Beginning

1 I am Paul. I am called by God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. My Christian brother Timothy and I send greetings to the church of God in the city of Corinth. We also send greetings to all of God's people in the country of Greece.

² May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you with their loving kindness and peace. Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is a very, very kind Father to us. He is a God who always comforts and helps people.

³ He helps us every time we have trouble. Then we are able to be strong and help other people every time they have trouble. We can do this with the same comfort that God gives us.

⁴ We have plenty of the same troubles that Christ had. But we also have plenty of comfort and help from him.

⁵ When we have trouble, it is for your sake so that you will be helped and saved. When we are comforted, this helps you. Then you will stand strong when you have the same troubles we have.

⁶ Our hope for you is strong. If you have the same trouble we have had, then you will also have the same comfort and help we have. This we know.

⁷ Brothers, we want you to know about the trouble we had in the country of Asia Minor. We were not strong enough to carry such a load of trouble. It was so heavy we thought we would die.

⁸ Yes, we really felt our time had come to die. This was to make us trust, not in ourselves, but in God. He brings people back to life.

⁹ He saved us from the death that was so near, and he still saves us. We believe that God will keep on saving us.

¹⁰ But you must help us also. You must talk to God about us. When many people ask God to help us, then many people will thank God for the way he has blessed us. ourselves. Our hearts tell us that we have lived the right way in the world, and even more so toward you. We have lived a clean and true life as God wants us to. We have not trusted in the wise things of men, but in the blessing of God.

¹¹ We write you nothing but what you have been reading out to the people, and what you all know. I hope that you will really know what is right even to the end.

¹² You already know something about us. I hope that you will come to know us fully. On the day when the Lord Jesus comes you will be proud of us. So too will we be proud of you.

¹³ Because I was sure of this, I wanted to visit you before. Then you would have had a double blessing.

¹⁴ I wanted to visit you and then go to Macedonia. I wanted to visit you again when I was on my way back from Macedonia. Then you would send me on my way to Judea.

¹⁵ That was what I wanted to do. Now then, did I act as if I did not know what I wanted? When I make my plans, do you think I make them like a man of this world? Do I say `Yes' when I mean to say `No'?

¹⁶ As surely as God is true, our message to you was not `Yes' and `No' at the same time.

¹⁷ Silvanus and Timothy and I told you about the Son of God, Jesus Christ. His word was not `Yes' and `No.' It was always `Yes.'

¹⁸ To the many promises God has made Christ can say `Yes'. He can make them all come true. So then, it is because of Christ that we can say, `Yes, it is so!' when we praise God.

¹⁹ It is God who makes us stand strong with you in Christ. God has chosen us and put his mark on us.

²⁰ He has put his Spirit in our hearts. This is the first part of what we are to receive, and it proves that we will receive all God has promised.

²¹ Let God take my life if what I say is not true. I did not go to Corinth because I did not want to make you sad.

²² We do not rule over what you believe. But we work with you to make you glad. You are strong already by believing as you do.

2 I made up my mind that I would not go to visit you again if I had to make you sad.

² For if I make you sad, who is going to make me glad? No one, but the one I made sad.

³ That is why I wrote the letter. I did not want to come and be made sad by those who should make me glad. I am sure that what makes me glad makes you all glad too.

⁴ When I wrote to you, I was in great trouble and my heart was very heavy. I cried with many tears. I did not want you to be sad, but I just wanted to let you know that I love you very much who made me sad. It was not only me that he made sad. It was every one of you, in a way. I say `in a way' because I do not want to be too strong in what I say.

⁵ That man has been punished enough by what most of you did to him.

⁶ So now, you ought to forgive him and comfort him. If you do not, then he may be so sad he cannot bear it.

⁷ So I beg you, show your love to him again.

⁸ Here is why I wrote to you. I wanted to test you to find out if you obey me in all matters.

⁹ Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. And if I have had anything to forgive, I have already forgiven it for your sakes, just as if we were standing before Christ.

¹⁰ I have done this so that Satan will not get ahead of us. We know his tricks. of Troas to tell the good news of Christ, the door was open for me to work for the Lord.

¹¹ But my mind was troubled because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to the people there and went on to the country of Macedonia. Christ. And Christ leads us to victory every time. To know Christ is like a sweet smell. And God lets us carry that sweet smell of his truth everywhere.

