Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all God's people all over Greece:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father and the all-comforting God,

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.

He saved me from a death so horrible, and He will save me again! He it is on whom I have set my hope that He will still save me,

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 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;

But it is God who makes us as well as you secure through union with Christ, and has anointed us,

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.

But if anyone has made anyone sad, it is not I, but you that he has made sad, at least, some of you, not to be severe on all of you.

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.

And all of us, with faces uncovered, because we continue to reflect like mirrors the splendor of the Lord, are being transformed into likeness to Him, from one degree of splendor to another, since it comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

On the other hand, I have renounced all underhanded, disgraceful methods; I neither practice cunning nor do I tamper with God's message, but by clear and candid statements of truth I try to commend myself to every human conscience in God's sight.

If the meaning of the good news I preach is covered up at all, it is so only in the case of those who are on the way to destruction.

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.

because I know that He who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise me too in fellowship with you.

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.

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 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.

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

obscure and yet well-known, on the point of dying and yet I go on living, punished and yet not put to death,

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."

Therefore: "'Come out of company with them, and separate from them,' the Lord has said, 'And stop touching what is unclean; then I will welcome you,

I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters of mine,' The Lord Almighty said."

I have the greatest confidence in you; I speak most highly of you. I am fully comforted; in the face of all my sorrow my cup is running over with joy.

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.

Indeed, if I have been doing some boasting of you to him, I have never been ashamed of it; but just as all I said to him was true, so now my boasting before Titus has been shown to be true.

Yes, his heart is running over toward you, as he continues recalling how you all obeyed him, with what reverence and trembling you welcomed him.

They did not do as I expected but even more; they first by God's will gave themselves to the Lord, and then to me;

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.

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

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.

But I send the brothers that in this matter my boasting of you may not turn out to be an idle boasting, that you all may be ready, as I have told them you will be,

Now this is the way it is: Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly too, but whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully too.

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;

He who always supplies the sower with seed and the eater with bread will supply you with seed and multiply it and enlarge the harvest which your deeds of charity yield.

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.

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.

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!

Since many boast in accordance with their human nature, I will do it too.

I am ashamed to say that I was, as it were, so weak in the matter. And yet in whatever respect anyone else is daring to boast -- I am talking like a fool -- I too will dare to boast.

Besides all other things, there is my concern for all the churches.