Beginning

1 Paul - an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God - and brother Timothy, To the Church of God which is at Corinth (with all the Saints who are in all Achaia):

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

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort,

⁴ Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

⁵ For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation abounds through Christ.

⁶ And if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is wrought in the enduring of the same sufferings that we also suffer. Or, if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

⁷ And our hope is steadfast concerning you, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall you also be of the consolation.

⁸ For brothers, we would not have you be ignorant of our affliction, which came to us in Asia; how we were pressed beyond measure, passing strength, so that we utterly despaired, even of life.

⁹ But, we received the sentence of death in ourselves, because we should not rest in ourselves, but in God, Who raised the dead.

¹⁰ Who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver us. And in Whom also we have hope will still yet deliver.

¹¹ So that you labor together in prayer for us, that thanks on our behalf may be given by many for the grace bestowed upon us through many.

¹² For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience: that in simplicity and godly purity, not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and most of all towards you.

¹³ For we write no other things to you than what you read and understand. And I hope you shall understand even to the end,

¹⁴ as you have understood us partly, that we are your exultation, even as you are ours, on the day of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁵ And in this confidence, I initially intended to come to you. So that you might have had a second grace;

¹⁶ and to pass by you into Macedonia; and to come again to you, out of Macedonia; and to be led forth by you toward Judea.

¹⁷ Therefore, when I was thus-minded did I use lightness? Or do I purpose those things which I purpose according to the flesh, that with me should be, “Yes, yes”, and “No, no”?

¹⁸ But God is faithful. So that our word toward you was not “Yes”, and “No”.

¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who was preached among you by us - by me, and Silvanus, and Timothy - was not “Yes” and “No”. But in Him was “Yes”.

²⁰ For all the promises of God in Him are “Yes”, and in Him “Amen”, to the glory of God through us.

²¹ And it is God Who established us with you in Christ and has anointed us.

²² Who has also sealed us and has given the earnest portion of the Spirit in our hearts.

²³ Now, I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you, I have not as yet come to Corinth.

²⁴ Not that we have dominion over your faith, but we are helpers of your joy. For by faith you stand.

2 But this I determined in myself: that I would not come again to you in sorrow.

² For if I grieve you, who then should make me glad but the same one who is grieved by me?

³ And I wrote this same thing to you, lest when I come, I should not be grieved by those in whom I ought to rejoice, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all.

⁴ For in great affliction, and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears; not that you should be made sorry, but that you might perceive the love which I have especially for you.

⁵ And if any have caused grief, the same has not grieved me, but partly (lest I overstate it) you all.

⁶ Sufficient for such a one is this punishment that was inflicted by many.

⁷ So that now, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest the same should be overwhelmed with excessive heaviness.

⁸ Therefore, I encourage you to confirm your love towards him.

⁹ For this also I wrote: that I might know the proof of you, whether you would be obedient in all things.

¹⁰ To whom you forgive anything, I forgive also. For truly if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, I forgave it for your sakes, in the sight of Christ,

¹¹ lest Satan should circumvent us. For we are not ignorant of his purposes.

¹² Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s Gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord,

¹³ I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus, my brother. But, taking my leave of them, I went away into Macedonia.

¹⁴ Now, thanks to God, Who always makes us triumph in Christ; and, by us, makes manifest the savor of His knowledge in every place.

¹⁵ For we are to God the sweet savor of Christ, in those who are saved, and in those who perish.

¹⁶ To the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

¹⁷ For we are not as many who make merchandise of the Word of God. But as from sincerity, but as from God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

3 Do we begin to praise ourselves again? Or do we need, as some others, letters of recommendation to you, or of recommendation from you?

² You are our letter, written in our hearts, which is understood and read by all mankind;

³ in that you appear to be the letter of Christ, ministered by us, and written, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart.

⁴ And such trust we have through Christ toward God.

⁵ Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

⁶ Who has also made us able ministers of the New Testament - not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ If then, the ministry of death (written with letters and engraved in stones) was glorious; so that the children of Israel could not behold the face of Moses because of the Glory of his countenance (a Glory which has gone away),

⁸ how shall not the ministry of the Spirit be more glorious?

⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, the ministry of righteousness much more exceeds it in glory.

¹⁰ For even that which was glorified was not glorified in this point: that is, regarding the exceeding glory.

¹¹ For if that which is abolished was glorious, much more so shall that which remains be glorious.

¹² Seeing then that we have such trust, we use great boldness of speech.

¹³ And we are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face so that the children of Israel would not look intently into the end of that which would be abolished.

¹⁴ But their minds were hardened. For until this day remains the same covering in the reading of the old Testament, which veil is put away in Christ.

¹⁵ But even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is laid over their hearts.

¹⁶ Nevertheless, when their heart shall be turned to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.

¹⁷ Now, the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, behold as in a mirror the Glory of the Lord; and are changed into the same image, from glory to Glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.

4 Therefore, seeing that we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not faint.

² But we have cast from us the cloaks of shame, and do not walk in craftiness, nor handle the Word of God deceitfully. But in declaration of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

³ If the Gospel is then hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost,

⁴ in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving; that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, which is the image of God, should not shine unto them.

⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus’ sake.

⁶ For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the excellency of that power might be of God, and not of us.

⁸ We are afflicted on every side, yet we are not in distress. We are in doubt, but yet we do not despair;

⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but we do not perish.

¹⁰ Everywhere we carry about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus might also be made manifest in our bodies.

¹¹ For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus might also be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

¹² So then, death works in us, and life in you.

¹³ And because we have the same spirit of faith, as it is written, “I believed, and therefore I have spoken”, we also believe, and therefore speak,

¹⁴ knowing that He Who has raised up the Lord Jesus, shall also raise us up by Jesus, and shall set us with you.

¹⁵ For all things are for your sakes, so that that superabundant grace by the thanksgiving of many, may increase to the praise of God.

¹⁶ Therefore, we do not faint. But though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is renewed daily.

¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is only for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

¹⁸ While we look, not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary. But the things which are not seen are eternal.