Translation & Sermon by
Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 15
Feb
2026
Underlined
words in Scripture quotes indicate words that are in common with the
Greek text
of the sermon
passage.
Otherwise, underlining indicates words to emphasize when reading this
transcript out
loud.
Omitting
greyed-out text should reduce read-aloud time to about
40
minutes.
Read my translation of the passage, starting at 2
Corinthians 7:4
“Great is my openness toward y’all; great
is my cause for celebration concerning y’all. I have been filled
with comfort; I am super-abundant with joy despite all our stress.
Indeed, even when we came to Macedonia, our flesh didn’t have any
relief; rather, we were stressed-out by everything – fights
outside, fears inside. But God – the One who comforts those who
are low – comforted us by the presence of Titus, and not only by
his presence, but also by the comfort by which he was comforted by
y’all, as he related to us your longing, your weeping, your zeal
concerning me, which resulted in me rejoicing instead! Thus, even
though I grieved y’all by my letter, I don’t regret it (even if
I was regretting it), for I see that that letter grieved y’all –
if even for an hour. Now I rejoice, not that y’all were grieved,
but rather that y’all were grieved to the point of repentance, for
y’all were grieved with respect to God, in order that y’all
might be penalized in nothing as a result of us. For grief with
respect to God works out repentance unto salvation without regret,
but the grief of the world works out death.” (NAW)
Paul here picks up his own personal story which he left off in
chapter 2. To refresh you on that background, let me review chapter
2:
“So I decided this within myself: not to come again to
y’all with grief. (For, when I grieve y’all, who then is the one
that makes me glad except the one that is grieved by me?) And I
wrote this very thing to y’all in order that, when I come, I might
not have grief from those whom I should be causing to rejoice,
having become confident concerning all of y’all that my own joy is
that of you all. Indeed, out of much stress and worry of heart I
wrote to y’all, through many tears, not in order that y’all
might be grieved, but rather in order that y’all might know the
love which I have more abundantly with y’all. But if anyone had
caused grief, it wouldn’t have been me that he grieved but rather
all of y’all – at least to some extent (that I might not be too
heavy-handed). This penalty that came about by the many has been
sufficient in the case of such person, such that y’all should do
the opposite, to freely-forgive and comfort instead, lest perhaps
such person might be swallowed up in the excess of grief. On account
of this, I encourage y’all to ratify love to him. And it was for
this purpose that I wrote, in order that I might know y’all’s
dependability – whether y’all are obedient in all things. And to
whom y’all freely-forgive of something, I will do the same, for
indeed if I myself have freely-forgiven of anything, it is the one
whom I have freely-forgiven on account of y’all, in the presence
of Christ, in order that we may not be gotten-the-best-of by Satan
(for we are not ignorant of his thoughts). Now, after having gone,
for the sake of the good news of the Anointed One, into Troas (where
a door had been opened to me by the Lord), I was not experiencing
release in my spirit, because I had not found my brother Titus, so
instead, after disengaging with them, I went out into Macedonia…”
(2 Cor. 2:1-13, NAW)
So Paul was in Ephesus, and he was planning to go back and visit the church he had planted in Corinth, but he heard about a number of problems in the Corinthian church (and he and Timothy confirmed that the problems were serious), so he wrote a letter to the Corinthians, exhorting them to address these problems.
Some scholars think that was the letter of 1 Corinthians, and others think it was another letter written inbetween First and Second Corinthians that has been lost1.
One of the things Paul had apparently exhorted them to do was to bring church discipline against the flagrantly-immoral man in their membership who was boasting about his sin.
Another issue was apparently that they needed to make up their minds to follow Paul’s Gospel and quit listening to the super-apostles who were trying to convert them away from Christianity to Judaism.
Titus agreed to carry the letter from Paul in Ephesus to the church in Corinth.
So, while Titus travelled to Corinth and delivered the letter and talked through things with the church in Corinth, Paul was left for some time to wonder how that mission was going.
News travelled much more slowly back then before telephones and the Internet.
Would the Corinthians get upset at being criticized and cut off relationship with Paul?
Would they have the fortitude to confront these problems, or would they keep compromising with sin and false doctrine?
Had Paul been too harsh in his letter? Would they ever even want to see Paul again?
It sounds like Paul got pretty anxious while he waited for Titus to return and report on the church in Corinth.
For reasons which aren’t fully explained in the Bible, Paul left Ephesus and started traveling west along the coast of the Aegean Sea, hoping to run into Titus sooner, as Titus traveled in the opposite direction toward him around the Aegean Sea coast from Corinth.
During this time, Paul mentions in v.5 “external conflicts and internal fears” putting “pressure/stress” on him.
The only other times Paul used this Greek word for “fights/conflicts” were to describe the problem of rhetorical confrontations initiated by Jews who were trying to convert Christians away from Christ and back to Judaism:
Paul warned his young pastor friends Timothy and Titus to “[A]void foolish and ignorant disputes... genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless ... they generate strife.” (2 Tim. 2:23, Titus 3:9, NKJV)
1 Tim. 6:3-6 “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.” (NKJV)
As for Paul’s internal fears, there is only one other place where he mentions this negative kind of fear, and that is 1 Corinthians 2:3 “And as for me, I came to y'all in weakness and in fear and in much trembling…”
Most commentators consider these fears to be related to failures in the church. For instance, John Calvin wrote: “For he saw how great was the infirmity of many, nay of almost all, and in the mean time what, and how diversified, were the machinations, by which Satan attempted to throw every thing into confusion — how few were wise, how few were sincere, how few were steadfast, and how many, on the other hand, were either mere pretenders, and worthless, or ambitious, or turbulent. Amidst these difficulties, the servants of God must of necessity feel alarmed, and be racked with anxieties; and so much the more on this account — that they are constrained to bear many things silently, that they may consult the peace of the Churches.”
