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.

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

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.

For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow toward us, so also our comfort through Christ overflows to you.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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,

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.

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.

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.

And with this confidence I intended to come to you first so that you would get a second opportunity to see us,

But as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No."

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.

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.

But it is God who establishes us together with you in Christ and who anointed us,

who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

Now I appeal to God as my witness, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth.

But if anyone has caused sadness, he has not saddened me alone, but to some extent (not to exaggerate) he has saddened all of you as well.

This punishment on such an individual by the majority is enough for him,

But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and who makes known through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place.

to the latter an odor from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don't need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we?

revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets but on tablets of human hearts.

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

But their minds were closed. For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away.

But until this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds,

but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom.