2 Corinthians 7:2–16
2 Make room in your hearts1 for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.
5 For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within. 6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. 8 For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.
10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. 12 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. 13 Therefore we are comforted.
And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. 14 For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true. 15 And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. 16 I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you.
1 Greek lacks in your hearts
Section Overview: Joy through Grief
Paul has given an extended defense of the legitimacy of his gospel ministry despite its unimpressiveness by worldly standards (2 Cor. 2:14–7:1), and now he returns to the specifics of his relationship with the believers at Corinth. The dominant theme of the passage is Paul’s joy in the Corinthians. He first relays his joy in their friendship and solidarity with him, then reflects on their godly grief, and finally exults in their warm reception of Titus. With the relationship secure and strong as he concludes chapter 7, Paul is prepared now to ask them for financial support for other believers (chs. 8–9) and to launch into a full-frontal attack on the false teachers (chs. 10–11).
Section Outline
II.G. Paul’s Joy in the Corinthians (7:2–16)
1. Paul’s Joy in the Corinthians’ Friendship (7:2–7)
a. Paul’s Joy in the Corinthians (7:2–5)
b. The Corinthians’ Joy in Paul (7:6–7)
2. Paul’s Joy in the Corinthians’ Redemptive Grief (7:8–13a)
a. Worldly Grief versus Godly Grief (7:8–10)
b. The Results of Godly Grief (7:11–13a)
3. Paul’s Joy in the Corinthians’ Welcome of Titus (7:13b–16)
a. Titus Blessed (7:13b–14)
b. The Corinthians Blessed (7:15–16)
Response
Where is true joy found in this fallen world? To be sure, in Christ we have all we need (Phil. 3:8). But we ought to notice how vital interpersonal friendship is to Paul the missionary pioneer. His heart overflows at the knowledge that he and the Corinthians are at peace with one another. The same apostle who said, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21), says to his friends, “You are in our hearts, to die together and to live together” (2 Cor. 7:3). Vertical fellowship is fundamental. But horizontal fellowship is indispensable to flourishing existence as human beings.
But this horizontal fellowship is messy. We will all have misfires in our friendships and relationships with other believers—misunderstandings, disappointments, unintended offenses. In a word, sorrow. But 2 Corinthians 7 gives us a blueprint for the way forward. If interpersonal sorrow pushes us toward deeper softness of heart rather than hardness, toward penitence rather than self-justification, out toward the other rather than in toward the self, we are operating out of godly grief rather than worldly grief. In the soil of such humility, new depth of relationship will blossom, enjoying a deeper fellowship than ever existed before.
Greek lacks in your hearts
7:2 This is the only instance in Paul’s letters of the verb translated “make room” (Gk. chōreō), though it occurs at several points in the Gospels—for example, in Mark 2:2 to refer to a house so full as Jesus teaches that there is “no more room” and the friends of the paralytic have to lower him through the roof. Conceptually, then, Paul’s plea here is similar to what he says in 2 Corinthians 6:13: “Widen your hearts.” There is an interpersonal impulse within each of us to narrow or widen our affections for another, to squeeze out room in our hearts for them or create space for them in our inner emotional and psychological capacities.
Paul reminds them of the abundant reason they have to make room in their hearts for him and his colleagues. Paul and his colleagues “have wronged no one” (using adikeō, meaning to “do wrong” or “treat unjustly”; also twice in 7:12). They “have corrupted no one” (using phtheirō, also used in 1 Cor. 15:33: “Bad company ruins good morals”). They “have taken advantage of no one” (using pleonekteō, used five times in the NT, all by Paul, and four of them in 2 Corinthians [2:11; 7:2; 12:17, 18]). Paul and company have not been unjust, immoral, or manipulative. They have been utterly objective and fair, nurturing only what is wholesome and pure, and transparently sincere and genuine.
