Paul’s Mourning over those who have Not Repented, 2 Corinthians 12:21

When Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians, he feared he would later come to them and find that they had not repented of their underlying mixed motives and attitudes of self-centered worship and sensual focus. The result would be the same strife and disorder he had reproved in his first letter.

A few chapters later in 2 Corinthians, Paul expresses his fear that, having written now two letters to the Corinthians, he may come to Corinth and find that the church there continued to be divided by strife, still having among themselves many who had not repented of their previous divisive attitudes and practices:

Again, do you think that we are excusing ourselves to you? In the sight of God we speak in Christ. But all things, beloved, are for your edifying.  For I am afraid that by any means, when I come, I might find you not the way I want to, and that I might be found by you as you don’t desire, that by any means there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, or riots, that again when I come my God would humble me before you, and I would mourn for many of those who have sinned before now, and not repented (metanoēsantōn) of the uncleanness, sexual immorality, and lustfulness which they committed.

2 Corinthians 12:19-21 (WEB)

This passage contains two causally-related lists of evils. Paul wrote that he feared that, despite all his efforts, he would arrive in Corinth and find the church there to still be characterized by the evils on the first list because they had never repented of the second list. The first list, given in verse 20, speaks of outward signs of the previous sin-stricken condition of the Corinthian church: “strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, or riots.”

The list of attitudes which is presented as causal, and as in need of repentance, is the second list, given in verse 21. It speaks to the inward attitudes which led to the divisive outward signs listed in verse 20. Common English translations, and a long interpretive tradition, make verse 21 into a sentence dealing exclusively with sexual sins by translating akatharsia (WEB: “uncleanness”) and aselgeia (WEB: “sensuality”) in this context as if they were near synonyms of porneia (WEB: “sexual immorality”), which they are not. This approach, in fact, obscures the true purpose of verse 21, which is broader than, rather than narrower than, verse 20, and speaks to underlying motivations.

All three of these underlying motivations are included in the “deeds of the flesh” (Galatians 5:19) that are contrasted to the clearly motivational “fruit of the spirit” in the remainder of that passage:

 Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality (porneia), uncleanness (akatharsia), lustfulness (aselgeia), idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:19-23

The first attitude on this list is akatharsia, commonly translated in this verse as something like “uncleanness.” This word can include sexual impurity, but it is really much broader than this. It is conceptually the substance or property that renders anything that is adulterated, un-washed or ritually un-cleansed (akathartos: prefix a-, not, plus kathartos, washed or ritually cleansed) unfit for use. A broader and more accurate translation of the word would be containing a “wrong (prohibited) mixture” or “not free from wrong mixture.” (See the discussions of the related words kathaírō and katharós on Bible Hub). It refers to the attitude of “mixed motives”–allowing ourselves to do things that are really done to serve ourselves while deceiving ourselves by believing and professing that we are really serving Christ in these matters.

The state of akatharsia, mixed motives, is really the root cause of all of the other conditions and outward behaviors on both lists. This is demonstrated by the ways in which the word is used elsewhere in the New Testament.

In addition to its use in the passage here discussed, the word akatharsia is used nine other times in the New Testament: Matthew 23:27, Romans 1:24, Romans 6:19, Galatians 5:19, Ephesians 4:19, Ephesians 5:3, Colossians 3:5, 1 Thessalonians 2:3 and 1 Thessalonians 4:7. It can be conceded that, in its context in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, akatharsia refers specifically to the mixed motives that underly specifically sexual sins, although in verse 7 it appears in fact, to be used much more broadly than this, as the antonym of “holiness” (hagiasmō). It can also be conceded that there are sexual implications in the Romans 1:20-28 context, in which people who have first rejected the knowledge of God are said to be, in return, given over by God in their idolatry to all of the impurity (akatharsia) of their own hearts, which in turn leads to degrading sexual practices. But the remaining six passages use the word akatharsia in ways that do not appear to be primarily sexual, but, rather, to apply to any kind of mixture of good and evil in our motives.

