who comforts me in every sorrow I have, so that I can comfort people who are in sorrow with the comfort with which I am comforted by God.

For if I have a liberal share of Christ's sufferings, through Christ I have a liberal share of comfort too.

If I am in trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation, and if I am comforted, it is for the sake of the comfort which you experience when you steadfastly endure such sufferings as I also have to bear.

yet our hope is steadfast for you inasmuch as we know how, that as ye have your part in afflictions, so shall ye be partakers of consolation.

Brethren, I would not have you ignorant of our trouble, which happened unto us in Asia. For we were grieved out of measure passing strength, so greatly that we despaired even of life.

but we ourselves in ourselves the sentence of the death have had, that we may not be trusting on ourselves, but on God, who is raising the dead,

So deadly was the peril from which he saved me, as he will save me again! It is on him that I have set my hope that he will save me again.

Let me have your cooperation in prayer, so that many a soul may render thanks to him on my behalf for the boon which many have been the means of him bestowing on myself.

Our rejoicing is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in singleness of heart and with godly pureness - and not in fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God - we have had our conversation in the world, and most of all to you-wards.

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;

even as ye have found us partly, for we are your rejoicing, even as ye are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

And in this confidence was I minded the other time to have come unto you, that ye might have had yet one pleasure more,

and to have passed by you into Macedonia, and to have come again out of Macedonia unto you, and to have been led forth to Jewry ward of you.

Now I did not resort to fickleness, did I, in planning that? Or, do I make my plans in accordance with worldly notions, to have my "Yes" mean "No," if I want it so?

As certainly as God is faithful, we haven't talked to you with mixed messages like that.

The Son of God, Christ Jesus, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus, Timothy, and I, you have not found wavering between "Yes" and "No." With him it has always been "Yes,"

For all the promises of God, whatever their number, have their confirmation in Him; and for this reason through Him also our "Amen" acknowledges their truth and promotes the glory of God through our faith.

But upon my soul I call God to witness that it is simply to spare you that I have stayed away from Corinth.

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

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

for if I cause you grief, who is there to cause me joy except those whom I have grieved?

And I wrote this same epistle unto you, lest if I came, I should take heaviness of them, of whom I ought to rejoice. Certainly this confidence have I in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.

For in great affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears: not to make you sorry, but that ye might perceive the love which I have most specially unto you.

But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.

Let it be enough for such a man to have undergone the punishment which the church put on him;

So that now, on the other hand, it is right for him to have forgiveness and comfort from you, for fear that his sorrow may be over-great.

Wherefore I exhort you, that love may have strength over him.

For to this end also did I write, that I might have proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things.

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,

that we might not have Satan get an advantage against us, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts.

I have not had rest to my spirit, on my not finding Titus my brother, but having taken leave of them, I went forth to Macedonia;

Do we seem to be again attempting to put ourselves in the right? or have we need, as some have, of letters of approval to you or from you?

because ye are manifestly seen to be the letter of Christ, of which we have been the secretaries, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart.

Such trust have we through Christ to Godward:

will not the Spirit's ministry have even more glory?

For if the ministry [of the law] that brings condemnation came with splendor, will not the ministry that brings righteousness [i.e., the New Agreement] have greater splendor?

For in comparison with its surpassing splendor, what was splendid has come to have no splendor at all.

For if that which fades away came through glory, how much more does that which is permanent have glory?

Seeing then that we have such trust, we use great boldness;

But their thoughts have been darkened, for unto this day the same veil remains in reading the old covenant, unremoved, which in Christ is annulled.

But whenever the heart of the nation shall have returned to the Lord, the veil will be withdrawn.

Therefore seeing that we have such an office, even as mercy is come on us, we faint not:

but have cast from us the cloaks of unhonesty, and walk not in craftiness, neither corrupt we the word of God: but walk in open truth, and report ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

Because the god of this world has made blind the minds of those who have not faith, so that the light of the good news of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not be shining on them.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellent power of it might appear to be of God, and not of us.

Seeing then that we have the same spirit of faith, according as it is written - "I believed and therefore have I spoken" - we also believe, and therefore speak.

For everything [i.e., that we have experienced. See verses 8-12] is for your sakes so that [God's] unearned favor, being extended to so many, [in bringing them salvation through Paul's ministry] may result in much thanksgiving in praise to God.

For this reason, as I have said, I do not lose courage, but even though my outward man is wasting away, my inward man is being renewed, day by day.

for I have no regard to the things which are visible, but to such as are invisible: since visible things are temporary, but the invisible are eternal.

We know surely if our earthy mansion wherein we now dwell were destroyed, that we have a building ordained of God, a habitation not made with hands, but eternal in heaven:

For indeed in this we groan, ardently desiring to have put on our house which is from heaven;

if indeed, even [after we] have taken [it] off, we will not be found naked.