Do you ever worry that the church in our nation is falling to pieces?
– coming apart at the seams as the world mercilesly attacks it,
tearing itself apart with needless conflicts from within,
and compromising so much with sin and false doctrine that it can no longer be distinguished from the world all around it?
Paul shows us the way out of that Slough of Despond in the next verses!
He turns his attention back to God with the words “But God…” in verse 6.
The words “But God” are a precious reminder to us that we are not operating in a vaccuum – we are not on our own; God’s presence and power are available to turn any trouble around:
Acts 7:9 “...the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him…” (NKJV)
Romans 5:7-8 “...scarcely for a righteous man will one die... But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (NKJV)
Acts 13:28-29 “...[The Jews arrested Jesus and] asked Pilate that He should be put to death... But God raised Him from the dead.” (NKJV)
1 Corinthians 1: 26-27 “For y'all see your calling, brothers, that not many were wise according to the flesh, not many were powerful, not many were upper-class. But God chose... the weak ones of the world for Himself...” (NAW)
1 Corinthians 3:6 “I planted; Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” (NKJV)
1 Cor. 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (NKJV)
Philippians 2:27 “For he [Epaphras] was indeed sick, almost to death, but God had mercy on him…” (NAW)
Not only does Paul remember the bare fact that God is there, Paul also quotes Scripture to remind himself about God’s relationship with His people. In verse 6 he quotes Isaiah 49:11 “...the Lord has had mercy on his people, and has comforted the lowly ones of his people.” (Brenton, cf. Lk. 1:52, Jas. 4:6, & 1 Pet. 5:5)
This is what God does: “He comforts the lowly of His people” who have been humbled and downtrodden and depressed.
John Calvin commented on this, “Hence a most profitable doctrine may be inferred — that the more we have been afflicted, so much the greater consolation has been prepared for us by God. Hence, in the epithet here applied to God, there is a choice promise contained, as though he had said, that it is peculiarly the part of God to comfort those that are miserable and are abased to the dust.”
And that “comfort” for Paul comes in the “arrival/presence of Titus,” who, as he wrote later in his letter to Titus, was as dear to him as his “own son in the common faith” (Titus 1:4).
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort – the One Who comforts us in all our stress in order for us to be empowered to comfort those in any stress, by means of the comfort by which we ourselves are being comforted by God...” (NAW)
Much of our “comfort” comes through brothers and sisters in Christ – through the sharing of our “mutual faith” (Rom. 1:12) in one another’s “presence.” Never underestimate the comfort that a letter, a word of encouragement, a visit or a hug can bring!
But it was not only Titus’ presence which brought Paul comfort; Paul was comforted immensely by the good news Titus brought that the church in Corinth had responded well to his letter – was dealing with the sin and false doctrine and was eager for Paul to visit them again!
The three things in Titus’ report on the Corinthian church which brought “comfort” to Paul and turned his “restless” feeling of being “stressed/troubled/afflicted/harrassed” in v.5 into an attitude of “rejoicing” instead in v.7 were:
“your ἐπιπόθησιν/longing/earnest desire” – This Greek word expresses a longing for face-to-face fellowship with another person (or persons).
“your ὀδυρμόν/mourning/weeping/deep sorrow” – The only other place this word occurs in the Greek Bible is in the prophecy about Herod’s slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem where Rachel is “weeping” over the loss of children (Jer. 38:15 & Matt. 2:18).
and “your ζῆλον/zeal/ardent concern/fervent mind/jealousy concerning me.” – They were not indifferent about Paul. They were actually feeling a bit “jealous” that he was spending time with other churches and not with them!
“Hitherto the longing, the mourning, and the zeal had been all on [Paul’s] side, but now, to his joy, it has become ‘your longing, your mourning, your zeal’.” ~P.E. Hughes
We don’t have any other record of Titus’ visit to Corinth, so this summary from Paul is all we know about that visit, but it communicates volumes:
The church missed Paul and really wanted to see him again.
The church was grieving appropriately over the damage that had been done by their sin which Paul’s letter had brought to their attention.
And they were willing to do whatever it would take to make amends with Paul.
“[I]t was likely that they would mourn and grieve why the blessed Paul was so much displeased, why he had kept away from them so long... [T]hey displayed [zeal] both about him that had committed fornication and about those who were accusing him. ‘For,’ saith he, ‘ye were inflamed and blazed out on receiving my letters.’ On these accounts he abounds in joy… Such also now should be the feelings of those who are reprehended; thus should they lament and mourn; thus yearn after their teachers; thus, more than fathers, seek them… join in the anger of your rulers whenever they are indignant justly; that when ye see any one rebuked, ye may all shun him more than does the teacher. Let him that hath offended fear you more than his rulers. For if he is afraid of his teacher only, he will readily sin: but if he have to dread so many eyes, so many tongues, he will be in greater safety. For as, if we do not thus act, we shall suffer the extremest punishment; so, if we perform these things, we shall partake of the gain that accrues from his reformation. Thus then let us act; and if any one shall say, ‘be humane towards thy brother, this is a Christian’s duty;’ let him be taught, that he is humane who is angry [with him], not he who sets him at ease prematurely and alloweth him not even to come to a sense of his transgression … No one so loved him that committed fornication amongst the Corinthians, as Paul who commandeth to deliver him to Satan; no one so hated him as they that applaud and court him; and the event showed it. For they indeed both puffed him up and increased his inflammation; but [the Apostle] both lowered it and left him not until he brought him to perfect health. ~John Chrysostom, c. 400 AD
“Their desire originated in the circumstance, that they held Paul’s doctrine in high estimation. Their tears were a token of respect; because, being affected with his reproof, they mourned over their sins. Their zeal was an evidence of good will. From these three things he inferred that they were penitent. This afforded him full satisfaction…” ~John Calvin, 1546 AD
In verses 8-9, Paul reflects on the role that his letter played in bringing this church to grief and repentance:
Back in chapter 2 verse 4, Paul had written, “Indeed, out of much stress and worry of heart I wrote to y'all, through many tears, not in order that y'all might be grieved, but rather in order that y'all might know the love which I have more abundantly with y'all...” (NAW)
Rebuke should never be something that you enjoy doing, but it is something you should be willing to do with someone you love who needs the foolishness of their sin pointed out to them.
