2 Corinthians 12:21

Read in context

2 Corinthians 12:19–21 · Berean Standard Bible

19 Have you been thinking all along that we were making a defense to you? We speak before God in Christ, and all of this, beloved, is to build you up.

20 For I am afraid that when I come, I may not find you as I wish, and you may not find me as you wish. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, rage, rivalry, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.

21 I am afraid that when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of their acts of impurity, sexual immorality, and debauchery.

Greek words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Study 2 Corinthians 12:21

Read the commentary on 2 Corinthians 12

Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

2 Corinthians 12:7

or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

2 Corinthians 8:24

In full view of the churches, then, show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our boasting about you.

2 Corinthians 9:3

But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove empty, but that you will be prepared, just as I said.

2 Corinthians 9:4

Otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—to say nothing of you—would be ashamed of having been so confident.

2 Corinthians 2:1

So I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you.

2 Corinthians 2:2

For if I grieve you, who is left to cheer me but those whom I have grieved?

2 Corinthians 2:3

I wrote as I did so that on my arrival I would not be saddened by those who ought to make me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would share my joy.

2 Corinthians 2:4

For through many tears I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart, not to grieve you but to let you know how much I love you.

Exodus 32:31

So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made gods of gold for themselves.

Deuteronomy 9:15

So I went back down the mountain while it was blazing with fire, with the two tablets of the covenant in my hands.

Deuteronomy 9:25

So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, because the LORD had said He would destroy you.

1 Samuel 15:35

And to the day of his death, Samuel never again visited Saul. Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.

Ezra 9:3

When I heard this report, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled out some hair from my head and beard, and sat down in horror.

Ezra 10:1

While Ezra prayed and made this confession, weeping and falling facedown before the house of God, a very large assembly of Israelites—men, women, and children—gathered around him, and the people wept bitterly as well.

Psalms 119:136

My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not obeyed.

Jeremiah 9:1

Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.

Jeremiah 13:17

But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

Luke 9:41

“O unbelieving and perverse generation!” Jesus replied. “How long must I remain with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”

Luke 9:42

Even while the boy was approaching, the demon slammed him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.

Romans 9:2

I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

Philippians 3:18

For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Philippians 3:19

Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.

2 Corinthians 13:2

I already warned you the second time I was with you. So now in my absence I warn those who sinned earlier and everyone else: If I return, I will not spare anyone,

2 Corinthians 2:5

Now if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me but all of you—to some degree, not to overstate it.

2 Corinthians 2:6

The punishment imposed on him by the majority is sufficient for him.

2 Corinthians 2:7

So instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

2 Corinthians 2:8

Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

2 Corinthians 2:9

My purpose in writing you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.

2 Corinthians 2:10

If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And if I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven it in the presence of Christ for your sake,

2 Corinthians 2:11

in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

2 Corinthians 7:9

And now I rejoice, not because you were made sorrowful, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you felt the sorrow that God had intended, and so were not harmed in any way by us.

2 Corinthians 7:10

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

2 Corinthians 7:11

Consider what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

2 Corinthians 10:6

And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, as soon as your obedience is complete.

1 Corinthians 6:9

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

1 Corinthians 6:10

nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:11

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Revelation 22:20

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

Romans 13:13

Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.

1 Corinthians 5:1

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

1 Corinthians 5:9

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.

1 Corinthians 5:10

I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.

1 Corinthians 5:11

But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

1 Corinthians 6:15

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never!

1 Corinthians 6:16

Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”

1 Corinthians 6:17

But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:18

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a man can commit is outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

Galatians 5:19

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;

Ephesians 5:5

For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure, or greedy person (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Ephesians 5:6

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

Colossians 3:5

Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry.

1 Thessalonians 4:3

For it is God’s will that you should be holy: You must abstain from sexual immorality;

1 Thessalonians 4:4

each of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor,

1 Thessalonians 4:5

not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God;

1 Thessalonians 4:6

and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.

1 Thessalonians 4:7

For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.

Hebrews 13:4

Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

1 Peter 4:2

Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God.

1 Peter 4:3

For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

2 Peter 2:10

Such punishment is specially reserved for those who indulge the corrupt desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they are unafraid to slander glorious beings.

2 Peter 2:11

Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord.

2 Peter 2:12

These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed.

2 Peter 2:13

The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.

2 Peter 2:14

Their eyes are full of adultery; their desire for sin is never satisfied; they seduce the unstable. They are accursed children with hearts trained in greed.

2 Peter 2:18

With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error.

Jude 1:7

In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

Jude 1:23

save others by snatching them from the fire; and to still others show mercy tempered with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

Revelation 21:8

But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

Revelation 22:15

But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.