¹² We are like a sweet smell to God. It is the smell of Christ we have. We have this sweet smell among the people who are saved and among those who are lost.

¹³ To some it smells like death and brings death to those who are lost. To others it smells like life and it brings life to those who are saved. Who is good enough for such things?

¹⁴ We are not like some people. They tell God's message to make money. But we tell it with a true heart just as God told it to us. We tell it as if we stood before God. And we tell it with Christ's help.

3 Do you think we are starting again to tell how good we are? Do we need letters to tell about us, as some teachers do? We do not need letters to you or from you to praise us.

² You yourselves are our letter. This letter has been written in our hearts. All people can read it and understand it.

³ All can see that you are a letter from Christ written by us. It is not written in ink, but it is written in the Spirit of the living God. It is not written on pieces of rock, but on the hearts of people.

⁴ We can say this because we trust in God. And we trust in God because of Christ.

⁵ We are not good enough to think we can do anything ourselves. But God makes us able to do it.

⁶ God has made a new start with people. He has given us a new way back to God. It is not a written law. The Spirit gives it to us. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ The old law that brought death was written on pieces of rock. There was a very bright light when God gave it to the people. The people of Israel could not look at Moses because his face was so bright. And even as they saw it, the light on his face was going away.

⁸ Now bringing the law was bright and wonderful. Will not bringing the Spirit be far more bright and wonderful?

⁹ Bringing the law was a wonderful thing even though it brought death. So bringing the good news that people can be put right with God is much more wonderful.

¹⁰ The law was so bright and wonderful at first but has no light now. There is something else that is so much more bright and wonderful.

¹¹ The one which does not stay alive for ever came first in a great light. Does not the one which does stay alive have a much brighter light?

¹² Because we believe this, we do not fear.

¹³ We are not like Moses. He put a cloth over his face so that the people of Israel would not see that the light from God was dying.

¹⁴ But their minds were made dull. Even today, when the old law of God is read, it is as if a cloth still covers it. It is Christ who takes the cloth away.

¹⁵ Yes, even today, when the books of Moses are read, it is as if a cloth covers their hearts and minds.

¹⁶ But when a man turns to the Lord, the cloth is taken away.

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, people are set free.

¹⁸ All of us have no cloth over our faces. People can see that we have some of the bright and wonderful light that the Lord has. And we are becoming brighter and brighter, more and more like him. It is the Lord, the Spirit, who does this.

4 God in his kindness gave us this work. So we do not give up.

² We never do wrong things nor do things in secret. We do not fool people nor change God's message. No, we tell people the truth openly. We let every person judge us for himself. We know that God sees all we do.

³ If the good news which we tell is not clear to some people, it is because they are lost. They do not believe.

⁴ The god of this world has covered their minds so they cannot see. They cannot see with their minds the light of the good news of Christ. They cannot see how bright and wonderful Christ is. He is just like God himself.

⁵ We do not talk about ourselves, but about Christ Jesus our Lord. And we are your slaves for Jesus' sake.

⁶ God said, `Let light shine in the darkness.' And he has let light shine in our hearts too. He gave us light that shows how bright and wonderful God is. We see this light when we look at the face of Christ.

⁷ This is something of great value within us, but we are like pots made of earth and clay. This power is greater than any other power. But it comes from God, not from us.

⁸ We have much trouble, but we do not give up. We are in hard places, but help always comes.

⁹ People trouble us, but God is always with us. We are beaten, but we are not killed.

¹⁰ We always feel as if our body is dying, just as Jesus died. Then the life of Jesus also can be seen in our body.

¹¹ While we live we are always ready to die for Jesus. And so the life of Jesus is also seen in our bodies which will die.

¹² So then, while death is at work in us, life is at work at the same time.

¹³ We believe the same way as the one who wrote, `I believed, and so I talked.' We also believe, and so we talk to you.

¹⁴ We know this. God raised up the Lord Jesus, and he will raise us up also with Jesus. He will bring us all to stand together before God.

¹⁵ All this is happening for you so that the blessings of God will reach more people. Then more people will thank God. And this will make God's name greater.

¹⁶ So we do not give up. Our body gets weak, but our heart gets new strength day after day.

¹⁷ The load of trouble we carry now is a little heavy. But this trouble is getting something great and wonderful ready for us which will last for ever.