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.

because you are helping me by your prayers for me, so that thanks to God will be given by many on my behalf for God's gracious gift to me in answer to the prayers of many.

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.

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.

Not that we are trying to lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you to promote your joy, for in your faith you are standing firm.

For I have definitely decided not to pay you another painful visit.

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.

For out of great sorrow and distress of heart, yes, while shedding many tears, I wrote you, not to make you sad but to make you realize that my love for you continues running over.

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.

I had no rest of spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and left for Macedonia.

But thanks be to God, for He always leads me in His triumphal train, through union with Christ, and everywhere through me keeps spreading the perfume of the knowledge of Him.

Indeed, I am the fragrance of Christ to God, alike for those who are being saved and for those who are perishing;

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.

for you are always showing that you are a letter of Christ, produced by my service, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

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 the service connected with condemnation had such splendor, the service resulting in right standing with God will surely far surpass it in splendor.

For on account of its surpassing splendor, what was once so splendid has now no splendor at all.

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

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.

For I am not proclaiming myself but Christ Jesus as Lord, and myself a slave of yours for Jesus' sake.

For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, reflected on the face of Christ.

For all the time I continue to live I am being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that in my mortal lower nature the life of Jesus may be clearly shown.

For everything is for your sakes, in order that His favor by multiplying the thanksgiving of many may make the cup run over to the praise of God.

For this slight and momentary sorrow continues to accumulate for me a solid and eternal glory far beyond any comparison,

because I do not keep my eyes on things that are seen but things that are unseen. For things that are seen are temporary, but things that are unseen are eternal.

For I know that if this earthly tent in which I live is taken down, I have a building in heaven which comes from God, a house not built by human hands but eternal.

For in this one I am sighing, because I long to put on, like a robe, my heavenly body, my future home,

For I who am still in my tent am sighing beneath my burdens, because I do not want it to be put off but to put on the other over it, so that my dying body may be absorbed in life.

Now it is God Himself who has put the finishing touches on me for this change, because He has given me the Spirit as the first installment of future bliss.

(for here I live by what I believe and not by what I see),

For we must all appear before the judgment-bar of Christ, that each may get his pay for what he has done, whether it be good or bad.

So, since I know what the fear of God can do, I am trying to win men. My inner self is perfectly known to God, and I hope, to your consciences too.

I am not trying to recommend myself to you again. I am giving you ground for speaking well of me, that you may have something to say to those who are constantly prating about external privileges and not concerned about the state of the heart.

For if I did go crazy, it was for God's glory; and if I am keeping my head cool, it is for your good.

For the love of Christ continuously constrains me, because I am convinced that as One died for all, all have died,

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

For if anybody is in union with Christ, he is the work of a new creation; the old condition has passed away, a new condition has come.

This has all originated with God, for He through Christ has reconciled me to Himself and has given me the ministry of reconciliation.

For it was through Christ that God was reconciling the world to Himself instead of debiting men's offenses against them, and He has committed to me the message of this reconciliation.

He made Him who personally knew nothing of sin to be a sin-offering for us, so that through union with Him we might come into right standing with God.

For He says: "At a welcome time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you." Right now the time of welcome is here; right now it is the day of salvation.

O Corinthians, my tongue is telling you everything; my heart is stretched with love for you.

To pay me back, I tell you, my children, you too must stretch your hearts with love for me.

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

Make room for me in your hearts, I have not wronged or harmed or taken advantage of a single one of you.

I do not mean this for your condemnation, because, as I have said before, you have such a place in my heart that I would live with you or die with you.

For even after I had gotten to Macedonia, my frail, human nature could find no relief; I was crushed with sorrow at every turn -- fighting without and fears within.

For, although I did cause you sorrow by that letter, I do not now regret it; although I did regret it then. I see that the letter caused you sorrow only for a time.

I am glad of it now, not because you had such sorrow, but because your sorrow led you to repentance, for you took your sorrow in accordance with the will of God, so that you should not suffer any loss at all from me.

For the sorrow that comes in accordance with the will of God results in repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets, but the sorrow the world produces results in death.

For see what this very sorrow, suffered in accordance with the will of God, has done for you! How earnest it has made you, how concerned to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how much it made you long to see me, how loyal to me, how determined to punish the offender! At every point you have cleared yourselves in the matter.