The Greek word lupe, meaning “grief/sorrow/pain/sorry” occurs seven times here in verses 8-10, three of those times in verse 9.
Chrysostom compared it to the pain that a surgery patient experiences. We don’t cut people open for no good reason. “[A] father, when he sees his son under the knife, rejoiceth not that he is being pained, but that he is being cured… [N]ot rebuking those that sin is a damage both to the master and to the disciple.”
Proverbs 27:5-6 “Open rebuke is better Than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend…” (NKJV)
Proverbs 28:23 “He that rebuketh a man afterwards shall find more favour than he that flattereth with his tongue.” (KJV)
Paul says he wrote this painful letter “in order that y’all might be penalized in nothing as a result of us/in order that ye might receive damage/suffer loss from us in nothing/so that you might not be harmed in any way through us.”
11 out of the 12 other times the Greek word for “suffer loss/damage” occurs in the Bible, it is in the context of an offender being punished after being found guilty by a court.
Paul isn’t merely worried about collateral damage in terms of people getting their feelings hurt.
The connotation is that if they didn’t repent of these things, they would be condemned on Judgment Day by Jesus Himself, and in that scenario, Paul would have to testify against them, and he desperately doesn’t want things to end up that way!
Is there anyone in your life that you need to exhort to repentance now so that they might not be condemned on Judgment Day?
Verse 8 depicts Paul anxiously wondering whether it had been a good idea or not for him to write that letter calling them to repentance.
I know some of us have had that experience where we confronted someone in writing over their sin or foolishness, and we didn’t know whether they would respond well or not.
I’ve seen it go both ways: sometimes people have responded by getting upset and cutting off relationship, and sometimes people have responded by apologizing and restoring fellowship.
One lesson I’ve learned the hard way, though, is that we need to be wise in how we communicate a rebuke.
The first step is to check to see if this is a situation where you have a log in your own eye but are trying to ferret out specks out of a brother’s eye (Matt. 7). Pray about it and bounce your ideas off a wise person for advice.
And if you determine that you are right before God and doing what is wise to make the confrontation, try to do it face-to-face, rather than in writing,
but if writing is the only way you can do it, be careful how you word things, because it’s easy to take a written message the wrong way, since there is no body language to go along with and interpret it. (I suppose that’s why emoji’s were invented, but they’re still not as good as a face-to-face talk!)
Paul is thrilled that his previous letter to the Corinthian church incited them to “grieve/be sorry in relation to God/in a Godly manner/according to the will of God/as God intended.”
The Greek wording does not actually contain the word “will” or “intend” so I think this is simply denoting sorrow over sin while being oriented toward God – grief experienced in God’s holy presence. It begins with being genuinely sorry for your sin and coming before God to confess it and ask His forgiveness in Jesus’ name.
There are, of course many other passages of scripture which provide examples and instruction on how to do that according to God’s will.
Psalms 38:18 “Because I will confess my iniquity; I will stir up concern as a result of my sin.” (NAW)
Luke 15:17-18 “But when he [the Prodigal Son] came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you...”’” (NKJV)
Jesus said in Luke 15:7 “...[T]here will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” (NKJV)
Verse 10 jumps off of Paul’s personal story to make a theological statement about two different outcomes where sin causes sorrow:
The first outcome is “repentance unto salvation” [repentance which leads to salvation] and that “without regret” [not to be repented of].
The oldest English versions confuse the two different Greek words for “repent” and “regret” in v.10, rendering them with the same English word “repent,” but English versions made after the mid-1800’s distinguish between the two different Greek words for “repentance” and “regret.”
Failing to repent will certainly cause “regrets” concerning relationships that didn’t get reconciled or concerning lingering consequences of sin that didn’t get weeded out of your life, but there is nothing to regret about “repentence unto salvation!” Once you turn away from your sin and come to Jesus to be made right with God, there’s no turning back!
