Repentance and Purification

¹Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let’s cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles the flesh and the spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

²Open y’all’s hearts to us. We have wronged no one, corrupted no one, and taken advantage of no one.

³I don’t say this in condemnation, since I have already said that y’all are in our hearts to die together and live together.

⁴I have spoken with great frankness to y’all, and I take great pride in y’all. I am filled with comfort, and I am overflowing with joy in all our oppressions.

⁵For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest. Instead, we were squeezed on every side, conflicts on the outside, fears within.

⁶But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,

⁷and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort y’all gave him. He told us of y’all’s longing, y’all’s mourning, and y’all’s zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

Previous Letter

⁸For even if I grieved y’all with my letter, I don’t regret it. And if I did regret it, because I saw that my letter grieved y’all for a little while,

⁹I now rejoice—not because y’all were grieved, but that your* grief led to repentance. For y’all were grieved in a godly way so that y’all weren’t harmed in any way by us.

¹⁰For godly sorrow produces repentance that leads to salvation, without regret. But worldly sorrow produces death.

¹¹Look at what this godly sorrow has produced in y’all—what earnestness, what reasoned defense, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way, y’all have shown yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

¹²So although I wrote to y’all, it was not for the one who did wrong or the one who was wronged, but that y’all’s earnest care for us might be made known to y’all in the sight of God.

¹³For this reason we have been comforted. And in addition to our comfort, we rejoiced even more for Titus’s joy, because his spirit was refreshed by all y’all.

¹⁴For if I boasted to him about y’all, I was not disappointed. But just as everything we said to y’all is true, so our boasting about y’all to Titus has proved to be true.

¹⁵And his affection for y’all is even greater when he remembers all your* obedience, how y’all received him with fear and trembling.

¹⁶I rejoice that I have total confidence in y’all.