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:

spiritual blessing and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

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.

Yes, I felt within my very self the sentence of death, to keep me from depending on myself instead of God who raises the dead.

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 my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

As certainly as God is to be trusted, my message to you has not been a "Yes" that might mean "No."

For God's Son, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us, Silvanus, Timothy, and me, did not become a "Yes" that might mean "No."

But with Him it is always "Yes," for, as many as the promises of God may be, through Him they are always "Yes." This is why our "Amen" through Him is for the glory of God when spoken by us.

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

But upon my soul I call God to witness that it was to spare you pain that I gave up my visit to Corinth.

When I went to Troas to preach the good news of Christ, although I had an opportunity in the service of the Lord,

But thanks be to God, for He always leads me in His triumphal train, through union with Christ, and everywhere through me keeps spreading the perfume of the knowledge of Him.

Indeed, I am the fragrance of Christ to God, alike for those who are being saved and for those who are perishing;

Now who is qualified for such a task? I am, for I am not a peddler of God's message, like the most of them, but like a man of sincerity, like a man that is sent from God and living in His presence, in union with Christ I speak His message.

for you are always showing that you are a letter of Christ, produced by my service, written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts.

Such is the confidence I have through Christ in the presence of God.

Not that I am myself qualified to consider anything as coming from me myself. No, my qualification comes from God, for

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.

So, because I hold a place in this ministry and that because I have had God's mercy shown me, I never give up.

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.

In their case, the god of this world has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers, to keep the glorious light of the good news of Christ, who is the likeness of God, from dawning upon them.

For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, reflected on the face of Christ.

But I am keeping this jewel in an earthen jar, to prove that its surpassing power is God's, not mine.

For everything is for your sakes, in order that His favor by multiplying the thanksgiving of many may make the cup run over to the praise of God.

For I know that if this earthly tent in which I live is taken down, I have a building in heaven which comes from God, a house not built by human hands but eternal.

Now it is God Himself who has put the finishing touches on me for this change, because He has given me the Spirit as the first installment of future bliss.

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.

So, since I know what the fear of God can do, I am trying to win men. My inner self is perfectly known to God, and I hope, to your consciences too.

For if I did go crazy, it was for God's glory; and if I am keeping my head cool, it is for your good.

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

For it was through Christ that God was reconciling the world to Himself instead of debiting men's offenses against them, and He has committed to me the message of this reconciliation.

So I am an envoy to represent Christ, because it is through me that God is making His appeal. As one representing Christ I beg you, be reconciled to God.

He made Him who personally knew nothing of sin to be a sin-offering for us, so that through union with Him we might come into right standing with God.

As God's fellow-worker I beg you too not to accept God's favor and throw it away.

On the contrary, I am trying in everything to prove to people that I am a true servant of God: by my tremendous endurance in sorrows, distresses, difficulties;

my message of truth, and the power of God; with the weapons of right-doing in my right hand and my left;

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."

So, since we have such promises as these, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles our bodies and spirits, and in reverence to God carry on our consecration to completeness.

But God, who comforts the downhearted, comforted me by the coming of Titus,

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.

So, although I did write to you, it was not for the offender's sake, nor for the offended party's sake, but in the sight of God for the sake of having your enthusiasm for me made perfectly clear to you. This is why I am so comforted.

Now I am going to tell you, brothers, of God's spiritual blessing which was given in the churches of Macedonia,

with earnest entreaty, they kept on begging me for the favor of sharing in this service that is being rendered to God's people.

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;

But thanks be to God, who kindles in the heart of Titus the same enthusiasm for you that I have;

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

It is really superfluous for me to write to you about this service which is being rendered to God's people,

So I have thought it necessary to urge these brothers to visit you ahead of me and get your promised love-offering ready beforehand, so as to have it ready as a real love-offering, not as one grasped and grudgingly given.

Each must give what he has purposed in his heart to give, not sorrowfully or under compulsion, for it is the happy giver that God loves.

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;

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.

Because the service rendered by this sacred offering is not only fully supplying the needs of God's people, but it is also running over with many thanks 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.

Thank God for His unspeakable gift!

for the weapons used in my warfare are not mere human ones, but through my God are mighty for demolishing fortresses.

For I am demolishing arguments and every barrier that is raised against the genuine knowledge of God, taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ,

Indeed, I do not dare to count or compare myself with certain men who are always recommending themselves. But they do not show good sense, because they do continue measuring themselves with one another and comparing themselves with one another.

But I shall never go too far in my boasting; no, I shall stay within the limits of the sphere which God apportioned me, so as to reach even you.

For I am not overstepping my authority as though I should not reach you, for I was the very first to reach as far as you with the good news of Christ.

so that I can preach the good news in the regions beyond you, without boasting in another man's sphere of work already done by him.

Did I do wrong in taking a lowly place to let you have an exalted one, in that I preached the good news about God to you without accepting any pay?

Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.

And I shall keep on doing as I am, in order to cut the ground from under the feet of those who want an opportunity to show themselves on a level with me in the matters of which they boast.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am telling the truth.

I have to keep on boasting. There is no good to be gotten from it, but I will go on to visions and revelations which the Lord has given me.

I know a man in union with Christ fourteen years ago -- whether in the body or out of it, I do not know, but God knows -- who was caught up to the third heaven.

Yes, I know that this man -- whether in or out of the body, I do not know, but God knows --

Are you thinking all this time that I am defending myself to you? It is in the very presence of God and as one who is in union with Christ that I am speaking. And it is all for building you up, beloved, for I am apprehensive that, somehow or other, when I come I shall find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me.

and that when I come back my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn over some of those who formerly have committed shocking sins, and have not repented for them -- their impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality, which once they practiced.

For though He was crucified in weakness, yet by the power of God He goes on living. We too, indeed, show weakness through our union with Him, yet by the power of God we too shall be alive toward you through fellowship with Him.

But I am praying God that you may never do anything wrong, not to show that I am standing the test, but that you should continue doing right, though I should fail to stand the test.

Finally, brothers, goodbye! Practice the perfecting of your characters, keep listening to my appeals, continue thinking in harmony and living in peace, and the loving, peace-giving God will be with you.

All God's people wish to be remembered to you.

The spiritual blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the common sharing of the Holy Spirit be with you all.