Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Corinthians 7:3

"I say it not to condemn [you]: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die together and live together." — 2 Corinthians 7:3 (ASV)

I speak not this to condemn you.—Better, I do not speak as condemning. There is no “you” in the Greek, and the form of expression seems intentionally vague, leaving it an open question whether his words might refer to his readers or to others.

Here we trace a sudden change of feeling. What he had just said seemed to imply that he condemned them for even listening to the slanders that had been circulated against him, or for joining in any measure of outward friendship with people of evil lives. Then, the recollection of all the good news Titus had brought rushes into his memory. Indignation and acute sensitivity are swallowed up in the overflowing thankfulness that this news had produced at the time, and which was now renewed.

I have said before . . .—He had not used this form of expression before, as far as this letter is concerned, but the fact was implied in what he had said in 2 Corinthians 6:11: Our heart is enlarged. The words that follow are partly an almost proverbial expression for strong attachment, as in Horace (Odes, iii. 9): “Tecum vivere amem, tecum obeam libens”—

“With you I would gladly live,
With you I would gladly die;”

partly with a more profound meaning, that, whether in death or life (the order of the words reminds us of dying, but behold, we live, in 2 Corinthians 6:9), his heart and prayers would be with them and for them.