What Does 2 Corinthians 2:1 Mean in the King James?

But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness.

2 Corinthians 2:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The meeting is not neutral: his arrival could become the very thing that grieves them.

THE MEANING

A meeting can carry grief rather than relief, and this verse shows that possibility being weighed before the meeting happens. Care considers what its presence will bring to another person. Here, not coming is a deliberate refusal to make an already painful encounter heavier.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The lie is that care always proves itself by showing up, regardless of what that presence brings.

THE ROOT

λύπῃ

lypē

GROWS FROM

λυπ-

lyp-

grief, sorrow, or pain

The word rendered “heaviness” is ⁨λύπη⁩, grief or sorrow, rather than a general weight. Its related verb means to grieve or cause sorrow; the next verse uses that verb for what one person can do to another. The root shows that he is considering the effect of his arrival, not only his own mood.

ALSO GROWS

lypeō: to grieve or cause sorrow

λυπέω

The related verb makes grief an effect one person can bring into another person’s experience.

perilypos: deeply sorrowful

περίλυπος

This compound intensifies the same root’s grief, showing how sorrow can surround or weigh on a person.

THE PATTERN

Care attends to the sorrow a meeting or a word may create, and considers its manner and timing.

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

Ecclesiastes 3:7 · KJVThe verse recognizes that silence and speech each have their fitting time.

A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

Proverbs 15:1 · KJVIt shows that the way a person speaks can either turn away distress or stir it up.

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

Romans 12:15 · KJVIt describes presence that responds to another person’s emotional state instead of ignoring it.

THE THREAD

For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?

2 Corinthians 2:2 · KJV

The “heaviness” in verse 1 is ⁨λύπη⁩, and verse 2 uses the related verb ⁨λυπέω⁩: sorrow is something a person can cause, not only an inward mood. The shared root reveals why he weighs the visit in advance, the meeting might make them sorry, and their sorrow would become his too.

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