2 Cor. vii. 2.
Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source
Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary
2 Corinthians 7
1Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2Open your hearts to us. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one.
3I say this not to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and live together.
4Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I overflow with joy in all our affliction.
5For even when we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was inside.
6Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly, God, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
7and not by his coming only, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you while he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.
8For though I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you grieve, though just for a while.
9I now rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved to repentance. For you were grieved in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing.
10For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.
11For behold, this same thing, that you were grieved in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vindication! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.
12So although I wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you in the sight of God.
13Therefore we have been comforted. In our comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
14For if in anything I have boasted to him on your behalf, I was not disappointed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so our glorying also which I made before Titus was found to be truth.
15His affection is more abundantly toward you, while he remembers all of your obedience, how with fear and trembling you received him.
16I rejoice that in everything I am confident concerning you.
Early Christian texts and source notes
2 Cor. vii. 1, vi. 16, 17, 18.
Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK IV. / CHAPTER XXI. DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFECT MAN, OR GNOSTIC. · Original source
2 Cor. vii. 1–11.
Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK IV. / CHAPTER XXI. DESCRIPTION OF THE PERFECT MAN, OR GNOSTIC. · Original source
2 Cor. vii. 8-11.
Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK FOURTEENTH.[1] / ARGUMENT. / 8. Of the three perturbations, which the Stoics admitted in the soul of the wise man to the exclusion of grief or sadness, which the manly mind ought not to experience. · Original source
2 Cor. vii. 5.
Editorial footnote · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK FOURTEENTH.[1] / ARGUMENT. / 9. Of the perturbations of the soul which appear as right affections in the life of the righteous. · Original source
The same author had also used the expression, "the evil contentments of the mind." So that good and bad men alike will, are cautious, and contented; or, to say the same thing in other words, good and bad men alike desire, fear, rejoice, but the former in a good, the latter in a bad fashion, according as the will is right or wrong. Sorrow itself, too, which the Stoics would not allow to be represented in the mind of the wise man, is used in a good sense, and especially in our writings. For the apostle praises the Corinthians because they had a godly sorrow. But possibly some one may say that the apostle congratulated them because they were penitently sorry, and that such sorrow can exist only in those who have sinned. For these are his words: "For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance; for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For, behold, this selfsame thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you!" Consequently the Stoics may defend themselves by replying, that sorrow is indeed useful for repentance of sin, but that this can have no place in the mind of the wise man, inasmuch as no sin attaches to him of which he could sorrowfully repent, nor any other evil the endurance or experience of which could make him sorrowful. For they say that Alcibiades (if my memory does not deceive me), who believed himself happy, shed tears when Socrates argued with him, and demonstrated that he was miserable because he was foolish. In his case, therefore, folly was the cause of this useful and desirable sorrow, wherewith a man mourns that he is what he ought not to be. But the Stoics maintain not that the fool, but that the wise man, cannot be sorrowful.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The City of God, THE CITY OF GOD. / BOOK FOURTEENTH.[1] / ARGUMENT. / 8. Of the three perturbations, which the Stoics admitted in the soul of the wise man to the exclusion of grief or sadness, which the manly mind ought not to experience. · Original source
170. Augustine answered: Certainly those of whom you speak are false brethren, of whom the apostle thus complains in another place, where he is extolling the natural sincerity of Timothy: "I have no man," he says, "like-minded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." Undoubtedly he was speaking of those who were with him at the time when he was writing that epistle; for it could not be that all Christians in every quarter of the earth were seeking their own, and not the things which were Jesus Christ's. It was of those, therefore, as I said, who were with him at the time when he was writing the words which you have quoted, that he uttered this lamentation. For who else was it to whom he referred, when he says in another place, "Without were fightings, within were fears," except those whom he feared all the more intensely because they were within? If, therefore, you would imitate Paul, you would be tolerant of false brethren within, not a slanderer of the innocent without.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Answer to the Letters of Petilianus, WRITINGS IN CONNECTION WITH THE DONATIST CONTROVERSY. / BOOK SECOND. / Chapter lxxvi · Original source