Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 10:9

"that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by my letters." — 2 Corinthians 10:9 (ASV)

That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.—The logical sequence of thought is: “I say this” (i.e., that my sentence of delivery to Satan will not be a hollow form) “so that I may not seem to frighten you as with an empty threat.” This, it is clear from what follows, had been said. (Compare the sneer in the next verse.) The use of the plural in this verse and in what follows is in favor of the hypothesis that a lost letter is being referred to in 1 Corinthians 5:9, but it does not absolutely prove it.