2 Corinthians 1–4

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:

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

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

4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

5For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

6If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which accomplishes in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we experience.

7And our hope for you is sure, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort.

8We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

9Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.

10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us,

11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the favor shown us in answer to their prayers.

12For this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God.

13For we do not write you anything that is beyond your ability to read and understand. And I hope that you will understand us completely,

14as you have already understood us in part, that you may boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of our Lord Jesus.

15Confident of this, I planned to visit you first, so that you might receive a double blessing.

16I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to return to you from Macedonia, and then to have you help me on my way to Judea.

17When I planned this, did I do it carelessly? Or do I make my plans by human standards, so as to say “Yes, yes” and also “No, no”?

18But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.”

19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not “Yes” and “No,” but in Him it has always been “Yes.”

20For all the promises of God are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him, our “Amen” is spoken to the glory of God.

21Now it is God who establishes both us and you in Christ. He anointed us,

22placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come.

23I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.

24Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are fellow workers with you for your joy, because it is by faith that you stand firm.

1So I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you.

2For if I grieve you, who is left to cheer me but those whom I have grieved?

3I wrote as I did so that on my arrival I would not be grieved by those who ought to make me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would share my joy.

4For through many tears I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart, not to grieve you but to let you know how much I love you.

5Now if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me but all of you—to some degree, not to overstate it.

6The punishment imposed on him by the majority is sufficient for him.

7So instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

8Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

9My purpose in writing you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.

10If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And if I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven it in the presence of Christ for your sake,

11in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

12Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and a door stood open for me in the Lord,

13I had no peace in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.

14But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.

15For we are to God the sweet aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.

16To the one we are an odor that brings death, to the other a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task?

17For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.

1Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

2You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by everyone.

3It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4Such confidence before God is ours through Christ.

5Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.

6And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7Now if the ministry of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory,

8will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

9For if the ministry of condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry of righteousness!

10Indeed, what was once glorious has no glory now in comparison to the glory that surpasses it.

11For if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which endures!

12Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.

13We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was fading away.

14But their minds were closed. For to this day the same veil remains at the reading of the old covenant. It has not been lifted, because only in Christ can it be removed.

15And even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.

16But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

1Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this ministry, we do not lose heart.

2Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

4The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

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

6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.

8We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;

9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

11For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body.

12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

13And in keeping with what is written, “I believed, therefore I have spoken,” we who have the same spirit of faith also believe and therefore speak,

14knowing that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence.

15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is extending to more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow, to the glory of God.

16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.

17For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.

18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.