Grieving “lays stress on the affliction or pain that is experienced on the contemplation of our former folly…” Repentance “points primarily to the change of mind, issuing in ammendment…” ~B. B. Warfield, “N. T. Terms Descriptive of the Great Change,” 1891 AD
“[S]orrow according to God is that which has an eye to God, while they reckon it the one misery — to have lost the favor of God; when, impressed with fear of His judgment, they mourn over their sins. This sorrow Paul makes the cause and origin of repentance… Paul... is not inquiring as to the ground of salvation, but simply commending repentance from the fruit which it produces... for Christ calls us by way of free favor, but it is to repentance. (Matt. 9:13.) God by way of free favor pardons our sins, but only when we renounce them. Nay more, God accomplishes in us at one and the same time two things: being renewed by repentance, we are delivered from the bondage of our sins; and, being justified by faith, we are delivered also from the curse of our sins. They are, therefore, inseparable fruits of grace, and, in consequence of their invariable connection, repentance may with fitness and propriety be represented as an introduction to salvation... as an effect rather than as a cause... the mercy of God alone [i]s the ground of our obtaining it.” ~John Calvin, 1546 AD
“The antecedent of true repentance is godly sorrow; this worketh repentance. It is not repentance itself, but it is a good preparative to repentance, and in some sense the cause that produces repentance. The offender had “great sorrow,” he was in danger of being “swallowed up with overmuch sorrow;” and the society was greatly “sorrowful” which before was puffed up: and this sorrow of theirs was... ‘according to God’..., tended to the glory of God, and was wrought by the Spirit of God. It was a ‘godly sorrow,’ because a sorrow for sin, as an offence against God, an instance of ingratitude, and a forfeiture of God's favour... Godly sorrow produces repentance and reformation, and will end in salvation; [these things] are from God, the giver of all grace.” ~Matthew Henry, 1714 AD
The other possible outcome of “sorrow” mentioned in v.10 is “death.”
“Sorrow which is characteristic of the world [is] grief for the consequences rather than for the sin as sin.” ~Marvin Vincent, Word Studies Of The New Testament, 1886 AD
“Self is [the] central point [of the sorrow of the world]; and self is also the central point of sin. Thus the ‘sorrow of the world’ manifests itself in self-pity rather than in contrition and turning to God for mercy… The ‘sorrow of the world’... culminates in the weeping and gnashing of teeth of judgment (Mt. 13:42, 50; 25:30); it earns the wages of sin (Rom. 6:23).” ~P. E. Hughes, 1962 AD
“If thou be in sorrow for money, for reputation, for him that is departed, all these are ‘worldly.’ Wherefore also they ‘work death.’ For he that is in sorrow for reputation’s sake feeleth envy and is driven oftentimes to perish: such sorrow was that which Cain sorrowed, such Esau [too]. By this ‘worldly sorrow’ then he meaneth that which is to the harm of those that sorrow. For only in respect to sins is sorrow a profitable thing; as is evident in this way: He that sorroweth for loss of wealth repaireth not that damage; he that sorroweth for one deceased raiseth not the dead to life again; he that sorroweth for a sickness, not only is not made well but even aggravates the disease. He that sorroweth for sins, he alone attains some advantage from his sorrow, for he maketh his sins wane and disappear.” ~John Chrysostom, c. 400 AD
The Bible is full of examples of these two outcomes, but let me highlight just a couple sets of contrasting Bible characters:
Consider the contrast between Cain and David, when they were rebuked for their sin of murder.
In the case of Cain, God Himself confronted him with his sin, whereas in the case of David, God confronted him through the prophet Nathan.
Cain responded, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and then when God judged him and handed down the surprisingly-lenient punishment of exile instead of death, Cain complained, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” (Gen. 4:13, NKJV)
David’s response, on the other hand, was “Have mercy on me, O God!...” “… ‘I have sinned against Yahweh!’ Then Nathan said to David, ‘Yahweh Himself has also passed over your sin; you will not die.’” (Psalm 51:1, 2 Sam. 12:13, NAW) Godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation!
Consider the contrast between Achithophel, the royal counselor who helped Absalom usurp David’s throne, and the King of Nineveh who was confronted by the prophet Jonah.
The Bible doesn’t tell us who broke the news to Achithophel, but when he realized that Absalom was not going to succeed in his plot to overthrow David, he did not humble himself and ask David for mercy. 2 Samuel 17:23 says, “Now, when Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been acted upon... he strangled himself to death...” (NAW) The sorrow of the world produces death.
In contrast, when the King of Nineveh – perhaps it was Shalmanezer – heard the Israelite prophet Jonah proclaiming that God would overthrow Nineveh because of their sins, Jonah 3:6-10 says“...the word impacted the king of Nineveh, so he got up from his throne and had his robe taken off of him and put on sack-cloth, and he sat upon the ashes. Then he called a council and then declared... ‘Man and beast... should not eat; they should not even drink water. And with sack-cloths, man and beast should clothe themselves, and they should cry out to God with all their might, and each man should turn away from his evil way and from the violence which is in their hands. Who knows? The god may turn back and be sorry and turn away from his burning anger, and we will not perish.’ Well, God saw their behavior, that they had turned away from their evil way. And God relented...” (NAW) Godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation!
One last contrast to consider are the two disciples of Jesus, Simon Peter and Judas Iscariot.
Jesus Himself confronted both of them before they sinned against Him. Judas didn’t skip a beat – he departed from the Last Supper to do what he was going to do, and he betrayed the Son of Man with a kiss; but Peter brashly rebuked Jesus for confronting him, and he tried to stay loyal to Jesus until it got so scary that he caved.
“Then Judas His betrayer, after seeing that He was condemned, remorsefully… said, ‘I sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ And... he strangled himself.” (Matt. 27:3-5, NAW) Once again, worldly sorrow led to death.
But Peter, after he denied association with Jesus three times in a row, quickly realized he had sinned and “went away and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75), then repented by reassociating himself with the 12 disciples, visiting Jesus’ tomb, and making a beeline for Jesus through the Sea of Galilee the next time he saw Jesus. John 21 recounts how Jesus then restored Peter’s relationship with Him and commissioned Peter to be a pastor in His church. Godly sorrow produces repentance unto salvation!
