- Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the
will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together
with all the saints throughout Achaia:
- Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Praise be to the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
- who comforts us in all our troubles, so
that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have
received from God.
- For just as the sufferings of Christ flow
over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
- If we are distressed, it is for your comfort
and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces
in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
- And our hope for you is firm, because we
know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our
comfort.
- We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers,
about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great
pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of
life.
- Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence
of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God,
who raises the dead.
- He has delivered us from such a deadly
peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will
continue to deliver us,
- as you help us by your prayers. Then many
will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer
to the prayers of many.
- Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies
that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations
with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done
so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace.
- For we do not write you anything you cannot
read or understand. And I hope that,
- as you have understood us in part, you
will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast
of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
- Because I was confident of this, I planned
to visit you first so that you might benefit twice.
- I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia
and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on
my way to Judea.
- When I planned this, did I do it lightly?
Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say,
"Yes, yes" and "No, no" ?
- But as surely as God is faithful, our message
to you is not "Yes" and "No."
- For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was
preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes"
and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes."
- For no matter how many promises God has
made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen"
is spoken by us to the glory of God.
- Now it is God who makes both us and you
stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,
- set his seal of ownership on us, and put
his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
- I call God as my witness that it was in
order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.
- Not that we lord it over your faith, but
we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.
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