1:1 From Paul, 1 an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, 2 with all the saints who are in all Achaia. 3 1:2 Grace and peace to you 4 from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
1:3 Blessed is 5 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 1:4 who comforts us in all our troubles 6 so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble 7 with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 1:5 For just as the sufferings 8 of Christ 9 overflow 10 toward us, so also our comfort through Christ overflows to you. 11 1:6 But if we are afflicted, 12 it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort that you experience in your patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. 1:7 And our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you share in 13 our sufferings, so also you will share in 14 our comfort. 1:8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, 15 regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia, 16 that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living. 1:9 Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, 17 so that we would not trust in ourselves 18 but in God who raises the dead. 1:10 He 19 delivered us from so great a risk of death, and he will deliver us. We have set our hope on him 20 that 21 he will deliver us yet again, 1:11 as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that many people may give thanks to God 22 on our behalf for the gracious gift given to us through the help of many.
1:12 For our reason for confidence 23 is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives 24 and sincerity which are from God 25 – not by human wisdom 26 but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more 27 toward you. 1:13 For we do not write you anything other than what 28 you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely 29 1:14 just as also you have partly understood us, that we are your source of pride just as you also are ours 30 in the day of the Lord Jesus. 31 1:15 And with this confidence I intended to come to you first so that you would get a second opportunity to see us, 32 1:16 and through your help to go on into Macedonia and then from Macedonia to come back 33 to you and be helped on our way into Judea by you. 1:17 Therefore when I was planning to do this, I did not do so without thinking about what I was doing, did I? 34 Or do I make my plans 35 according to mere human standards 36 so that I would be saying 37 both “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 1:18 But as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” 1:19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was proclaimed among you by us – by me and Silvanus 38 and Timothy – was not “Yes” and “No,” but it has always been “Yes” in him. 1:20 For every one of God’s promises are “Yes” in him; therefore also through him the “Amen” is spoken, to the glory we give to God. 1:21 But it is God who establishes 39 us together with you in Christ and who anointed us, 40 1:22 who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment. 41
1:23 Now I appeal to God as my witness, 42 that to spare 43 you I did not come again to Corinth. 44 1:24 I do not mean that we rule over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because by faith you stand firm. 45 2:1 So 46 I made up my own mind 47 not to pay you another painful visit. 48 2:2 For if I make you sad, who would be left to make me glad 49 but the one I caused to be sad? 2:3 And I wrote this very thing to you, 50 so that when I came 51 I would not have sadness from those who ought to make me rejoice, since I am confident in you all that my joy would be yours. 2:4 For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you. 52 2:5 But if anyone has caused sadness, he has not saddened me alone, but to some extent (not to exaggerate) 53 he has saddened all of you as well. 2:6 This punishment on such an individual by the majority is enough for him, 2:7 so that now instead 54 you should rather forgive and comfort him. 55 This will keep him from being overwhelmed by excessive grief to the point of despair. 56 2:8 Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. 57 2:9 For this reason also I wrote you: 58 to test you to see 59 if you are obedient in everything. 2:10 If you forgive anyone for anything, I also forgive him – for indeed what I have forgiven (if I have forgiven anything) I did so for you in the presence of Christ, 2:11 so that we may not be exploited 60 by Satan (for we are not ignorant of his schemes). 2:12 Now when I arrived in Troas 61 to proclaim the gospel of Christ, even though the Lord had opened 62 a door of opportunity 63 for me, 2:13 I had no relief in my spirit, 64 because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-bye to them 65 and set out 66 for Macedonia.
2:14 But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession 67 in Christ 68 and who makes known 69 through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place. 2:15 For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing – 2:16 to the latter an odor 70 from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? 71 2:17 For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, 72 but we are speaking in Christ before 73 God as persons of sincerity, 74 as persons sent from God.
3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? 75 3:2 You yourselves are our letter, 76 written on our hearts, known and read by everyone, 3:3 revealing 77 that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, 78 written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets 79 but on tablets of human hearts.
3:4 Now we have such confidence in God through Christ. 3:5 Not that we are adequate 80 in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy 81 is from God, 3:6 who made us adequate 82 to be servants of a new covenant 83 not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
3:7 But if the ministry that produced death – carved in letters on stone tablets 84 – came with glory, so that the Israelites 85 could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face 86 (a glory 87 which was made ineffective), 88 3:8 how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be? 89 3:9 For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, 90 how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness 91 excel 92 in glory! 3:10 For indeed, what had been glorious now 93 has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it. 94 3:11 For if what was made ineffective 95 came with 96 glory, how much more has what remains 97 come in glory! 3:12 Therefore, since we have such a hope, we behave with great boldness, 98 3:13 and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites 99 from staring 100 at the result 101 of the glory that was made ineffective. 102 3:14 But their minds were closed. 103 For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. 104 It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away. 105 3:15 But until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, 106 3:16 but when one 107 turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 108 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, 109 there is freedom. 3:18 And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, 110 are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, 111 which is from 112 the Lord, who is the Spirit. 113
4:1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, just as God has shown us mercy, 114 we do not become discouraged. 115 4:2 But we have rejected 116 shameful hidden deeds, 117 not behaving 118 with deceptiveness 119 or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God. 4:3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing, 4:4 among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe 120 so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel 121 of Christ, 122 who is the image of God. 4:5 For we do not proclaim 123 ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves 124 for Jesus’ sake. 4:6 For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” 125 is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge 126 of God in the face of Christ. 127
4:7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power 128 belongs to God and does not come from us. 4:8 We are experiencing trouble on every side, 129 but are not crushed; we are perplexed, 130 but not driven to despair; 4:9 we are persecuted, but not abandoned; 131 we are knocked down, 132 but not destroyed, 4:10 always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus, 133 so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible 134 in our body. 4:11 For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible 135 in our mortal body. 136 4:12 As a result, 137 death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 138 4:13 But since we have the same spirit of faith as that shown in 139 what has been written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,” 140 we also believe, therefore we also speak. 4:14 We do so 141 because we know that the one who raised up Jesus 142 will also raise us up with Jesus and will bring us with you into his presence. 4:15 For all these things are for your sake, so that the grace that is including 143 more and more people may cause thanksgiving to increase 144 to the glory of God. 4:16 Therefore we do not despair, 145 but even if our physical body 146 is wearing away, our inner person 147 is being renewed day by day. 4:17 For our momentary, light suffering 148 is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison 4:18 because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.