Second Letter to the Corinthians 7

¹ With promises like these made to us, dear brothers, let us wash off all that can soil either body or spirit, to reach perfection of holiness in the fear of God.

² Keep a place for us in your hearts. We have not injured anyone, or ruined anyone, or exploited anyone.

³ I am not saying this to put any blame on you; as I have already told you, you are in our hearts – together we live or together we die.

⁴ I have the very greatest confidence in you, and I am so proud of you that in all our trouble I am filled with consolation and my joy is overflowing.

⁵ Even after we had come to Macedonia, however, there was no rest for this body of ours. Far from it; we found trouble on all sides: quarrels outside, misgivings inside.

⁶ But God comforts the miserable, and he comforted us, by the arrival of Titus,

⁷ and not only by his arrival but also by the comfort which he had gained from you. He has told us all about how you want to see me, how sorry you were, and how concerned for me, and so I am happier now than I was before.

⁸ But to tell the truth, even if I distressed you by my letter, I do not regret it. I did regret it before, and I see that that letter did distress you, at least for a time;

⁹ but I am happy now – not because I made you suffer, but because your suffering led to your repentance. Yours has been a kind of suffering that God approves, and so you have come to no kind of harm from us.

¹⁰ To suffer in God’s way means changing for the better and leaves no regrets, but to suffer as the world knows suffering brings death.

¹¹ Just look at what suffering in God’s way has brought you: what keenness, what explanations, what indignation, what alarm! Yes, and what aching to see me, what concern for me, and what justice done! In every way you have shown yourselves blameless in this affair.

¹² So then, though I wrote the letter to you, it was not written for the sake either of the offender or of the one offended; it was to make you realise, in the sight of God, your own concern for us.

¹³ That is what we have found so encouraging. With this encouragement, too, we had the even greater happiness of finding Titus so happy; thanks to you all, he has no more worries;

¹⁴ I had rather boasted to him about you, and now I have not been made to look foolish; in fact, our boasting to Titus has proved to be as true as anything that we ever said to you.

¹⁵ His own personal affection for you is all the greater when he remembers how willing you have all been, and with what deep respect you welcomed him.

¹⁶ I am very happy knowing that I can rely on you so completely.