Beginning

1 ¶ Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia:

² Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from 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 trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

⁵ For in the same manner that the sufferings of the Christ abound in us, so also our consolation abounds by Christ.

⁶ And if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and saving health, which is effected in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and saving health.

⁷ ¶ And our hope of you is steadfast, being certain, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

⁸ Because, brothers, we would not have you ignore our tribulation which was done unto us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond our strength, in such a manner that we despaired even of life:

⁹ But we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;

¹⁰ who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver; in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;

¹¹ ye also helping us with prayer, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

¹² ¶ For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with carnal wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly towards you.

¹³ For we write no other things unto you than what ye read or also know, and I trust ye shall know them even to the end

¹⁴ as also ye have known in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁵ ¶ And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before that ye might have a second grace

¹⁶ and to pass by you into Macedonia and to come again out of Macedonia unto you and of you to be sent forward to Judaea.

¹⁷ When I, therefore, was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that of me there should be yes, yes, and no, no?

¹⁸ But God is faithful that our word toward you has not been yes and no.

¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, has not been yes and no, but in him was yes.

²⁰ For all the promises of God are yes in him, and in him Amen, by us for the glory of God.

²¹ Now he who confirms us with you unto Christ and has anointed us is God;

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

²³ Moreover I call God for a witness upon my soul that I have not yet come unto Corinth to spare you.

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

2 ¶ But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in grief.

² For if I make you grieve, who is he then that shall make me glad, but the same who is grieved by me?

³ And I wrote this same unto you, lest when I came, I should have grief from those of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.

⁴ For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know how much more charity I have towards you.

⁵ ¶ But if any have caused me grief, he has not grieved me, but in part, that I may not put a burden on you all.

⁶ Sufficient to such a one is this reprehension, which was inflicted of many.

⁷ So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with too much grief.

⁸ Therefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your charity toward him.

⁹ For to this end also I wrote, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things.

¹⁰ To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also; for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ,

¹¹ lest Satan should deceive us, for we do not ignore his devices.

¹² ¶ Having come to Troas for the gospel of the Christ, even though a door was opened unto me in 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 from there into Macedonia.

¹⁴ Now thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph in the Christ and makes manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

¹⁵ For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in those that are saved and in those that perish;

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

¹⁷ For we are not as many, false merchandisers of the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

3 ¶ Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

² Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

³ Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

⁴ And such trust we have through the Christ towards God:

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

⁶ ¶ who also has 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 But if the ministry of death in the letter engraved in stones was glorious, so that the sons of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to fade away,

⁸ How shall not the ministry of the Spirit be for greater glory?

⁹ For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, much more shall the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

¹⁰ For even that which was so glorious had no glory in this respect, in comparison with the glory that excels.

¹¹ For if that which fades away was glorious, much more shall that which remains be glorious.

¹² ¶ Seeing then that we have such hope, we speak with great confidence,

¹³ And not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the sons of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that glory which was to fade away:

¹⁴ (And thus their senses became hardened, for until this day remains the same veil not uncovered in the reading of the old testament, which veil is taken away in Christ.

¹⁵ But even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.

¹⁶ Nevertheless when they convert to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.)

¹⁷ For the Lord is the Spirit, and where that Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

¹⁸ Therefore we all, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord with uncovered face, are transformed from glory to glory into the same likeness, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

4 ¶ Therefore seeing we have this ministry, according to the mercy we have received, we fault not,

² but remove from ourselves every hidden shameful thing, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God, but in the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

³ But if our gospel is hid, it is hid to those that are lost,

⁴ In whom the god of this age has blinded the understanding of those who do not believe, that the light of the gospel of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine in them.

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

⁶ For the God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to bring forth the light of the knowledge of the clarity of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷ But we have this treasure in clay vessels that the excellency of the virtue may be of God, and not of us.

⁸ ¶ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are unsure of our lives, but not in despair;

⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

¹⁰ always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

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

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

¹³ We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed and, therefore, I have spoken; we also believe and, therefore, speak;

¹⁴ knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you.

¹⁵ For we suffer all these things for your sakes that the grace abounding through many may in the thanksgiving redound to the glory of God.

¹⁶ Therefore we fault not; but though our outward man is wearing out, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

¹⁷ For our tribulation, which is momentary and light, prepares an exceeding and eternal weight of glory unto us;

¹⁸ while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.