2 Corinthians 1-7

Common English Bible

Greeting

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, and Timothy our brother.

To God’s church that is in Corinth, along with all of God’s people throughout Achaia.

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

God’s comfort in trouble

³ May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort. ⁴ He’s the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God. ⁵ That is because we receive so much comfort through Christ in the same way that we share so many of Christ’s sufferings. ⁶ So if we have trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is to bring you comfort from the experience of endurance while you go through the same sufferings that we also suffer. ⁷ Our hope for you is certain, because we know that as you are partners in suffering, so also you are partners in comfort.

⁸ Brothers and sisters, we don’t want you to be unaware of the troubles that we went through in Asia. We were weighed down with a load of suffering that was so far beyond our strength that we were afraid we might not survive. ⁹ It certainly seemed to us as if we had gotten the death penalty. This was so that we would have confidence in God, who raises the dead, instead of ourselves. ¹⁰ God rescued us from a terrible death, and he will rescue us. We have set our hope on him that he will rescue us again, ¹¹ since you are helping with your prayer for us. Then many people can thank God on our behalf for the gift that was given to us through the prayers of many people.

Paul explains his change of plans

¹² We have conducted ourselves with godly sincerity and pure motives in the world, and especially toward you. This is why we are confident, and our conscience confirms this. We didn’t act with human wisdom but we relied on the grace of God. ¹³ We don’t write anything to you except what you can read and also understand. I hope that you will understand totally ¹⁴ since you have already understood us partly. Understand that in the day of our Lord Jesus, we will make you proud as you will also make us proud.

¹⁵ Because I was sure of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you could have a second opportunity to see me. ¹⁶ I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then come to you again on my way back from Macedonia, at which point I was hoping you would help me on my way to Judea.

¹⁷ So I wasn’t unreliable when I planned to do this, was I? Or do I make decisions with a substandard human process so that I say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? ¹⁸ But as God is faithful, our message to you isn’t both yes and no. ¹⁹ God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is the one who was preached among you by us—through me, Silvanus, and Timothy—he wasn’t yes and no. In him it is always yes. ²⁰ All of God’s promises have their yes in him. That is why we say Amen through him to the glory of God.

²¹ God is the one who establishes us with you in Christ and who anointed us. ²² God also sealed us and gave the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts. ²³ I call on God as my witness—I didn’t come again to Corinth because I wanted to spare you. ²⁴ It isn’t that we are trying to control your faith, but we are working with you for your happiness, because you stand firm in your faith. 2 ¹ So I decided that, for my own sake, I wouldn’t visit you again while I was upset. ² If I make you sad, who will be there to make me glad when you are sad because of me?

Paul’s former letter

³ That’s why I wrote this very thing to you, so that when I came I wouldn’t be made sad by the ones who ought to make me happy. I have confidence in you, that my happiness means your happiness. ⁴ I wrote to you in tears, with a very troubled and anxious heart. I didn’t write to make you sad but so you would know the overwhelming love that I have for you.

⁵ But if someone has made anyone sad, that person hasn’t hurt me but all of you to some degree (not to exaggerate). ⁶ The punishment handed out by the majority is enough for this person. ⁷ This is why you should try your best to forgive and to comfort this person now instead, so that this person isn’t overwhelmed by too much sorrow. ⁸ So I encourage you to show your love for this person.

⁹ This is another reason why I wrote you. I wanted to test you and see if you are obedient in everything. ¹⁰ If you forgive anyone for anything, I do too. And whatever I’ve forgiven (if I’ve forgiven anything), I did it for you in the presence of Christ. ¹¹ This is so that we won’t be taken advantage of by Satan, because we are well aware of his schemes.

Paul’s ministry

¹² When I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, the Lord gave me an opportunity to preach. ¹³ But I was worried because I couldn’t find my brother Titus there. So I said good-bye to them and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thank God, who is always leading us around through Christ as if we were in a parade. He releases the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere through us. ¹⁵ We smell like the aroma of Christ’s offering to God, both to those who are being saved and to those who are on the road to destruction. ¹⁶ We smell like a contagious dead person to those who are dying, but we smell like the fountain of life to those who are being saved.

Who is qualified for this kind of ministry? ¹⁷ We aren’t like so many people who hustle the word of God to make a profit. We are speaking through Christ in the presence of God, as those who are sincere and as those who are sent from God.

