NOTES for 2 Кор 2:10-11
Much has been said and written about forgiveness over two thousand years of Christian history. Even in pre-Christian times, even in the pagan world, the ability and readiness to forgive was a sign of righteousness. The same, to an even greater degree, applies to righteousness as the authors of the biblical books understood it: without forgiveness it is unthinkable, and God's people knew this long before the coming of Christ.
Still, there is something in the apostle's words that was still unthinkable in pre-Christian times, so unthinkable that no one even had occasion to speak of anything like it. "Whomever I have forgiven, I forgive for your sake before the face of Christ." Of course, before the coming of Christ this was not possible. And the point is not only that the risen Christ Himself becomes the witness of every act of forgiveness as a moment of restoring the relationships without which the life of the Kingdom is impossible.
The apostle's words imply something far greater: he is speaking about the Church, about the body of Christ, about its wholeness and integrity. Indeed, the unity and integrity of the body of Christ cannot be preserved or secured by any external means. The laws of the untransformed world allow human communities whose members are joined by shared views or interests while still not forming spiritual unity.
But in the Kingdom communities of that sort are impossible, and still less can the Church, the body of Christ, exist in such a form. Here the spiritual component of every relationship comes to the foreground. And if someone has something against one of his neighbors, nothing that can bind those two within the framework of the untransformed world will enter the Kingdom.
Whatever their relationship in the untransformed world, however deep and fruitful it appears, unless what hinders these people on the spiritual level is removed, on the level of a personal relationship conditioned by nothing earthly, they will not become part of the Kingdom. And on the level of personal relationship the problem is resolved only in the act of forgiveness. That is why, perhaps, Paul speaks of Satan's schemes being destroyed by forgiveness: mutual unforgiveness is exactly what separates people from the Kingdom. And the apostle reminds the addressees of his letter of this. He reminds them so that in the daily bustle they will not forget what matters most. And will not lose the Kingdom.