For I am full of words; the spirit within me constrains me.Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent; like new wineskins ready to burst.I must speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer.
If I say,“ I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure— not to put it too severely— to all of you.For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough,
Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary of holding it in.“ Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the gatherings of young men, also; both husband and wife shall be taken, the elderly and the very aged.
For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it— though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while.As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