ByzantineB |
NAW |
KJVC |
RheimsD |
MurdockE |
CopticF |
7:4 πολλή μοι παρρησία πρὸς ὑμᾶς, πολλή μοι καύχησις ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν· πεπλήρωμαι τῇG παρακλήσει, Hὑπερπερισσεύομαι τῇ χαρᾷ ἐπὶ πάσῃ τῇI θλίψει ἡμῶν. |
4 Great is my openness toward y’all; great is my cause for celebration concerning y’all. I have been filled with comfort; I am super-abundant with joy despite all our stress. |
4
Great is
my boldness
of
speech toward you, great is
my glorying
of you: I am filled with comfort, I
am exceeding
X joy |
4 Great is my confidence for you: great is my glorying for you. I am filled with comfort: I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation. |
4
I have great assurance
before you, [andJ]
have much glorying
|
7:4
I have a great boldness of
speech toward you, I have a great boast
about you: I wasB/ amS full of [yourB]
theS comfort, I
abound |
5 ΚαὶK γὰρ ἐλθόντων ἡμῶν εἰς Μακεδονίαν οὐδεμίαν ἔσχηκεν ἄνεσιν ἡ σὰρξL ἡμῶν, ἀλλ᾿ ἐνM παντὶ θλιβόμενοι·N ἔξωθεν μάχαιO, ἔσωθεν φόβοιP. |
5 Indeed, even when we came to Macedonia, our flesh didn’t have any relief; rather, we were stressed-out by everything – fights outside, fears inside. |
5 For X, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. |
5 For also, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest: but we suffered X all tribulation. Combats without: fears within. |
5
For, |
5
For even when weS had come into Makedonia our flesh
|
6 ἀλλ᾿ ὁ παρακαλῶν τοὺς ταπεινοὺςR παρεκάλεσεν ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεὸς ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳS ΤίτουT· |
6 But God – the One who comforts those who are low – comforted us by the presence of Titus, |
6 Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; |
6 But God, who comforteth the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus. |
6 But God who comforteth the depressed, comforted us by the arrival of Titus. |
6 But God, who consoleth those who are humble, consoled us in the coming of Titos [unto usS]; |
7 οὐ μόνον δὲ ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῇ παρακλήσει ᾗ παρεκλήθη ἐφ᾿ ὑμῖν, ἀναγγέλλων ἡμῖν τὴν ὑμῶν ἐπιπόθησινU, τὸν ὑμῶν ὀδυρμόνV, τὸν ὑμῶν ζῆλον ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ, ὥστεW με μᾶλλονX χαρῆναιY, |
7 and not only by his presence, but also by the comfort by which he was comforted by y’all, as he related to us your longing, your weeping, your zeal concerning me, which resulted in me rejoicing instead! |
7 And not by his coming only, but X by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more. |
7 And not by his coming only, but also by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, relating to us your desire, your mourning, your zeal for me: so that I rejoiced the more. |
7
And not merely
by his arrival,
but also by the refreshing
with which he was refreshed
by you. For
he told us of your love
[towards
us],
and of your grief,
and of your zeal
in |
7
but not only in his coming, but alsoZ
in the comfort, in which he was |
8 ὅτιAA εἰ καὶAB ἐλύπησα ὑμᾶς ἐν τῇ ἐπιστολῇ, οὐ μεταμέλομαι, εἰ καὶ μετεμελόμην· βλέπω γὰρAC ὅτι ἡ ἐπιστολὴ ἐκείνηAD, εἰ καὶ πρὸς ὥραν ἐλύπησεν ὑμᾶς. |
8 Thus, even though I grieved y’all by my letter, I don’t regret it (even if I was regretting it), for I see that that letter grieved y’all – if even for an hour. |
8
For though I made
you sorry
with a letter, I do
not repent,
X though I did
repent:
for I perceive that the |
8
For although I made
you sorrowful
by my epistle, I do
not repent.
And if
I did
repent, X
seeing that the |
8 X And although I made you sad by the epistle, I do not regret it, X though I did regret it; for I see that that epistle, though X for a time it made you sad, |
8 because if I gave pain to you in the epistle, I repent not, although I was repenting; for I see that that epistle, [that] if it grieved you, (grieved you) for a little (time), |
Byzantine |
NAW |
KJV |
Rheims |
Murdock |
Coptic |
9 νῦν χαίρω, οὐχ ὅτι ἐλυπήθητεAE, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι ἐλυπήθητε εἰς μετάνοιαν· ἐλυπήθητε γὰρ κατὰ ΘεόνAF, ἵνα ἐν μηδενὶ ζημιωθῆτεAG ἐξAH ἡμῶν. |
9 Now I rejoice, not that y’all were grieved, but rather that y’all were grieved to the point of repentance, for y’all were grieved with respect to God, in order that y’all might be penalized in nothing as a result of us. |
9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye X sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. |
9 Now I am glad: not because you were made sorrowful, but because you were made sorrowful unto penance. For you were made sorrowful according to God, that you might suffer damage by us in nothing. |
9
|
9 [but] now I rejoice, not that ye were grieved, but that ye were grieved unto [a] repentance: for ye were grieved according to God, that ye might not suffer any loss from us. |
10 ἡ γὰρ κατὰ Θεὸν λύπη μετάνοιαν εἰς σωτηρίαν ἀμεταμέλητονAJ AKκατεργάζεται· ἡ δὲ τοῦ κόσμου λύπη θάνατον κατεργάζεται. |
10 For grief with respect to God works out repentance unto salvation without regret, but the grief of the world works out death. |
10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. |
10
For the sorrow
that
is according to God worketh
penance,
X |
10 For, sorrowing on account of God, worketh a conversion [of the soul which is] not reversed, and a turning unto life: but the sorrowing of the world worketh death. |
10 For the grief according to God worked [a] repentance unto salvation not to be repented of: but the grief of the world worketh death. |
1Plummer is in the former category; Hughes and Denney are in the latter.
