2 Corinthians 7:2 Meaning Open Your Hearts to Us

Mettā: Loving-kindness Mettā is friendliness toward another. Asking them to make room inside is asking them to unclench, the way a fist has to open before anything can be put in the hand. Suspicion had closed the Corinthians toward the man who sent them a painful letter, and no argument pries a shut heart open; warmth offered and warmth returned is the only thing that does.

Avihiṃsā: Non-harming Avihiṃsā is the resolve to injure no one. A teacher trusted by a young community holds precisely the power to wound it, and "we wronged no one" is that power left unused for the whole time he lived among them. Anyone in Corinth is free to stand up and name the injury; he is betting that nobody can.

Kalyāṇamitta: Good friend The kalyāṇamitta is the companion who leads others toward the skillful. Corrupting is the same closeness turned the other way, and a founder who could have bent that church around his own appetites left it standing on its own feet without him. Influence is as easy to spend on ruin as on growth, and every spending of it here went the good direction.

Adinnādānā veramaṇī: Refraining from taking what is not given This is the precept against taking what has not been offered. Advantage covers more than theft: the fees, the favors, the free labor a respected teacher can draw from people too grateful to refuse. He made tents in that city and lived off his own hands, so the accounts lie open alongside the request that their hearts be.

Avippaṭisāra: Freedom from remorse Avippaṭisāra is the ease of having nothing to regret. Clean conduct produces it the way a clear conscience produces sleep, and it is what lets a man set down three denials in a row without flinching. He can ask them to open their hearts because there is nothing in his own he needs to keep a door shut on.