7:3 Literally, “For condemnation I do not speak.” The only other NT use of this word for “condemnation” (Gk. katakrisis) is earlier in this letter, when Paul spoke of the “ministry of condemnation” (3:9), though the verb form occurs eighteen times in the NT (e.g., Rom. 2:1; 8:34; 1 Cor. 11:32). In claiming his own guileless innocence in 2 Corinthians 7:2, Paul is not shifting blame from himself to the Corinthians. This is impossible given the solidarity he and they share: “For . . . you are in our hearts [cf. 6:11–13], to die together and to live together.” These final two verbs, which could be woodenly rendered “co-die” and “co-live,” are theologically loaded, especially the latter, as they plug into Paul’s theology of union with Christ. In 2 Timothy 2:11, for example, Paul uses the same two verbs to teach that believers “have died with” Christ and therefore “will also live with him” (cf. Rom. 6:8). Believers are those who by faith receive Christ’s death and life (resurrection) on their behalf, but also, as we have already seen throughout 2 Corinthians 4–5, participate in that death and life.
What is striking is that here in 2 Corinthians 7 Paul applies these verbs not vertically but horizontally to speak of Paul’s co-dying and co-living with the Corinthians. As the Corinthians fare, so does Paul. They are “in” Paul and his companions’ “hearts.” The point is that whereas the Corinthians had allowed an antagonism sprout to blossom between them and Paul (doubtless involving the false apostles), Paul invites them into his own view, in which the Corinthians’ welfare and Paul’s welfare are bound up together, both now and for eternity (cf. 1:23–2:4).
7:4 Because Paul understands himself to be in profound solidarity with the Corinthians, their ally and not their adversary, shoulder to shoulder in unity rather than face to face in hostility, he can write with full integrity the words of verse 4. The effusive nature of Paul’s expressions reflects his pastoral shrewdness but more deeply his heartfelt fatherly concern for the Corinthians. This concern is keen in light of their vulnerability to the false teaching of the intruders at Corinth.
Paul mentions four marks of his heart for them, each spoken of in a superlative degree: boldness (frankness, a communication transparency that does not weigh every word with hidden calculation), pride (lit., “boasting,” a confidence that Paul’s lofty expectations and reports of them will be met with reality), comfort (Gk. paraklēsis, the same word for “comfort” throughout 1:3–11), and joy (a gladness in God that defies and is even fueled by adverse circumstance). In all Paul’s “affliction” (thlipsis, the same word used to describe his afflictions in Asia in 1:3–11; also 6:4), even there in that sharpness of pain, his joy overflows.
Paul the pastor is not measured, cautious, restrained in his expressions of love and confidence toward the Corinthians. His paternal instincts know no ceiling.
7:5 In 2:12–13 Paul mentioned his visit to Macedonia after leaving Troas because he did not have Titus there. The reference to joy amid affliction in 7:4 makes for a natural segue to resume this defense of his actions and correspondence to the Corinthians, because it was amid the dire circumstantial straits of Paul’s season in Macedonia that he received Titus and the news of the Corinthians’ progress and spiritual safety. Whereas in chapters 1–2 Paul defends his decision not to visit the Corinthians in person but rather to write to them (the “severe letter” that is lost to us), here in chapter 7 Paul defends what he actually wrote in that letter.
The Greek word behind “bodies” is sarx, flesh, which we have seen to be an important theological term for Paul. While at times it refers to human corporeality, more often it is set opposite “the Spirit” to refer to humanity as it belongs to the old age, without the blessed intrusion of the new age (marked supremely by the gift of the Spirit). It is worth noting that Paul did not experience only bodily affliction in Macedonia—as he makes explicit at the end of the verse, “fighting without and fear within.” Paul’s “flesh” had no rest, referring to everything human and frail about him, body and mind and spirit, in his entire person, and likely with an allusive connotation of the perishability of the human condition under the old age.
7:6 In 1:3 Paul called God the “God of all comfort,” and here in 7:6 he parallels this by calling him the one “who comforts [same root as 1:3] the downcast.” This is who God is. Comfort is what most naturally pours out of God’s deepest heart. What does Paul mean by “downcast”? This is the same word (Gk. tapeinos) translated elsewhere in the NT as “humble” (e.g., 10:1; 1 Pet. 5:5) or “lowly” (e.g., Rom. 12:16; James 1:9; its etymological relative, tapeinophrosynē—a mindset of being tapeinos—is used in NT virtue lists to denote humility, as in Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:12). Paul’s affliction of flesh through and through (as articulated in the previous verse) resulted in a state of being that was cast down, despondent, stressed, tempted to despair, destitute. Humanly speaking, nothing was left to boast about. All was hopeless.