AWhen
a translation adds words not in the Greek text, but does not
indicate by the use of italics or greyed-out text that it has done
so, I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version
chooses a wording which is different from all the other
translations, I underline it. When a version chooses a translation
which, in my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning
of the Greek word or departs too far from the grammar form of the
original text, I use strikeout. And when a version
omits a word which is in the original text, I insert an X. I also
place an X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but
the English translation is singular. I occasionally use colors to
help the reader see correlations between the various editions and
versions when there are more than two different translations of a
given word. NAW is my translation. My original chart includes
annotated copies of the NKJV, NASB, NIV, and ESV, but I erase them
from the online edition so as not to infringe on their copyrights.
BThis Greek New Testament is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. As published by E-Sword in 2016. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and UBS editions, however, are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era, focusing on the few manuscripts which are older than the Byzantine manuscripts. Even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.
C1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published by E-Sword in 2019.
DRheims New Testament first published by the English College at Rheims, A.D. 1582, Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner, Published in 1582, 1609, 1752. As published on E-Sword in 2016.
EJames Murdock, A Literal Translation from the Syriac Peshito Version, 1851, Robert Carter & Brothers, New York. Scanned and transcribed by Gary Cernava and published electronically by Janet Magierra at http://www.lightofword.org, and published on E-Sword in 2023.
FThis is my conflation of the English translations of the Northern Bohairic and Southern Sahidic traditions published by Oxford Clarendon Press in 1905 and 1920 respectively, neither of which named the translator or editor. The beginnings and ends of multiple-word variants are marked out with brackets, with a superscript “S” for Sahidic or “B” for Bohairic. The editor of the Sahidic compilation did not have manuscripts for vs. 8-11 and 13-15, and I have not discovered a published English translation of the subsequently-discovered manuscripts, so variants in that section for that tradition are not listed.
G“The Greek has the comfort, the article apparently pointing to the special comfort he had received through the coming of Titus (v.6).” ~M. Vincent, cf. Coptic versions which rendered this definite article “your/the.”
HThis superlative form of perisseuw (“abound”) is only found in the Greek Bible here and Romans 5:20.
IPeshitta and Coptic versions interpreted this definite article pronomially, which is allowable in Greek (L&N Supplement #92.11a), but the Peshitta mistakenly pluralized the object (although not a single known Greek or Latin or Coptic manuscript pluralized it), and the NIV followed the Peshitta’s erroneous pluralization (“troubles”).
JAll the English translations of the Peshitta separate the phrases of this verse by conjunctions which are not in any Greek manuscript.
KGeneva, King James, NIV, and NLT dropped this conjunction out of their English translations. “Paul now returns to the incident mentioned in 2:12 before the long digression on the glory of the ministry.” ~A.T. Robertson
LThis parallels the statement in describing the exact same circumstances in 2:13 “ I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus…” and suggest that no significant difference in meaning is intended between “flesh” and “spirit.” Hughes suggested it could be synechdoche in which either term could be used to “signify the entirety of [Paul’s] human existence and experience, outward and inward.”
MEnglish versions historically have interpreted this locatively or temporally (in, at, on, from), but the instrumental meaning of this Greek preposition (“by means of”) makes more sense to me and doesn’t require making up an object for the preposition out of thin air like most English versions did, when they added the word “way/turn/side/direction.”
N“He was troubled when he did not meet with Titus at Troas, and afterwards when for some time he did not meet with him in Macedonia: this was a grief to him, because he could not hear what reception he met with at Corinth, nor how their affairs went forward. And, besides this, they met with other troubles...” ~M. Henry
OThe only other times Paul used this simple noun were in his warnings to Timothy (2 Tim. 2:23) and Titus (3:9) to “avoid foolish and ignorant disputes... genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless ... they generate strife.” (NKJV) Compound forms show up in the same kind of warnings in two other places in the pastoral letters (1 Tim. 6:3-6 “If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words [λογομαχίας], from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.” and 2 Tim. 2:14 “Remind them... not to strive about words [λογομαχεῖν] to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.” ~NKJV) Phillip Hughes commented that this phrase “seem[s] to indicate a state of disharmony within the Macedonian church...” (Its verbal form occurs in 1 Cor. 15:32 “If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus…” - the meaning of which is debated to the extent that it may not thow much light upon the meaning here in 2 Cor. 7.)
PThere is only one place where Paul mentions this negative kind of fear, and that is 1 Corinthians 2:3 “And as for me, I came to y'all in weakness and in fear and in much trembling…” Most commentators consider these fears to be related to failures in the church. Massie wrote that this fear was primarily about “the effects of his letter and of the mission of Titus” in Corinth.
QThe Peshitta renders the second of the two Greek conjunctions as ܡܢ (“from”). Murdock translated it “after,” Etheridge translated it “even,” and Lamsa translated it “ever.”
RQuoting
Isaiah 49:11 “...the Lord has had mercy on his people, and
has comforted the lowly ones of his people.”
(Brenton, cf. Lk. 1:52 “He exalts the lowly,” and Jas.
