But when we are judged Here we have a consolation that is exceedingly necessary; for if any one in affliction thinks that God is angry with him, he will rather be discouraged than excited to repentance. Paul, accordingly, says, that God is angry with believers in such a way as not in the meantime to be forgetful of his mercy: nay more, that it is on this account particularly that he punishes them -- that he may consult their welfare. It is an inestimable consolation [1] ^-- that the punishments by which our sins are chastened are evidences, not of God's anger for our destruction, but rather of his paternal love, and are at the same time of assistance towards our salvation, for God is angry with us as his sons, whom he will not leave to perish. When he says -- that we may not be condemned with the world, he intimates two things. The first is, that the children of this world, while they sleep on quietly and securely in their delights, [2] are fattened up, like hogs, for the day of slaughter (Jeremiah 12:3.) For though the Lord sometimes invites the wicked, also, to repentance by his chastisements, yet he often passes them over as strangers, [3] and allows them to rush on with impunity, until they have filled up the measure of their final condemnation. (Genesis 15:16.) This privilege, therefore, belongs to believers exclusively -- that by punishments they are called back from destruction. The second thing is this -- that chastisements are necessary remedies for believers, for otherwise they, too, would rush on to everlasting destruction, [4] were they not restrained by temporal punishment. These considerations should lead us not merely to patience, so as to endure with equanimity the troubles that are assigned to us by God, but also to gratitude, that, giving thanks to God our Father, we may resign ourselves [5] to his discipline by a willing subjection. They are also useful to us in various ways; for they cause our afflictions to be salutary to us, while they train us up for mortification of the flesh, and a pious abasement -- they accustom us to obedience to God -- they convince us of our own weakness, they kindle up in our minds fervency in prayer -- they exercise hope, so that at length whatever there is of bitterness in them is all swallowed up in spiritual joy.

Footnotes

1 - "Y a-il plus grande consolation pour le Chrestien que ceste-ci?" -- "Is there a greater consolation for the Christian than this?"

2 - "Sont tout asseurez, et ne se soucians du iugement de Dieu s'endorment en leurs plaisirs et voluptez;" -- "Are quite confident, and not concerning themselves as to the judgment of God, sleep on in their pleasures and delights."

3 - "I1 aduient souuent qu'il les met en oubli comme estrangers;" -- "It often happens that he overlooks them as strangers."

4 - "Ils tomberoyent aussi bien que les autres en ruine eternelle;" -- "They would fall, as well as others, into everlasting destruction."

5 - "Voluntairement, A soustenir tel chastisement qu'il luy plaira nous enuoyer;" -- "Willingly to bear such chastisement as he may be pleased to send upon us."

But when we are judged - This is added, evidently, to console those who had been afflicted on account of their improper manner of observing the Lord's Supper. The sense is, that though they were thus afflicted by God; though he had manifested his displeasure at the manner in which they had observed the ordinance, yet the divine judgment in the case was not inexorable. They were not regarded by God as wholly strangers to piety, and would not be lost forever. They should not be alarmed, therefore, as if there was no mercy for them; but they should rather regard their calamities as the chastening of the Lord on his own children, and as designed for their salvation.
We are chastened of the Lord - It is "his" act; and it is not vengeance and wrath; but it is to be regarded as the chastisement of a father's hand, in order that we should not be condemned with the wicked. "We are under the discipline" (παιδευόμεθα paideuometha) of the Lord; we are dealt with as children, and are corrected as by the hand of a father; compare Hebrews 12:5-10, and 2-Corinthians 6:9. The design of God's correcting his children is, that they should be "reclaimed," and not "destroyed."
That we should not be condemned with the world - It is implied here:
(1) That the world - those who were not Christians, would be condemned;
(2) That Paul regarded the Corinthians, whom he addressed, and who had even been guilty of this improper manner of observing the Lord's Supper, and who had been punished for it as true Christians; and,
(3) That the purpose which God had in view in inflicting these judgments on them was, that they might be purified, and enlightened, and recovered from their errors, and saved. This is the design of God in the calamities and judgments which he brings on his own children - And so now, if he afflicts us, or leaves us to darkness, or follows the communion with the tokens of his displeasure, it is, that we may be recovered to a deeper sense of our need of him; to juster views of the ordinance; and to a more earnest wish to obtain his favor.

But when we are judged - See on 1-Corinthians 11:29 (note).

But when we are judged,.... This is said by way of consolation to the saints, that when the hand of the Lord is upon them, and he is afflicting them, they should consider these things, not as the effects of his vindictive wrath and justice, as proper punishments for their sins, but as fatherly chastisements for their good:
we are chastened of the Lord; as children by a father, in love and kindness, in order to bring to a sense of sin, repentance for it, and acknowledgment of it, and behave the better for the future:
that we should not be condemned with the world; the world of ungodly men, the men of the world, carnal, worldly, and Christless sinners. There is a world, a multitude of them that will be condemned. So far has Christ been from dying for the redemption and salvation of every individual person in the world, that there is a world of men that will be righteously condemned at the last day. Now the present afflictions and chastisements of the saints are laid upon them, and blessed to them for their spiritual good, that they may not be condemned to the second death, to everlasting fire, to endless damnation, or be punished with everlasting destruction along with them.

chastened-- (Revelation 3:19).
with the world--who, being bastards, are without chastening (Hebrews 12:8).

When we are thus judged, it is with this merciful design, that we may not be finally condemned with the world.