2 Corinthians 7–10

7Dear friends, we have these promises from God. So let us make ourselves pure from everything that pollutes our bodies and spirits. Let us be completely holy. We want to honor God.

Paul’s Joy

²Make room for us in your hearts. We haven’t done anything wrong to anyone. We haven’t caused anyone to sin. We haven’t taken advantage of anyone.

³I don’t say this to judge you. I have told you before that you have an important place in our hearts. We would live or die with you. ⁴I have great faith in you. I am very proud of you. I am very happy. Even with all our troubles, my joy has no limit.

⁵When I came to Macedonia, my body wasn’t able to rest. I was attacked no matter where I went. I had battles on the outside and fears on the inside.

⁶But God comforts those who are sad. He comforted me when Titus came. ⁷I was comforted not only when he came but also by the comfort you had given him. He told me how much you longed for me. He told me about your deep sadness and concern for me. That made my joy greater than ever.

⁸Even if my letter made you sad, I’m not sorry I sent it. At first I was sorry. I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while. ⁹Now I am happy. I’m not happy because you were made sad. I’m happy because your sadness led you to turn away from your sins. You became sad just as God wanted you to. So you were not hurt in any way by us.

¹⁰Godly sadness causes us to turn away from our sins and be saved. And we are certainly not sorry about that! But worldly sadness brings death.

¹¹Look at what that godly sadness has produced in you. You are working hard to clear yourselves. You are angry and alarmed. You are longing to see me. You are concerned. You are ready to make sure that the right thing is done. In every way you have proved that you are not guilty in that matter.

¹²So even though I wrote to you, it wasn’t because of the one who did the wrong. It wasn’t because of the one who was hurt. Instead, I wrote you so that in the sight of God you could see for yourselves how faithful you are to us. ¹³All of that cheers us up.

We were also very glad to see how happy Titus was. You have all renewed his spirit. ¹⁴I had bragged about you to him. And you have not let me down. Everything we said to you was true. In the same way, our bragging about you to Titus has also turned out to be true. ¹⁵His love for you is even greater when he remembers that you all obeyed his teaching. You received him with fear and trembling. ¹⁶I am glad I can have complete faith in you.

Giving Freely to Others

8Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given to the churches in Macedonia. ²They have suffered a great deal. But their joy was more than full. Even though they were very poor, they gave very freely.

³I give witness that they gave as much as they could. In fact, they gave even more than they could. Completely on their own, ⁴they begged us for the chance to share in serving God’s people in that way. ⁵They did more than we expected. First they gave themselves to the Lord. Then they gave themselves to us in keeping with what God wanted.

⁶Titus had already started collecting money from you. So we asked him to get you to finish making your kind gift.

⁷You do well in everything else. You do well in faith and in speaking. You do well in knowledge and in complete commitment. And you do well in your love for us. So make sure that you also do well in the grace of giving to others.

⁸I am not commanding you to do it. But I want to put you to the test. I want to find out if you really love God. I want to compare your love with that of others.

⁹You know the grace shown by our Lord Jesus Christ. Even though he was rich, he became poor to help you. Because he became poor, you can become rich.

¹⁰Here is my advice about what is best for you in that matter. Last year you were the first to give. You were also the first to want to give. ¹¹So finish the work. Then your longing to do it will be matched by your finishing it. Give on the basis of what you have.

¹²Do you really want to give? Then the gift is received in keeping with what you have, not with what you don’t have.

¹³We don’t want others to have it easy at your expense. We want things to be equal. ¹⁴Right now you have plenty in order to take care of what they need. Then they will have plenty to take care of what you need. That will make things equal. ¹⁵It is written, “Those who gathered a lot didn’t have too much. And those who gathered a little had enough.”

Paul Sends Titus to Corinth

¹⁶God put into the heart of Titus the same concern I have for you. I am thankful to God for this. ¹⁷Titus welcomed our appeal. He is also excited about coming to you. It was his own idea.

¹⁸Along with Titus, we are sending another brother. All the churches praise him for his service in telling the good news. ¹⁹He was also chosen by the churches to go with us as we bring the offering. We are in charge of it. We want to honor the Lord himself. We want to show how ready we are to help.

