Chapter Seven

¹ Chapter Seven. Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit. Which promises? That we are temples of God, and that we have him dwelling and walking within us, who is also our Father. Let us cleanse ourselves from shameful deeds; for these are a defilement of the flesh. And from filthy and passionate thoughts; for these are a defilement of the spirit—that is, of the soul.

² Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. It is not enough, he says, to abstain from uncleanness, but one must also accomplish something good—holiness, that is, purity and self-control. And he added, In the fear of God, either because there is also a contrived self-control that aims at pleasing men, and not according to the mind of God; or he shows us how we shall perfect it, namely, in the fear of God. For even if the desire of the flesh plays the tyrant, yet have the fear of God, and the madness will be dissolved. And do not understand this self-control as chastity alone, but simply as all purity in life.

³ Make room for us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have defrauded no one. Again he takes up the discourse concerning love. For since he had rebuked them, saying that they spurn him but cleave to unbelievers and the unclean, he now soothes them and says, Make room for us; that is, Receive us with an open heart, and let us not be straitened among you. And hinting at the false apostles, he says that We have wronged no one in money; we have corrupted no one; that is, We have not deceived, corrupting their mind with impious doctrines; We have defrauded no one; that is, We have not plundered, nor enriched ourselves under pretext of the preaching.

⁴ I speak not to condemn you; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. Not to condemn you do I say these things. Whence is this clear? From love, in that you are in our hearts. And since it is possible to love yet not to be willing to share in danger, he says, To die together. And since many do not rejoice together with their friends when they prosper, because of envy, he added also, To live together. The whole, then, is this, that both in dangers we will not flee you, and in prosperity we will live together with you and will not envy.

⁵ Great is my boldness toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. Since he seemed to wound them by saying, You are straitened, and, Make room for me, he now makes his defense, healing them, and says that Not as condemning you did I say these things, but because of my great boldness toward you, and wishing you to rise toward virtue. For that I do not condemn you is clear from the fact that to others also I boast on your behalf.

⁶ I am filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all our affliction. Having been corrected, he says, in those things for which I condemned you in the former Epistle, you filled me with comfort; and not only did you comfort me (which is to be delivered from grief), but you also filled me with joy in abundance. For the abundance of the joy he shows by the word I overflow. And so great, he says, was the joy that, against all our affliction, great as it was, this joy prevailed and quenched it. These things seem indeed to be contrary to what he said about them a little before, but they are not; for both these and those belong to one who loves—those of one reproving, these of one confirming that the reproofs were not from enmity, but from vehement love.

⁷ For indeed, when we had come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief. He recounts the affliction and exalts it by his words, that he may show their joy also to be great, if indeed it repelled so great a pain. And he said well that the flesh had no relief; for Paul’s soul is unconquerable.

⁸ But being afflicted in everything: without were fightings—of the unbelievers.

⁹ Within were fears. On account of the weak among the faithful, lest they be swept away by the false brethren.

¹⁰ But God, who comforts the lowly, comforted us by the coming of Titus. He testified many great things to them, and brings forward Titus also as a witness. And who is it that comforts the lowly? God, he says; he it is who comforted us also, in that he sent Titus to us; for his coming sufficed to scatter our affliction. And he wishes to render the man venerable to them, and makes much of his coming.

¹¹ And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted concerning you. Not only, he says, by this very thing, that he stood by us in a time of affliction and consoled us, but also because he reported such virtue of yours, by which he himself also was comforted—that is, he rejoiced over you, accepting you on account of your good deeds. And he endears the man to them, as one who praised them to him.

¹² Declaring to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal on my behalf. For it was likely that they grieved and were pained: Why did the teacher come thus, why was he away so long a time? And he did not simply say, Tears, but Mourning; not Desire, but Longing, that is, a vehement seeking; nor Anger, but Zeal, against him who had committed fornication. For on my behalf you were set on fire and burned, so as to keep my command; or you were also zealous on my behalf against the false apostles. And the Apostle says these things not only to heal his former rebukes, but truly also to accept those who had done well. For there are indeed many ill-disposed and unworthy of these praises; but nevertheless he himself does not separate them, but sets both the commendations and the accusations in common in the midst, giving to the conscience of each to choose out what is his own.

¹³ So that I rejoiced the more. And having rejoiced at his coming, he rejoiced the more, he says, at the things he reported concerning you.

¹⁴ So that even if I grieved you in the Epistle, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. Even if I wrote such things to you, he says, as to exceed the measure of rebuke and to make me regret it, as having reproved beyond measure, nevertheless the great gain that comes from them does not allow me now to regret it. These things he said, not as having truly rebuked immoderately, but augmenting their praises.

¹⁵ For I see that that Epistle, even if for an hour, grieved you; now I rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved to repentance; for you were grieved according to God. For an hour was the grief; but the gain is perpetual. I rejoice, he says, not that you were grieved (for what gain is it to me that you were grieved?), but that you were grieved to repentance. And observe how the grieving he assigns to the Epistle; and then he says that It benefited you—which was also true; but he makes the matter belong to their virtue. For you, he says, were grieved; and you were grieved according to God.

