• We wronged no one.
• We corrupted no one.
• We took advantage of no one.

• For we are the temple of the living God.
• As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them,

and I will be their God, and they will be my people." (Lev 12:26)
•  "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.

Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you." (Is 52:11)
• "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

There are things that pollute the body, like smoking and sexual immorality,

"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1Cor 6:18-20 (niv)

"I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people--  not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.  But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat." 1Cor 5:9-11 (niv)

vs 2-3 In contrast to this idea of separation is the idea of developing intimacy not only with God, but also with God's people. And Paul points out that he is not a source of corruption or abuse. Paul desires to be close to the Corinthians, but he is simply reflecting God's own attitude. God wants to have a close relationship with us. We often can forget this in view of our innate sinfulness and God's holiness. Such relationship is not unconditional, as the promises had indicated. It requires an attitude of separation. But also an attitude of obedience, for Jesus said, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." John 14:21 (niv)

vs 4-7 Christians seem so apathetic today compared to the early church. Notice the emotional dependency between Paul and the Christians.

vs 8-12 What's the saying - "you always hurt the ones you love." It is written: Pr 9:8  "Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you." (niv) The Corinthians showed themselves wise in responding properly to rebuke. Godly sorrow has value, being based on conviction of sin, and leading one to repentance, which is why James writes: "Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom." Jas 4:9 (niv) And Jesus, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Mt 5:4 (niv) This is of course contrary to the philosophy of popular feel-good Christianity in which you're not allowed to talk about sin or anything negative that would promote "disunity", the result being the prevalence of immaturity and nominalism in the visible church.

However, it is easy for sorrowful feelings to lead to hatred or despair. Having responded well, Paul wants to make sure that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. So he affirms their response. When you rebuke someone for sin, you are also challenging them to apply their faith, and having done so, helping them to prove to themselves whether they really believe. If there are no challenges in life, no applications of faith, neither is there much opportunity for maturing in the faith.

vs 13-16 We should be happy to hear other Christians doing well. But historic post-Biblical Christianity has contained a great deal of hatred and harsh feelings between Christians, even over trivial things, like methods of water baptism. Many Christians have even been murdered over these kind of things. But among the early churches, though there was a degree of immature divisiveness, like Paul points out in 1Cor 3, yet there was a sense of unity and encouragement at the mutual success and growth of the churches.

Notice also the particular characteristics that encouraged Paul - they were obedient and received him with fear and trembling. Modern Evangelicalism tends towards free-grace antinomial easy-believism theology which tends to discard from the Christian life attributes dealing with behavior and works. Thus many think of Jesus today more of a Santa Claus figure than Lord. But Jesus says, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." John 14:21 (niv) "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him." Col 2:6 (niv) If we believe in Christ with an attitude of obedience, then we will tend to live the Christian life with an attitude of obedience. But if we receive him with an attitude of "I'll accept Christ as Savior, but I'm not going to change my life", then we tend to live the Christian life that way as well. (I would consider such to be merely a nominal faith - believing in vain - having no salvific value)  It was by their obedient behavior that Paul evaluated the Corinthians. For is it not written: "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands." 1John 2:3 (niv) And therefore Paul can be glad and have complete confidence in them.