Second Letter to the Corinthians 1

¹ From Paul, appointed by God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from Timothy, one of the brothers, to the church of God at Corinth and to all the saints in the whole of Achaia.

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

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, a gentle Father and the God of all consolation,

⁴ who comforts us in all our sorrows, so that we can offer others, in their sorrows, the consolation that we have received from God ourselves.

⁵ Indeed, as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so, through Christ, does our consolation overflow.

⁶ When we are made to suffer, it is for your consolation and salvation. When, instead, we are comforted, this should be a consolation to you, supporting you in patiently bearing the same sufferings as we bear.

⁷ And our hope for you is confident, since we know that, sharing our sufferings, you will also share our consolations.

⁸ For we should like you to realise, brothers, that the things we had to undergo in Asia were more of a burden than we could carry, so that we despaired of coming through alive.

⁹ Yes, we were carrying our own death warrant with us, and it has taught us not to rely on ourselves but only on God, who raises the dead to life.

¹⁰ And he saved us from dying, as he will save us again; yes, that is our firm hope in him, that in the future he will save us again.

¹¹ You must all join in the prayers for us: the more people there are asking for help for us, the more will be giving thanks when it is granted to us.

¹² There is one thing we are proud of, and our conscience tells us it is true: that we have always treated everybody, and especially you, with the reverence and sincerity which come from God, and by the grace of God we have done this without ulterior motives.

¹³ There are no hidden meanings in our letters besides what you can read for yourselves and understand.

¹⁴ And I hope that, although you do not know us very well yet, you will have come to recognise, when the day of our Lord Jesus comes, that you can be as proud of us as we are of you.

¹⁵ Because I was so sure of this, I had meant to come to you first, so that you would benefit doubly;

¹⁶ staying with you before going to Macedonia and coming back to you again on the way back from Macedonia, for you to see me on my way to Judaea.

¹⁷ Do you think I was not sure of my own intentions when I planned this? Do you really think that when I am making my plans, my motives are ordinary human ones, and that I say Yes, yes, and No, no, at the same time?

¹⁸ I swear by God’s truth, there is no Yes and No about what we say to you.

¹⁹ The Son of God, the Christ Jesus that we proclaimed among you – I mean Silvanus and Timothy and I – was never Yes and No: with him it was always Yes,

²⁰ and however many the promises God made, the Yes to them all is in him. That is why it is ‘through him’ that we answer Amen to the praise of God.

²¹ Remember it is God himself who assures us all, and you, of our standing in Christ, and has anointed us,

²² marking us with his seal and giving us the pledge, the Spirit, that we carry in our hearts.

²³ By my life, I call God to witness that the reason why I did not come to Corinth after all was to spare your feelings.

²⁴ We are not dictators over your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your happiness; in the faith you are steady enough.