νῦν χαίρω κ. τ. λ.: now, sc., now that Titus is come, and I have learnt the effect of my letter, I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye were made sorry unto repentance (of which there was no sign when he wrote; see 1 Corinthians 5:2), for ye were made sorry according to the will of God, sc., in God's way as contrasted with man's way (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:32 and see reff.), so that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing, i.e., the sorrow caused by my rebuke was divinely ordered for your good, so that my severity did not hurt but rather benefited you. The word μετάνοια occurs curiously seldom in St. Paul (see reff.), perhaps because it indicates the very first step in the religious life, that “change of mind” as to God which precedes even the renunciation of sin (see esp. for this use reff., Acts and Matthew 3:2; Matthew 4:17; Acts 2:38, etc.), and this first step his correspondents had already taken, or his letters to them would not have been written.

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Old Testament