Greeting
1 Paul,
1an apostle of Christ Jesus
2by the will of God, and
3Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth,
4with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
2
5Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
God of All Comfort
3 6Blessed be the
7God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and
8God of all comfort,
4
9who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5
For as we share abundantly in
10Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
6
11If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
7
Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you
12share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
8
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of
13the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
9
Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us
14rely not on ourselves
15but on God
16who raises the dead.
10
17He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.
18On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
11
19You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf
20for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
Paul's Change of Plans
12 For our boast is this,
21the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and
22godly sincerity,
23not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.
13
For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and acknowledge and I hope you will fully acknowledge--
14
just as you did
24partially acknowledge us--that
25on the day of our Lord Jesus
26you will boast of us as
27we will boast of you.
15
Because I was sure of this,
28I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have
29a second
30experience of grace.
16
I wanted to visit you
31on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.
17
Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans
32according to the flesh, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time?
18
As surely as
33God is faithful,
34our word to you has not been Yes and No.
19
For
35the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you,
36Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but
37in him it is always Yes.
20
For
38all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our
39Amen to God for his glory.
21
And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and
40has anointed us,
22
and who has also
41put his seal on us and
42given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
23
But
43I call God to witness against me--it was
44to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.
24
Not that we
45lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm
46in your faith.