But this is precisely the kind of person to whom the God of heaven is drawn like a magnet (Ps. 138:6; Luke 1:51–53). Indeed, without denying God’s omnipresence, the Bible teaches that the two “places” God loves to dwell are way up high in heaven and way down low with the destitute (Isa. 57:15; 66:2). This is where God lives. Sometimes God comforts the destitute directly (as in 2 Cor. 1:3–7). Other times, as in chapter 7, he comforts us through other people. Indeed, who cannot testify—whether extroverted or introverted—to the rich consolation a friend has been in a time of pain?
7:7 Paul was comforted first by the mere presence of his friend Titus. But there was more. Not only did Titus himself provide solidarity for Paul; Titus also mediated the friendship and solidarity from the Corinthians for both Titus and Paul. Titus was both source and channel of comfort for Paul.
None of this, humanly speaking, must have seemed likely to Paul. He had just written a severe letter. The church at Corinth was being infiltrated by false teachers. Paul’s name and integrity were being undermined. The Corinthians were questioning Paul’s motives, given his lack of a visit. What a blessed flood of relief it must have been for Titus to bring word of the Corinthians’ “longing,” “mourning,” and “zeal” on Paul’s behalf. Together, these three nouns depict the mutually reciprocated depth of feeling shared in the most sublime and Christian of human relationships. This is relational heart knitting that far transcends similar likes and dislikes. “Longing” and “zeal” will be repeated in verse 11, further explicating what the Corinthians are experiencing toward Paul.
7:8 Paul turns at this point from his joy in the Corinthians’ friendship to his joy in the Corinthians’ redemptive grief. The root word for grief (Gk. lyp-) occurs eight times in verses 8–11 (as well as eight times in 2:1–7), contrasting strongly with Paul’s repeated celebrations of joy throughout the passage.
The point of 7:8 is that, while it saddened Paul in the short term to grieve the Corinthians, he knew he must do so for the sake of their long-term spiritual vitality. The operating principle throughout verses 7–13 is that there are two kinds of grief or sorrow. Godly grief may look and even feel much like worldly grief. Both are, after all, grief. But they lead to vastly different results, as the next few verses unfold.
7:9 Paul rejoices. This is the dominant note of chapter 7. Yet grief is also present. How do the two relate? Paul is rejoicing because the Corinthians’ grief has led “into repenting.” In other words, it is a “godly grief.” They were grieved, literally, “according to God.” What does all this mean?
This godly grief is an emotional experience ignited by concern not at what people see but at what God sees. It is not sorrow at being caught in sin; it is sorrow at being in sin. Godly grief terminates not in hardness of heart but in penitence. Grief “according to God” pushes one up toward heaven and restored fellowship with God and thus with others, not down into the loneliness or despair of self-justification. Godly grief does not end in grief; it flows beyond the sorrow into repentance and regained joy. Paul thus rejoices. As Chrysostom explains: “Like a father who watches his son being operated on, Paul rejoices not for the pain being inflicted but for the cure which is the ultimate result.”
Because of this godly grief, the Corinthians “suffered no loss through us.” This somewhat odd turn of phrase means that because the Corinthians’ sorrow pushed them back toward God rather than away from him, Paul’s hard words toward them in his severe letter were fruitful rather than futile (the other two Pauline uses of zēmioō, “suffer loss,” are at 1 Cor. 3:15; Phil. 3:8). Paul’s ministry to them was effectual. The point is similar to what he says in 2 Corinthians 2:15–16 about the same gospel message landing in opposite ways on its hearers, bringing death to one and life to another.
7:10 This verse draws into a climactic principial conclusion what Paul has been saying about grief and flows into the application of this principle to the Corinthians.
Paul contrasts two kinds of grief but deepens his reflection. Whereas in verse 9 Paul speaks of godly grief leading to repentance, he adds a third element in verse 10: salvation. Godly grief leads to repentance, which leads to salvation. This should not be understood mechanically or in isolation from broader NT teaching; Paul does not mean that a certain emotional experience of grief and subsequent repentance is the secret key to salvation. Rather he means that postconversion experiences of godly sorrow over one’s sins, resulting in fresh penitence, are in beautiful and natural accord with final salvation. Penitence, not perfection, nurtures the soul into final deliverance.
