Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 13:2

"I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, to them that have sinned heretofore, and to all the rest, that, if I come again, I will not spare;" — 2 Corinthians 13:2 (ASV)

I told you before, and foretell you . . .—Better, I have warned you before (referring, probably, to the threat of 1 Corinthians 4:13–19, and implied in 2 Corinthians 1:23).

The chief objects of this rigor were to be those whom he had described previously as “having sinned beforehand” (see Note on 2 Corinthians 12:21); but he adds that his work as judge will extend to all the rest of the offenders. What he has in view is obviously passing a sentence of the nature of an excommunication on the offenders, delivering them to Satan (1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:20), with the assured confidence that that sentence would be followed by some sharp bodily suffering. In that case men would have, as he says in the next verse, a crucial test whether Christ was speaking in him, and learn that he whom they despised as infirm had a reserve-force of spiritual power, showing itself in supernatural effects even in the regions of man’s natural life.