1:1 | From Paul,* an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth,* with all the saints who are in all Achaia.* |
1:2 | Grace and peace to you* from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! |
1:3 | Blessed is* the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, |
1:4 | who comforts us in all our troubles* so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble* with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. |
1:5 | For just as the sufferings* of Christ* overflow* toward us, so also our comfort through Christ overflows to you.* |
1:6 | But if we are afflicted,* it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort that you experience in your patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. |
1:7 | And our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you share in* our sufferings, so also you will share in* our comfort. |
1:8 | For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,* regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia,* that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living. |
1:9 | Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us,* so that we would not trust in ourselves* but in God who raises the dead. |
1:10 | He* delivered us from so great a risk of death, and he will deliver us. We have set our hope on him* that* he will deliver us yet again, |
1:11 | as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that many people may give thanks to God* on our behalf for the gracious gift given to us through the help of many. |
1:12 | For our reason for confidence* is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives* and sincerity which are from God* – not by human wisdom* but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more* toward you. |
1:13 | For we do not write you anything other than what* you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely* |
1:14 | just as also you have partly understood us, that we are your source of pride just as you also are ours* in the day of the Lord Jesus.* |
1:15 | And with this confidence I intended to come to you first so that you would get a second opportunity to see us,* |
1:16 | and through your help to go on into Macedonia and then from Macedonia to come back* to you and be helped on our way into Judea by you. |
1:17 | Therefore when I was planning to do this, I did not do so without thinking about what I was doing, did I?* Or do I make my plans* according to mere human standards* so that I would be saying* both “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? |
1:18 | But as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” |
1:19 | For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was proclaimed among you by us – by me and Silvanus* and Timothy – was not “Yes” and “No,” but it has always been “Yes” in him. |
1:20 | For every one of God’s promises are “Yes” in him; therefore also through him the “Amen” is spoken, to the glory we give to God. |
1:21 | But it is God who establishes* us together with you in Christ and who anointed us,* |
1:22 | who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.* |
1:23 | Now I appeal to God as my witness,* that to spare* you I did not come again to Corinth.* |
1:24 | I do not mean that we rule over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because by faith you stand firm.* |