2 Corinthians 2-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

2 ¹ So I made up my mind not to make another visit that causes you grief.^{(A) 2} For if I cause you grief, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have grieved? ³ And I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer grief from those who should have made me rejoice, for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you.^{(B) 4} For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you grief but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

Forgiveness for the Offender

⁵ But if anyone has caused grief, he has caused it not to me but to some extent—not to exaggerate it—to all of you. ⁶ This punishment by the majority is enough for such a person;^{(C) 7} so now instead you should forgive and console him, so that he may not be overwhelmed by even worse grief. ⁸ So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹ I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything.^{(D) 10} Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. In fact, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. ¹¹ And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs.

Paul’s Anxiety in Troas

¹² When I came to Troas to proclaim the good news^[a] of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord,^{(E) 13} but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said farewell to them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.^{[b] 15} For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing:^{(F) 16} to the one group a fragrance from death^[c] to death, to the other a fragrance from life^[d] to life. Who is qualified for these things?^{(G) 17} For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many,^[e] but as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God, we are speaking in Christ before God.^(H)

Ministers of the New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we?^{(I) 2} You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, ³ and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are human hearts.^[f](J)

⁴ Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are qualified of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our qualification is from God,^{(K) 6} who has made us qualified to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.^(L)

⁷ Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets,^[g] came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’s face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside,^{(M) 8} how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? ⁹ For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation,^[h] much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory!^{(N) 10} Indeed, what once had glory has in this respect lost its glory because of the greater glory, ¹¹ for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory!

¹² Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with complete frankness,^{(O) 13} not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that^[i] was being set aside.^{(P) 14} But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, the same veil is still there; it is not unveiled since in Christ it is set aside.^{(Q) 15} Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds,^{[j] 16} but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.^{(R) 17} Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.^{(S) 18} And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.^(T)

Treasure in Clay Jars

4 Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.^{(U) 2} We have renounced the shameful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.^{(V) 3} And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.^{(W) 4} In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing clearly the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.^{(X) 5} For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’s sake.^{(Y) 6} For it is the God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.^(Z)

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.^{(AA) 8} We are afflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, ⁹ persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, ¹⁰ always carrying around in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.^{(AB) 11} For we who are living are always being handed over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹² So death is at work in us but life in you.

¹³ But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and therefore we also speak,^{(AC) 14} because we know that the one who raised Jesus^[k] will also raise us with Jesus and will present us with you in his presence.^{(AD) 15} Indeed, everything is for your sake, so that grace, when it has extended to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Living by Faith

¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.^{(AE) 17} For our slight, momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure,^{(AF) 18} because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.^(AG)