2 Corinthians 1-4

International Standard Version

Paul Greets the Church in Corinth

1 From:^[a] Paul, an apostle of the Messiah^[b] Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.

To: God’s church in Corinth, and to all the holy people^[c] throughout Achaia.

² May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Messiah,^[d] be yours!

The God of All Comfort

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah!^[e] He is our merciful Father and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our suffering, so that we may be able to comfort others in all their suffering, as we ourselves are being comforted by God. ⁵ For as the Messiah’s^[f] sufferings overflow into us, so also our comfort overflows through the Messiah.^{[g] 6} If we suffer, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are suffering. ⁷ Our hope for you is unshaken, because we know that as you share our sufferings, you also share our comfort.

How God Rescued Paul

⁸ For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about the suffering we experienced in Asia. We were so crushed beyond our ability to endure that we even despaired of living. ⁹ In fact, we felt that we had received a death sentence so we would not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He has rescued us from a terrible death, and he will continue to rescue us. Yes, he is the one on whom we have set our hope, and he will rescue us again, ¹¹ as you also help us by your prayers for us. Then many people will thank God^[h] on our behalf because of the favor shown us through the prayers of many.

Paul’s Reason for Boasting

¹² For this is what we boast about: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world with pure motives and godly sincerity, without earthly wisdom but with God’s grace—especially toward you. ¹³ For what we are writing you is nothing more than what you can read and also understand. I hope you will understand completely, ¹⁴ just as you have already understood us partially, so that on the Day of our^[i] Lord Jesus we can be your reason to boast, even as you are ours.

Why Paul’s Visit Was Postponed

¹⁵ Because I was confident, I planned to come to you first so you might receive a double blessing. ¹⁶ I planned to leave you in order to go^[j] to Macedonia, and then come back to you from Macedonia, and let you send me on to Judea.

¹⁷ When I planned this, I did not do it lightly, did I? Are my plans so fickle^[k] that I can say “Yes” and “No”^[l] at the same time? ¹⁸ As certainly as God is faithful, we haven’t talked to you with mixed messages like that.^{[m] 19} For God’s Son, Jesus the Messiah,^[n] who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No.” But with him it is always “Yes.” ²⁰ For all God’s promises are “Yes” in him. And so through him we can say “Amen,”^[o] to the glory of God. ²¹ Now the one who makes us—and you as well—secure in union with the Messiah^[p] and has anointed us is God, ²² who has placed his seal on us and has given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

²³ I call upon God as a witness on my behalf that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. ²⁴ It is not that we are trying to rule over your faith, but rather to work with you for your joy, because you have been standing firm in the faith.

Paul’s Painful Visit

2 Now^[q] I decided not to pay you another painful visit. ² After all, if I were to grieve you, who should make me happy but the person I am making sad? ³ This is the very reason I wrote you, so that when I did come I might not be made sad by those who should have made me happy. For I had confidence that all of you would share the joy that I have. ⁴ I wrote to you out of great sorrow and anguish of heart—along with many tears—not to make you sad but to let you know how much love I have for you.

Forgive the Person who Sinned

⁵ But if anyone has caused grief, he didn’t cause me any grief. To some extent—I don’t want to emphasize this too much—it has affected^[r] all of you. ⁶ This punishment by the majority is severe enough for such a man. ⁷ So forgive and comfort him, or else he will drown in his excessive grief. ⁸ That’s why I’m urging you to assure him of your love. ⁹ I had also written to you to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in every way. ¹⁰ When you forgive someone, I do, too. Indeed, what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I did^[s] in the presence of the Messiah^[t] for your benefit, ¹¹ so that we may not be outsmarted by Satan. After all, we are not unaware of his intentions.

Paul’s Anxiety and Relief

¹² When I went to Troas on behalf of the gospel of the Messiah,^[u] the Lord opened a door for me, ¹³ but my spirit could not find any relief, because I couldn’t find Titus, my brother. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God! He always leads us triumphantly by the Messiah^[v] and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of knowing him. ¹⁵ To God we are the aroma of the Messiah^[w] among those who are being saved and among those who are being lost. ¹⁶ To some people we are a deadly fragrance,^[x] while to others we are a living fragrance.^[y] Who is qualified for this? ¹⁷ At least we are not commercializing God’s word like so many others. Instead, we speak with sincerity in the Messiah’s^[z] name,^[aa] like people who are sent from God and are accountable to God.^[ab]

Ministers of the New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to recommend ourselves again? Unlike some people, we do not need letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? ² You are our letter, written in our hearts and known and read by everyone. ³ You are demonstrating that you are the Messiah’s^[ac] letter, produced by our service, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴ Such is the confidence that we have in God through the Messiah.^{[ad] 5} By ourselves we are not qualified to claim that anything comes from us. Rather, our credentials come from God, ⁶ who has also qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, which is not written but spiritual, because the written text^[ae] brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ Now if the ministry of death that was inscribed in letters of stone came with such glory that the people of Israel could not gaze on Moses’ face (because the glory was fading away from it), ⁸ will not the Spirit’s ministry have even more glory? ⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, then the ministry of justification has an overwhelming glory. ¹⁰ In fact, that which once had glory lost its glory, because the other glory surpassed it. ¹¹ For if that which fades away came^[af] through glory, how much more does that which is permanent have glory?

¹² Therefore, since we have such a hope, we speak very boldly, ¹³ not like Moses, who kept covering his face with a veil to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴ However, their minds were hardened, for to this day the same veil is still there when they read the old covenant. Only in union with the Messiah^[ag] is that veil removed.^{[ah] 15} Yet even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶ But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord’s Spirit is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ As all of us reflect the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, we are becoming more like him with ever-increasing glory by the Lord’s Spirit.

Treasure in Clay Jars

4 Therefore, since we have this ministry through the mercy shown to us, we do not get discouraged. ² Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use trickery or pervert God’s word. By clear statements of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.

³ So if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are dying.^{[ai] 4} In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe to keep them from seeing the light of the glorious gospel of the Messiah,^[aj] who is the image of God.

⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but rather Jesus the Messiah^[ak] as Lord, and ourselves as merely your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”^[al] has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus^[am] the Messiah.^[an]

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay jars to show that its extraordinary power comes from God and not from us. ⁸ In every way we’re troubled but not crushed, frustrated but not in despair, ⁹ persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We are always carrying around the death of Jesus in our bodies, so that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our bodies. ¹¹ While we are alive, we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our mortal bodies. ¹² And so death is at work in us, but life is at work^[ao] in you.

¹³ Now since we have the same spirit of faith in keeping with this Scripture: “I believed, and so I spoke,”^[ap] we also believe and therefore speak. ¹⁴ We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to God^[aq] together with you. ¹⁵ All this is for your sake so that, as his grace spreads, more and more people will give thanks and glorify God.

Life in an Earthly Tent

¹⁶ That’s why we are not discouraged. No, even if outwardly we are wearing out, inwardly we are being renewed each and every day. ¹⁷ This light, temporary nature of our suffering is producing for us an everlasting weight of glory, far beyond any comparison, ¹⁸ because we do not look for things that can be seen but for things that cannot be seen. For things that can be seen are temporary, but things that cannot be seen are eternal.