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2 Corinthians 7 · a question people ask

"So although I wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong" (7:12). If not for them, then for what?

In the text

The same verse goes on: "but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you in the sight of God" (7:12). Earnest care is the first thing the verse before says being grieved in a godly way worked in them: "what earnest care it worked in you" (7:11). The verse names neither of the two, and these notes don't either; they say no more of that writing than this verse does, and apply it to no person or church today.

The verses

“For 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. So 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.”
2 Corinthians 7:11-12 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Corinthians 7

2 Corinthians 7: Godly sorrow

2 Corinthians 7 sets two sorrows side by side: "For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death." (7:10). And the God it names is "he who comforts the lowly" (7:6).

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Last reviewed October 8, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions