Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 2 Corinthians 12:21

"lest again when I come my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for many of them that have sinned heretofore, and repented not of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they committed." — 2 Corinthians 12:21 (ASV)

Paul expresses a threefold apprehension that the present letter might not be wholly successful and that the Corinthians, by harboring Judaizing intruders and persisting in sin, would contribute to weakening, not consolidating, their church fellowship.

(1) Paul was concerned about the outcome of his impending visit to the Corinthians (v.20a). Would they be mutually disappointed and embarrassed—Paul by the church’s questioning of his apostleship and their refusal to break with sins of the spirit (v.20b) and of the flesh (v.21b), and the Corinthians by Paul’s vigorous exercise of church discipline (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:21; 5:3– 5)?

(2) The apostle is fearful that the sins that seemed endemic to Corinth (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:11–12, 31; 3:3; 4:6; 5:2, 11; 8:1; 11:18; 14:33, 40) should still be rife as a consequence of the unrest and disorder created by the Palestinian intruders (v.20b).

(3) Finally, Paul fears a repetition of humiliation under God’s hand that he had experienced on his second visit—i.e., the “painful visit” (2:1). Any future humiliation would stem from his acute disappointment at the Corinthians’ preference for domineering false apostles (11:20) and their supercilious attitude toward him (cf. 1 Corinthians 4:18–19), as well as from his grief over those who had consistently rejected his call to holiness and were continuing unrepentant in their earlier gross sexual sins.