For we wish you not to be ignorant, brothers, of our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were exceedingly oppressed beyond our power, so that we despaired even of life;

For I wrote to you in much affliction and distress of mind with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have abundantly for you.

I exhort you, therefore, to confirm your love to him;

in one an odor of death to death, and in the other an odor of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

in whom the god of this life has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God, may not shine.

always carrying about the death of Jesus in the body, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

So that death works in us, but life in you.

For being in this tabernacle we groan, being burdened, because we do not wish to put it off, but to put on [the other], that the mortal may be swallowed up by life.

For the love of Christ constrains us, judging this, that if one died for all then were all dead;

and he died for all, that those who live should no more live for themselves but for him that died for them and rose again.

in purity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in love unfeigned,

as unknown and well-known, as dying and behold we live, as chastened and not killed,

I say this not to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts both to die and live together.

But as you abound in every thing, in faith, and speech, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love for us, [we desire] that you may abound in this grace also.

I do not speak by command, but on account of the diligence of others, and to prove the genuineness of your love;

Show them therefore the proof of your love, and of our boasting of you before the churches.

Why? Because I love you not? God knows.

And I most gladly will spend and will be spent for your souls, even if the more abundantly I love you the less I am loved.

for though he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by the power of God; and we also are weak in him, but live with him by the power of God in you.

Finally, brothers, rejoice, be perfect, be of good comfort, be of the same mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.