2Cor 7 | EE | STEP | So, my friends, that I love, God has promised these things to us. And so we must keep ourselves clean from everything that makes our bodies or our spirits dirty. We must remember always how very great and powerful God is. And, as a result, we should become more and more completely as God wants his own people to be.

2 Corinthians 7

1 So, my friends, that I love, God has promised these things to us. And so we must keep ourselves clean from everything that makes our bodies or our spirits dirty. We must remember always how very great and powerful God is. And, as a result, we should become more and more completely as God wants his own people to be.

2 Make room deep inside yourselves to love us. We have done nothing wrong to anyone. We have not hurt anyone. We have not used anyone for any wrong purposes of our own. 3 I am not saying this to show that you have done anything wrong. As I have told you before, you are very special to us. We love you so very much that, deep inside ourselves, you are always with us. And so, we live or die with you. 4 I am very sure about you. I am very happy because of you. God has comforted me very much. Even in all our troubles, I am still very, very happy.

5 When we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies did not rest at all. ^{▼▼7:5 Macedonia was north from the country called Greece today.} We had troubles everywhere. On the outside, other people were quarrelling with us. On the inside, we were afraid. 6 But God comforts people who are feeling sad and weak. And God comforted us because Titus arrived to be with us. 7 God comforted us not only because Titus came to us. He comforted us even more by what Titus told us about you. Titus said that you had comforted him. He told us how very much you want to see me. He told us how very sorry you are. He told us also how ready you are to help me. And so, I am even happier now.

8 But even if I made you sad by my letter, I am not sorry about that. I was sorry about it before. I saw that my letter made you sad for a short time. 9 But now I am happy, not because my letter made you sad. No, instead I am happy because it made you sad enough to turn away from wrong things. You became sad as God wanted you to be sad. So, as a result, we did not really hurt you or cause you loss in any way by our letter. 10 People need to become sad in the way that God wants. When they are sad like that, it causes them to turn away from wrong things. It causes them to turn to God, who saves them. And they will never be sorry that they did that! But this world makes people sad only because they have troubles or pain. It does not make them sad in a way that leads them to God. When the world makes people sad like that, it only causes them to die.

11 You became sad as God wanted you to be sad. And see what good results that has brought! It has made you think so seriously and so carefully. It has made you want so much to show that you have turned away from wrong things. It has made you so angry, so afraid, and so ready to change. It has made you want so very much to do better things. It has made you want to punish someone who was doing wrong things. You have shown that you yourselves have done everything possible to make things right.

12 I did not write that letter to you because of the person who had done something wrong. I did not write it to help that person. Neither did I write it to help the person that somebody had done something wrong to. Instead, I wrote the letter so that you could understand something. I wanted you to understand clearly how very much you yourselves love us. And God knows how much you love us. 13 That is what has comforted us.

Yes, that comforted us. And Titus made us even happier, because he himself was so happy. Titus was happy because all of you had helped him to feel stronger and braver. 14 I did say good things about you to Titus, and you have not disappointed me. We have always spoken only true things to you. And, in the same way, when we said good things about you to Titus, those things were true also. It has become clear that those things are true. 15 And Titus loves you even more when he thinks about you. He remembers how ready all of you were to obey. You were happy that he had come to visit you. But you were also very afraid. 16 I am happy because I am sure about you. I am completely sure that you will do only what is good and right.