II Corinthians 2:2 For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?
Sometimes I get lost in my own world. My kids always know when I am lost when, after supper, I push back from the table and get this glazed-over look. I am seated in my chair in the room with my family, but I am not really there. I am gone. I am somewhere else. I am in my own world! Do you know anyone like that? Are you ever like that? The things is, no one really has their “own world.” No one lives to or by themselves. That is why the way we live is so important.
Paul had addressed a church that had allowed sin into their midst. There was one man in particular that had been involved in grave immorality. Paul addressed that head on, and it had been hard. In II Corinthians 2 he says, “But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?” In other words, Paul is saying, “If I make you sorry, who is going to make me glad?”
There is a connection that Paul acknowledges. Verse 3 says, “And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.” When I am part of the body of Christ, sin doesn’t just affect me, it affects other people around me. They may not even know of my sin, but it does affect them. Someone may say, “Well, my sin is not hurting anyone else.” That is selfishness and self-delusion. It is sheer folly. Of course it hurts someone else! No one lives to themselves, and no one dies to themselves.
Joy and sorrow are contagious. Have you ever known someone who could brighten up the room when they left? Or someone else who brought joy to the room when they came? Those things are contagious. Verse 5 says, “But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.” Paul is saying that this offense didn’t just grieve him, it grieved everybody because we don’t live or die to ourselves.
Verse 10 says, “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also; for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ.” Again, Paul finds that his forgiveness or lack of it is something that affects other people. “I did it for your sakes,” he says.
At the end of your week, summer, or life, what will commend you, what will speak of who you actually are? Paul says in the next chapter, “I don’t need a letter of commendation because you are our letter of commendation.” People in your world should be better for it. My children should be better for being my children. My church should be a more joy-filled place because of my being a part of it. All of us affect other people. Let us ask for God’s grace to make a positive difference in the lives of others.