Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

1 ^(A) From Paul, chosen by God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and from Timothy, who is also a follower.

To God's church in Corinth and to all of God's people in Achaia.

² I pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace!

Paul Gives Thanks

³ Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father is a merciful God, who always gives us comfort. ⁴ He comforts us when we are in trouble, so that we can share this same comfort with others in trouble. ⁵ We share in the terrible sufferings of Christ, but also in the wonderful comfort he gives. ⁶ We suffer in the hope that you will be comforted and saved. And because we are comforted, you will also be comforted, as you patiently endure suffering like ours. ⁷ You never disappoint us. You suffered as much as we did, and we know that you will be comforted as we were.

^8 (B) My friends, I want you to know what a hard time we had in Asia. Our sufferings were so horrible and so unbearable that death seemed certain. ⁹ In fact, we felt sure we were going to die. But this made us stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting God, who raises the dead to life. ¹⁰ God saved us from the threat of death,^[a] and we are sure that he will do it again and again. ¹¹ Please help us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks for the blessings we receive in answer to all these prayers.

Paul's Change of Plans

¹² We can be proud of our clear conscience. We have always lived honestly and sincerely, especially when we were with you. And we were guided by God's gift of undeserved grace instead of by the wisdom of this world. ¹³ I am not writing anything you cannot read and understand. I hope you will understand it completely, ¹⁴ just as you already partly understand us. Then when our Lord Jesus returns, you can be as proud of us as we are of you.

¹⁵ I was so sure of your pride in us that I had planned to visit you first of all. In this way you would have the blessing of two visits from me— ^16 (C) once on my way to Macedonia and again on my return from there. Then you could send me on to Judea. ¹⁷ Do you think I couldn't make up my mind about what to do? Or do I seem like someone who says “Yes” or “No” simply to please others? ¹⁸ God can be trusted, and so can I, when I say our answer to you has always been “Yes” and never “No.” ^19 (D) This is because Jesus Christ the Son of God is always “Yes” and never “No.” And he is the one Silas,^[b] Timothy, and I told you about.

²⁰ Christ says “Yes” to all God's promises. This is why we have Christ to say “Amen”^[c] for us to the glory of God. ²¹ And so God makes it possible for you and us to stand firmly together with Christ. God is also the one who chose us ²² and put his Spirit in our hearts to show that we belong only to him.

²³ God is my witness that I stayed away from Corinth, just to keep from being hard on you. ²⁴ We are not bosses who tell you what to believe. We are working with you to make you glad, because your faith is strong.

2 I have decided not to make my next visit with you so painful. ² If I make you feel bad, who would be left to cheer me up, except the people I had made to feel bad? ³ The reason I want to be happy is to make you happy. I wrote as I did because I didn't want to visit you and be made to feel bad, when you should make me feel happy. ⁴ At the time I wrote, I was suffering terribly. My eyes were full of tears, and my heart was broken. But I didn't want to make you feel bad. I only wanted to let you know how much I cared for you.

Forgiveness

⁵ I don't want to be hard on you. But if one of you has made someone feel bad, I am not really the one who has been made to feel bad. Some of you are the ones. ⁶ Most of you have already pointed out the wrong that person did, and this is punishment enough for what was done.

⁷ When people sin, you should forgive and comfort them, so they won't give up in despair. ⁸ You should make them sure of your love for them.

⁹ I also wrote because I wanted to test you and find out if you would follow my instructions. ¹⁰ I will forgive anyone you forgive. Yes, for your sake and with Christ as my witness, I have forgiven whatever needed to be forgiven. ¹¹ I have done this to keep Satan from getting the better of us. We all know what goes on in his mind.

^12 (E) When I went to Troas to preach the good news about Christ, I found that the Lord had already prepared the way. ¹³ But I was worried when I didn't find my friend Titus there. So I left the other followers and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ I am grateful that God always makes it possible for Christ to lead us to victory. God also helps us spread the knowledge about Christ everywhere, and this knowledge is like the smell of perfume. ^15-16 In fact, God thinks of us as a perfume that brings Christ to everyone. For people who are being saved, this perfume has a sweet smell and leads them to a better life. But for people who are lost, it has a bad smell and leads them to a horrible death.

No one really has what it takes to do this work. ¹⁷ A lot of people try to get rich from preaching God's message. But we are God's sincere messengers, and by the power of Christ we speak our message with God as our witness.