2 Corinthians 1:1-24
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God’s will, and Timothy+ our brother, to the congregation of God that is in Corinth, including all the holy ones who are in all A·chaʹia:+
2 May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,+ the Father of tender mercies+ and the God of all comfort,+
4 who comforts* us in all our trials*+ so that we may be able to comfort others+ in any sort of trial* with the comfort that we receive from God.+
5 For just as the sufferings for the Christ abound in us,+ so the comfort we receive through the Christ also abounds.
6 Now if we face trials,* it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are being comforted, it is for your comfort, which acts to help you to endure the same sufferings that we also suffer.
7 And our hope for you is unwavering, knowing as we do that just as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.+
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the tribulation we experienced in the province of Asia.+ We were under extreme pressure beyond our own strength, so that we were very uncertain even of our lives.+
9 In fact, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. This was so that we would trust, not in ourselves, but in the God+ who raises up the dead.
10 From such a great risk of death he did rescue us and will rescue us, and our hope is in him that he will also continue to rescue us.+
11 You also can help us by your supplication for us,+ in order that many may give thanks in our behalf for the favor we receive in answer to the prayers of many.*+
12 For the thing we boast of is this, our conscience bears witness that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with holiness and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom,+ but with God’s undeserved kindness.
13 For we are really not writing you about anything except what you can read* and understand, and I hope you will continue to understand these things fully,*
14 just as you have also understood to an extent that we are a cause for you to boast, just as you will also be for us in the day of our Lord Jesus.
15 So with this confidence, I was intending to come first to you, so that you might have a second occasion for joy;*
16 for I intended to visit you on my way to Mac·e·doʹni·a, to return to you from Mac·e·doʹni·a, and then to have you send me off to Ju·deʹa.+
17 Well, when I had such an intention, I did not view the matter lightly, did I? Or do I purpose things in a fleshly way, so that I am saying “Yes, yes” and then “No, no”?
18 But God can be relied on that what we say to you is not “yes” and yet “no.”
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you through us, that is, through me and Sil·vaʹnus* and Timothy,+ did not become “yes” and yet “no,” but “yes” has become “yes” in his case.
20 For no matter how many the promises of God are, they have become “yes” by means of him.+ Therefore, also through him is the “Amen” said to God,+ which brings him glory through us.
21 But the one who guarantees that you and we belong to Christ and the one who anointed us is God.+
22 He has also put his seal on us+ and has given us the token of what is to come,* that is, the spirit,+ in our hearts.
23 Now I call on God as a witness against me* that it is to spare you that I have not yet come to Corinth.
24 Not that we are the masters over your faith,+ but we are fellow workers for your joy, for it is by your faith that you are standing.
Footnotes
^ Or “tribulation.”
^ Or “tribulation.”
^ Or “encourages.”
^ Or “tribulation.”
^ Or “because of many prayerful faces.”
^ Or possibly, “what you already well know.”
^ Lit., “to the end.”
^ Or possibly, “so that you might benefit twice.”
^ Also called Silas.
^ Or “the down payment (earnest money); the guarantee (pledge) of what is to come.”
^ Or “my soul.”