4:6 & 1 Pet. 5:5 “He gives grace to the lowly.”)
“He
ascribes all his comfort to God as the author. It was God who
comforted him by the coming of Titus…” ~M. Henry
SNote that Titus’ “παρουσίᾳ/coming/arrival/presence” is a different word – and therefore of a different quality – than Paul and Timothy’s “ἐλθόντων/coming” in v.5. Paul’s comfort seems more likely to stem from the literal meaning of the former “being alongside” (i.e. “presence”) than in the derivative meaning of “coming” (i.e. a “celebrity appearance”). Titus was, as Paul wrote later in his letter to Titus, as dear to him as his “own son in the common faith” (Titus 1:4).
T“At
last Titus arrives with tidings from Corinth. The Apostle’s letter
had been well received; it had produced the intended effects; a
spirit of repentance had fallen upon the Church; they had applied
themselves vigorously to the correction of abuses; the love which
they bore to their spiritual father had revived with additional
strength…” ~Thomas McCrie’s sermon on this passage
“For
the things that Titus has reported to me respecting you are not
merely sufficient for quieting my mind, but afford me also ground of
glorying confidently on your account Nay more, they have effectually
dispelled the grief, which many great and heavy afflictions had
occasioned me.” ~J. Calvin
UThis
noun only occurs in the Greek Bible here and verse 11 and in Romans
15:23 (where it is spelled as a first declension noun instead of a
third declension noun as it is here). It is common enough as a verb,
appearing in Deut. 13:9; Ps. 41:2; 61:11; 83:3; Wis. 15:19; Sir.
25:21; Jer. 13:14; Rom. 1:11; 2 Cor. 5:2; 9:14; Phil. 1:8; 2:26;
4:1; 1 Thess. 3:6; 2 Tim. 1:4; Jas. 4:5; & 1 Pet. 2:2. In most
of these cases, this root expresses a longing for face-to-face
fellowship with another person (or persons).
Although no Greek
manuscript has a prepositional phrase here, the Peshitta inserted
ܕ݁ܰܠܘܳܬ݂ܰܢ
(“toward us”), and the NIV/NLT followed suit,
inexplicably changing the plural pronoun to singular (“for me”).
The NIV/NLT did not follow the Peshitta later on in this verse when
the Peshitta changed the singular pronoun in the preposition
(“concerning me”) in all the Greek manuscripts into a plural
(“us”), even though the Coptic version also changed it to
plural! Neither variant really changes the meaning, however.
VThe only other place this word occurs in the Greek Bible is in the prophecy about Herod’s slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem where Rachel is “weeping.” (Jer. 38:15, quoted in Matt. 2:18)
WRobertson’s Grammar notes that hwste with the infinitive here expresses “actual result, ‘so that I rejoiced still more.’”
XI have taken this mallon to mean Paul “rejoiced” “instead” of being “restless,” “stressed-out,” and “low” (vs. 5-6). Phillip Hughes, however, interpreted it as “great as was his delight at meeting with Titus, it was exceeded by the delight he experienced on receiving from him the good news of the Corinthian church.”
YThis is an infinitive verb in all the Greek manuscripts, but the Peshitta changed it into a noun and inserted two made-up verbs. NIV and NLT followed suit, but they only inserted one of those verbs from the Peshitta.
ZThe Sahidic manuscripts referenced here do not contain the rest of this verse, so what follows is only the Bohairic reading until v.12.
AAMost English versions translated this causally (“For” – L&N#89.33), but it makes no sense to say that “my letter” was the cause for the preceeding “rejoicing even more” or for the antecedent lack of “regret.” I suggest this is an instance of the less-common meaning of “result” (L&N Supplement #89.48a).
ABMoule’s
Idiom Book of N.T. Greek labels this ei kai
as “concessive... ‘even if,’ or ‘for, though I made
you sorry…’”
This is a
first class conditional. Robertson’s Word Pictures In
the New Testament notes, “Paul
treats it as a fact.”
ACThis is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (dating as far back as the 4th and 5th centuries AD), and is not only in the Greek Orthodox and Textus Receptus editions of the Greek New Testament, but also in the modern critical editions of Tischendorf, Nestle-Aland, and the UBS. However, this conjunction (“for”) is not found in four Greek manuscripts (dated to the 3rd, 4th, and 6th centuries AD), so the Tregelles edition of the GNT omits it, as does the Latin Vulgate and the NIV, but it does not change the meaning because there is a causal ‘οτι already before it in the sentence as well as immediately following.
ADThe Vulgate curiously changes the demonstrative pronoun here to an emphatic pronoun, and the NIV followed suit, even though no Greek manuscript does this.
AEAll three instances of this word “y’all were grieved” in this verse are identical in all the Greek manuscripts (including the three manuscripts dated before the year 500 and the Textus Receptus edition of the Greek New Testament first published in 1516), but the Peshitta (the oldest manuscript of which is dated at around 500 AD) spells all three differently ( ܕܟܪܝܬ ... ܕܟܪܝܘܬܟܘܢ … ܟܪܝܬ ). Surprisingly, only the RV, ASV, NASB, and NET followed the Greek on this. Robertson suggested that the aorist tense connoted inceptive action (“began to be grieved/became grieved”) but that might be reading more into the text than is actually there.
AFThis
phrase, which literally renders “according to God,” and which
occurs once each in verses 9, 10, and 11, occurs 3-5 more times in
the Greek Bible, depending on which one you read:
4
Ma. 15:3 “the pious woman instead
loved the salvation into eternal life κατὰ θεόν.”
