1 T his letter is from Paul. I have been chosen by God to be a missionary for Jesus Christ. Timothy is here with me and is writing to you also. We are writing to God’s church in the city of Corinth and to all of God’s people in the country of Greece.

Paul, 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):

2 M ay you have loving-favor and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

3 W e give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Father Who shows us loving-kindness and our God Who gives us comfort.

Blessed 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),

4 H e gives us comfort in all our troubles. Then we can comfort other people who have the same troubles. We give the same kind of comfort God gives us.

Who 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.

5 A s we have suffered much for Christ and have shared in His pain, we also share His great comfort.

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

6 B ut if we are in trouble, it is for your good. And it is so you will be saved from the punishment of sin. If God comforts us, it is for your good also. You too will be given strength not to give up when you have the same kind of trouble we have.

But 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.

7 O ur hope for you is the same all the time. We know you are sharing our troubles. And so you will share the comfort we receive.

And 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).

8 W e want you to know, Christian brothers, of the trouble we had in the countries of Asia. The load was so heavy we did not have the strength to keep going. At times we did not think we could live.

For 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.

9 W e thought we would die. This happened so we would not put our trust in ourselves, but in God Who raises the dead.

Indeed, 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.

10 Y es, God kept us from what looked like sure death and He is keeping us. As we trust Him, He will keep us in the future.

Who 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],

11 Y ou also help us by praying for us. Many people thank God for His favor to us. This is an answer to the prayers of many people. Paul Wants to Visit Corinth

While 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.

12 I am happy to say this. Whatever we did in this world, and for sure when we were with you, we were honest and had pure desires. We did not trust in human wisdom. Our power came from God’s loving-favor.

It 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).

13 W e write to you only what we know you can understand. I hope you will understand everything.

For 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,

14 W hen the Lord Jesus comes again, you can be as proud of us as we will be proud of you. Right now you do not understand us real well.

as 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.

15 I t was because of this, I wanted to visit you first. In that way, you would be helped two times.

It 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).

16 I wanted to stop to visit you on my way to the country of Macedonia. I would stop again as I came from there. Then you could help me on my way to the country of Judea.

to 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.

17 Y es, I changed my mind. Does that show that I change my mind a lot? Do I plan things as people of the world who say yes when they mean no? You know I am not like that!

Now 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?

18 A s God is true, my yes means yes. I am not the kind of person who says one thing and means another.

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

19 T imothy and Silvanus and I have preached to you about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In Him there is no yes and no. In Him is yes.

For 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.

20 J esus says yes to all of God’s many promises. It is through Jesus that we say, “Let it be so,” when we give thanks to God.

For 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.

21 G od is the One Who makes our faith and your faith strong in Christ. He has set us apart for Himself.

But 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];

22 H e has put His mark on us to show we belong to Him. His Spirit is in our hearts to prove this.

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

23 I call on God to look into my heart. The reason I did not come to the city of Corinth was because I did not want my strong words to hurt you.

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

24 W e are not the boss of your faith but we are working with you to make you happy. Your faith is strong.

Not 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.