3 Are we starting to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of introduction to you or from you like other people, do we? ² You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. ³ You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us. You weren’t written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. You weren’t written on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴ This is the confidence that we have through Christ in the presence of God. ⁵ It isn’t that we ourselves are qualified to claim that anything came from us. No, our qualification is from God. ⁶ He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not based on what is written but on the Spirit, because what is written kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Ministers of the new covenant

⁷ The ministry that brought death was carved in letters on stone tablets. It came with such glory that the Israelites couldn’t look for long at Moses’ face because his face was shining with glory, even though it was a fading glory. ⁸ Won’t the ministry of the Spirit be much more glorious? ⁹ If the ministry that brought condemnation has glory, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness? ¹⁰ In fact, what was glorious isn’t glorious now, because of the glory that is brighter. ¹¹ If the glory that fades away was glorious, how much more glorious is the one that lasts!

¹² So, since we have such a hope, we act with great confidence. ¹³ We aren’t like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites couldn’t watch the end of what was fading away. ¹⁴ But their minds were closed. Right up to the present day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. The veil is not removed because it is taken away by Christ. ¹⁵ Even today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. ¹⁶ But whenever someone turns back to the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷ The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord’s Spirit is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ All of us are looking with unveiled faces at the glory of the Lord as if we were looking in a mirror. We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

4 This is why we don’t get discouraged, given that we received this ministry in the same way that we received God’s mercy. ² Instead, we reject secrecy and shameful actions. We don’t use deception, and we don’t tamper with God’s word. Instead, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God by the public announcement of the truth. ³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are on the road to destruction. ⁴ The god of this age has blinded the minds of those who don’t have faith so they couldn’t see the light of the gospel that reveals Christ’s glory. Christ is the image of God.

⁵ We don’t preach about ourselves. Instead, we preach about Jesus Christ as Lord, and we describe ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ God said that light should shine out of the darkness. He is the same one who shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

Physical bodies and eternal glory

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. ⁸ We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. ⁹ We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out.

¹⁰ We always carry Jesus’ death around in our bodies so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies. ¹¹ We who are alive are always being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies that are dying. ¹² So death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

¹³ We have the same faithful spirit as what is written in scripture: I had faith, and so I spoke.^[a] We also have faith, and so we also speak. ¹⁴ We do this because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus, and he will bring us into his presence along with you. ¹⁵ All these things are for your benefit. As grace increases to benefit more and more people, it will cause gratitude to increase, which results in God’s glory.

¹⁶ So we aren’t depressed. But even if our bodies are breaking down on the outside, the person that we are on the inside is being renewed every day. ¹⁷ Our temporary minor problems are producing an eternal stockpile of glory for us that is beyond all comparison. ¹⁸ We don’t focus on the things that can be seen but on the things that can’t be seen. The things that can be seen don’t last, but the things that can’t be seen are eternal.

5 We know that if the tent that we live in on earth is torn down, we have a building from God. It’s a house that isn’t handmade, which is eternal and located in heaven. ² We groan while we live in this residence. We really want to dress ourselves with our building from heaven— ³ since we assume that when we take off this tent, we won’t find out that we are naked. ⁴ Yes, while we are in this tent we groan, because we are weighed down. We want to be dressed not undressed, so that what is dying can be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who prepared us for this very thing is God, and God gave us the Spirit as a down payment for our home.

⁶ So we are always confident, because we know that while we are living in the body, we are away from our home with the Lord. ⁷ We live by faith and not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, and we would prefer to leave the body and to be at home with the Lord. ⁹ So our goal is to be acceptable to him, whether we are at home or away from home. ¹⁰ We all must appear before Christ in court so that each person can be paid back for the things that were done while in the body, whether they were good or bad.

Ministry of reconciliation

¹¹ So we try to persuade people, since we know what it means to fear the Lord. We are well known by God, and I hope that in your heart we are well known by you as well. ¹² We aren’t trying to commend ourselves to you again. Instead, we are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us so that you could answer those who take pride in superficial appearance, and not in what is in the heart.

¹³ If we are crazy, it’s for God’s sake. If we are rational, it’s for your sake. ¹⁴ The love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: one died for the sake of all; therefore, all died. ¹⁵ He died for the sake of all so that those who are alive should live not for themselves but for the one who died for them and was raised.

¹⁶ So then, from this point on we won’t recognize people by human standards. Even though we used to know Christ by human standards, that isn’t how we know him now. ¹⁷ So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!

