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

Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness 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.

Open your hearts to us. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took 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 say this not to condemn you, for I have said before, that you are in our hearts to die together and live together.

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

Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I overflow with joy in all our affliction.

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 had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was inside.

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

Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly, God, comforted us by the coming 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 by his coming only, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, while he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me; 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 though I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you sorry, though just for a 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.

I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing.

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 sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.

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 behold, this same thing, that you were made sorry in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure 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 wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you in the sight of God.

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 have been comforted. In our comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

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 in anything I have boasted to him on your behalf, I was not disappointed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so our glorying also which I made before Titus was found to be truth.

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

His affection is more abundantly toward you, while he remembers all of your obedience, how with fear and trembling you received him.

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

I rejoice that in everything I am confident concerning you.