For truly, we who are in this tent do give out cries of weariness, for the weight of care which is on us; not because we are desiring to be free from the body, but so that we may have our new body, and death may be overcome by life.

Therefore we have always confidence, and know that whilst we are indwelling in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

(for I have to guide my steps by faith, not by what is seen)??8 yet I am confident, and I prefer to leave my home in the body and make my home with the Lord.

we have courage, and are well pleased rather to be away from the home of the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

Therefore indeed we have as our ambition, whether at home [in the body] or absent [from the body], to be acceptable to him.

For we all have to come before Christ to be judged; so that every one of us may get his reward for the things done in the body, good or bad.

having known, therefore, the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, and to God we are manifested, and I hope also in your consciences to have been manifested;

We praise not ourselves again unto you, but give you an occasion to rejoice of us, that ye may have somewhat against them, which rejoice in the face, and not in the heart.

For, whether we have been beside ourselves, it hath been for God, or, whether we are sober-minded, it is for you.

It is Christ's love that controls me, for I have become convinced that as one has died for all, all have died,

and that he died for all in order to have the living live no longer for themselves but for him who died and rose for them.

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh. Insomuch that though we have known Christ after the flesh, now henceforth know we him so no more.

Therefore, if anyone is in the Messiah, he is a new creation. Old things have disappeared, and look! all things have become new!

But working together we indeed intreat you not to have received the grace of God in vain:

For he saith, "I have heard thee in a time accepted: and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee." Behold, now is that well accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.

[We are] giving no one an occasion for taking offense in anything, in order that our ministry will not have fault found [with it],

But as God's servants, we have commended ourselves in every way, with great endurance, in persecutions, in difficulties, in distresses,

[We have been] beaten, jailed, and mobbed. [We have] worked hard, missed sleep and gone without food.

[We have ministered] with purity, knowledge, patience and kindness. [We have done this] by [the power of] the Holy Spirit; out of genuine love;

[We have experienced] honor and dishonor; a bad reputation and a good one. [We have been viewed] as deceivers and yet are genuine;

as [both] unknown [to people] and yet well-known; [we have almost] died, and yet as you see, we are still alive; [we have been] punished and yet not killed;

I have kept nothing back from you, men of Corinth; I have opened my heart to you.

We have not cut you off, but you have cut off your own feelings toward us.

Let us have a like return; I speak as unto children; be ye also enlarged.

Do not get into close and incongruous relations with unbelievers. What partnership can uprightness have with iniquity, or what can light have to do with darkness?

What harmony exists between the Messiah and Beliar, or what do a believer and an unbeliever have in common?

And what agreement [does the] temple of God [have] with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and will walk about [among them], and I will be their God and they will be my people."

Seeing that we have such promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and grow up to full holiness in the fear of God.

Understand us: we have hurt no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.

I speak not this to condemn you: for I have showed you before that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.

I have the greatest confidence in you. I take the greatest pride in you. I am fully comforted. After all my trouble, I am overjoyed.

Ever since we reached Macedonia, we have had no rest in body or mind; on every side there have been troubles--conflicts without, anxieties within.

Because, if I even grieved you by the letter, I do not regret, - though I could even have regretted, - I see that that letter, if even for an hour, did cause you grief.

Now I rejoice, not that ye have been made sorrowful, but that ye have sorrowed unto repentance; for ye have been made sorry in a godly manner, that ye might receive damage from us in nothing.

Behold what diligence this godly sorrow that ye took hath wrought in you: yea it caused you to clear yourselves. It caused indignation, it caused fear, it caused desire, it caused a fervent mind, it caused punishment. For in all things ye have showed yourselves that ye were clear in that matter.

Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that did hurt, neither for his cause that was hurt: but that our good mind which we have toward you in the sight of God, might appear unto you

because of this we have been comforted in your comfort, and more abundantly the more did we rejoice in the joy of Titus, that his spirit hath been refreshed from you all;

If I did express some pride in you to him, I have had no reason to be ashamed of it, but just as all I said to you was true, my boasting before Titus has also proved true.

I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.

I must acquaint you, brethren, with the contribution which the churches of Macedonia have religiously made,

how that the abundance of their rejoicing is, that they are tried with much tribulation. And thereto, though they were exceeding poor, yet have they given exceeding richly, and that in singleness.

For they have given to the utmost of their ability, as I can bear them witness, and beyond it,

Seriously requesting us that they might have a part in this grace of being servants to the needs of the saints:

They have done more than I expected; they gave themselves to the Lord, to begin with, and then (for so God willed it) they put themselves at my disposal.

With the result that I have been begging Titus that, as he had been the one to begin the work with you, so he should complete among you this grace also.

Now therefore, as ye are rich in all parts, in faith, in word, in knowledge, in all ferventness, and in love, which ye have to us: even so see that ye be plenteous in this benevolence.

For you see the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how though he had wealth, he became poor on your account, so that through his need you might have wealth.

And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.