On the other hand, in Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 4:17-19 and Colossians 3:5, akatharsia is used in a manner similar to its usage in the passage at issue in this article, in that it is included as only one element of a list of improper motives some or most of which are not sexual in any obvious. This is probably the clearest in the list of “works of the flesh,” in Galatians 5:19-21, a list of fifteen evil “works” of which only four are, even arguably, sexual in content. In Ephesians 5:3, akatharsia is placed in the middle of a list of three improper motivational states, only the first of which is arguably strictly sexual, and the last of which clearly is not: “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity (akatharsia), or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.” Finally, the list of our earthly “members” in Colossians 3:5 ends with “greed,” and also includes “passion” (pathos) and all kinds of “evil desires” (epithymían kakēn), a very general pair of concepts which includes both voluntary emotional focus (epithymía) on evil things and strong passions (pathos) that come on us involuntarily drawing us to evil things, if not rejected.

In further contrast, Paul’s use of the word in speaking of his own motives in preaching in 1 Thessalonians 2:3 is commonly quite properly translated as something like simply “impure,” or mixed, “motives:” “For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives (akatharsias), nor are we trying to trick you.” While Paul had been accused of being a fraud, of trying out of selfish motives to trick people into joining his sect, there is no hint anywhere in the New Testament that he had ever been accused of having impure sexual motives in his ministry. Similarly, in Matthew 23:27, Jesus used akatharsia in speaking of the motives of the scribes and Pharisees–men whose outward sexual behavior was the purest of the pure: “ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness (akatharsia).” In the preceding portion of Matthew 23, Jesus had accused this group of pride, arrogance, envy, greed, ostentatious display of their religion to build their own following, hypocrisy, rigid legalism, and jealously doing their best to keep others out of the kingdom of God–but not of any sins that were even arguably sexual.

But the point of the breadth of the word akatharsia is made most pointedly by its use in Romans 6:19, in which Paul states that, before we yielded to Christ, we were in bondage to another–to the weakness of our own flesh–in which we yielded to impurity (akatharsia) and lawlessness (anomia), leading to more lawlessness. The state of not recognizing any law, not recognizing God’s right to rule over us (“lawlessness”) flowed from a state of having impure–improperly mixed–motives (akatharsia), a state Paul further explains in the next chapter of Romans: although we wanted to do what is right, this was mixed with the “law of sin” that was at work in our bodies, making us also want to do evil, so we found ourselves actually doing evil rather than the good we wanted to do. Romans 7:14-23. Compare Romans 2:14-15, explaining that even Gentiles show the effects of God’s requirements written on their hearts, in that their consciences sometimes accuse them but at other times defend them–they remain capable of both evil and good.

The second motivation named as requiring repentance is porneia. I have often heard it preached that porneia, and its related verb porneúō, are “very broad” words that refer to absolutely any discrete sexual or sexually-motivated act, thought, or emotional state that occurs outside the context of a private act of ordinary sexual intercourse between a man and a woman lawfully married to each other carried out solely for its divinely-ordained purpose. Traditional Christian denominations and individual preachers have always disagreed somewhat on exactly how few acts fall within the “ordinary” range and on how restricted the “divinely-ordained purpose” is, but nearly all use their definition of porneúō to flatly condemn any discrete act or state outside of that very narrow range as being not just an ordinary sin but one of the very worst sins. Traditionally, great guilt and shame are justified, and great acts of penance are required, for any unapproved sexual thought or attraction, and even the most trivial unapproved outward sexual act is even worse, nearly (or completely) unforgivable!

This common understanding of porneia, as being identical to the set of discrete acts, thoughts and feelings which are socially disapproved as instances of “sexual immorality,” is, thus, defined largely by the society in which it is applied rather than by God. God’s imprimatur is simply used to authenticate the strictest reading of current social/cultural mores, whatever those may be (and they have varied, and do vary, from time to time and place to place, throughout Church history). See, for instance, Porneia Definition — What is the meaning of the Greek word porneia in the Bible? on NeverThirsty.com, which argues this connection between the list of discrete acts condemned as porneia and changeable community mores was commonly drawn even in the First Century C.E..

