2 Corinthians 1

1Paul, an apostle of Messiah Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, together with all the saints who are in all Achaia:

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

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

4who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those in any affliction through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

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

6But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is at work in enduring the same sufferings that we also suffer.

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

8For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about our affliction that happened in Asia, that we were burdened exceedingly, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.

9Indeed, we ourselves had the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we would not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

10who rescued us from so great a death and will rescue us, in whom we have hoped that he will indeed rescue us again,

11as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that thanks may be given by many on our behalf for the gracious gift given to us.

12For this is our boast: the testimony of our conscience, that we conducted ourselves in the world in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God—and especially toward you.

13For we are not writing anything else to you except what you read and indeed understand, and I hope that you will understand fully to the end,

14just as you also came to understand us in part, that we are your boast, just as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

15And with this confidence I intended to come to you first, so that you might have a second benefit,

16and through you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you and by you to be sent on to Judea.

17So when I intended this, was I acting lightly? Or do I plan what I plan according to the flesh, so that with me there should be both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?

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

19For the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah, who was proclaimed among you through us—through me and Silvanus and Timothy—did not become Yes and No; rather, in him it has become Yes.

20For however many promises of God there are, in him is the Yes. Therefore also through him is the Amen to God for glory through us.

21But the one who establishes us with you in Messiah, and who anointed us, is God.

22who also sealed us and gave the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.

23But I call God as witness upon my own life, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth.

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