What does 2 Corinthians 13:2 mean?

Paul's tone has become deadly serious in the final chapter of his letter to the Corinthians. When he was with them previously, he warned he would return to judge those living in ongoing sin. Now he cautions them all again: If he finds anyone living in the sins he listed in the previous verses, he will not spare them. Problems Paul recently mentioned included sins of those of division: quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder" (2 Corinthians 12:20). He also mentioned sins of immorality: impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality" (2 Corinthians 12:21).

The stakes, in this case, are the rebuke and shame brought by Paul's authority as an apostle of Christ. However, it might mean something even more dire when Paul says he "will not spare them." God had acted decisively when holding people to account in the early church. Ananias and Sapphira died (Acts 5:1–11). Elymas the magician was blinded (Acts 13:8–11). And Paul wrote in a previous letter to the Corinthians that they should turn a man in an immoral sexual relationship over to the devil (1 Corinthians 5:4–5).

Paul makes no overt threats here. However, the Corinthians would have understood he was not speaking lightly when promising to judge those still engaged in sinful behaviors.