Common English Bible CEB
Revised Standard Version RSV
1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and Timothy our brother. To God's church that is in Corinth, along with all of God's people throughout Achaia.
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Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother. To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Acha'ia:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort.
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 He's the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God.
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who 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 That is because we receive so much comfort through Christ in the same way that we share so many of Christ's sufferings.
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For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
6 So if we have trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is to bring you comfort from the experience of endurance while you go through the same sufferings that we also suffer.
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If 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 certain, because we know that as you are partners in suffering, so also you are partners in comfort.
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Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
8 Brothers and sisters, we don't want you to be unaware of the troubles that we went through in Asia. We were weighed down with a load of suffering that was so far beyond our strength that we were afraid we might not survive.
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For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.
9 It certainly seemed to us as if we had gotten the death penalty. This was so that we would have confidence in God, who raises the dead, instead of ourselves.
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Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead;
10 God rescued us from a terrible death, and he will rescue us. We have set our hope on him that he will rescue us again,
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he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
11 since you are helping with your prayer for us. Then many people can thank God on our behalf for the gift that was given to us through the prayers of many people.
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You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to many prayers.
12 We have conducted ourselves with godly sincerity and pure motives in the world, and especially toward you. This is why we are confident, and our conscience confirms this. We didn't act with human wisdom but we relied on the grace of God.
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For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world, and still more toward you, with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God.
13 We don't write anything to you except what you can read and also understand. I hope that you will understand totally
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For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand; I hope you will understand fully,
14 since you have already understood us partly. Understand that in the day of our Lord Jesus, we will make you proud as you will also make us proud.
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as you have understood in part, that you can be proud of us as we can be of you, on the day of the Lord Jesus.
15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you could have a second opportunity to see me.
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Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double pleasure;
16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then come to you again on my way back from Macedonia, at which point I was hoping you would help me on my way to Judea.
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I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedo'nia, and to come back to you from Macedo'nia and have you send me on my way to Judea.
17 So I wasn't unreliable when I planned to do this, was I? Or do I make decisions with a substandard human process so that I say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time?
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Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say Yes and No at once?
18 But as God is faithful, our message to you isn't both yes and no.
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As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No.
19 God's Son, Jesus Christ, is the one who was preached among you by us—through me, Silvanus, and Timothy—he wasn't yes and no. In him it is always yes.
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For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you, Silva'nus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes.
20 All of God's promises have their yes in him. That is why we say Amen through him to the glory of God.
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For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to the glory of God.
21 God is the one who establishes us with you in Christ and who anointed us.
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But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has commissioned us;
22 God also sealed us and gave the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts.
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he has put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
23 I call on God as my witness—I didn't come again to Corinth because I wanted to spare you.
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But I call God to witness against me--it was to spare you that I refrained from coming to Corinth.
24 It isn't that we are trying to control your faith, but we are working with you for your happiness, because you stand firm in your faith.
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Not that we lord it over your faith; we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.