However, this common view of the meaning of the word porneia does not properly reflect its meaning in this passage–it is simultaneously underinclusive, overinclusive, and mis-inclusive. The standard view is mis-inclusive in that it points to entirely the wrong set of referents to fit with its context in verse 21. The other two “sin” words in verse 21 deal with the broad attitudes or internal rules of conduct that have led to the specific types of discrete actions listed in verse 20. Thus, it should be expected that porneia, as used in verse 20, refers to a broad underlying fixed attitude rather than a category of transient discrete acts or mental/emotional states, even though that category of discrete acts is defined very broadly. Discrete transient acts and underlying fixed attitudes are simply two different categories of things.

Because the standard view attaches porneia to the wrong set of referents in its explanation of this passage, it is also underinclusive, because it fails to indicate a problem with the Corinthians’ underlying attitudes. In fact, as has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout this series, true repentance is a change in underlying attitudes. Repentance is not simply saying “I’m sorry” for discrete sinful acts, with an impossible-to-keep promise not to do them again and maybe some acts of penance thrown in, but with no change in the attitudes that led to those acts. In verse 21, Paul was not telling the Corinthians he feared they hadn’t adequately told God they were sorry for their acts of porneia; he was telling them he feared he would come and find that many of them hadn’t changed their underlying attitudes of porneia. The content of discrete acts was not properly in view in verse 21.

Finally, as to the question what it means to have an attitude of porneia, the standard treatment is, again, both underinclusive and overinclusive. It is underinclusive because it ignores the connection between porneia, porneúō and idolatry. The concept of adultery is used throughout the scriptures as figurative of idolatry–infidelity to God. See, for example Leviticus 26:40-43; 1 Chronicles 5:24-26; Hosea 1-3, 9; Jeremiah 3; Jeremiah 5:6-8; compare Romans 7:1-4; James 4:4-6; Revelation 2:4, 14, 20-22. Furthermore, in Corinth, porneúō would have been used to describe the act of going to a pornē (a female shrine prostitute) or a pornos (a male shrine prostitute) at the temple of Corinth’s matron deity as an act of worship to her and porneia would have been used to describe the self-serving attitude inherent in such worship. First Century Corinth was particularly well known for the sexual excesses of its pagan worship, though there is some disagreement about this–Compare, Porneia (on encyclopedias.com) with Ancient Corinth–A Symbol of Sin (on Earlychurchhistory.org). Pagan cults in ancient Palestine also used prostitutes in worship, as is attested by the frequent references in the Hebrew scriptures to shrine prostitutes and to individual people, and even the whole nation of Israel corporately, “playing the prostitute” after false gods. See, Genesis 38:14-21; Numbers 25:1-5; Jeremiah 2:19-20; Jeremiah 3:1-11; Ezekiel 16; Ezekiel 23; Hosea 4:13-15; compare Revelation 17-18. So, in both the contemporary Corinthian context and the context of the Old Testament upon which Paul built, porneia would have primarily denoted prostitution (which is only a small subset of all sexual acts and states) but would also have carried a strong connotative reference to the much broader attitude of self-serving worship which was inherent in using the local Corinthian cult prostitutes. Unfortunately, it is also possible to outwardly “worship” Christ in a self-serving way. Paul was directing his use of the word porneia in verse 21 mostly against this attitude.

Of course, this attitude of self-serving “worship” of Christ can spill over into sexual practices, as is shown by the man in the Corinthian church who had taken his father’s wife and by the Corinthians’ boasting about how their approval of him and of other sexually immoral members showed their freedom in Christ. 1 Corinthians 5. But at this point we reach the manner in which the standard treatment of porneia in this verse is overinclusive. It is overinclusive in that it directs attention toward a list of forbidden discrete acts which really aren’t in view in this verse. The focus of the use of the word porneia in this verse is on the attitude of self-serving worship of God, which would convert God’s grace into boasting about our freedom to commit sins even the unbelieving world around us condemns. These include sexual sins, of course, but the focus is on the attitude.

The last motivation named as requiring repentance is aselgeia. Aselgeia is a “work of the flesh” listed in Galatians 5:19, as previously noted. It is also, along with porneia, one of the list of evils Jesus said proceed “from within, out of a person’s heart” and defile the person:

He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality (porneia), theft, murder,  adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness (asegeia), envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

Mark 7:20-23 (NIV).

