Chapter 7

Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Love for the Corinthians

Make room for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.

I am not saying this to condemn you; for I have already said that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.

Great is my confidence in you, great my boasting about you. I am filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all our troubles.

For indeed when we came to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest; we had troubles on every side, conflicts without and anxieties within.

But God, who comforts the humble, comforted us by the arrival of Titus.

And not by his arrival only, but also by the comfort which he himself experienced in you. He told us of your longing, of your sorrow, of your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced yet more. Their Repentance

Wherefore, although I made you sorry by my letter, I do not regret it. And even if I did regret it, seeing that the same letter did for a while make you sorry,

now I am glad; not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you were made sorry according to God, that you might suffer no loss at our hands.

For the sorrow that is according to God produces repentance that surely tends to salvation, whereas the sorrow that is according to the world produces death.

For behold this very fact that you were made sorry according to God, what earnestness it has wrought in you, nay, what explanations, what indignation, what fear, what yearning, what zeal, what readiness to avenge! In everything you have showed yourselves to be innocent in the matter.

If then I did write to you, it was not for the sake of him who did the wrong, not for the sake of him who suffered the wrong; but to make clear the zeal we have for you,

before God. This is why we have been comforted. But besides our own comfort, we more especially rejoiced at the joy of Titus, because his mind had been set at rest by you all.

And if I did boast to him at all about you, I have not been put to shame; but just as we have spoken all things in truth to you, so also has the boasting we made to Titus been found to be true.

And his affection for you is all the more abundant, as he recalls how obedient you all were and how you received him with fear and trembling.

I rejoice that in all things I can have confidence in you.