2 Corinthians 12:19-21 (HCSB)
You have thought all along that we were defending ourselves to you. No, in the sight of God we are speaking in Christ, and everything, dear friends, is for building you up. For I fear that perhaps when I come I will not find you to be what I want, and I may not be found by you to be what you want; there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder. I fear that when I come my God will again[c] humiliate me in your presence, and I will grieve for many who sinned before and have not repented of the moral impurity, sexual immorality, and promiscuity they practiced.
Paul has no reason to be ashamed of his conduct with the Corinthians, whether it was his conduct while he was with them, or the things he had written to them. And so, he had nothing to justify or apologize for.
Paul’s point here is that everything he had said or written, including the things in this letter and in the other two he had written previously, as well as everything he had done, was for the building up and maturing of the Christians in Corinth. That was his commission as an apostle, and he was being faithful in that commission.
Paul would be arriving in Corinth soon, in just a few weeks, and he wanted above all else for his arrival to be at time of joyous reunion, not a time of accusations and justifications. He knew very well, based on the letters that had been exchanged between himself and the leaders in Corinth, that many who claimed to be part of the Corinthian Church, many who were even leaders, had refused to leave their sinful lifestyles. Still others had returned to their lives of impurity and sexual sin. And, as an apostle, he would be required to confront that sin, and even cast out those who refused to repent.
His desire was that those people would get their lives in order, or be brought under control before Paul got there, so that those issues could be resolved without his having to be involved. The short timeline would discourage the procrastination that so often crops up when a need to confront arises.
Father, it is still easy to procrastinate or overlook even blatant sin in the Church, hoping it will resolve itself on its own, or that subtle messages hidden in sermons will do the work of conviction without requiring more direct action. But usually what happens with those passive “solutions” is that the sin simply grows and spreads. “A little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough.” (Galatians 5:9 HCSB) Paul was proactive because he knew that more than personal reputation or organizational harmony were at stake. Sin can cause widespread destruction and will bring personal condemnation by You, not to mention the fact that it also makes the body of Christ weak, and even completely ineffective at its core duty. Help me, Lord, to never be harsh or needlessly condemning, but to be strong in helping people to see, recognize and deal with the sin in their lives (making sure that there is no log in my own eye), so that the whole body stays healthy. Amen.