The Meaning of 2 Corinthians 7:3 Explained

2 Corinthians 7:3

KJV: I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.

YLT: not to condemn you do I say it, for I have said before that in our hearts ye are to die with and to live with;

Darby: I do not speak for condemnation, for I have already said that ye are in our hearts, to die together, and live together.

ASV: I say it not to condemn you : for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die together and live together.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

I speak  not  [this] to  condemn  [you]: for  I have said before,  that  ye are  in  our  hearts  to  die  and  live with  [you]. 

What does 2 Corinthians 7:3 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Paul did not say what he did to pass the blame for bad conditions off on his readers. He was not implying that everyone in the Corinthian church blamed him as his critics did either. He explained that they had a secure place in his affections. Neither death nor the trials of life, including charges against him, would alter his love for this church. There was no reason they should feel restraint in their dealings with him. Regardless of their reaction he promised he would never exclude them from his love. This is a good example of unconditional love.
"The caveat that one was writing something not to stir negative emotion but to demonstrate affection ( 2 Corinthians 7:3; 1 Corinthians 4:14) was an appropriate way of showing love (Cicero Fam. 242)." [1]

Context Summary

2 Corinthians 7:1-4 - Separate From All Uncleanness
Paul's love failed to be appreciated by his converts because the channel of receptiveness, that is, of their faith and love, was so straitened. How often is this the case between Christ and us! Let us dredge the channel. Be ye enlarged! Open your mouth wide and He will fill it.
The best method of doing this is to be only, always, and all for Him. We must not offer Him a share of our heart and devotion. There must be no division between Him and others. Whenever iniquity, darkness, Belial, and unbelievers seek to share our nature with the Holy Spirit, and we permit the partnership, He withdraws. No idols must be permitted in any hidden shrine of the heart. The whole nature-spirit (that is, the Holy of Holies) soul (that is, the seat of our individuality), and body-must be the temple of the Eternal, who rules it from the Shekinah, which is enthroned on the Ark of the Covenant. God still walks the world in those who love Him and are wholly yielded to His indwelling. The loneliest spirit finds Him to be father, mother, brother, sister, all. What an incentive to cleanliness not only of flesh but of spirit! Hebrews 10:22. The Apostle concludes by expressing his intense thankfulness that his converts had not misunderstood the urgency of his former letter. [source]

Chapter Summary: 2 Corinthians 7

1  He proceeds in exhorting them to purity of life;
2  and to bear him like affection as he does to them
3  Whereof lest he might seem to doubt, he declares what comfort he took in his afflictions
6  by the report which Titus gave of their godly sorrow,
8  which his former epistle had wrought in them;
13  and of their loving-kindness and obedience toward Titus, answerable to his former boastings of them

Greek Commentary for 2 Corinthians 7:3

Not to condemn you [προς κατακρισιν ου]
“Not for condemnation.” Late word from κατακρινω — katakrinō found in Vettius Valens, and here only in N.T. [source]
To die together and live together [εις το συναποτανειν και συνζηιν]
“For the dying together (second aorist ingressive active infinitive of συναποτνησκω — sunapothnēskō) and living together (present active infinitive).” One article (το — to) with both infinitives. You are in our hearts to share death and life. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 2 Corinthians 7:3

2 Timothy 2:11 If we be dead with him [εἰ συναπεθάνομεν]
A.V. misses the force of the aorist. Better, if we died, etc. Comp. Romans 6:8; Colossians 2:20. For the verb, comp. Mark 14:31; 2 Corinthians 7:3. [source]
2 Timothy 2:11 Faithful is the saying [πιστος ο λογος]
The saying which follows here though it can refer to the preceding as in 1 Timothy 4:9. See note on 1 Timothy 1:15. It is possible that from here to the end of 2 Timothy 2:13 we have the fragment of an early hymn. There are four conditions in these verses (2 Timothy 2:11), all of the first class, assumed to be true. Parallels to the ideas here expressed are found in 2 Thessalonians 1:5; 1 Corinthians 4:8; 2 Corinthians 7:3; Romans 6:3-8; Colossians 3:1-4. Note the compounds with συν — sun For υπομενομεν — hupomenomen (we endure) see note on 1 Corinthians 13:7 and for απιστουμεν — apistoumen (we are faithless) see note on Romans 3:3. The verb αρνεομαι — arneomai to deny Here in 2 Timothy 2:13 it has the notion of proving false to oneself, a thing that Christ “cannot” (ου δυναται — ou dunatai) do. [source]

What do the individual words in 2 Corinthians 7:3 mean?

For condemnation not I speak I have before said for that in the hearts of us you are for [us] - to die together and to live together
πρὸς κατάκρισιν οὐ λέγω προείρηκα γὰρ ὅτι ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ἡμῶν ἐστε εἰς τὸ συναποθανεῖν καὶ συζῆν

κατάκρισιν  condemnation 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: κατάκρισις  
Sense: condemnation.
λέγω  I  speak 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 1st Person Singular
Root: λέγω 
Sense: to say, to speak.
προείρηκα  I  have  before  said 
Parse: Verb, Perfect Indicative Active, 1st Person Singular
Root: προλέγω 
Sense: to say beforehand, to predict.
ὅτι  that 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: ὅτι  
Sense: that, because, since.
καρδίαις  hearts 
Parse: Noun, Dative Feminine Plural
Root: καρδία  
Sense: the heart.
ἡμῶν  of  us 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 1st Person Plural
Root: ἐγώ  
Sense: I, me, my.
ἐστε  you  are 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 2nd Person Plural
Root: εἰμί  
Sense: to be, to exist, to happen, to be present.
εἰς  for  [us] 
Parse: Preposition
Root: εἰς  
Sense: into, unto, to, towards, for, among.
τὸ  - 
Parse: Article, Accusative Neuter Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
συναποθανεῖν  to  die  together 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active
Root: συναποθνῄσκω  
Sense: to die together.
συζῆν  to  live  together 
Parse: Verb, Present Infinitive Active
Root: συζάω  
Sense: to live together with one.