Greeting

1Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and brother Timothy, ⁰to the church ¹of God that is in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:

2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and Sovereign ²Jesus Christ.

Praise for deliverance

3All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion ³and God of all encouragement,

4who encourages us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in whatever affliction, by means of the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God. ⁴

5Because just as the sufferings of the Christ flow over into us, ⁵so also our encouraging overflows, through Christ.

6Now then, if we are afflicted, it is for the sake of your encouragement and deliverance, that are effective for enduring the same sufferings that we also are suffering

7(yes, our hope concerning you is steadfast); ⁶if we are encouraged, it also is for the sake of your encouragement and deliverance, since we know that you will share in the encouragement just as you do in the sufferings. ⁷

8And so, brothers, we do not want you to be in ignorance concerning the affliction that came upon us in Asia: we were under extreme pressure, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.

9Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we not place confidence in ourselves, but in the God who raises the dead; ⁸

10He did deliver us from that deadly peril, and still delivers; in whom we trust that He will keep on delivering,

11you also adding your cooperation in prayer, ⁹on our behalf; that thanks may be given by many persons for the gift bestowed on us by means of many, on your behalf. ¹⁰

A change of plans

12Now this is our boast: the testimony of our conscience that we have conducted ourselves in the world with openness and godly sincerity, not by fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and especially toward you.

13For we do not write you any other things than what you can read and understand; ¹¹and I do hope that you will keep on understanding to the end

14(as indeed some of you have acknowledged) that we are your boast, just as you are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus. ¹²

15It was in this confidence that I was planning to come by you first,

16and by you to proceed into Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia (that you might benefit twice), ¹³and then to be sent by you on my way to Judea. ¹⁴

17Now then, when I was deciding this, I was not acting frivolously, was I? Or the things I decide, do I decide according to the flesh, so that with me there would be both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?

18As God is faithful, our word to you was not “Yes” and “No”, ¹⁵

19because the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy ¹⁶—was not “Yes” and “No”. In fact, with Him it has always been “Yes”,

20because all the promises of God in Him are “Yes”; indeed, in Him they are “Amen”, that there be glory to God through us. ¹⁷

21Now He who establishes us together with you into Christ, and who anointed ¹⁸us, is God,

22who also sealed us and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts. ¹⁹

The change explained

23For my part, I call on God as witness, upon my soul, that it was to spare you that I have not yet returned to Corinth.

24(Not that we have control over your faith, ²⁰but we work with you for your joy, for it is by faith that you stand firm.)