2 Corinthians 2:3

And I wrote this very thing, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.

I wrote this very thing ... This is most suitably understood as a direct reference to 1 Corinthians 16:5ff where he told the Corinthians of his revised itinerary."[6] Some have referred these words to the "lost letter"; but such a reference is arbitrary. Besides, the understanding of these words as a reference to First Corinthians "has been the understanding of the church through many centuries."[7] Hughes, wise comment on this place is:

The further we are removed in time from the original events, the more we should, as a matter of principle, hesitate to entertain novel theories in the face of a strong tradition of interpretation and in the absence of anything fresh in the way of external evidence. In a case of this kind, the probability is all in favor of the earlier exegesis being correct rather than the later conjecture.[8]

[6] Philip E. Hughes, op. cit., p. 56.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.