1 ¶ Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Since we have these great promises, dear friends, let us turn away from every sin of the body or of the spirit. Let us honor God with love and fear by giving ourselves to Him in every way. His Love for the Corinthians

2 R eceive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.

Receive us into your hearts. We have done no wrong to anyone. We have not led anyone in the wrong way. We have not used anyone for our good.

3 I speak this not to condemn you, for I have said before that ye are in our hearts to die and live together with us.

I do not say this to tell you that you are wrong. As I have said before, you have a place in our hearts and always will. If we live or die, we will be together.

4 G reat is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you; I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

I trust you and am proud of you. You give me much comfort and joy even when I suffer.

5 ¶ For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.

When we arrived in the country of Macedonia, we had no rest. We had all kinds of trouble. There was fighting all around us. Our hearts were afraid.

6 N evertheless God, who comforts the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

But God gives comfort to those whose hearts are heavy. He gave us comfort when Titus came.

7 a nd not by his coming only, but by the consolation with which he was comforted in you when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me so that I rejoiced the more.

Not only did his coming comfort us, but the comfort you had given him made me happy also. He told us how much you wanted to see us. He said that you were sad because of my trouble and that you wanted to help me. This made me happy.

8 F or though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent; for I perceive that the same epistle has made you sorry, though it were but for a season.

I am not sorry now if my letter made you sad. I know it made you sad, but it was only for awhile.

9 N ow I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance; for ye were made sorry by God that ye might suffer no loss by us.

I am happy now. It is not because you were hurt by my letter, but because it turned you from sin to God. God used it and you were not hurt by what we did.

10 F or godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, of which there is no need to repented; but the sorrow of the world works death.

The sorrow that God uses makes people sorry for their sin and leads them to turn from sin so they can be saved from the punishment of sin. We should be happy for that kind of sorrow, but the sorrow of this world brings death.

11 F or behold this same thing, that when ye were made sorry by God, what carefulness it wrought in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things ye have shown yourselves to be clean in this matter.

See how this sorrow God allowed you to have has worked in you. You had a desire to be free of that sin I wrote about. You were angry about it. You were afraid. You wanted to do something about it. In every way you did what you could to make it right.

12 ¶ So that, though I wrote unto you, I did it not only for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.

I sent this. It was not written only because of the man who did the wrong or because of the one who suffered.

13 T herefore we were comforted in your comfort; yea, and we rejoiced even more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

All this has given us comfort. More than this, we are happy for the joy Titus has. His spirit has been made stronger by all of you.

14 F or if I have gloried of anything to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our glorying, which I made before Titus, was found true.

I told him how proud I was of you. You did not make me ashamed. What we said to Titus proved to be true.

15 A nd his inward affection is more abundant toward you while he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him.

He loves you all the more. He remembers how all of you were ready to obey and how you respected him.

16 I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.

I am happy that I can have complete trust in you.