Greeting

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, together with all the saints who are in all Achaia:

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

God of All Comfort

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

4who comforts us in all our tribulation, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, by means of the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

5Because just as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.

6Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer.

7(And our hope for you is steadfast); if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation, knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, thus also you will partake of the consolation.

Delivered from Suffering

8For we do not desire you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.

9Indeed, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead,

10who delivered us from so great a death, and is delivering us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us,

11you also laboring together for us in prayer, that thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf for the gift given to us through many.

Paul's Change of Plans

12For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that we have conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with worldly wisdom but by the grace of God, and especially toward you.

13For we write no other things to you except what you read or also understand. And I hope that you will understand, even until the end,

14just as also you have understood us in part, that we are your boasting, as indeed you also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Sparing the Church

15And in this confidence I intended to come to you earlier, that you might have a second benefit,

16and through you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be sent on to Judea.

17Therefore, when I decided this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I decide, do I decide according to the flesh, that there may be with me “Yes, Yes,” and “No, No?”

18As surely as God is faithful, our word unto you was not “Yes and no.”

19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not “Yes and no,” but in Him was “Yes.”

20For all the promises of God in Him are “Yes,” and in Him “Amen,” to the glory of God through us.

21Now He who establishes us together with you in Christ and who has anointed us is God,

22who also has sealed us, and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

23Moreover I call upon God as a witness against my soul, that in order to spare you, I came no more to Corinth.

24Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.