Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, with all the saints that are in all Achaia:

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

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

Who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any affliction, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

You likewise helping together with us by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by means of many persons, thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

For this is our rejoicing, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with carnal wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more especially toward you.

And in this confidence I was minded to come to you before, that ye might have had a second benefit, And to pass by you into Macedonia,

and to come to you again from Macedonia, and to be brought forward by you in my way toward Judea.

Now when I was thus minded, did I use levity? or the things which I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that there should be with me yea and nay?

For Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was preached among you by us, by me, and Silvanus, and Timotheus was not yea and nay; but was yea in him.

For all the promises of God are yea in him, and amen in him, to the glory of God by us.

Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for by faith ye have stood.

For if I grieve you, who is he that cheareth me, but he that is grieved by me?

For from much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not that ye might be grieved, but that ye might know the abundant love which I have toward you.

Sufficient for such an one is this punishment inflicted by many.

So that on the contrary ye should rather forgive and comfort him, lest such an one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.

Now thanks be to God, who causeth us always to triumph through Christ, and manifesteth by us in every place the odour of his knowledge.

Ye are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all men:

Manifestly declared to be the letter of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.

And if the ministration of death engraven in letters on stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look stedfastly on the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face, which was to be abolished: Shall not rather the ministration of the Spirit be glorious?

Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.

And we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.

not walking in craftiness, nor deceitfully corrupting the word of God, but by 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 excellence of the power may be of God, and not of us.

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

We who live are always delivered unto death for the sake of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal body.

Knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus, will also raise us up by Jesus, and present us with you.

Therefore we faint not, but even though the outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

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

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon, with our house which is from heaven:

If being clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened; not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life.

(For we walk by faith, not by sight.)

We behave undauntedly, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord.

Therefore we are ambitious, whether present, or absent, to be well-pleasing to him.

Therefore if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation: the old things are passed way; behold, all things are become new:

Therefore we are embassadors for Christ, as though God were intreating by us: we beseech you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

For he hath made him, who knew no sin, a sin-offering for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God through him.

Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed, But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God,

By purity, by prudence, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,

By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right-hand and the left:

Now for a recompence of the same, (I speak as to my children) be ye also inlarged.

Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? or what communion hath light with darkness?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Now ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.

Therefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean person, saith the Lord, and I will receive you,

And will be to you a Father, and ye shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

But God who comforteth them that are brought low, comforted us by the coming of Titus.

And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort wherewith he was comforted over you, when he told us your earnest desire, your grief, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced the more.

For I do not repent that I grieved you by the letter, though I did repent: (for I see that letter grieved you, though but for a season.)

Now I rejoice, not that ye grieved, but that ye grieved to repentance; for ye grieved in a godly manner, so that ye received damage by us in nothing.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of, whereas the sorrow of the world worketh death.

For behold, this very thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly manner, what diligence it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge? In all things ye have approved yourselves to be pure in this matter.

Therefore we were comforted in your comfort, and we rejoiced the more exceedingly in the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

And this they did, not as we hoped; but first gave themselves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God:

I speak not by way of command, but that by the diligence of others, I may prove the sincerity of your love.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

Now therefore compleat the work, that as there was a ready will, so there may be also a performance, in proportion to what ye have.

For if there be first a ready mind, a man is accepted, according to what he hath, not according to what he hath not.

For I do not mean, that others should be eased, and you burthened; But by an equality,

let your abundance be at this time a supply to their want; that their abundance also may be a supply to your want, that there may be an equality,

But thanks be to God, who put the same diligent care for you in the heart of Titus.

but he was also appointed by the churches to be a fellow-traveller with us, with this gift, which is administred by us, to the glory of the Lord himself,

and for the declaration of our ready mind) Avoiding this, lest any one should blame us in this abundance, which is administred by us.

Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you on this head should be made vain, that, as I said, ye may be ready;

Lest if any of the Macedonians come with me, and find you unprepared, we (not to say, you) be ashamed of this confident boasting.

Therefore I thought it necessary, to desire the brethren to go before to you, and compleat this your bounty, which had been spoken of before, that it may be ready as a bounty, and not as a matter of covetousness.

Being inriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which worketh by us thanksgiving to God.

For the administration of this service, doth not only supply the necessities of the saints, but likewise aboundeth by the thanksgivings of many to God:

(Who, by experiment of this administration, glorify God for your avowed subjection to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal communication to them and to all men.)

And by their prayer for you, who long after you, for the exceeding grace of God, which is in you.

Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.

Now I Paul myself, who when present am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you, intreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,

I beseech, that I may not when I am present be bold with that confidence wherewith I think to be bold toward some, who think of us as walking after the flesh:

Do ye look at the outward appearance of things? If any man be confident, that he is Christ's, let him again think this of himself, that as he is Christ's, so we also are Christ's.

Yea, if I should boast something more also of the authority which the Lord hath given us, for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:

That I may not seem to terrify you by letters.

Let such an one think this, that such as we are in word by letters, when we are absent, such are we also in deed, when we are present.

Not boastingly extending ourselves beyond our measure, in the labours of others; but having hope, now your faith is increased, to be inlarged by you,

But I fear lest as the serpent deceived Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from simplicity toward Christ.

Have I committed an offence in humbling myself, that ye might be exalted, because I have preached the gospel of God to you at free cost?

As the truth of Christ is in me, this my boasting shall not be stopped in the regions of Achaia.

Because I love you not? God knoweth. But what I do, I will do, that I may cut off the occasion from them who desire occasion, that wherein they boast, they may be found even as we.

Therefore it is no great thing, if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose ends shall be according to their works.

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

For if I should resolve to boast, I should not be a fool; for I speak the truth: but I forbear, lest any one should think of me above what he seeth me, or heareth from me.

And lest I should be lifted up with the abundance of the revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be lifted up.

I am become a fool in boasting; but ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended by you: for in nothing have I fallen short of the very chief apostles, though I am nothing.

Forgive me this wrong. Behold the third time I am ready to come to you: yet I will not be burdensom to you; for I seek not yours, but you; for the children ought not to lay up treasure for the parents, but the parents for the children.

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

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

Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent to you?

For I fear lest when I come, I should not find you such as I would, and lest I should be found by you such as ye would not: lest there should be contentions, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults, Lest my God should humble me when I come to you again,

I am coming to you this third time: every word shall be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses.

For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God: and we also are weak with him; but we shall live with him, by the power of God in you.

Now I pray God, that ye may do no evil: not that we may appear approved, but that ye may do that which is good, though we should be as reprobates.

Finally, brethren, farewel: be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one 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 communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.