The abstract noun aselgia is the the character and motivation of one who is aselgēs, a word which is of somewhat disputed derivation, as I explained in a previous post on The Problem of Sodom. A person who is aselgēs is one who is “brutal,” one who (per Helps Word Studies on Bible Hub) shows “violent spite which rejects restraint and indulges in lawless insolence.” It is often translated as “sensuality” or “licentiousness,” and it does carry a connotation of sensuality. However, “sensuality” includes much more than “sexuality.” “Sensuality” is the state of following our own senses, of indulging the desires aroused by our senses. It includes uncontrolled sexuality, but it also includes outbursts of anger, xenophobic communal rage (as in Sodom), and even coveting.

Coveting is the example of sensuality used by Paul in Romans 7. It is an example of sensuality because it is aroused by our senses. We see, or perceive with our senses, that someone else has something, and we want it. The teaching of Romans 7 is that the Law was given to Moses, not to give us rules to live by, but to show us that we are sinners, in rebellion against God. Before we had the Law, we wanted things other people had. Everyone needs food, clothing and shelter, and the desire for security in the provision of these things is natural and good, as long as it leads us to seek and rely on God and accept his method of providing these things. It becomes a source of evil when we reject God’s provision and start to desire to make our own provision from the things other people have. Unfortunately, all of us do this sometimes. But we were not aware that it was evil until we were told this. Then, when God’s commandment came that we should not covet, we became aware that we were coveting, and that God did not like it. After that, instead of ceasing to covet, we started coveting just to be coveting, desiring to take from other people things that were not even useful to us, things we would not have coveted without the commandment against coveting, just to insolently declare to God that we do not think ourselves bound by his will. In this way, the law against coveting caused us to demonstrate to ourselves and others our rebellion against God–our inner “sin.”

The same can be said of the other “sensual” desires God tells us we must let him control. For instance, sexual desire is right and good in its place, but wrong when we desire to satisfy it in the wrong way–and we had to be told what ways were wrong before we realized their evil and started to desire them excessively. Likewise, the desire to feel significant or important is also right in its place, which is to cause us to seek significance derived from God as his children living as members of his Kingdom. But the desire for significance and importance, out of its right place, leads to anger, jealousy, envy, divisiveness, superiority, and the rest of the list of evils set forth in 2 Corinthians 12:20.

Paul nowhere indicates that he expected the Corinthians to repent of the outward behaviors named in the list given in verse 20. Instead, the implication of Paul’s construction is that, if the Corinthians had truly repented of the attitudes named in the second list, the actions named in the first list would disappear. To use an analogy, when the disease is cured, its symptoms also go away. The words used in this first list, the list of symptoms, are as follows:

“Strife,” the broadest of these outward manifestations, is eris, “contention, strife, debate, wrangling.” The Corinthians had loved to argue, which was not to their credit–see the use of the same word in 1 Corinthians 3:3.

“Jealousy,” is zēlos, the Greek words from which the English words “zeal” and “zealot” come, and can mean either “eagerness, zeal or enthusiasm” or “jealousy or rivalry.” In the church, jealousy and rivalry are always bad things, as we are all under one Head, but even “zeal,” “eagerness” and “enthusiasm” can become bad, if ignorantly directed toward the wrong objects. Romans 10:2; Galatians 4:17-18.

Anger, here in the plural, thymoi, “angers,” or “wrath,” is a work of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:20, and there commonly translated “outbursts of anger.” To be sure, God is also angry toward our sins–and the word used is the same–but when manifested among us, our outbursts of anger assume we have God’s right to define (based on our own convenience) and punish the sins of others toward us, a right which we lack. Our outbursts are always destructive.

Contentions, eritheiai (plural, the singular is eritheia) are also listed as “work of the flesh” in Gal. 5:20, and is also found in Romans 2:8, in which it is generally translated “self-seeking or “selfishly ambitious:”

But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;  who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:” to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; but to those who are self-seeking (eritheias), and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath, indignation…

Romans 2:5-8 (WEB)

According to Thayer, its primary meaning in secular Greek was “electioneering or intriguing for office,” derived from eritheuō, “to do work for hire,” thus, in the New Testament connoting “the seeking of followers and adherents by means of gifts, the seeking of followers, hence) ambition, rivalry, self-seeking; a feud, faction.” People who are in the church to build their own kingdoms, to look good, attract a following and serve their own ambitions, or to make sales, are still very much a problem.

