John Calvin Commentary 2 Corinthians 13:1

"This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses or three shall every word established." — 2 Corinthians 13:1 (ASV)

This will be the third. He goes on to reprove still further the insolence of those about whom he had been speaking. Some of them were living in profligacy and licentiousness, while others, carrying on contentions and strife among themselves, cared nothing for his reproof. For his discourse did not apply to the entire body of the church, but to certain diseased and half-rotten members of it.

Hence, he now uses sharpness with greater freedom, because he is dealing with particular individuals, not with the whole body of the people. And besides this, it was with persons of such a character that he perceived he would do them no good with kindness and mild remedies.

After having spent a year and a half among them (Acts 18:11), he had visited them a second time. Now he forewarns them that he will come to them a third time, and he says that his three comings to them will be in the place of three witnesses. He quotes the law regarding the authority of witnesses; not in the natural and literal sense, as it is called, but by accommodation, or analogy, applying it to his particular purpose.

“The declaration of the law,” he says, “is that we must rest on the testimony of two or three witnesses to put an end to disputes” (Deuteronomy 19:15).

For the word established means that a decision is pronounced regarding a matter, so that the strife may cease. “I, indeed, am but one individual, but coming a third time I will have the authority of three witnesses, or, my three comings will be in the place of three testimonies.” For the threefold effort that was made for their welfare and perseverance, tested on three different occasions, could with good reason be held equivalent to three persons.