Paul mentions “regret” for the second time (the Greek is one word, “without regret” or “nonregretful”). In verse 8 Paul said he himself did not regret grieving the Corinthians since it was the gateway into their repentance. Now in verse 10 he speaks globally of the nature of godly grief with attendant repentance: this experience does not leave one with the bitter aftertaste of regret. We note here in passing that there is a difference in NT teaching between repentance and regret. Judas (Matt. 27:3–5; Luke 22:3; Acts 1:25) and Esau (Heb. 12:17) experienced the bitterness of regret; neither repented. There is a sorrow for sin that terminates on itself and lacks inner heart change. This is what Paul means by the final clause of the verse: “whereas worldly grief produces death.” “Death” here is not physical death but the opposite of “salvation” earlier in the verse. It denotes eternal death. The kind of sorrow over sin characteristic of the old age—literally, “the grief of the world”—generates a state of heart increasingly settled in its hardness of heart and eventual state of permanent death.
7:11 Paul moves now from the abstract to the concrete, from principle to illustration of the principle. The Corinthians’ heart response to both Titus and Paul (cf. v. 7) signals clearly that their grief has been of the godly and not the worldly variety. Paul lists seven ways their godly grief has manifested itself:
(1) “earnestness”—a posture of sitting at the edge of one’s seat in enthusiastic readiness (also in v. 12; 8:7, 8, 16);
(2) “eagerness to clear yourselves”—rather than a shrug of apathy, a strong impulse to respond promptly and heartily to a corrective (it is a single Greek word, apologia, in other contexts meaning a formal legal defense [e.g., 2 Tim. 4:16]);
(3) “indignation”—a healthy state of being incensed at wrongdoing, whether of one’s own or of another; in this case, probably directed at the wrongdoer mentioned in the next verse;
(4) “fear”—sincere concern over one’s shortcomings and alarm at damage done to one’s communion with God and other believers (we have seen healthy fear already at 2 Cor. 5:11 and 7:1);
(5) “longing”—an inner panting for relational depth and harmony in the wake of a breach in the relationship (also v. 7);
(6) “zeal”—an animated ardor impelling activity (used both positively, as here and in 9:2, and negatively, as in the list of works of the flesh in Gal. 5:20 [where it is translated “jealousy”]);
(7) “punishment”—a sober determination to see equitable and just recompense executed, perhaps toward the wrongdoer mentioned in the next verse (cf. Acts 7:24; Rom. 12:19; 2 Thess. 1:8; Heb. 10:30).
The list is meant not to be exhaustive but to give a cumulatively comprehensive portrait of what godly grief looks like. These are the bright beams emanating from the sun of godly sorrow over sin. Godly sorrow is anything but complacent. Rather, it ignites a swell of healthy responsiveness and genuine feeling. The Corinthians are thus now, on this side of their sorrow, “innocent in the matter.”
7:12–13a Paul’s earlier severe letter (cf. 2:4) was not meant primarily to engage either the offending party or the offended party in Corinth (cf. 2:5–11). Rather, the purpose of Paul’s difficult letter was to raise to the surface in unmistakable clarity the genuineness of the Corinthians’ loyalty to Paul and his gospel. The Corinthians’ firm discipline of the offender (2:5–11) reinforced and manifested publicly their devotion to their father in the faith, the apostle Paul. Strikingly, Paul says that the chief audience seeing this devotion is the Corinthians themselves (“might be revealed to you”). Paul’s letter brought the Corinthians back to their senses. They were shaken out of the fog of self-deception brought on by the competing loyalty being sought by the false teachers, who were present while Paul was absent. But this was a loyalty not only made visible to human eyes. It was, most fundamentally, “in the sight of God” (also 4:2). God himself sees all human motives exhaustively and objectively.
Consequently, “we are comforted.” Paul returns to a key notion throughout 2 Corinthians, stretching from the “God of all comfort” in the letter’s opening (1:3) to mutual “comfort” among one another (13:11) and the “fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (13:14) at the letter’s close. Knowing now of the Corinthians’ abundant vindication via godly sorrow leading to repentance, Paul breathes a sigh of relief.
