Beginning

Paul Answers Those Who Accuse Him

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted.

Also from Timothy our brother in Christ.

To the church of God in Corinth, and to all of God’s people in the whole country of Southern Greece:

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

Paul Gives Thanks to God

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is the Father who is full of mercy. And he is the God of all comfort. ⁴ He comforts us every time we have trouble, so that we can comfort others when they have trouble. We can comfort them with the same comfort that God gives us. ⁵ We share in the many sufferings of Christ. In the same way, much comfort comes to us through Christ. ⁶ If we have troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we have comfort, then you also have comfort. This helps you to accept patiently the same sufferings that we have. ⁷ Our hope for you is strong. We know that you share in our sufferings. So we know that you also share in the comfort we receive.

⁸ Brothers, we want you to know about the trouble we suffered in the country of Asia. We had great burdens there that were greater than our own strength. We even gave up hope for life. ⁹ Truly, in our own hearts we believed that we would die. But this happened so that we would not trust in ourselves. It happened so that we would trust in God, who raises people from death. ¹⁰ God saved us from these great dangers of death. And he will continue to save us. We have put our hope in him, and he will save us again. ¹¹ And you can help us with your prayers. Then many people will give thanks for us—that God blessed us because of their many prayers.

The Change in Paul’s Plans

¹² This is what we are proud of, and I can say with all my heart that it is true: In all the things we have done in the world, we have done everything with an honest^[a] and pure heart from God. And this is even more true in what we have done with you. We did this by God’s grace, not by the kind of wisdom the world has. ¹³ For we write to you only what you can read and understand. And I hope that ¹⁴ as you have understood some things about us, you may come to know everything about us. Then you can be proud of us, as we will be proud of you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

¹⁵ I was very sure of all this. That is why I made plans to visit you first. Then you could be blessed twice. ¹⁶ I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia. Then I planned to visit you again on my way back. I wanted to get help from you for my trip to Judea. ¹⁷ Do you think that I made these plans without really thinking? Or maybe you think I make plans as the world does, so that I say “Yes, yes,” and at the same time “No, no.”

¹⁸ But since you can believe God, then you can believe that what we tell you is never both “Yes” and “No.” ¹⁹ The Son of God, Jesus Christ, that Silas and Timothy and I preached to you, was not “Yes” and “No.” In Christ it has always been “Yes.” ²⁰ The “Yes” to all of God’s promises is in Christ. And that is why we say “Amen”^[b] through Christ to the glory of God. ²¹ And God is the One who makes you and us strong in Christ. God made us his chosen people. ²² He put his mark on us to show that we are his. And he put his Spirit in our hearts to be a guarantee for all he has promised.

²³ I tell you this, and I ask God to be my witness that this is true: The reason I did not come back to Corinth was that I did not want to punish or hurt you. ²⁴ I do not mean that we are trying to control your faith. You are strong in faith. But we are workers with you for your own happiness.

2 So I decided that my next visit to you would not be another visit to make you sad. ² If I make you sad, who will make me happy? Only you can make me happy—you whom I made sad. ³ I wrote you a letter for this reason: that when I came to you I would not be made sad by the people who should make me happy. I felt sure of all of you. I felt sure that you would share my joy. ⁴ When I wrote to you before, I was very troubled and unhappy in my heart. I wrote with many tears. I did not write to make you sad, but to let you know how much I love you.

Forgive the Sinner

⁵ Someone there among you has caused sadness. He caused this not to me, but to all of you—I mean he caused sadness to all in some way. (I do not want to make it sound worse than it really is.) ⁶ The punishment that most of you gave him is enough for him. ⁷ But now you should forgive him and comfort him. This will keep him from having too much sadness and giving up completely. ⁸ So I beg you to show him that you love him. ⁹ This is why I wrote to you. I wanted to test you and see if you obey in everything. ¹⁰ If you forgive someone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if I had anything to forgive—I forgave it for you, and Christ was with me. ¹¹ I did this so that Satan would not win anything from us. We know very well what Satan’s plans are.

