From: Paul, an apostle of the Messiah Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother. To: God's church in Corinth, and to all the holy people throughout Achaia.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! He is our merciful Father and the God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our suffering, so that we may be able to comfort others in all their suffering, as we ourselves are being comforted by God.

He has rescued us from a terrible death, and he will continue to rescue us. Yes, he is the one on whom we have set our hope, and he will rescue us again,

as you also help us by your prayers for us. Then many people will thank God on our behalf because of the favor shown us through the prayers of many.

For what we are writing you is nothing more than what you can read and also understand. I hope you will understand completely,

For all God's promises are "Yes" in him. And so through him we can say "Amen," to the glory of God.

Now the one who makes us and you as well secure in union with the Messiah and has anointed us is God,

After all, if I were to grieve you, who should make me happy but the person I am making sad?

This is the very reason I wrote you, so that when I did come I might not be made sad by those who should have made me happy. For I had confidence that all of you would share the joy that I have.

But if anyone has caused grief, he didn't cause me any grief. To some extent I don't want to emphasize this too much it has affected all of you.

So forgive and comfort him, or else he will drown in his excessive grief.

so that we may not be outsmarted by Satan. After all, we are not unaware of his intentions.

To some people we are a deadly fragrance, while to others we are a living fragrance. Who is qualified for this?

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

As all of us reflect the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, we are becoming more like him with ever-increasing glory by the Lord's Spirit.

While we are alive, we are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be clearly shown in our mortal bodies.

We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to God together with you.

All this is for your sake so that, as his grace spreads, more and more people will give thanks and glorify God.

Of course, if we do put it on, we will not be found without a body.

So while we are still in this tent, we sigh under our burdens, because we do not want to put it off but to put it on, so that our dying bodies may be swallowed up by life.

For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah, so that each of us may receive what he deserves for what he has done in his body, whether good or worthless.

The love of the Messiah controls us, for we are convinced of this: that one person died for all people; therefore, all people have died.

He died for all people, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the one who died and rose for them.

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

All of this comes from God, who has reconciled us to himself through the Messiah and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

through honor and dishonor; through ill repute and good repute; perceived as deceivers and yet true,

as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and yet as you see very much alive, as punished and yet not killed,

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 and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people."

Therefore, "Get away from them and separate yourselves from them," declares the Lord, "and don't touch anything unclean. Then I will welcome you.

I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters," declares the Lord Almighty.

I have great confidence in you. I am very proud of you. I am very much encouraged. I am overjoyed in all our troubles.

If I made you sad with my letter, I do not regret it, although I did regret it then. I see that the letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while.

This is what comforted us. In addition to our own comfort, we were even more delighted at the joy of Titus, because his spirit had been set at rest by all of you.

His affection for you is even greater as he remembers how obedient all of you were and how you welcomed him with fear and trembling.

I can testify that by their own free will they have given to the utmost of their ability, yes, even beyond their ability.

We did not expect that! They gave themselves to the Lord first and then to us, since this was God's will.

I am giving you my opinion on this matter because it will be helpful to you. Last year you were not only willing to do something, but had already started to do it.

Not that others should have relief while you have hardship. Rather, it is a question of fairness.

He welcomed my request and eagerly went to visit you by his own free will.

With him we have sent the brother who is praised in all the churches for spreading the gospel.

More than that, he has also been selected by the churches to travel with us while we are administering this work of kindness for the glory of the Lord and as evidence of our eagerness to help.

Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.

Besides, God is able to make every blessing of yours overflow for you, so that in every situation you will always have all you need for any good work.

Now he who supplies seed to the farmer and bread to eat will also supply you with seed and multiply it and enlarge the harvest that results from your righteousness.

In every way you will grow richer and become even more generous, and this will cause others to give thanks to God because of us,

Because your service in giving proves your love, you will be glorifying God as you obey what your confession of the Messiah's gospel demands, since you are generous in sharing with them and with everyone else.

And so in their prayers for you they will long for you because of God's exceptional grace that was shown to you.

I beg you that when I come I will not need to be courageous by daring to oppose some people who think that we are living according to the flesh.

Once your obedience is complete, we will be ready to reprimand every type of disobedience.

So if I boast a little too much about our authority, which the Lord gave us to build you up and not to tear you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

Someone like this should take note of the following: What we say by letter when we are absent is what we will do when present!

We will not boast about what cannot be evaluated. Instead, we will stay within the field that God assigned us, so as to reach even you.

For if someone comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or should you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you are all too willing to listen.

Even though I may be untrained as an orator, I am not so in the field of knowledge. We have made this clear to all of you in every possible way.

When I was with you and needed something, I did not bother any of you, because our brothers who came from Macedonia supplied everything I needed. I kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.

As surely as the truth of the Messiah is in me, my boasting will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.

But I will go on doing what I'm doing in order to deny an opportunity to those people who want an opportunity to be recognized as our equals in the work they are boasting about.

So it is not surprising if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their doom will match their deeds!

I will say it again: No one should think that I am a fool. But if you do, then treat me like a fool so that I can also boast a little.

Since many people boast in a fleshly way, I will do it, too.

You are wise, so you will gladly be tolerant of fools.

Besides everything else, I have a daily burden because of my anxiety about all the churches.