So, although I did write to you, it was not for the offender's sake, nor for the offended party's sake, but in the sight of God for the sake of having your enthusiasm for me made perfectly clear to you. This is why I am so comforted.

For they have given, I can testify, to the utmost of their ability, and even beyond their ability. Of their own accord,

with earnest entreaty, they kept on begging me for the favor of sharing in this service that is being rendered to God's people.

For by experience you know the unmerited favor shown by our Lord Jesus Christ; that although He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, in order that by His poverty you might become rich.

Now I will give you my opinion on this matter. For this is for your interest, because you were not only the first to do anything about it, but the first to want to do so; you started it a year ago.

For I do not want it to be a relief for others and a burden on you,

But thanks be to God, who kindles in the heart of Titus the same enthusiasm for you that I have;

because he has acceded to my request, or rather, because he is so enthusiastic for you, of his own accord he is off to visit you.

I am sending with him the well-known brother whose praise for spreading the good news is ringing through all the churches.

Not only that, but he has been selected by the churches to travel with me for this gracious contribution which is being raised by me, so that it may turn out for the glory of the Lord and a proof of my readiness to serve.

For I am taking the precaution to do what is right, not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.

As for Titus, he is my partner and comrade in the work for you, while these brothers of ours, the representatives of the churches, will bring glory to Christ.

So you must furnish them, before all the churches, proof of your love and ground for my praising you so highly.

It is really superfluous for me to write to you about this service which is being rendered to God's people,

for I know your readiness to help in it. I am boasting of you about it to the Macedonians, reminding them that Greece has been ready since last year, and your enthusiasm has stimulated the most of them.

to keep me -- not to mention you -- from being humiliated for having such confidence in you, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready.

Each must give what he has purposed in his heart to give, not sorrowfully or under compulsion, for it is the happy giver that God loves.

And God is able to make your every spiritual blessing overflow for you, so that you will always have in every situation an entire sufficiency and so overflow for every good cause;

In every way you will grow richer and richer so as to give with perfect liberality, which will through me result in thanksgiving to God for it.

Because the service rendered by this sacred offering is not only fully supplying the needs of God's people, but it is also running over with many thanks to God for it.

For through the test you get by doing this service you will continue praising God for your fidelity to your confession of the good news of Christ, and for the liberality of your contributions to them and all others;

and so in their prayers for you they will continue longing for you, because of God's surpassing favor shown you.

Thank God for His unspeakable gift!

Now I appeal to you in person, by the gentleness and fairness of Christ, I, Paul, who am so "condescending when face to face with you, but so courageous toward you when far away!"

For though I do still live the life of a physical human creature, I am not waging this war in accordance with physical human standards,

for the weapons used in my warfare are not mere human ones, but through my God are mighty for demolishing fortresses.

For I am demolishing arguments and every barrier that is raised against the genuine knowledge of God, taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ,

For if I do boast a little too much about my authority, which the Lord gave me for building you up and not for tearing you down, I shall never have to blush for doing so.

For they say, "His letters are impressive and forceful, but his physical personality is unimpressive, and his delivery is perfectly contemptible."

Such people should consider this: When I arrive for action I shall do exactly what I said I would in my letters when far away.

But I shall never go too far in my boasting; no, I shall stay within the limits of the sphere which God apportioned me, so as to reach even you.

For I am not overstepping my authority as though I should not reach you, for I was the very first to reach as far as you with the good news of Christ.

I am not going too far in my boasting, and actually boasting of other men's labors, but I am cherishing the hope that your faith may so continue to grow that through you my work within my sphere may be so enlarged as to run over,

For it is not the man who keeps on recommending himself who is really approved, but it is the man whom the Lord recommends.

For I feel a divine jealousy for you, as I betrothed you to Christ, to present you as a pure bride to her one husband.

For if anybody comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one I preached, or you receive another spirit different from the one you did receive or a glad message different from the one you did accept, you listen to it all right!

For I consider myself not a single bit inferior to those surpassingly superior apostles of yours!

and when I was with you and needed money, I never burdened a single one of you for a cent, for the brothers came from Macedonia and supplied what I needed. And so I kept myself, as I shall always do, from being a burden to you in any way.

For such men are sham apostles, dishonest workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.