7:13b Having expressed his joy over the Corinthians’ solidarity with him (7:2–7) and in their redemptive sorrow (vv. 8–13a), Paul now turns to express his joy over their embrace of Titus (vv. 13b–16). Not only is Paul himself comforted (v. 13a); he is gladdened even more at what Titus has experienced. This is the logic of the gospel at work in human relationships. Just as God’s heart is to give (John 3:16–17), and Christ’s central purpose is not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:44–45), the most sublime joys in Christian discipleship are found in pursuing the welfare of others. Whereas children on Christmas Eve have not yet grown up and thus look forward most to receiving gifts, parents look forward most to giving them (Acts 20:35). Paul has joy in his comfort over the Corinthians, but his deepest joy is found in Titus’s joy.
What exactly generated joy in Titus? “His spirit [was] refreshed by you all.” Though the same word (Gk. pneuma) can be used to speak of the divine Spirit, “spirit” here is used anthropologically to denote Titus’s internal state of being (similar to “soul,” Gk. psychē, though without the connotation of eternality that “soul” often has). In one other Pauline text the ideas of “comfort,” “joy,” and “refreshment” converge: in Philemon 7 Paul says to Philemon, “I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.” Here it is hearts that are refreshed, a similar concept to the “spirit” as “refreshed.” In being embraced by the Corinthians, Titus found the calm meadow of inner rest and serene interpersonal harmony (the same verb for “refresh” is used in Matt. 11:28, where Jesus says, “I will give you rest”).
7:14 Paul had apparently “talked up” the Corinthians to Titus as he sent him to them. Using the language of “boasting” once more, Paul shrewdly lets the Corinthians into the high praise of them that he had communicated privately to Titus. The photo-negative of boasting is shame, and so Paul states the point negatively as well: “I was not put to shame.”
Paul then reiterates a point he has sought to drive home in the early chapters of the letter, namely, that his speech was guileless and sincere and full of integrity (lit., “but as all things in truth we spoke to you”). The notion of truthful speech was defended in 1:12–2:4 (and note the “boasting” in the Corinthians in 1:14). Just as Paul has always spoken in truthful speech to the Corinthians, so his boasting to Titus about them has proven true. Interestingly, Paul connects his truthful speech to the Corinthians’ obedience. Had the Corinthians received his painful letter and responded with impenitent worldly grief, Paul himself would have been proven untrue. We are reminded of how closely bound together Paul views himself to be with the Corinthians (cf. 6:11–13; 7:2–3). Their fate is his.
7:15 The word for “affections” (Gk. splanchna) was used in 6:12, also translated “affections” there. We remember that it is a term fraught with depth of feeling, originally denoting the bowels or entrails of the body. We might picture Titus and Paul huddled together in Macedonia as Titus reflects with his mentor on his time in Corinth. One can imagine the shoulders of the apostle relaxing and his lungs slowly exhaling as he hears of the Corinthians’ “obedience,” not just of a few but “of you all.” This is a community-wide penitence. Moreover, Paul observes Titus’s radiant countenance as he listens, indicating a swelling love and affection as he reminisces on his visit to Corinth. For, rather than receiving Titus with cool detachment, they “received him with fear and trembling.” The phrase “with fear and trembling” (Gk. meta phobou kai tromou) is used several times by Paul (1 Cor. 2:3; Eph. 6:5; Phil. 2:12) and never means what one might think at first glance—mortal quaking at grave danger. Rather, it refers to an utter seriousness and wholehearted sincerity mindful of eternal realities at stake. The Corinthians embraced Titus as their dear brother and coworker in the gospel. They welcomed him into their deepest heart.
7:16 The final conclusion, then, is inescapable: “I rejoice.” The Corinthians have not responded with partial, hesitating fidelity to Paul and the gospel. Their loyalty is holistic. The text could be rendered, “In all things I am confident in you.” Indeed, partial obedience is no obedience at all, since in partial obedience we are still selectively determining when to obey and when not to. Self still reigns. True obedience is total by its very nature. Authentic obedience obeys “in all things.”
And so Paul is confident in them. The word here (Gk. tharreō) is that which Paul used of Christian confidence in the future resurrection (5:6, 8) and will use again to speak of his frank “boldness” toward the Corinthians (10:1, 2). The term denotes a steely, wholehearted firmness of mind and resolve. Paul has been assured by Titus of the Corinthians’ spiritual health; he now assures them of his full confidence in them.