Beginning

Paul says ‘Hello’

1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. Our Christian friend Timothy is here with me as I write.

I am sending this letter to you, the people of the church in Corinth city. I am sending it also to all of God's people who live in other places in Achaia.

² I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds.

God himself comforts us

³ We thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is so good to us. As our Father, he is very kind to us. He is our God who comforts us in every way. ⁴ Whenever we have trouble, he comforts us. Because of that, we ourselves can comfort other people. When they have any kind of trouble, we can comfort them, in the same way that God has comforted us. ⁵ Christ himself received much pain, and God comforted him. As Christ's servants, we also receive the same kind of pain. But, God also comforts us very much, because we belong to Christ.

⁶ So, when we receive trouble, the result is that we can comfort you. And then also, God saves you. When God comforts us, that helps us to comfort you too. As a result, when you receive the same kinds of trouble that we receive, you learn to be patient and strong. ⁷ So we continue to be sure that you will remain strong. You receive many troubles, as we do too. But we know that God will also comfort you, as he comforts us.

⁸ Our Christian friends, we want you to know about the trouble that we had in Asia. Those troubles were very painful. We ourselves were not strong enough to continue. We even thought that we would die. ⁹ We ourselves thought that we would certainly die. We knew that we could not trust our own strength. We had to trust God. He is the one who causes dead people to rise up to new life. So we could trust him to make us strong. ¹⁰ We nearly died, but God saved us from that great danger. We know that we can continue to trust him. He will save us from any future danger. ¹¹ We also know that you continue to help us as you pray for us. As many people pray for us, they will thank God when he answers their prayers. They will see that God is very kind to us, and they will thank him.

Paul explains why he did not visit Corinth earlier

¹² We can be proud of how we have lived in this world. We have been careful to be honest and good with everyone. And we have been like that with you even more. We are sure in our own minds that this is true. We have not tried to be clever in a human way. But we have lived in the way that God has helped us to live. ¹³ We are writing to you only about things that you yourselves can read and understand. And I hope that you will understand completely one day. ¹⁴ You do not understand us completely yet. But I hope that you will understand completely on the day when our Lord Jesus returns. Then you can be proud of us in the same way that we will be proud of you.

^15-16 So, because I was sure that you trusted me, I wanted to visit you twice. Then I could bring God's help to you twice. I decided to visit you first on my way to Macedonia.^[a] Then I would visit you again on my way back from Macedonia. After that, you could help to send me on my journey to Judea.^{[b] 17} I did not decide this in a careless way. I really wanted to do it. I do not decide to do things only to please myself, like someone who does not know God. I do not say ‘Yes,’ and then I immediately say ‘No’.

¹⁸ God always does what he says he will do. In the same way, my promise to you was not both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. ¹⁹ Silas, Timothy and I told you the message about God's Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is not someone who changes his message between ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Instead, he always says ‘Yes,’ and he does what he says. ²⁰ Christ says ‘Yes’ to all of God's promises, so that they become true. So when we pray, we say ‘Yes, amen!,’ because we know that Christ has done it. And when we do that, we are saying that God is great.

²¹ It is God that causes us to continue to trust Christ. He does that for us and for you, because we belong to Christ. God has chosen us to serve him. ²² He has also put his mark on us, to show that we belong to him. He has given his Spirit to us, to live in us. Because of that, we know that we will receive all the good things that God has promised.

²³ God will show that what I say is true! He knows my thoughts. Why did I decide not to come back to Corinth at this time? I did not come because I did not want to be angry with you. ²⁴ We are not trying to tell you what you must believe, like masters would do. You are already strong in your spirits because you trust God. So we want to help you to be really happy.

2 Because of that, I decided not to visit you again at that time. I did not want to make you sad. ² You are the only people who can make me happy. So, if I make you sad, there will be nobody to make me happy. ³ That is why I did not visit you. I wrote that letter to you instead. You are the people who should make me happy. I did not want you to make me sad when I visited you. I felt sure about all of you. I knew that, if I was happy, then all of you would be happy too.

⁴ When I wrote that letter, I was very sad and upset. I cried a lot. I did not want to make you sad. Instead, I wanted you to know that I love you very much.

⁵ Someone among you has done things that have made other people sad. That person has made me sad. But really he has made all of you much more sad than me. I do not want to say more about this than is necessary. ⁶ Most of you have agreed to punish him. That should be enough. ⁷ Now, you should forgive him. You should comfort him. If you do not do that, he may become too sad. He may not be able to think properly. ⁸ So I tell you this: Please show him that you really do love him.

⁹ When I wrote that letter to you, I wanted to know what you would do. I wanted to see if you would do everything that I told you. ¹⁰ When you forgive anyone, I also forgive that person. Whatever bad thing somebody has done, I have Christ's authority to forgive them. And I do it to help you. ¹¹ We do not want Satan to win against us. He is very clever. We know how he likes to cause us to have trouble.

The good news about Christ

¹² I went to Troas city to tell people the good news about Christ.^[c] When I arrived there, I discovered that the Lord had already prepared people to listen. ¹³ But I was not happy in my thoughts because I could not find my friend Titus there. So I said ‘goodbye’ to those people and I travelled on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But I thank God! He has won against sin, because of what Christ has done. Christ is our leader and we show that he is the winner. We also help people to know about Christ. That knowledge is like a lovely smell that comes to people everywhere. ¹⁵ When we tell people about Christ, we are like a lovely smell that rises up to God. We are like that among the people that God is saving. We are also like that among the people who are dying because they are far from God. ¹⁶ For the people who are dying, we are like a bad smell that brings a message of death. But for the people that God is saving, we are like a lovely smell that brings a message of new life.

