2Co 2 Corinthians, chapter Second Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 1
Greetings
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God’s sovereign will, along with Timothy our brother,
To God’s church located in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout the entire region of Achaia:
May you experience grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ascription of Blessedness to God
Praise belongs to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father characterized by mercies and the God who provides every comfort,
the One who consoles us in every affliction we experience, enabling us to console those facing any kind of trouble, using the same comfort God Himself provides to us.
Just as Christ’s sufferings abound in our lives, so through Christ our comfort also abounds.
When we endure hardship, it benefits your comfort and salvation; when we receive comfort, it benefits your comfort, which proves effective as you patiently endure the same sufferings we also face.
Our confident expectation for you remains firm, because we understand that just as you participate in our sufferings, so you also participate in our comfort.
Divine Rescue
We do not want you uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the severe affliction that came upon us in Asia—we were crushed by burdens far exceeding our strength, so much so that we lost all hope of surviving.
In fact, we felt the sentence of death already passed within ourselves, so that we would rely not on our own resources, but on God, who raises the dead,
who rescued us from such deadly peril, and who continues rescuing us, in whom we have placed our confident hope that He will rescue us again,
as you also join in helping us through your prayers, so that many people may give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor bestowed on us in answer to many prayers.
Integrity of Paul and Others
This is our reason for confidence: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with sincerity and purity from God—not with earthly wisdom but with God’s grace.
We write you nothing beyond what you can read and understand, and I hope you will understand completely,
just as you have already understood us in part—that we are your reason for pride, just as you are ours, on the day of our Lord Jesus.
Paul’s Change of Plans
With this confidence, I originally planned to visit you, so that you might receive a second experience of blessing,
and to pass through your area on my way to Macedonia, then return from Macedonia to you, and have you send me on toward Judea.
When I made these plans, did I act with fickleness? Or do I make plans according to human standards, saying “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time?
As surely as God is faithful, our message to you has not been “Yes” and “No.”
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you—Silvanus, Timothy, and I—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in Him it has always been “Yes.”
For all of God's promises find their “Yes” in Him; therefore, through Him we also say “Amen” to the glory of God through us.
Now the One who firmly establishes us with you in Christ and who anointed us is God,
who also sealed us and placed the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.
I call upon God as my witness—it was to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.
Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work alongside you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.