1 P aul, an apostle (a special messenger) of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy brother, to the church (assembly) of God which is at Corinth, and to all the saints (the people of God) throughout Achaia (most of Greece):

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints that are in the whole of Achaia:

2 G race (favor and spiritual blessing) to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

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

3 B lessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God of every comfort (consolation and encouragement),

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;

4 W ho comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God.

who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

5 F or just as Christ’s '> own] sufferings fall to our lot abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also abundantly by us.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ.

6 B ut if we are troubled (afflicted and distressed), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement) and salvation; and if we are comforted (consoled and encouraged), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement), which works when you patiently endure the same evils (misfortunes and calamities) that we also suffer and undergo.

But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which worketh in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer:

7 A nd our hope for you is ever unwavering (assured and unshaken); for we know that just as you share and are partners in sufferings and calamities, you also share and are partners in comfort (consolation and encouragement).

and our hope for you is stedfast; knowing that, as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also are ye of the comfort.

8 F or we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction and oppressing distress which befell us in Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life.

For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

9 I ndeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.

yea, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead:

10 W ho rescued and saved us from such a perilous death, and He will still rescue and save us; in and on Him we have set our hope (our joyful and confident expectation) that He will again deliver us '> draw us to Himself],

who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver: on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;

11 W hile you also cooperate by your prayers for us. Thus many persons give thanks on our behalf for the grace (the blessing of deliverance) granted us at the request of the many who have prayed.

ye also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift bestowed upon us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf.

12 I t is a reason for pride and exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world and especially toward you, with devout and pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues).

For our glorifying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.

13 F or we write you nothing else but simply what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will become thoroughly acquainted '> divine things] and know and understand accurately and well to the end,

For we write no other things unto you, than what ye read or even acknowledge, and I hope ye will acknowledge unto the end:

14 a s you have partially known and understood and acknowledged us and recognized that you can be proud of us, even as we of you on the day of our Lord Jesus.

as also ye did acknowledge us in part, that we are your glorying, even as ye also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

15 I t was with assurance of this that I wanted and planned to visit you first, so that you might have a double favor and token of grace (goodwill).

And in this confidence I was minded to come first unto you, that ye might have a second benefit;

16 t o visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come again to you from Macedonia and have you send me forward on my way to Judea.

and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come unto you, and of you to be set forward on my journey unto Judaea.

17 N ow because I changed my original plan, was I being unstable and capricious? Or what I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, ready to say Yes, yes, No, no?

When I therefore was thus minded, did I show fickleness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the yea yea and the nay nay?

18 A s surely as God is trustworthy and faithful and means what He says, our speech and message to you have not been Yes No.

But as God is faithful, our word toward you is not yea and nay.

19 F or the Son of God, Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who has been preached among you by us, by myself, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not Yes and No; but in Him it is Yes.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him is yea.

20 F or as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes in Him. For this reason we also utter the Amen (so be it) to God through Him to the glory of God.

For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us.

21 B ut it is God Who confirms and makes us steadfast and establishes us with you in Christ, and has consecrated and anointed us '> enduing us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit];

Now he that establisheth us with you in Christ, and anointed us, is God;

22 p utting His seal upon us and giving us His Spirit in our hearts as the security deposit and guarantee.

who also sealed us, and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

23 B ut I call upon God as my soul’s witness: it was to avoid hurting you that I refrained from coming to Corinth—

But I call God for a witness upon my soul, that to spare you I forbare to come unto Corinth.

24 N ot that we have dominion and lord it over your faith, but fellow laborers your joy, for in faith ( in your strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through Whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God) you stand firm.

Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for in faith ye stand fast.