Shared Word Translation
2 Corinthians 1
Greeting
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the church of God that is in Corinth, together with all the holy ones who are in the whole of Achaia:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The God of All Comfort
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is at work in patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. And our hope for you is firm, knowing that as you are partners in the sufferings, so also you are partners in the comfort.
For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about the affliction that came to us in Asia, that we were weighed down beyond measure, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we ourselves had the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we might not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who rescued us from so great a death and will rescue us, in whom we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, as you also help us by prayer, so that thanks may be given by many on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.
Paul’s Integrity and Change of Plans
For our boast is this: the testimony of our conscience, that we conducted ourselves in the world with holiness and sincerity from God, not by fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and especially toward you. For we write to you nothing other than what you can read and also understand; and I hope that you will understand fully, just as you have understood us in part, that we are your boast, as you also are ours, on the day of our Lord Jesus.
And in this confidence I intended first to come to you, so that you might have a second grace, and through you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come back to you, and by you to be sent on my way to Judea. Therefore, when I intended this, did I act with fickleness? Or what I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, so that with me it is “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?
But as God is faithful, our word to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you—Silvanus and Timothy and I—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For as many as are the promises of God, in him they are “Yes.” Therefore through him also the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
But the one who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave the Spirit in our hearts as a first pledge.
But I call God as witness against my soul, that it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth. Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are coworkers for your joy, for you stand firm in the faith.