Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, and all God's people all over Greece;

He comforts me in all my trouble, so that I can comfort people who are in any trouble with the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God.

My hopes for you are unshaken. For I know that just as surely as you share my sufferings, just so surely you will share my comfort.

So deadly was the peril from which he saved me, as he will save me again! It is on him that I have set my hope that he will save me again.

You must help me by your prayers, so that many will give thanks to God on my behalf for the blessing granted me in answer to many prayers.

For what I am writing to you is only what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it fully,

as some of you have come to understand me, and that you will understand that you have a right to be proud of me, as I have of you, on the Day of our Lord Jesus.

for to all the promises of God he supplies the "Yes" that confirms them. That is why we utter the "Amen" through him, when we give glory to God.

This is what I said in my letter, so that I might avoid coming and having my feelings hurt by the very people who might have been expected to make me happy, for I felt sure about you all, that what made me happy would make you all happy.

But if anyone has hurt anybody's feelings, it is not so much mine, as yours, or at least those of some of you, not to be too hard upon you all.

For in comparison with its surpassing splendor, what was splendid has come to have no splendor at all.

And all of us, reflecting the splendor of the Lord in our unveiled faces, are being changed into likeness to him, from one degree of splendor to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

If the meaning of my preaching of the good news is veiled at all, it is so only in the case of those who are on the way to destruction.

sure that he who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise me also like Jesus, and bring me side by side with you into his presence.

For it is all for your benefit, in order that as God's favor reaches greater and greater numbers, it may result in more and more thanksgiving in praise of God.

For this slight, momentary trouble is piling up for me an eternal blessedness beyond all comparison,

For I know that if this earthly tent that I live in is taken down, God will provide me a building in heaven to live in, not built by human hands but eternal.

So I am confident. I know well that as long as I am at home in the body I am away from the Lord

For we must all appear in our true characters before the tribunal of the Christ, each to be repaid with good or evil for the life he has lived in the body.

It is Christ's love that controls me, for I have become convinced that as one has died for all, all have died,

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

All this comes from God, who through Christ has reconciled me to himself, and has commissioned me to proclaim this reconciliation??19 how God through Christ reconciled the world to himself, refusing to count men's offenses against them, and intrusted me with the message of reconciliation.

obscure, when I am well known, at the point of death, yet here I am alive, punished, but not dead yet,

What bargain can a temple of God make with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, And I will be their God and they will be my people."

Therefore, "Come out from them, And separate from them, says the Lord, And touch nothing that is unclean. Then I will welcome you,

I will become a father to you, And you shall become my sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty."

I do not mean this as a reflection upon you, for as I said before, you will always have a place in my heart whether I live or die.

I have the greatest confidence in you. I take the greatest pride in you. I am fully comforted. After all my trouble, I am overjoyed.

For even if I did hurt your feelings with that letter, I cannot regret it; even if I did regret it, when I saw that the letter had hurt your feelings perhaps for a while,

I am glad of it now; not because you had your feelings hurt, but because having them hurt led you to repent, for you took it as God meant you to do, so that you should not lose anything at all through me.

That is why I am so comforted. With all my own comfort, I was still more overjoyed at the gladness of Titus, for his mind has been set at rest by you all.

If I did express some pride in you to him, I have had no reason to be ashamed of it, but just as all I said to you was true, my boasting before Titus has also proved true.

His heart goes out all the more to you, as he recalls how you all obeyed him, and with what reverence and trembling you received him.

They did far more than I hoped, for first in obedience to God's will, they gave themselves to the Lord, and to me.

But I will tell you what I think about it. For this is the best way to deal with you, for you were the first not only to do anything about this, but to want to do anything, and that was last year.

Now finish doing it, so that your readiness to undertake it may be equaled by the way you finish it up, as well as your means permit.

I am sending with him his brother, who is famous in all the churches for his work in spreading the good news.

So as far as Titus is concerned, he is my partner and comrade in my work for you, while these brothers of ours represent the churches, and are a credit to Christ.

So you must give proof to them before all the churches of your love, and justify my pride in you.

But I send the brothers so that our pride in you may not have a fall in this matter, but you may be all ready as I have told them you will;

for if some people from Macedonia come with me, and find that you are not ready, it will humiliate me??o say nothing of you??or having expressed such confidence.

So I have thought it necessary to ask these brothers to go on to you ahead of me, to arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so as to have it ready, like an expression of your good will, not of your avarice.

Remember this: The man who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and the man who sows generously will reap generously.

God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance so that you will always have enough for every situation, and ample means for every good enterprise:

as the Scripture says, "He scatters his gifts to the poor; His uprightness will never be forgotten."

He who supplies the sower with seed and so with bread to eat will supply you with seed, and multiply it and enlarge the harvest of your uprightness.

You will grow rich in every way, so that through me you can show perfect liberality that will make men thank God for it.

The way you stand the test of this service must do honor to God, through your fidelity to what you profess as to the good news of Christ, and through the liberality of your contributions for them and for all others;

then they will long for you and pray for you, because of the extraordinary favor God has shown you.

For suppose I do boast a little too much of my authority??hich the Lord gave me to build you up, not to pull you down?? will not have to blush for it.

Such people had better understand that when I arrive and take action I will do just as I say I will in my letters when I am far away.

But my boasting will not be extravagant, nor exceed the limits God has allowed me, which reach all the way to you.

It is no strain for me to do this, as it might be for people who had never got so far, for I was the first to come all the way to you with the good news of the Christ.

But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ.

For when somebody comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one I preached, or you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!

So it is nothing strange if his servants also masquerade as servants of uprightness. But their doom will fit their actions.

Since many are so human as to boast, I will do it also.

To my shame I must admit that I was too weak for that sort of thing. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of?? am playing the part of a fool?? will dare to boast of too.

And besides everything else, the thing that burdens me every day is my anxiety about all the churches.