¹Therefore, beloved, having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

²Make room for us; no one have we wronged, no one have we corrupted, no one have we exploited.

³I do not speak this for condemnation, for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together with us.

⁴Great is my boldness toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf; I have been filled with encouragement, I overabound with joy in all our affliction.

⁵For when we were coming into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but in every way we were being pressed: conflicts outside, fears within.

⁶But God, the One comforting the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

⁷and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted as to you, relating to us your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced the more.

⁸For even if I have grieved you in the letter, I do not regret it; even if I was regretting it, indeed I see that the letter, even if for an hour, grieved you,

⁹now I rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved unto change of heart; for you were grieved according to God, so that in nothing you may suffer loss through us.

¹⁰For grief according to God produces change of heart unto salvation without regret, but the grief of the world produces death.

¹¹For behold this very same thing, that you were grieved according to God, how much earnestness it has produced in you, but instead reasoned defense, but indignation, but fear, but longing, but zeal, but vindication! In everything you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

¹²So even if I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did wrong, nor for the sake of the one having suffered wrong, but rather for the sake of your earnestness being revealed, which is for us, to you before God.

¹³On account of this we have been comforted. And besides our comfort, the more abundantly we rejoiced at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all,

¹⁴for if I have boasted anything to him about you, I was not put to shame, but as we have spoken all things to you in truth, so also our boasting to Titus became truth;

¹⁵and his affections are the more abundantly toward you, remembering the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him.

¹⁶I rejoice that in everything I am confident in you.