Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will, and the brother Timotheus, to the assembly of God which is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.

Because, even as the sufferings of the Christ abound towards us, so through the Christ does our encouragement also abound.

(and our hope for you is sure;) or whether we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement and salvation: knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also of the encouragement.

For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, as to our tribulation which happened to us in Asia, that we were excessively pressed beyond our power, so as to despair even of living.

who has delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver; in whom we confide that he will also yet deliver;

For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and sincerity before God, (not in fleshly wisdom but in God's grace,) we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly towards you.

so that on the contrary ye should rather shew grace and encourage, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with excessive grief.

being manifested to be Christ's epistle ministered by us, written, not with ink, but the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tables, but on fleshy tables of the heart.

(But if the ministry of death, in letters, graven in stones, began with glory, so that the children of Israel could not fix their eyes on the face of Moses, on account of the glory of his face, a glory which is annulled;

and not according as Moses put a veil on his own face, so that the children of Israel should not fix their eyes on the end of that annulled.

in whom the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them.

so that death works in us, but life in you.

we are confident, I say, and pleased rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord.

So that we henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer.

So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new:

Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us, that we might become God's righteousness in him.

but in everything commending ourselves as God's ministers, in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in straits,

and what agreement of God's temple with idols? for ye are the living God's temple; according as God has said, I will dwell among them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be to me a people.

Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God's fear.

and not by his coming only, but also through the encouragement with which he was encouraged as to you; relating to us your ardent desire, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I the more rejoiced.

For if also I grieved you in the letter, I do not regret it, if even I have regretted it; for I see that that letter, if even it were only for a time, grieved you.

So then, if also I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of him that injured, nor for the sake of him that was injured, but for the sake of our diligent zeal for you being manifested to you before God.

Because if I boasted to him anything about you, I have not been put to shame; but as we have spoken to you all things in truth, so also our boasting to Titus has been the truth;

And not according as we hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and to us by God's will.

So that we begged Titus that, according as he had before begun, so he would also complete as to you this grace also;

But now also complete the doing of it; so that as there was the readiness to be willing, so also to complete out of what ye have.

but on the principle of equality; in the present time your abundance for their lack, that their abundance may be for your lack, so that there should be equality.

and not only so, but is also chosen by the assemblies as our fellow-traveller with this grace, ministered by us to the glory of the Lord himself, and a witness of our readiness;

Whether as regards Titus, he is my companion and fellow-labourer in your behalf; or our brethren, they are deputed messengers of assemblies, Christ's glory.

lest haply, if Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, that we say not ye, may be put to shame in this confidence.

Do ye look at what concerns appearance? If any one has confidence in himself that he is of Christ, let him think this again in himself, that even as he is of Christ, so also are we.

not boasting out of measure in other people's labours, but having hope, your faith increasing, to be enlarged amongst you, according to our rule, yet more abundantly

to announce the glad tidings to that which is beyond you, not to be boasting in another's rule of things made ready to hand.

But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, so your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ.

Again I say, Let not any one think me to be a fool; but if otherwise, receive me then even as a fool, that I also may boast myself some little.

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as being beside myself) I above measure so; in labours exceedingly abundant, in stripes to excess, in prisons exceedingly abundant, in deaths oft.

in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own race, in perils from the nations, in perils in the city, in perils in the desert, in perils on the sea, in perils among false brethren;

For if I shall desire to boast, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth; but I forbear, lest any one should think as to me above what he sees me to be, or whatever he may hear of me.

But be it so. I did not burden you, but being crafty I took you by guile.

I have declared beforehand, and I say beforehand as present the second time, and now absent, to those that have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare.

for if indeed he has been crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power; for indeed we are weak in him, but we shall live with him by God's power towards you,)