1 S ince 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

Therefore, since these promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates and defiles body and spirit, and bring consecration to completeness in the fear of God.

2 R eceive 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.

Do open your hearts to us again. We have wronged no one, we have betrayed or corrupted no one, we have cheated or taken advantage of no one.

3 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.

I do not say this to reproach or condemn, for I have said before that you are in our hearts, together, whether we die or live.

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

I have great boldness and free and fearless confidence and cheerful courage toward you; my pride in you is great. I am filled with the comfort; with all our tribulation and in spite of it, I am overflowing with joy.

5 W hen 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.

For even when we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies had no ease or rest, but we were oppressed in every way and afflicted at every turn—fighting and contentions without, dread and fears within.

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

But God, Who comforts and encourages and refreshes and cheers the depressed and the sinking, comforted and encouraged and refreshed and cheered us by the arrival of Titus.

7 N ot 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.

and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was encouraged and refreshed and cheered as to you, while he told us of your yearning affection, of how sorry you were and how eagerly you took my part, so that I rejoiced still more.

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

For even though I did grieve you with my letter, I do not regret, though I did regret it; for I see that that letter did pain you, though only for a little while;

9 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.

Yet I am glad now, not because you were pained, but because you were pained into repentance; for you felt a grief such as God meant you to feel, so that in nothing you might suffer loss through us or harm for what we did.

10 T he 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.

For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil, and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly.

11 S ee 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.

For observe what this same godly sorrow has done for you and has produced in you: what eagerness and earnest care to explain and clear yourselves '> complicity in the condoning of incest], what indignation, what alarm, what yearning, what zeal, what readiness to mete out punishment '> to the offender]! At every point you have proved yourselves cleared and guiltless in the matter.

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

So although I did write to you, it was not for the sake and because of the one who did wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered wrong, but in order that you might realize before God how zealously you do care for us.

13 A ll 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.

Therefore we are relieved and comforted and encouraged. And in addition to our own consolation, we were especially delighted at the joy of Titus, because you have all set his mind at rest, soothing and refreshing his spirit.

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

For if I had boasted to him at all concerning you, I was not disappointed or put to shame, but just as everything we ever said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus has proved true also.

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

And his heart goes out to you more abundantly than ever as he recalls the submission that all of you had, and the reverence and anxiety with which you accepted and welcomed him.

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

I am very happy because I now am of good courage and have perfect confidence in you in all things.