2 Corinthians 7:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

“Therefore we were comforted” (v. 13), that is, because “we showed our care for you, and everything was fulfilled according to our desire.”

Similarly he says elsewhere: “For now we live, if you stand in the Lord” (1 Thess 3:8). And again: “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting? Is it not you?” (1 Thess 2:19).

The progress of disciples is life, consolation, and delight for a prudent teacher. See how the apostle again praises the Corinthians and expresses his love for them.

Above, he spoke of his own joy that his first epistle had such success and brought such benefit: “I rejoice,” he says, “not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved unto repentance.”

I showed my care for you, and my hopes did not deceive me. Therefore, he says, I was greatly comforted.

“By your consolation.” And still more we rejoiced over the joy of Titus. Now to the consolation with which you comforted me, as I have said, a greater joy was added, the joy of Titus.

This joy and consolation are for you and on your account. Therefore he continues, “because his spirit was refreshed by you all.” I rejoiced, he says, because Titus found you to be such as I had described you to him in words.

He himself was refreshed when he found you so and encountered nothing coarse or unpleasant from you.

Therefore we asked either that Titus come to you, or that you forgive the guilty, since in the case of their fall into sin and contrition of heart, your great diligence was revealed before God.

But we rejoiced over the joy of Titus, for he brought us news of your victory. His spirit was refreshed not by some of you, as others thought, but by all of you.

Paul speaks of what he himself received, and through it he gave consolation. He received consolation when he learned of the will to correct themselves in those whom he had formerly censured, so that through repentance they might renew themselves.

He gives consolation by summoning them into the Church. He is concerned lest those who remain too long in grief and contempt, deprived of the Church’s love, fall into despair and therefore incline toward a worldly and impure life.

“And we were still more gladdened by the joy of Titus, because you all refreshed his spirit.” Hearing that those whom he had censured in the First Epistle wished to correct themselves, Paul was comforted.

“For this reason we were comforted in your consolation; and we rejoiced exceedingly more over the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. For if I boasted anything to him about you, I was not put to shame.”

I was especially gladdened because Titus preserves the remembrance of you in his soul, proclaiming the love of all of you. He learned by experience that everything often said to him about you was true.

“But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting to Titus proved true.” For we never endured speaking a lie. We handed down true teaching to you, and we adorned our praises of you with truth.

I do not now regret even having grieved you by my epistle, though I had regretted it. For your sorrow was not worldly sorrow, which produces death, but sorrow for God's sake, which produces repentance unto salvation and is not to be regretted.

Still, I wrote the reproof to you "not for the sake of the offender," the incestuous man, "nor for the sake of the one offended," the father of the incestuous man, "but that our care for you before God might be made manifest to you" (2 Cor 7:8-12).

"And we rejoiced still more," the Apostle adds, "at the joy of Titus, because you all refreshed his spirit. I was not put to shame if I had boasted of you to him in anything. Therefore I rejoice that in everything I can rely on you" (2 Cor 7:13-16).

Expressing joy over the Corinthians' good reception of Titus, the Apostle speaks of the consolation given through this to Titus and to himself. He had not been mistaken in praising the Corinthians before him, and he had become assured that now he could rely on them in everything.

Thus the essence of the discourse comes down to praise of the Corinthians. They were wholly faithful to their teacher, whose truthfulness was confirmed among them, as Titus himself witnessed. For this reason Titus came to love the Corinthians.

Yet praise of those taught and established in the faith also includes praise of their guide. Therefore he is not without reason consoled, more than all, by the common consolation.

“Therefore we were comforted by your consolation.” “By consolation,” epi, means on account of, or because of, your consolation. This is not the consolation you received, but the consolation you gave us by your correction of everything and by all that appeared among you because of my epistle.

Saint Chrysostom says: “‘We were comforted,’ because we showed our care for you, and everything was fulfilled according to our desire. Similarly he says elsewhere: ‘For now we live, if you stand in the Lord’ (1 Thess 3:8).

“For the progress of disciples is life, consolation, and delight for a prudent teacher. Nothing shows a superior in a good light so much as his love for those under him.”