2 Corinthians 7

== 2 Corinthians 7:1 ==
1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse 
ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting 
holiness in the fear of God.''
Paul makes his next admonition based on those promises from chapter 6, that Jehovah would be their God and they would be God's people, that God would walk with them, dwell in them, call them His sons and daughters IF they come out of the evil life they lived in and were separate, holy. Paul says, since God has made these promises, and we know God always keeps His promises, let us meet those conditions for the promises to be fulfilled. 
This is a powerful statement that affirms man has a part in his own salvation. It flat denies the Calvinistic doctrines of Unconditional Election, Irresistible Grace, and Perseverance of the Saints/Eternal Security/Once Saved Always Saved. It also denies that salvation is based on faith alone. A person must become holy by repentance and immersion into Christ. They must maintain and perfect that holiness, which is what Paul is arguing here, to remain eligible for these conditional promises. 
I have long believed and often get in trouble for this belief, that a Christian can so mature in the faith as to stop sinning. This is not the same thing as never having sinned, or making themselves righteous after they have sinned. Once a person sins, only Christ's blood can remove it. But there is too much in scripture that teaches that Christians can "perfect their holiness". 
# Jesus said, "Go and sin no more." (John 8:11) Did Jesus give an impossible command to this woman?
# Jesus taught in the sermon on the mount (Matt. 5:48) - "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Did Jesus give an impossible command to His listeners? 
# Paul above writes that the Corinthians were to "perfect their holiness". Even if we are to use the old standby that this means "complete" rather than "make flawless", it still renders the same result. Complete holiness is total cessation of sin and separation from the worldly vices. 
# How many times does the New Testament advise Christians to mature in the faith? What does that mean?
We are saints, not sinners. 
Sin is not our master, though we still have the capacity to sin, even to the point of being lost again. Christ is our master now and as we grow in Him, we move further away from sin. I believe this move can be completed in this lifetime if we follow after Christ, if we strive to have the mind of Christ and focus on things spiritual, things above, rather than physical things. 
== 2 Corinthians 7:2 ==
2 Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.
I believe that a better translation here would be "succeed us" or "yield to us" rather than "receive us". Paul is essentially saying "do what we do, follow our example". 
== 2 Corinthians 7:3-4 ==
3 I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you. 4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.
Paul softens this admonition by saying he's not writing this as a condemnation based on what they weren't doing and needed to do, but as encouragement to keep it up and do it more. They've done a great job of being faithful, humble, penitent when they have done wrong, and zealous in doing right. It has made Paul's circumstances at the hands of the Jews easier to bear. 
== 2 Corinthians 7:5-7 ==
5 For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. 6 Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; 7 And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.
Paul touches again on the persecution the Jews were hounding him with. He says that this was mitigated at least internally by the coming of Titus with news of the church at Corinth's response to Paul's first letter. 
== 2 Corinthians 7:8-9 ==
8 For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. 9 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.
Paul's first letter (1 Corinthians) had some strong rebukes (1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 14) and some powerful admonitions and lessons. As with any parent, it is difficult but necessary to correct a wayward child. Paul feels towards them as a parent toward a child as the founder of the congregation. He wants this work to succeed. He is sad to have had to write the first letter, but glad that he did because it had the intended effect. It made them sorrowful for a short time, but more importantly it caused them to repent and turn from their evil.
== 2 Corinthians 7:10 ==
10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. 
As a reason for his feelings, Paul writes an immutable truth. This powerful lesson is simple and yet so many get it wrong.
Being sorry is not enough. One can be sorry they got caught, sorry they feel bad and that others feel bad, even sorry that they did something at a certain time with certain people. This is not repentance. Repentance is a turning away from an action and turning toward a different, often opposite, action. Godly sorrow, sorrow for the right reasons, produces repentance. Worldly sorrow is usually just sorry that a person got caught and feeling bad because of it. 
Equally important is that Paul states that proper repentance leads to salvation. Salvation does not occur at repentance. It comes after repentance. For the non-Christian, this principle demands that repentance proceeds out of faith and then precedes the next step to salvation, namely water immersion for the remission of sins. Repentance alone is insufficient cause for salvation, else we could save ourselves without God, which is impossible. For the fallen Christian, repentance is turning away from what is wrong and toward God again, but also requires prayer (Acts 8:22; James 5:15, 19-20). 
== 2 Corinthians 7:11-12 ==
11 For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. 12 Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.''
The church at Corinth had before tolerated a man sleeping with his father's wife (1 Corinthians 5). Paul wrote to the church at Corinth rebuking them for this wickedness. They responded in humility and with zeal by casting the man out. Paul did not write this rebuke to the man who had sinned or even his father,
but to the congregation. They were to see in his rebuke his care for them as a congregation.
This does not mean that Paul did not care for the individuals (as we read in 2 Corinthians 2), but that the target of the rebuke was the congregation.
== 2 Corinthians 7:13-16 ==
13 Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all. 14 For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we spake all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth. 15 And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him. 16 I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.
Titus was sent with the first letter and his time there was beneficial to all: Titus, the church at Corinth, and later to Paul when he received Titus's report. This second letter is sent in a much more positive note and Paul is confident and happy at their growth and their desire for righteousness. 
In Truth and Love. 
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2 Corinthians 1
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2 Corinthians 7
2 Corinthians 8
2 Corinthians 9
2 Corinthians 10
2 Corinthians 11
2 Corinthians 12
2 Corinthians 13