2 Corinthians 7:2-4 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.
After the digression of 6:14-7:1 and the call to holiness, Paul returns to the theme of 6:13, repeating the same idea. If indeed this digression was part of the original, it has revealed Paul’s deep inner motive. We should not force the context too far in interpreting chs. 6 and 7, but there are some interesting possibilities. The only way to make room in one’s heart for others is to have God sanctify that place and fill it with perfect love. Paul is urging the Corinthians to be transformed, and that will affect their relationships with one another and with him. His heart and motivations are pure. His conscience is clear. He testifies that he and his travel companions have done nothing intentionally to hurt the Corinthians. He gives three ways: he had done nothing wrong (a word having the opposite meaning of doing right or righteous deeds) to anyone, has not ruined or corrupted anyone (this can be emotionally or physically), or exploited, defrauded, or cheated anyone. Whatever Paul and his ministry companions have done, it has been for the good of the Corinthians.
Even our best motives and actions can be taken the wrong way. The Corinthians may have misunderstood or wrongfully assumed things about Paul that were not true. So he writes here to correct the situation. This is not always easy to do. It will require humility and sometimes confrontation. Paul has the Corinthians deep in his heart. So much so, that he is willing to die with them. This is a deep love that can only come through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Paul is giving them an example here of how they should respond to one another and to him.
Verse 4 shifts to a different type of appeal. Paul shifts from looking at himself and the qualities he has tried to show the Corinthians (v. 3) to building up the Corinthians by highlighting their qualities. This is a little risky, lest the Corinthians think too highly of themselves, but it has the rhetorical affect of including them in the process and showing that they have made great progress in their spiritual development. They are not done, however, with their growth. Paul is proud of how far they have come. Many of these believers had been pagans, caught up in immorality and idolatry. But over time, they had experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and were being changed in their attitudes and behaviors. This has brought Paul comfort, knowing that they were on the right path. They just needed encouragement to go all the way and not give up.
There are many Christians around us who are like the Corinthians. One thing I like about studying the Corinthian correspondence is that this was an authentically human church. They were people just like us. They had their problems, doubts, fear, and even sins. Yet through it all, God was working as they put more and more of their faith and trust into the gospel that Paul preached. This was real power, the same power that created the universe and raised Jesus from the dead. No wonder the Corinthians saved this letter and it became part of our Scriptures.
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