¹⁶ That in nothing you might suffer loss from us. Having been rebuked by us, he says, you were grieved according to God, and thereafter you suffered loss from us in nothing. For all of you—even he himself who had sinned the uttermost and committed fornication—were made better. For the teacher then causes loss to the disciple, when he does not rebuke him as he sins. For if he had been rebuked, he was about to gain.

¹⁷ For the grief that is according to God works repentance to salvation, not to be regretted; but the grief of the world works death. He philosophizes concerning grief, and shows that grief is not always an evil, but only when it comes to be according to the world [ƒ. world], that is, on account of money, on account of glory, on account of those who die. For this works death—altogether the death of the soul, and often that of the body also; for many have perished on account of these things. But whoever is willing to grieve on account of his sins grieves according to God; for this remedy is suited to this disease alone, working salvation not to be regretted (for no one condemns himself for having grieved over his sins), and it snatches the man from the death of the soul.

¹⁸ For behold, this very thing, that you were grieved according to God, what earnestness it wrought in us.[1] Not from others, he says, do I show the benefit of the grief that is according to God, but from your own case. For not only did you not regret that you were grieved, but you became even more earnest.

¹⁹ But what clearing of yourselves. Toward me. For you cleared yourselves to me through repentance.

²⁰ But what indignation. Against him who had committed fornication.

²¹ But what fear. Toward me; for such, and so swift, a correction was a mark of fear.

²² But what longing. Toward me. And having said fear, lest he should seem to lord it over them, he briefly set it right by saying longing—which is indicative of love, not of authority.

²³ But what zeal. That which is on God’s behalf.

²⁴ But what vindication. Of the laws of God; for they made use of these when they had been outraged.

²⁵ In everything you proved yourselves to be pure in the matter. Not only, he says, was nothing of the sort dared, such as by him who had committed fornication, but you did not even take part with him. For since in the former Epistle he had said, And you are puffed up, which had made them partakers of the charge, he says that Now you have wiped away even this suspicion and have shown yourselves clean of every such blemish.

²⁶ So then, even if I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of him who did the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered the wrong, but that our earnestness on your behalf might be made manifest to you before God. Lest they should say to him: Why then did you rebuke us, if we were pure in the matter? he says that I have such gratitude for those letters, and do not regret the rebuke, that I even say that for this very reason I wrote these things, that my love and my earnestness on your behalf might be made manifest to you before God—that is, with God beholding that it is true. For I was afraid lest the corruption should spread even to you. And whom does he call the one who did the wrong and the one who suffered the wrong? Those who had committed fornication; for both wronged one another. But how does he say that I did not write for the sake of these? That is, I did indeed write, on account of these also, but not chiefly for their sake; rather for your sake, being earnest that the city should not be harmed; just as also when he says, Does God care for oxen? he does not mean this, that he does not care—for how then would they have been created?—but that he does not chiefly legislate for the sake of the oxen.

²⁷ Therefore we have been comforted. Because my earnestness on your behalf was made manifest, and my hopes were not belied, therefore, he says, I received the greatest consolation.

²⁸ And in your comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly at the joy of Titus. And now, he says, by your comfort, with which I was comforted from you, by this I rejoiced still more exceedingly, and at the joy of Titus; and this joy and comfort too is yours, and on your account. He therefore says next:

²⁹ Because his spirit was refreshed by you all. For if in anything I have boasted to him on your behalf, I was not put to shame. For this reason, he says, I rejoiced, because Titus found you such as I had told him you were; and he himself also was refreshed, finding you such, and nothing troublesome was reported to him on your part. And that Paul boasts over his disciples shows both that they were virtuous and that he was loving toward his children. Such ought both the disciples and the teachers to be.

³⁰ As I spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus was found to be true. Just as, he says, whatever I preached to you was true, such also was my speaking of the commendations concerning Titus to them. As, therefore, all these things are true, so also whatever I boasted concerning you was shown to be true.

³¹ And his inward affection is more abundant toward you. For this reason he commends Titus to them, that they too may love him in return, as one who has embraced them and is fervent toward them. For this reason he said, His inward affection, that he might show the inward and ardent disposition of genuine love.

³² While he remembers the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him. He sets down the causes for which Titus so loves them, showing the beginning of the love to be from them, and at the same time urging them on still toward it. For not simply love or earnestness did you show toward him, but obedience, having received him as children a father, but also as a ruler. For with fear, and still with trembling. For he testifies to a twofold virtue in them: love, as toward a father; and fear, as toward a ruler; that neither the love, being without fear, should be relaxed, nor the fear, being without love, should be graceless.

³³ I rejoice that in everything I have confidence in you. Not on account of Titus do I rejoice so much, that he was honored by you, but because I find you such, not putting me to shame, but making me to have confidence and to speak boldly concerning you in every matter and season. And in another way too, I have confidence in you, because whatever I either do or say toward you, you gladly receive these things, and to your own betterment, whether it be needful to reprove, or to commend, or to enjoin something burdensome.