Greeting

¹Paul, aan apostle of Christ Jesus bby the will of God, and cTimothy our brother,

To the church of God that is at Corinth, dwith all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:

²eGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

God of All Comfort

³fBlessed be the gGod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and hGod of all comfort, ⁴iwho 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. ⁵For as we share abundantly in jChrist's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.1 ⁶kIf 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. ⁷Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you lshare in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

⁸For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers,2 of mthe affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. ⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us nrely not on ourselves obut on God pwho raises the dead. ¹⁰qHe delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. rOn him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. ¹¹sYou also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf tfor the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Paul's Change of Plans

¹²For our boast is this, uthe testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity3 and vgodly sincerity, wnot by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. ¹³For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand— ¹⁴just as you did xpartially understand us—that yon the day of our Lord Jesus zyou will boast of us as awe will boast of you.

¹⁵Because I was sure of this, bI wanted to come to you first, so that you might have ca second dexperience of grace. ¹⁶I wanted to visit you eon my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. ¹⁷Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans faccording to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? ¹⁸As surely as gGod is faithful, hour word to you has not been Yes and No. ¹⁹For ithe Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, jSilvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but kin him it is always Yes. ²⁰For lall the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our mAmen to God for his glory. ²¹And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and nhas anointed us, ²²and who has also oput his seal on us and pgiven us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.4

²³But qI call God to witness against me—it was rto spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. ²⁴Not that we slord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm tin your faith.