Verse 4

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you.

Referenced Verses

  • 2 Cor 7:12 : 12 So then, even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong, or on account of the one who was wronged, but to reveal to you your eagerness on our behalf before God.
  • 2 Cor 11:2 : 2 For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, because I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
  • 2 Cor 12:15 : 15 Now I will most gladly spend and be spent for your lives! If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
  • Phil 3:18 : 18 For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
  • Lev 19:17-18 : 17 You must not hate your brother in your heart. You must surely reprove your fellow citizen so that you do not incur sin on account of him. 18 You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
  • Ps 119:136 : 136 Tears stream down from my eyes, because people do not keep your law.
  • Prov 27:5-6 : 5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love. 6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive.
  • Jer 13:15-17 : 15 Then I said to the people of Judah,“Listen and pay attention! Do not be arrogant! For the LORD has spoken. 16 Show the LORD your God the respect that is due him. Do it before he brings the darkness of disaster. Do it before you stumble into distress like a traveler on the mountains at twilight. Do it before he turns the light of deliverance you hope for into the darkness and gloom of exile. 17 But if you will not pay attention to this warning, I will weep alone because of your arrogant pride. I will weep bitterly, and my eyes will overflow with tears because you, the LORD’s flock, will be carried into exile.”
  • Luke 19:41-44 : 41 Jesus Weeps for Jerusalem under Judgment Now when Jesus approached and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying,“If you had only known on this day, even you, the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and surround you and close in on you from every side. 44 They will demolish you– you and your children within your walls– and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”
  • Rom 9:2-3 : 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed– cut off from Christ– for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen,
  • 2 Cor 7:8-9 : 8 For even if I made you sad by my letter, I do not regret having written it(even though I did regret it, for I see that my letter made you sad, though only for a short time). 9 Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad, but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made sad as God intended, so that you were not harmed in any way by us.