2 Corinthians 2:8

Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) That ye would confirm your love.—The word for “confirm” (better, perhaps, ratify—comp. Galatians 3:15) suggests the thought of an act as formal and public as the rebuke had been. The excommunicated man was to be re-admitted to fellowship by a collective act of the Church.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:5-11 The apostle desires them to receive the person who had done wrong, again into their communion; for he was aware of his fault, and much afflicted under his punishment. Even sorrow for sin should not unfit for other duties, and drive to despair. Not only was there danger last Satan should get advantage, by tempting the penitent to hard thoughts of God and religion, and so drive him to despair; but against the churches and the ministers of Christ, by bringing an evil report upon Christians as unforgiving; thus making divisions, and hindering the success of the ministry. In this, as in other things, wisdom is to be used, that the ministry may not be blamed for indulging sin on the one hand, or for too great severity towards sinners on the other hand. Satan has many plans to deceive, and knows how to make a bad use of our mistakes.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him - The word rendered here as "confirm" (κυρῶσαι kurōsai) occurs in the New Testament only here and in Galatians 3:15. It means to give authority, to establish as valid, to confirm; and here means that they should give strong expressions and assurances of their love to him; that they should pursue such a course as would leave no room for doubt in regard to it. Tyndale has well rendered it: "Wherefore I exhort you that love may halve strength over him." Paul referred, doubtless, here to some public act of the church by which the sentence of excommunication might be removed, and by which the offender might have a public assurance of their favor.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. confirm your love toward him—by giving effect in act, and showing in deeds your love; namely, by restoring him to your fellowship and praying for his recovering from the sickness penally inflicted on him.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That you would restore him to a communion with you in your church assemblies, and take him into the bosom of your church again, and be (as before) friendly towards him. The word which we translate

confirm; is kurwsai, which signifieth authoritatively to establish or confirm. Some observe, that the apostle speaks to them as judges, to gain their good opinion, and make them more pliable, whereas he might authoritatively have absolved him. It is hard: to say what authority the apostles had, or had not, to excommunicate; but we want a precedent in holy writ of the apostles, or any of them, exercising such a power, as being absent, and so in no capacity to hear the proof of any fact against scandalous persons. Paul {1 Corinthians 5:1-13} writes to the church of Corinth to do it, and doth only himself command them to do their duty; and here again he writeth to them to forgive him, and restore him. There being no mention, either in the former Epistle, or here, of any command that the incestuous person should put away his wife taken unlawfully, or that he did any such thing in testification of his repentance, makes it very probable, that his crime was not using his father’s wife as his wife, but as his harlot; had it been otherwise, we should, very probably, have read of something in the one or the other place, signifying such a command of the apostle, or the thing done by him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Wherefore I beseech you,.... Or exhort you:

that ye would confirm your love towards him: express your love to him in the most kind and tender manner, show the same, and as strong love to him as you did before, and as if he had never offended; receive him as a brother in the most affectionate manner, and embrace him with the most endearing expressions of respect and friendship; and let your reception of him in this kind and friendly way be with the full consent, and by the joint vote and suffrage of the whole church, for so the word translated "confirm" signifies; for as the ejection of a person out of a church must be done by the decree and vote of the church, or it is not authentic, so the reception of a person into it must be in like manner; and since this was to be done by the suffrage of the church, the apostle beseeches and exhorts them to do it.

Geneva Study Bible

Wherefore I beseech you that ye would {g} confirm your love toward him.

(g) That at my entreaty you would declare by the consent of the whole church, that you take him again as a brother.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Corinthians 2:8. Κυρῶσαι εἰς αὐτ. ἀγάπ.] to resolve in reference to him love—i.e. through a resolution of the church to determine regarding him, that he be regarded and treated as an object of Christian brotherly love. On κυροῦν, of a resolution valid in law, comp. Herodotus, vi. 86, 126; Thuc. viii. 69; Polyb. i. 11. 3, i. 17. 1; Diod. Sic. ii. 9; Galatians 3:15; Genesis 23:20; 4Ma 7:9. See Blomfield, ad Aesch. Prom. Gloss. 70, and Pers. 232. Here also (comp. on 2 Corinthians 2:6) Rückert again finds a prudent measure of the apostle, whereby the form, if not also the thing (the apostolic approval), is saved. A diplomacy, which would be the opposite of 2 Corinthians 1:13.

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Corinthians 2:8. διὸ παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς κ.τ.λ.: wherefore I beseech you (or “exhort you,” see on 2 Corinthians 1:4) to confirm your love toward him. Authority “to bind” and “to loose” had been committed to the Apostles (Matthew 18:18); St. Paul had exercised the former function (1 Corinthians 5:5), and he now discharges the latter. The various meanings of παρακαλεῖν have been noted above (on 2 Corinthians 1:4); it is interesting to observe here how the word is used in one sense in 2 Corinthians 2:7, and in another in close sequence in 2 Corinthians 2:8 (cf. the two senses of παραδίδωμι in 1 Corinthians 11:23). For ἀγάπη see on 2 Corinthians 2:4 above.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. Wherefore I beseech you, that you would confirm your love towards him] The word ‘your’ is not in the original. It is not their love, but love itself, the fundamental principle (see 1 Corinthians 13:1; 1 John 4:8; 1 John 4:16) of the Christian covenant. The word here rendered confirm is used of the ratification, i.e. by some public act or token, of a covenant. See Galatians 3:15; Galatians 3:17, where the same word is used in the original. The Vulgate, Calvin, Wiclif, the Geneva and Rhemish versions render confirm, Tyndale and Cranmer that love may have strength.

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Corinthians 2:8. Κυρῶσαι, to confirm) the κῦρος is connected with love, not with sorrow. The majesty of the ecclesiastical government and discipline consists in love. It is this, which reigns. קם, LXX., κυροῦσθαι, Genesis 23:20; Leviticus 25:30.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - To confirm your love toward him; literally, to ratify towards him, love. 2 Corinthians 2:8

Vincent's Word Studies

Confirm your love (κυρῶσαι ἀγάπην)

The verb is found only here and Galatians 3:15. From κύρος supreme power, authority. Hence to take judicial resolution to treat the offender with brotherly love.