Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, together 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 affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those [who are] in all affliction with the comfort with which [we] ourselves are comforted by God.

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

But if we are afflicted, [it is] for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, [it is] for your comfort that is at work in the patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer.

And our hope for you [is] firm, [because we] know that as you are sharers in the sufferings, so also [you will be sharers] in the comfort.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our affliction that happened in the [province of] Asia, that we were burdened to an extraordinary degree, beyond [our] strength, so that we were in despair even of living.

who delivered us from so great [a risk] of death, and will deliver [us], in whom we have put our hope that he will also deliver [us] again,

[while] you also join in helping {on our behalf} by prayer, so that thanks may be given {on our behalf} by many persons for this gracious gift [given] to us through [the help] of many.

For our reason for boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, in holiness and purity of motive from God, not in merely human wisdom, but by the grace of God.

just as you have also understood us in part, that we are your reason for boasting, just as you [are] also ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.

Therefore, [when I] was wanting [to do] this, perhaps then was I making use of vacillation? Or was I deciding what I was deciding according to the flesh, in order that with me my "yes" may be "yes" and my "no" [may be] "no" [at the same time]?

But God [is] faithful, so that our word 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, did not become "yes" and "no," but has become "yes" in him.

For as many as [are the] promises of God, in him [they are] "yes"; therefore also through him [is] the "amen" to the glory of God through us.

Now the one who establishes us together with you in Christ and who anoints us [is] God,

[who] also sealed us and gave the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.

But I call upon God [as] witness against my life, that [in order to] spare you, I did not come again to Corinth.

For if I [cause] you sorrow, then who will make me glad except the one who is caused to be sad by me?

This punishment by the majority [is] sufficient for such a person.

Now to whomever you forgive anything, I also [do]; for indeed, whatever I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, [it is] {for your sake} in the presence of Christ,

But thanks [be] to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ, and who reveals the fragrance of the knowledge of him through us in every place.

to those on the one hand an odor from death to death, [and] to those on the other hand a fragrance from life to life. And who [is] qualified for these [things]?

For we are not like the majority who peddle the word of God, but as from pure motives--but as from God--we speak before God in Christ.

revealing that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, inscribed not with ink but with 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 from ourselves, but our adequacy [is] from God,

who also makes us adequate [as] servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For if what was transitory [came] with glory, by much more what remains [is] with glory.

Therefore, [because we] have such a hope, we use much boldness,

and not as Moses used to place a veil over his face, in order that the sons of Israel would not stare at the end of what was transitory.

But their minds were hardened. For until this very day, the same veil remains upon the reading of the old covenant, not being uncovered, because it is done away with in Christ.

But until today, whenever Moses is read aloud, a veil lies upon their heart,

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

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