¹⁸ All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. ¹⁹ In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation.

²⁰ So we are ambassadors who represent Christ. God is negotiating with you through us. We beg you as Christ’s representatives, “Be reconciled to God!” ²¹ God caused the one who didn’t know sin to be sin for our sake so that through him we could become the righteousness of God. 6 ¹ Since we work together with him, we are also begging you not to receive the grace of God in vain. ² He says, I listened to you at the right time, and I helped you on the day of salvation.^[b] Look, now is the right time! Look, now is the day of salvation!

³ We don’t give anyone any reason to be offended about anything so that our ministry won’t be criticized. ⁴ Instead, we commend ourselves as ministers of God in every way. We did this with our great endurance through problems, disasters, and stressful situations. ⁵ We went through beatings, imprisonments, and riots. We experienced hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger. ⁶ We displayed purity, knowledge, patience, and generosity. We served with the Holy Spirit, genuine love, ⁷ telling the truth, and God’s power. We carried the weapons of righteousness in our right hand and our left hand. ⁸ We were treated with honor and dishonor and with verbal abuse and good evaluation. We were seen as both fake and real, ⁹ as unknown and well known, as dying—and look, we are alive! We were seen as punished but not killed, ¹⁰ as going through pain but always happy, as poor but making many rich, and as having nothing but owning everything.

Call to relationship and holiness

¹¹ Corinthians, we have spoken openly to you, and our hearts are wide open. ¹² There are no limits to the affection that we feel for you. You are the ones who placed boundaries on your affection for us. ¹³ But as a fair trade—I’m talking to you like you are children—open your hearts wide too.

¹⁴ Don’t be tied up as equal partners with people who don’t believe. What does righteousness share with that which is outside the Law? What relationship does light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony does Christ have with Satan?^[c] What does a believer have in common with someone who doesn’t believe? ¹⁶ What agreement can there be between God’s temple and idols? Because we are the temple of the living God. Just as God said, I live with them, and I will move among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.^{[d] 17} Therefore, come out from among them and be separated, says the Lord. Don’t touch what is unclean. Then I will welcome you.^{[e] 18} I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.^[f] 7 ¹ My dear friends, since we have these promises, let’s cleanse ourselves from anything that contaminates our body or spirit so that we make our holiness complete in the fear of God.

² Make room in your hearts for us. We didn’t do anything wrong to anyone. We didn’t ruin anyone. We didn’t take advantage of anyone. ³ I’m not saying this to make you feel guilty. I’ve already said that you are in our hearts so that we die and live together with you. ⁴ I have every confidence in you. I’m terribly proud of you. I’m filled with encouragement. I’m overwhelmed with happiness while in the middle of our problems.

Titus’ good report

⁵ Even after we arrived in Macedonia, we couldn’t rest physically. We were surrounded by problems. There was external conflict, and there were internal fears. ⁶ However, God comforts people who are discouraged, and he comforted us by Titus’ arrival. ⁷ We weren’t comforted only by his arrival but also by the comfort he had received from you. He told us about your desire to see me, how you were sorry, and about your concern for me, so that I was even happier.

⁸ Even though my letter hurt you, I don’t regret it. Well—I did regret it just a bit because I see that that letter made you sad, though only for a short time. ⁹ Now I’m glad—not because you were sad but because you were made sad enough to change your hearts and lives. You felt godly sadness so that no one was harmed by us in any way. ¹⁰ Godly sadness produces a changed heart and life that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets, but sorrow under the influence of the world produces death. ¹¹ Look at what this very experience of godly sadness has produced in you: such enthusiasm, what a desire to clear yourselves of blame, such indignation, what fear, what purpose, such concern, what justice! In everything you have shown yourselves to be innocent in the matter.

¹² So although I wrote to you, it wasn’t for the sake of the one who did wrong, or for the sake of the one who was wronged, but to show you your own enthusiasm for us in the sight of God. ¹³ Because of this we have been encouraged. And in addition to our own encouragement, we were even more pleased at how happy Titus was. His mind has been put at rest by all of you. ¹⁴ If I’ve bragged about you to him in any way, I haven’t been embarrassed. Instead, our bragging to Titus has also been proven to be true, just like everything we said to you was true. ¹⁵ His devotion to you is growing even more as he remembers how all of you were obedient when you welcomed him with fear and trembling. ¹⁶ I’m happy, because I can completely depend on you.