Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are throughout Achaia:

who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings that we suffer.

And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.

He delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

You also must help us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

For our boast is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with holiness and godly sincerity, not in worldly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and still more toward you.

as you have understood us in part, that you can be proud of us just as we can be of you, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

But as surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No.

For as many as are the promises of God, in him they are Yes. And so through him we speak our Amen to the glory of God.

Now it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us;

he has put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

But I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.

For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?

And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I had confidence in all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.

Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority,

For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.

in order that Satan might gain no advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

For we are not, like so many, peddling the word of God; but as men of sincerity, as from God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you?

You show that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of carnal hearts.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves; but our competence is from God,

who has made us competent as ministers 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 fading away came with glory, much more is the glory of that which lasts.

But their minds were hardened; for to this day, when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because only in Christ is it removed.

Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.

But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.