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

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

Who consoleth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to console those who are in any tribulation, through the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.

But, whether we be in tribulation, it is for your consolation and salvation; or, whether we are consoled, it is for your consolation, which is effective in the endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer;

For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning our tribulation which befell us in Asia; that we were exceedingly weighed down beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life:

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

as also ye did acknowledge in part, that we are your theme of boasting, as ye also will be ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.

and through you to go into Macedonia, and from Macedonia to come again to you, and by you to be sent forward to Judaea.

When, therefore, I was purposing this, did I manifest fickleness or the things which I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the "Yea, yea," and the "Nay, nay?"

Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for by faith ye have been standing.

For, if I make you sorry, who, indeed, is he that makes me glad, but he that is made sorry by me?

For out of much tribulation and anguish of heart I wrote to you, through many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly toward you.

Sufficient for such a one was the punishment inflicted by the many;

so that, on the contrary, ye ought rather to forgive and console him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow.

that we might not be over-reached by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

But thanks be to God, Who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of His knowledge in every place;

Ye are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

being made manifest that ye are Christ's epistle ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.

how shall not rather the ministration of the Spirit be with glory?

For, if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more does the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

But we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

but we renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, not handling the word of God deceitfully; but, by the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness may be of God, and not from ourselves;

always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.

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

Wherefore, we faint not; but even if our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day.

For we know that, if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.

For verily, in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from Heaven;

if, indeed, being also clothed, we will not be found naked.

For, indeed, we who are in the tabernacle groan, being weighed down; not that we wish to be unclothed, but be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

(for we walk by faith and not by sight);

we are of good courage, I say, and are well pleased to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

Wherefore, we also make it our aim??hether being at home or being from home??o be well-pleasing to Him.

For we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done through the body, according to the things which he practiced, whether good or evil.

On behalf of Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors, as though God were beseeching through us, we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God

Him Who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf, that we may become God's righteousness in Him.

giving no occasion of stumbling in anything, that our ministry be not blamed;

Now, for a recompense in like kind (I am speaking as to my children), be ye also enlarged.

And what agreement has a temple of God with idols? for we are a temple of the living God, as God said, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

Wherefore, "Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate," saith the Lord, "and touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you;

and I will be to you a Father, and ye shall be My sons and daughters." saith the Lord Almighty.

But God, who consoleth the lowly, consoled us by the coming of Titus;

and not by his coming only, but also by the consolation with which he was consoled over you; rehearsing to us your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced the more:

For godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation, not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world works death.

For, behold this very thing??hat ye were made sorry after a godly manner??hat diligence it wrought in you; yea, what defense of yourselves; yea, what indignation; yea, what fear; yea what earnest desire; yea, what zeal; yea, what avenging! In everything ye proved yourselves to be pure in the matter.

So, although I wrote to you, it was not on account of him who did the wrong, nor of him who suffered wrong, but that your earnest care on our behalf might be manifested to you in the sight of God.

For this cause, we have been consoled; but, in our consolation, we rejoice the more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

For, if in anything I have gloried to him on your behalf, I was not made ashamed; but, as we spake all things to you in truth, so also our glorying before Titus was found to be truth.

I am not speaking by way of command; but as proving, through the diligence of others, the sincerity of your love.

And now complete the doing also; that, as there was a readiness to will, so also there may be the completion out of what ye have;

For it is not that there may be relief to others, but distress to you;

but, by the rule of equality, your abundance being a supply, at the present time, for their deficiency; that also their abundance may be a supply for your want, that there may be equality:

But thanks be to God Who putteth the same diligence for you into the heart of Titus.

and not that only, but who was also appointed by the assemblies, as our fellow-traveler with this gift which is ministered by us to the glory of the Lord, and our zeal;

avoiding this, that no one should blame us in the matter of this bounty which is ministered by us;

And we sent with them our brother, whom we often in many things proved to be diligent, but now much more diligent by reason of his great confidence in you.

But I sent the brethren, that our glorying on your behalf may not be made void in this respect; that even as I said, ye may be prepared;

Lest by any means, if the Macedonians should come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not ye) should be put to shame in this confidence.

I thought it necessary, therefore, to exhort the brethren, that they should go before to you, and make up beforehand your previously promised bounty, that this may be ready as a matter of bounty and not as of covetousness.

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift!

but I pray that, when present, I may not show courage with the confidence with which I purpose to be bold against some who reckon us as walking according to the flesh.

For, even if I glory somewhat more abundantly concerning our authority??hich the Lord gave for building you up, and not for tearing you down?? shall not be put to shame;

not glorying beyond our measure in other men's labors; but, having hope that, as your faith increases, we shall be enlarged among you according to our limit to further abundance,

but I fear lest, by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and purity which is toward Christ.

And, though I be rude in speech, yet am I not rude in knowledge; but in every way having manifested it toward you in all things.

Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself, that ye might be exalted, because I proclaimed to you the Gospel of God without cost?

As the truth of Christ is in me, this glorying shall not be stopped in regard to me in the regions of Achaia.

But what I am doing, I also will do, that I may cut off the occasion from those desiring occasion, that wherein they glory they may be found even as we.

It is no great thing, therefore, if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end will be according to their works.

I speak by way of dishonor, as though we were weak; but in whatever anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I also am bold.

and through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.

For, if I should desire to glory, I would not be foolish, for I shall be speaking truth; but I forbear, lest some one should think, in regard to me, above what he sees me to be, or hears from me.

And, that I might not be exalted overmuch by the exceeding greatness of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I might not be exalted overmuch.

I have become foolish; ye compelled me; for I ought to be commended by you; for in nothing was I inferior to the most eminent apostles, even if I am nothing.

Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought out among you in all patience, by signs and wonders and mighty works.

Behold, this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you; for I seek not yours, but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

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

But be it so, I did not burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

For I fear, lest by any means, when I come, I should find you not such as I desire, and that I, too, should be found by you such as ye do not desire; lest, by any means, there should be strife, jealousy, wraths, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults;

This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses, and of three, shall every word be established.

Try yourselves, whether ye are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or know ye not as to yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless ye be rejected?

Now we pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that ye may do what is honorable, though we be rejected.

Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfected, be comforted, think the same thing; be at peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

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