Slanders, katalaliai, also plural, means exactly what the common English translations indicate: “evil-speaking, backbiting, detraction, slander, defaming talk.” Though the plural katalaliai is not used elsewhere in the New Testament, the singular, katalalia, is used in the same sense in 1 Peter 2:1. The related verb katalaléō is used in 1 Peter 3:16–in reference to the ways in which unbelievers slander us–and is used three times in James 4:11:

Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

James 4:11-12 (NIV).

Gossip, strictly a plural here, literally, “gossips,” translates a word, psithyrismoi (plural of psithyrismós), used nowhere else in the New Testament. In the singular, this word literally means “whispering;” in the plural it refers to “whisperings” that secretly spread malicious slander or secret attacks on a person’s character. However, in contrast to the technical legal meaning of the English word “slander,” the truth of the information being “whispered” is not in view. Truth is not an absolute defense, as it is at law. The focus of this word is on the “whispering”–the secrecy of the communications–and the effect of the things whispered on the defamed person’s character and relationships.

Conceit, again literally a plural, “conceits,” translates another word not used elsewhere in the New Testament, physiōseis, the plural of physíōsis. This noun is, however, derived from a verb, physióō, used several places in the New Testament. The verb, in active voice, means to “inflate by blowing”–using bellows, physa. In passive voice, which is closer to the meaning of the abstract noun physíōsis, physióō literally means to be “self-inflated”–again as with bellows, truly a strong word picture!–hence, to be “puffed up,” “arrogant” or “proud.” The verb physióō is used in this sense in1 Corinthians 4: 6, 18, 19 and 1 Corinthians 5:2:

Now these things, brothers, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that in us you might learn not to think beyond the things which are written, that none of you be puffed up (physiousthe) against one another.

1 Corinthians 4:6 (WEB)

Now some are puffed up (ephysiōthēsan), as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing. And I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up (pephysiōmenōn), but the power.

1 Corinthians 4:18-19 (WEB).

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.  You are arrogant (pephysiōmenoi), and didn’t mourn instead, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.

1 Corinthians 5:1-2 (WEB).

Getting inflated, puffing up our chests, puffing ourselves up with our own importance or our own knowledge, therefore becoming arrogant even in our sin, is a dangerous result of allowing mixed motives to lead to self-centered worship which puts our sensual desires first, leading, in turn, to the whole list of evils in verse 20. Its natural outcome is the last evil named in verse 20, “disorders.”

“Disorders,” akatastasiai, is another plural and another word used nowhere else in the New Testament. Its singular, akatastasia, is found in similar sense in 1 Corinthians 14:33 and James 3:16, literally means something that cannot (negative a-) remain standing (kata + stasis), “unstable,” hence, something that brings down, “instability,” by extension “disorder,” “disturbance, upheaval, revolution,” even “anarchy.” The plural, thus would mean “instabilities, disturbances, upheavals.” In 1 Corinthians 14:33 it is used describe God’s character in order to explain the reason to keep church meetings orderly:

 The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets, for God is not a God of confusion (akatastasias), but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints.

1 Corinthians 14:32-33 (WEB).

The word’s usage in James 3:16 is even more striking:

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don’t boast and don’t lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion (akatastasia) and every evil deed.

James 3:14-16 (WEB)

This is the condition in which Paul had feared he would find the Corinthian church, which had previously sinned (proēmartēkotōn) by falling into akatharsia, leading to porneia, in turn leading to aselgeia, having not repented (metanoēsantōn) of these as a result of his first letter. The order and construction of the passage makes it clear that the problem, the cause for the need to repent, is these three attitudes, and that, if the attitudes are not repented of, it will be futile to attempt to repent separately of the consequent evils listed in verse 20. For example, there will be no way to successfully repent of “disorders” while many in the church are still worshipping themselves and serving their own desires; self-centered action is the cause of the confusion and disorder!

NEXT: Objective of teaching: Repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth, 2 Timothy 2:24-26