²⁰We want to keep anyone from blaming us for how we take care of that large gift. ²¹We are trying hard to do what is right in the Lord’s eyes and in the eyes of people.

²²We are also sending another one of our brothers with them. He has often proved to us in many ways that he is very committed. He is now even more committed because he has great faith in you.

²³Titus is my helper. He and I work together among you. Our brothers are messengers from the churches. They honor Christ. ²⁴So show them that you really love them. Show them why we are proud of you. Then the churches can see it.

9I don’t need to write to you about giving to God’s people. ²I know how much you want to help. I have been bragging about it to the people in Macedonia. I have been telling them that since last year you who live in Achaia were ready to give. You are so excited that it has stirred up most of them to take action.

³But I am sending the brothers. Then our bragging about you in this matter will have a good reason. You will be ready, just as I said you would be.

⁴Suppose people from Macedonia come with me and find out that you are not prepared. Then we, as well as you, would be ashamed of being so certain.

⁵So I thought I should try to get the brothers to visit you ahead of time. They will finish the plans for the large gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a gift that is freely given. It will not be given by force.

Planting Many Seeds

⁶Here is something to remember. The one who plants only a little will gather only a little. And the one who plants a lot will gather a lot. ⁷You should each give what you have decided in your heart to give. You shouldn’t give if you don’t want to. You shouldn’t give because you are forced to. God loves a cheerful giver.

⁸And God is able to shower all kinds of blessings on you. In all things and at all times you will have everything you need. You will do more and more good works. ⁹It is written,

“They have spread their gifts around to poor people.

Their good works continue forever.”

¹⁰God supplies seed to the planter. He supplies bread for food. God will also supply and increase the amount of your seed. He will increase the results of your good works. ¹¹You will be made rich in every way. Then you can always give freely. We will take your many gifts to the people who need them. And they will give thanks to God.

¹²Your gifts meet the needs of God’s people. And that’s not all. Your gifts also cause many people to thank God.

¹³You have shown yourselves to be worthy by what you have given. So people will praise God because you obey him. That proves that you really believe the good news about Christ. They will also praise God because you share freely with them and with everyone else. ¹⁴Their hearts will be filled with longing for you when they pray for you. God has given you grace that is better than anything.

¹⁵Let us give thanks to God for his gift. It is so great that no one can tell how wonderful it really is!

Paul Speaks Up for Himself

10Christ is gentle and free of pride. So I make my appeal to you. I, Paul, am the one you call shy when I am face to face with you. But when I am away from you, you call me bold. ²I beg you that when I come I won’t have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people. They think that I live the way the people of this world live.

³I do live in the world. But I don’t fight my battles the way the people of the world do. ⁴The weapons I fight with are not the weapons the world uses. In fact, it is just the opposite. My weapons have the power of God to destroy the camps of the enemy.

⁵I destroy every claim and every reason that keeps people from knowing God. I keep every thought under control in order to make it obey Christ. ⁶Until you have obeyed completely, I will be ready to punish you every time you don’t obey.

⁷You are looking only at what appears on the surface of things. Suppose you are sure you belong to Christ. Then you should consider again that I belong to Christ just as much as you do.

⁸Do I brag too much about the authority the Lord gave me? If I do, it’s because I want to build you up, not pull you down. And I’m not ashamed of that kind of bragging.

⁹Don’t think that I’m trying to scare you with my letters. ¹⁰Some say, “His letters sound important. They are powerful. But in person he doesn’t seem like much. And what he says doesn’t amount to anything.” ¹¹People like that have a lot to learn. What I say in my letters when I’m away from you, I will do in my actions when I’m with you.

¹²I don’t dare to compare myself with those who praise themselves. I’m not that kind of person. They measure themselves by themselves. They compare themselves with themselves. When they do that, they are not wise.

¹³But I won’t brag more than I should. Instead, I will brag only about what I have done in the area God has given me. It is an area that reaches all the way to you. ¹⁴I am not going too far in my bragging. I would be going too far if I hadn’t come to where…