2 Corinthians · 16 verses
2 Corinthians 7
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The letter regrets causing sorrow, admits that it did regret it, and then revises the regret because the sorrow lasted only briefly.
A heart made roomvv. 1–4
The chapter opens with promises, cleansing, holiness, and the fear of God, then turns warmly towards the addressed people: the writer asks for room in their hearts and offers a threefold denial of wrongdoing. This is no courtroom speech, he says; they occupy the heart so completely that life and death are shared. Confidence, pride, encouragement, and overflowing joy all appear at once, rather like an entire weather system settling over four verses.
Macedonia, Titus, and the short-lived sorrowvv. 5–7
Macedonia supplies no restful entrance: bodies have no rest, conflicts press from outside, and fears wait within. Then Titus arrives, and the God who comforts the downcast uses that arrival as comfort. Titus brings comfort received from the addressed people themselves, reporting longing, mourning, and zeal, which sends joy further upwards.
The letter changes its mindvv. 8–16
Here the letter performs its small, memorable turn. It caused sorrow; the writer does not regret it—although he did regret it—until the sorrow is measured and found brief. The important distinction is not sorrow by itself but where it goes: one sorrow leads to repentance and salvation, another to death. The addressed people’s godly sorrow produces an astonishing inventory—earnestness, eagerness, indignation, alarm, longing, zeal, and vindication—and the writer says they have proved innocent in the matter. Titus then becomes the final witness: his spirit is refreshed, his affection grows when he remembers their obedient welcome “with fear and trembling,” and the writer’s confidence in them is complete.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
2 Cor 7:1Therefore, beloved, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles body and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Cor 7:2Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one.
2 Cor 7:3I do not say this to condemn you. I have said before that you so occupy our hearts that we live and die together with you.
2 Cor 7:4Great is my confidence in you; great is my pride in you; I am filled with encouragement; in all our troubles my joy overflows.
2 Cor 7:5For when we arrived in Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were pressed from every direction—conflicts on the outside, fears within.
2 Cor 7:6But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,
2 Cor 7:7and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort he had received from you. He told us about your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced all the more.
2 Cor 7:8Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Although I did regret it—for I see that my letter caused you sorrow, but only for a short time—
2 Cor 7:9yet now I rejoice, not because you were made sorrowful, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you felt the sorrow that God had intended, and so were not harmed in any way by us.
2 Cor 7:10Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
2 Cor 7:11Consider what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.
2 Cor 7:12So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong or the one who was harmed, but rather that your earnestness on our behalf would be made clear to you in the sight of God.
2 Cor 7:13On account of this, we are encouraged. In addition to our own encouragement, we were even more delighted by the joy of Titus. For his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.
2 Cor 7:14Indeed, I was not embarrassed by anything I had boasted to him about you. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus has proved to be true as well.
2 Cor 7:15And his affection for you is even greater when he remembers that you were all obedient as you welcomed him with fear and trembling.
2 Cor 7:16I rejoice that I can have complete confidence in you.
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 327 passages were voted onto 16 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 11 Thessalonians 4:7For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.
- 11 Peter 2:11Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.
- 1James 4:8Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- 1Proverbs 8:13To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.
- 10Acts 3:19Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,
- 1Psalms 51:10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
- 11 John 3:3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.
- 10Acts 11:18When they heard this, they had no further objections, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”
- 1Ezekiel 36:25–26I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols.
- 12 Peter 1:4–8Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
- 102 Timothy 2:25–26He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.
- 102 Samuel 12:13Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.
- 1Isaiah 55:7Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
- 10Luke 18:13But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
- 11 Corinthians 6:20you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
- 12 Corinthians 6:17–18“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”
Onward