2 Corinthians 7

¹Since, then, we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

²Make room for us. We have wronged no one, we have ruined no one, we have taken advantage of no one. ³I do not say this to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. ⁴I have great boldness toward you; I have great boasting about you. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.

⁵For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest; we were afflicted in every way—fights outside, fears inside. ⁶But God, who comforts the lowly, comforted us by the coming of Titus, ⁷and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he had been comforted about you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced all the more.

⁸For even if I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret it. Even if I did regret it—I see that that letter grieved you, if only for a short time— ⁹now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repentance. For you were grieved according to God, so that you suffered no loss from us in anything. ¹⁰For grief according to God brings about a repentance that leads to salvation and is not regretted, but the grief of the world produces death. ¹¹For look at this very thing, your being grieved according to God: what earnestness it has produced in you, and what defense, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! In every way you have shown yourselves to be innocent in this matter. ¹²So then, even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who was wronged, but so that your earnestness for us would be made visible to you before God. ¹³This is why we have been comforted.

And beyond our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. ¹⁴For if I have boasted to him about you in anything, I was not put to shame; but just as we spoke everything to you in truth, so also our boasting to Titus proved true. ¹⁵And his affection for you is all the greater as he remembers the obedience of all of you, how you received him with fear and trembling. ¹⁶I rejoice that in everything I have confidence in you.

Translation notes 11

7:1 — “Flesh and spirit.” Here the pair describes the whole person, outward and inward; “flesh” is not used in this verse in its negative sense.

7:2 — “Ruined.” The verb means to corrupt, spoil, or destroy; it can refer to moral corruption or financial ruin. Paul denies three charges without stating who made them.

7:6 — “The lowly.” The word can mean humble or downcast; here it echoes Isaiah 49:13, where God comforts the lowly. The same word is used ironically of Paul's own manner at 10:1.

7:8 — “My letter”; “for a short time.” The severe letter of 2:3–4, 9. The parenthesis follows the Greek base's punctuation. “For a short time” is literally “for an hour.”

7:8–10 — “Regret”; “repentance.” Two different Greek words. “Regret” is the verb translated “change one's mind” and “feel remorse” in Matthew 21 and 27; “repentance” is the change of outlook and conduct translated the same way in the Gospels and Acts.

7:9–11 — “According to God.” Literally as printed, three times; “godly grief” is the familiar rendering. It means grief as God intends it, in contrast with “the grief of the world.” The two verbs in verse 10 differ slightly in Greek (“brings about,” “produces”); the difference in force is minimal. “Not regretted” can describe the repentance or the salvation; the draft attaches it to repentance.

7:11 — “Punishment.” The word means the doing of justice or the avenging of a wrong; it refers to the community's action against the offender of 2:5–8.

7:11 — “Shown yourselves to be innocent in this matter.” The verb synistēmi belongs to the letter’s recurring commend/recommend word family, but here means to demonstrate or show. “Innocent” renders hagnous in relation to this particular matter, not as a claim of general innocence. The lexical connection does not require identical English in different contexts.

7:12 — “The one who did the wrong … the one who was wronged.” Neither is identified. The wronged party may be Paul himself, another person, or the community.

7:13 — Paragraph division. The Greek base ends the sentence after “comforted” and begins a new one with Titus; some editions divide differently.

7:15 — “Affection.” The same inward-organs word as in 6:12.