Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.
Parallel translations
- WEB You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
- BSB It is not our affection, but yours, that is restrained.
- NKJV You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.
- NASB You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections.
- NLT There is no lack of love on our part, but you have withheld your love from us.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Any distance between Paul and the Corinthians comes from their own withheld affections, not from him. The barrier is on their side, not his.
Overview
Paul assures the Corinthians that he has placed no restriction on his love; if there is coolness, it lies in their own hearts. He gently exposes that the relational strain originates with them. The verse calls them to examine and open their own affections.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- 2 Cor 7:2Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.
- Mic 2:7O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD straitened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?
- Phil 1:8For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Jn 3:17But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
- Job 36:16Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.
- Eccl 6:9Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire: this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
- Prov 4:12When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.
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Christ at the center
In Christ all God's promises are 'Yes and Amen'; though rich, he became poor to make us rich, and in him God reconciles the world, making us new creations.
How 2 Corinthians 6:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.