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

For just as my sufferings for Christ are running over the cup, so through Christ my comfort is running over too.

If I am in sorrow, it is on behalf of your comfort and salvation; if I am comforted, it is for the comfort that is experienced by you in your patient endurance of the same sort of sufferings that I am enduring too.

My hope for you is well founded; because I know that just as you, brothers, are sharers of my sufferings, so you will be sharers of my comfort too.

For I do not want you to be uninformed about the sorrow that I suffered in Asia, because I was so crushed beyond any power to endure that I was in dire despair of life itself.

He saved me from a death so horrible, and He will save me again! He it is on whom I have set my hope that He will still save me,

For my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

For what I am writing you is nothing more than what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it perfectly, just as some of you have come to understand me partially;

that is, to understand that you have grounds for boasting of me just as I have for boasting of you, on the day of our Lord Jesus.

that is, to go by you on my way to Macedonia, and then to come back to you from Macedonia, and have you send me on to Judea.

As certainly as God is to be trusted, my message to you has not been a "Yes" that might mean "No."

For God's Son, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us, Silvanus, Timothy, and me, did not become a "Yes" that might mean "No."

But with Him it is always "Yes," for, as many as the promises of God may be, through Him they are always "Yes." This is why our "Amen" through Him is for the glory of God when spoken by us.

But it is God who makes us as well as you secure through union with Christ, and has anointed us,

and put His seal upon us, and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a first installment of future rewards.

For if I make you sad, who is there to make me glad but the very man who has been made sad by me?

This is the very thing I wrote you, that when I did come I might not be made sad by the very people who ought to make me glad, for I had confidence in you all that my gladness would be gladness to you all.

But if anyone has made anyone sad, it is not I, but you that he has made sad, at least, some of you, not to be severe on all of you.

For this is why I wrote you, to see if you would stand the test, to see if you would be obedient in everything.

The man that you forgive I too forgive. For if I have forgiven him anything, it is what I have forgiven him in the very presence of Christ for your sake,

to keep us from being worsted by Satan, for we know what his intentions are.

Now who is qualified for such a task? I am, for I am not a peddler of God's message, like the most of them, but like a man of sincerity, like a man that is sent from God and living in His presence, in union with Christ I speak His message.

Such is the confidence I have through Christ in the presence of God.

Not that I am myself qualified to consider anything as coming from me myself. No, my qualification comes from God, for

He has qualified even me as a minister of the new covenant, which is not a written but a spiritual covenant. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For if what passed away was introduced with splendor, with how much greater splendor must what is permanent be attended?

So, as I have such a hope, I speak with the greatest boldness,

not as Moses did, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was passing away.

Besides, their minds were made dull; for to this day that same veil remains unlifted, whenever they read the Old Covenant; because it is only through union with Christ that it is removed.

Indeed, to this very day, whenever Moses is read, a veil hangs over their hearts,

but whenever anybody turns to the Lord, the veil is removed,