Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 2:7

"so that contrariwise ye should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow." — 2 Corinthians 2:7 (ASV)

You ought rather to forgive.—The indignation which St. Paul had felt has passed, on his hearing of the offender’s state, into pity and anxiety. The time had come for words of pardon, comfort, and counsel. What if he should be swallowed up, and sink as in the great deep of sorrow? Suicide, madness, apostasy, seem to float before his mind as all too possible results.