(Apocrypha)
Rom. 8:27
“...that κατὰ θεὸν He interceeds on behalf of
saints.”
Eph. 4:24 ...the new man which is created κατὰ
θεὸν in righteousness and holiness…”
1 Pet. 4:6
“...that they might live κατὰ θεὸν in spirit.”
1
Pet. 5:2 “Shepherd… not compulsively but rather voluntarily κατὰ
θεόν…” (Contemporary
critial editions)
Many English
versions (NASB, NIV, NET, NLT,
supported by commentators like Henry,
Plummer,
Robertson, Hodge, and
Hughes)
add the word
“will/intended”
between “according to” and “God,” which doesn’t make
nonsense of the above passages, but isn’t demanded by them either.
This is according to Louw & Nida
semantic domain #89.8 for this word (“a marker of a relation
involving similarity of process - ‘in accordance with, in relation
to.’” – which is the AGNT’s
label for this instance of kata).
However, if
it be argued that this is an abbreviated form of κατὰ τὸ
θέλημα τοῦ θεου” found in 1 Peter 4:19 and Gal.
1:4, I
counter-argue
that the supposed
unabbreviated
form should not be
found only twice, and that in later books, while
the supposed
abbreviation is found up to 8x, and in earlier books. And if
this is an abbreviation, it must be demonstrated why none
of the
other prepositional phrases in the
Greek Bible which begin with kata
and end with theou
should
be meant by this supposed abbreviation, as many of them could fit
just as well (“according
to the foreknowledge
of God”
1 Pet. 1:23, “according
to the power of God”
2 Tim. 1:8, “according
to the grace of God”
2 Thess. 1:12 & 1 Cor. 3:10, “against
the knowledge of God”
2 Cor. 10:5, “according
to the election of God”
Rom. 8:33, “before
the face of the Lord God”
Dan. 4:33, “according
to the word of the Lord God”
2 Kings 14:25, “according
to the blessing of God”
Deut. 12:15 16:17, plus more in the apocrypha).
Every
instance of kata
theon
makes
just as much sense describing the orientation
of the subject
as “oriented toward/in respect to” God (which is another
recognized meaning of kata
- L&N#89.4 “a marker of a specific element bearing a relation
to something else - ‘in relation to, with regard to.’”) rather
than the subject’s conformance
to an
unstated
standard
of God’s. This removes the need for inserting
a made-up
word to distinguish the supposed standard which is not in the
original
text. I
see no reason to depart from the tradition of the KJV “godly,”
nor
did Moule or
Calvin (“an
eye to God”).
AGAlthough
the one occurrence of this verb in Philippians 3:8 certainly weighs
in favor of translating it “suffer loss,” all the other
occurrences of this verb in the Greek Bible are in punitive
contexts: Exod. 21:22 (punishment for a murderer of an unborn
child); Deut. 22:19 (punishment for a man who falsely accused his
wife of fornication); 1 Es. 1:34 (punishment of a group of political
rebels); Prov. 17:26; 19:19; 21:11; 22:3 (punishments inflicted upon
wicked men); Matt. 16:26; Mk. 8:36; Lk. 9:25 (parallel passages
speaking of final judgment, associating gaining the world with the
result to one’s soul. Since our soul can’t be separated from us,
we can’t lose it, but it can suffer in hell. Matthew’s addendum
on offering an exchange for one’s soul also describes a component
of the justice system in which a convicted criminal might offer to
pay a fee to avoid bodily punishment or execution); and 1 Cor. 3:15
(speaking of suffering on Judgment Day). Most commentators, however,
interpreted this as “harm” instead of prosecution:
Henry:
“...they had received damage by him in nothing.”
Vincent:
“The epistle which won them to repentance was no damage to
them.”
Hughes: “...suffer loss, by which he means the loss
not of salvation but of reward (I Cor. 3:10-15).”
AHAGNT labeled this preposition with Louw & Nida semantic domain #89.25 (“markers of cause or reason, with focus upon the source - ‘because of.’”) following Robertson’s Grammar. Most English versions, however, rendered it in terms of agency “by/through,” which would be L&N#89.77. But, considering the judicial and punitive connotation of the verb, I think causality is the better choice.
AIThis extra word came from Murdock as part of his English translation; it is not in the Peshitta (and it is not in Etheridge’s or Lamsa’s English versions of the Peshitta).
AJBased on Paul’s use of the same word in the previous verse referring to his own deliberation concerning the letter, and based on the lack of an explicit subject to this action in this verse, Phillip Hughes suggested that the person who was “not-regretting” here was Paul, not those who repent unto salvation, but no other commentator I read took that position, and the word is so gramatically connected to “repentance unto salvation” and so unconnected with Paul that it seems too far-fetched.
AKThis compound verb (kata + ergazw) is the reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts (the oldest of which dates to the 9th century AD, although it is also found in an undated corrective note in the 4th Century Sinaiticus) and is the reading of the Textus Receptus and Greek Orthodox editions of the GNT, but all 5 of the oldest-known Greek manuscripts (dating from the 3rd to the 6th centuries – plus one from the 15th century), followed by all the contemporary critical editions (CCE’s) spell this verb in its simple form (ergazw). The manuscripts and editions are agreed, however, that this verse ends with the compound form of this same verb. Although the compound form might provide a little more emphasis to the verb, it doesn’t make a practical difference in English translation, as evidenced by the fact that every English version, whether it followed the traditional or contemporary editions’ spelling, used the same English word for both. (The Peshitta and Vulgate also used the same Syriac or Latin word in both places in their versions.)