Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 2:13

"I had no relief for my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia." — 2 Corinthians 2:13 (ASV)

I had no rest in my spirit.—Instead of coming himself straight from Ephesus, as he had at first intended (and had probably intimated in the lost letter mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:9, or by Timothy (1 Corinthians 4:17)), or instead of pressing on through Macedonia, as he planned when he wrote the First Epistle (1 Corinthians 16:5), he had sent Titus ahead. Titus (who was himself possibly connected with Corinth—see Note on Acts 18:7) was to ascertain what effects that Epistle had on the Corinthian Church.

Titus was to return to him at Troas. Not meeting him there, St. Paul, in his eager anxiety to hear something more than Timothy had been able to tell him, left Troas, despite the opening it presented for his work as a preacher of the gospel, and hastened on into Macedonia. Taking the route that he had taken before, he would probably go to Philippi, where he would find St. Luke; and we may conjecture, without much risk of error, that it was there that he and Titus met.