2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 13
A Concluding Admonition and Greetings. 2 Cor. 13, 1–14
Paul announces his determination to use all severity, if necessary: V.1. This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. V.2. I told you before and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time, and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare.
Paul here follows his usual method of making the end of his letters as impressive as possible. In a very formal manner he announces: This is the third time that I am coming to you.
This is, in a way. a reminder of Matthew 18, 15-17; for two apostolic visits had gone before, in the course of which Paul had used every form of instruction, of persuasion, of admonition. For his third visit, therefore, he deliberately chooses as his motto: At the mouth of two witnesses or three every statement shall be established.
The disciplinary proceedings which he intended to institute would be rigid and precise. He does not quote this word as a command of Moses which is valid for the New Testament, but because this order of establishing the truth by a sufficient number of witnesses was found good by Christ, Matthew 18, 16. Compare 1 Timothy 5, 19.
Very solemnly and emphatically he again states: I have said beforehand and now do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now in my absence, to those that have sinned before and to all the rest: If I come again, I will not spare.
With great forbearance Paul had suffered the incorrigible transgressors in Corinth. He had warned them upon the occasion of his visit to them, the very presence of his representatives had been tantamount to a warning; he had rebuked their proneness to sins of immorality, chapter 12, 21; he had warned them on account of their tendency to form factions and parties.
His present admonition, therefore, is the last one, for the time comes when forbearance and long-suffering ceases to be a virtue. He can no longer be satisfied with mere appeals that are ignored; he cannot permit his apostolic authority to be challenged and questioned.