying bare and explaining to his disciples, the arts and devices of the devil, and of pointing out the way to defeat them, as we read in the life of him by Athanasius. S. Francis, too, frequently did the same thing, and so freed many of his followers from the devil"s temptations, as S. Bonaventura relates (Visa, lib. i. c11).
In this way, then, Satan was instigating the leaders of the Corinthian Church to show anger and indignation against this fornicator for having so foully stained the first purity of his Church, to the end that, being deprived of all comfort and hope, he might lose all heart and become desperate. Paul saw through this intent of Satan, and here exposes it, and bids them receive the fornicator once more into grace, and give him, on his penitence, pardon and remission.