Paul’s Concern in Troas

¹² I went to Troas to preach the Good News of Christ. The Lord gave me a good opportunity there. ¹³ But I had no peace because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-bye and went to Macedonia.

Victory Through Christ

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us in victory through Christ. God uses us to spread his knowledge everywhere like a sweet-smelling perfume. ¹⁵ Our offering to God is this: We are the sweet smell of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are being lost. ¹⁶ To those who are lost, we are the smell of death that brings death. But to those who are being saved, we are the smell of life that brings life. So who is able to do this work? ¹⁷ We do not sell the word of God for a profit as many other people do. But in Christ we speak the truth before God. We speak as men sent from God.

Servants of the New Agreement

3 Are we starting to brag about ourselves again? Do we need letters of introduction to you or from you, like some other people? ² You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts. It is known and read by everyone. ³ You show that you are a letter from Christ that he sent through us. This letter is not written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is not written on stone tablets.^[c] It is written on human hearts.

⁴ We can say this, because through Christ we feel sure before God. ⁵ I do not mean that we are able to say that we can do this work ourselves. It is God who makes us able to do all that we do. ⁶ God made us able to be servants of a new agreement from himself to his people. This new agreement is not a written law. It is of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ The law that brought death was written in words on stone. It came with God’s glory. Moses’ face was so bright with glory that the people of Israel could not continue to look at his face. And that glory later disappeared. ⁸ So surely the new way that brings the Spirit has even more glory. ⁹ That law judged people guilty of sin, but it had glory. So surely the new way that makes people right with God has much greater glory. ¹⁰ That old law had glory. But it really loses its glory when it is compared to the much greater glory of this new way. ¹¹ If that law which disappeared came with glory, then this new way which continues forever has much greater glory.

¹² We have this hope, so we are very brave. ¹³ We are not like Moses. He put a covering over his face so that the people of Israel would not see it. The glory was disappearing, and Moses did not want them to see it end. ¹⁴ But their minds were closed. Even today that same covering hides the meaning when they read the old agreement. That covering is taken away only through Christ. ¹⁵ But even today, when they read the law of Moses, there is a covering over their minds. ¹⁶ But when a person changes and follows the Lord, that covering is taken away. ¹⁷ The Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ Our faces, then, are not covered. We all show the Lord’s glory, and we are being changed to be like him. This change in us brings more and more glory. And it comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Preaching the Good News

4 God, with his mercy, gave us this work to do. So we don’t give up. ² But we have turned away from secret and shameful ways. We use no trickery, and we do not change the teaching of God. We teach the truth plainly. This is how we show everyone who we are. And this is how they can know in their hearts what kind of people we are before God. ³ The Good News that we preach may be hidden. But it is hidden only to those who are lost. ⁴ The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News—the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is exactly like God. ⁵ We do not preach about ourselves. But we preach that Jesus Christ is Lord; and we preach that we are your servants for Jesus. ⁶ God once said, “Let the light shine out of the darkness!” And this is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts. He gave us light by letting us know the glory of God that is in the face of Christ.

Spiritual Treasure in Clay Jars

⁷ We have this treasure from God. But we are only like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows that this great power is from God, not from us. ⁸ We have troubles all around us, but we are not defeated. We do not know what to do, but we do not give up. ⁹ We are persecuted, but God does not leave us. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed. ¹⁰ We carry the death of Jesus in our own bodies, so that the life of Jesus can also be seen in our bodies. ¹¹ We are alive, but for Jesus we are always in danger of death. This is so that the life of Jesus can be seen in our bodies that die. ¹² So death is working in us, but life is working in you.

¹³ It is written in the Scriptures, “I believed, so I spoke.”^[d] Our faith is like this, too. We believe, and so we speak. ¹⁴ God raised the Lord Jesus from death. And we know that God will also raise us with Jesus. God will bring us together with you, and we will stand before him. ¹⁵ All these things are for you. And so the grace of God is being given to more and more people. This will bring more and more thanks to God for his glory.

Living by Faith

¹⁶ So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. ¹⁷ We have small troubles for a while now, but they are helping us gain an eternal glory. That glory is much greater than the troubles. ¹⁸ So we set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time. But what we cannot see will last forever.