Nobody is really good enough to tell such an important message! ¹⁷ Some people even tell God's message because they want to get a lot of money for themselves. But we are not like them. No, God himself has sent us to do this work. And he sees what we are doing. So we are honest and we speak God's message clearly, as Christ's servants should do.

God's Holy Spirit gives us new life

3 We do not need any more to show that our work is good. Some people need to have letters from other people to say that they do good work. We do not need to show you letters like that. Nor do we need you to write a letter like that for us. ² You yourselves show that we have done good work. You are like a letter that is written on our lives. Everybody can read that letter and they can understand it. ³ It is clear that you are a like a letter that Christ himself has written. We are the people who brought God's message to you. Now people see what God has done in your lives. That is like a letter that they read. But it is not a letter written on paper with ink. It is the Spirit of the living God who wrote it. He did not write it on pieces of stone. Instead, he wrote it deep inside you.^[d]

⁴ We know that these things are true. Because of what Christ has done, we trust God to help us. ⁵ We know that we cannot do this work by ourselves. We never think that. But God makes us able to do it. ⁶ God has made us his servants. So we are able to tell people the message of his new agreement. This new agreement is not about rules. Rules tell people what they must do and they bring death. But God's new agreement comes from his Spirit. And the Spirit brings new life to us, not death.^[e]

⁷ Moses wrote the words of the old agreement on pieces of stone. It showed how great and powerful God was. Moses' face shone brightly after God spoke to him. It did not stay bright, but the Israelite people still could not look at Moses' face. The old agreement that brought death was powerful. ⁸ So the new agreement, which comes from God's Spirit, will show the power of God even more. ⁹ The old agreement showed people that they were guilty. God's new agreement makes people right with him. So surely the new agreement shows God's power even more than the old one did!

¹⁰ The old agreement was great and powerful at one time. But now God's new agreement has come in its place. The great power of the new agreement shows that the old agreement is no longer powerful. ¹¹ The old agreement was powerful, but it came to an end. God's new agreement will continue always. So it surely shows the power of God even more!

¹² So, because we know all this, we speak God's message bravely. ¹³ We are not like Moses. His face did not continue to be bright with the light from God. So he covered his face with a cloth. He did not want the Israelite people to see that the light was coming to an end. ¹⁴ But those Israelite people could not think properly. Even today, they still do not understand the message of God's old agreement. When they read it, they are like people who have a cloth that covers their minds. It continues like that unless they believe in Christ. Then Christ removes the cloth so that they understand. ¹⁵ Even today, when the Israelite people read Moses' books, a cloth still covers their minds. ¹⁶ But when a person turns to trust the Lord, then God takes the cloth away.^[f]

¹⁷ The Lord is the same as the Spirit. And when the Lord's Spirit is with anyone, that person is free. ¹⁸ We show the power of the Lord to other people. It is like God has removed a cloth from over our faces. He is changing us so that we become more and more like him. We show how great God is more and more clearly. It is the Lord who does all this, by the work of his Spirit.

God's good news brings light

4 God has given us this work to speak his message. Because he has been so kind to us, we are not afraid to continue. ² We refuse to do anything secretly that we might be ashamed of. We do not tell lies. We do not change God's message to deceive people. No. We tell God's true message clearly. God himself sees that we teach people in an honest way. Everyone should understand that we only do what is right. ³ Some people may not understand the good news that we speak. They are only the people who are losing their lives with God. ⁴ Those people do not accept God's good news. The god of this world has confused their minds. They cannot see the light that the good news brings. That message teaches about the great power of Christ, who shows us exactly what God is like.

⁵ We do not speak a message about ourselves. We tell people that Jesus Christ is our Lord. Because we belong to Jesus, we have become your servants, not your masters. ⁶ God is the one who said, ‘Let light shine in the dark.’ And he is the one who has caused his light to shine deep inside us. Because of that, we know how great and powerful God is. We see that his power shines brightly in Christ's face.^[g]

⁷ God has given to us the gift to speak his message. But we ourselves are very weak. It is like we are keeping his valuable gift in clay pots. So it is clear that the great power of God's message comes from God himself. It does not come from us. ⁸ We receive trouble all the time, but that does not stop us. We do not always know what to do, but we are not afraid to continue. ⁹ We have many enemies, but we always have friends. People hurt us, but they never destroy us. ¹⁰ As we serve Jesus, we know that we may die as he died. Because of that, our lives show that we live because he is alive. ¹¹ Yes, as we live our lives, death is always very near, because we serve Jesus. As a result, people can see in our weak, human bodies that Jesus is alive. ¹² So death is near to us, even as we live. But as a result, we are bringing God's life to you.

¹³ This is written in the Bible: ‘I believed in God, and so I spoke.’^[h] We also have the same kind of faith in God. So we also speak God's message, because we believe in him. ¹⁴ God raised up the Lord Jesus, to become alive again after his death. Because we belong to Jesus, we know that God will also raise us up after we die. Together with you, God will take us to be where he is. ¹⁵ In everything that we do, we want to help you. As a result, more and more people are seeing how kind God is. So people are thanking God more and more. And that shows how great God is.

¹⁶ That is why we are not afraid to continue our work. Yes, our bodies are getting older and weaker. But our spirits are becoming stronger every day! ¹⁷ We have these little troubles that continue for a short time. But as a result, we will receive the great things that God has prepared for us. Those great things are much more important than our little troubles. And God's great things will continue for ever! ¹⁸ So we do not look at the things that we can see in this world. Instead, we look at the things that people cannot see. The things that we can see are only here for a short time. But the things that we cannot see will continue for ever.