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, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will, and the brother Timotheus, to the assembly of God which is in Corinth, with all the saints who 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 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 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassions, and God of all encouragement;

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 encourages us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to encourage those who are in any tribulation whatever, through the encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged 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.

Because, even as the sufferings of the Christ abound towards us, so through the Christ does our encouragement also abound.

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 in tribulation, for your encouragement and salvation, wrought in the endurance 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 sure;) or whether we are encouraged, for your encouragement and salvation: knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also of the encouragement.

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 do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, as to our tribulation which happened in Asia, that we were excessively pressed beyond power, so as to despair even of living.

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.

But we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not have our trust in ourselves, but in God who raises 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 has delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver; in whom we confide that he will also yet deliver;

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 labouring together by supplication for us that the gift towards us, through means of many persons, may be the subject of the thanksgiving of many for us.

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 boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and sincerity before God, (not in fleshly wisdom but in God's grace,) we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly towards you.

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 do not write other things to you but what ye well know and recognise; and I hope that ye will recognise to 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.

even as also ye have recognised us in part, that we are your boast, even as ye ours in the day of the 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 with this confidence I purposed to come to you previously, that ye might have a second favour;

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 to pass through to Macedonia by you, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and to be set forward by you to 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?

Having therefore this purpose, did I then use lightness? Or what I purpose, do I purpose according to flesh, that there should be with me yea yea, and 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.

Now God faithful, that our word to 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, he who has been preached by us among you (by me and Silvanus and Timotheus), did not become yea and nay, but yea is in him.

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 whatever promises of God, in him is the yea, and in him the amen, for glory to God by 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 establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, God,

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

who also has sealed us, and given 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 to witness upon my soul that to spare you I have not yet come to 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 rule over your faith, but are fellow-workmen of your joy: for by faith ye stand.