Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of the mercies and the God of all consolation, who comforts us in every affliction of ours, so that we are able to comfort those who are in every affliction through the consolation we ourselves received from God. For as the sufferings of the Christ abound for us, so through the Christ our consolation abounds. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which works in endurance of those same sufferings which we also undergo; and our hope for you is firm, since we know that, as you are sharers in our sufferings, so also you are sharers in our consolation.
For we do not wish you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction which befell us in Asia, how we were burdened beyond our powers so that we did not know whether we could survive. For all we could do, we would have got the death sentence; so that our trust had to be not in ourselves but in God, who raises the dead, who rescued us, and will rescue us, from so great a danger of death; in whom we have hope, that he will still protect us, if only you will help with your prayers for us; so that the grace given us because of many persons may be thankfully received by many for our sake.
This is our cause for pride, the testimony of our consciousness that we behaved in the world in the holiness and purity of God, not by fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and especially in relation to you. We are not writing you anything except what you can read and understand; and I hope that you will understand us completely, as you have understood us in part; that we are your cause for pride, as you are ours, on the Day of our Lord Jesus.
It was in this spirit of confidence that I wished formerly to visit you, so that you could enjoy me a second time; to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and return from Macedonia to you, so that you could speed me on my way to Judaea. That was what I wished. Then did I tum fickle? Or when I make my plans, do I do it after the way of the flesh, so that I can say both yes yes and no no? Trust God that our message to you is not yes and no. For Christ Jesus the son of God, preached ^ong you by us, myself and Silvanus and Timothy, was never yes and no, but yes is his nature. For all the promises of God through him are yes; and that is why, because of him, the amen is said for the glory of God by us. It is God who confirms us for Christ, along with you; who anointed us, and set his seal upon us, and deposited the first payment of the Spirit in our hearts.
And I invoke God as witness, on my life, that it was to spare you that I gave up co^mg to Corinth; not that we are in charge of your faith; we work with you to bring you joy, since you have stood fum in your faith.
111 told myself that I must not visit you again in painful circumstances. For if I cause you pain, who else is there to gladden me, besides you, whom I caused pain? And I wrote this precisely so that I should not, visiting you, be caused pain by those who ought to bring me joy; being sure that, for all of you, my joy is the joy of you all. I wrote to you in great affliction and a^^sh of heart, with many tears, not so that you should be grieved, but so that you may know the love I have in surpassing degree for you.
But supposing someone really has caused trouble, he has not caused it for me but in part—not to exaggerate— for you all. For such a one, his punishment by the majority has been enough, so that now you should reverse yourselves and forgive and console him, so that the man I mean will not be overwhelmed by excessive suffering. Therefore I implore you to declare your love for him; since that is why I wrote, to le^ of your disposition, whether you are in every way obedient. Whom you forgive I too forgive; and if I have forgiven, what I forgave was for your sake, before the face of Christ, so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan; for we are not ignorant of what he has in mind.
When I reached Troas, for the gospel of the Christ, and when a door was opened for me by the Lord, I got no relief for my spirit because I did not find Titus, my brother; so I took my leave of the people and went on to Macedonia.
Thanks be to God who constantly leads us in triumph through Christ and through us manifests the savor of the knowledge of him in every region; for we are the fragrance of Christ for God among those who go the way of salvation and those who go the way of perdition; to these, the smell of death for death, to those others the smell of life for life. Who is qualified for that? We do not, like most, go about cheapening the word of God, but speak, as it were, out of purity, from God in the presence of God through Christ.
Are we beginning to recommend ourselves to you once again? Or is it that we do not, as some do, need letters of recommendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all men; because you are displayed as the letter of Christ administered by us, written not in ink but in the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on the heart's tablets of flesh.
Such is the confidence we have in God through the Christ; not that we are qualified in ourselves to reason out anything, as if it came from ourselves, but our qualification is from God, who qualified us to be ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. For if the ministry of death, engraved in letters on the stone, appeared in such glory that the sons of Israel could not look upon the face of Moses, which was perishable, because of the glory of that face; how can the ministry of the Spirit not be in even greater glory? If the ministry of condemnation is glory, all the more does the ministry of righteousness excel in glory. For what has been glorified is no longer glorious insofar as there is a glory that surpasses it; for if what is perishable has glory, how much greater is glory in what endures.
Having such hope as this, we speak out very plainly, not as when Moses put the veil over his face because the sons of Israel could not gaze upon the end of a glory that was passing away. But their minds were impenetrable. For until this very day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read and is not taken away, because only with Christ does it come to an end; but until this day when Moses is read the veil lies upon their hearts; but when anyone turns to the Lord the veil is taken away. And the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord's Spirit is, there is liberty. And all of us, with faces unveiled seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as from the Spirit of the Lord.
We therefore, having this ministry bestowed in mercy upon us, do not weaken; but we have renounced acts which are hidden for shame, not going the way of wickedness or falsifying the word of God, but, by making plain the truth, presenting ourselves to the full consciousness of mankind before God. But if our gospel is hidden at all, it is hidden from those who are on their way to perdition. For them the God of this world has blinded the minds of these unbelievers so that the radiance of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, cannot shine upon them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake. For the God who said: Out of the darkness light shall shine, has made a light in our hearts for the radiance of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
We keep this treasure in vessels of clay, so that the supremacy of power may be God's, not ours; always afflicted but not crushed, bewildered but not despairing, persecuted but not forsaken, cast down but not destroyed, always carrying the death of Jesus in our bodies so that the life of Jesus also may be made manifest in our bodies; for constantly we the living are handed over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be made manifest in this mortal flesh of ours. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
And having the same spirit of faith as in what is written: I believed, therefore I spoke; we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that he who raised up Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and bring us to him, along with you. For all is for your sake, so that grace increasing through greater numbers may make thanksgiving abound to the glory of God. So we do not weaken, and even if our outer man is destroyed, our inner man is rene
wed day by day. The light momentary affliction builds in us an ever greater and greater mass of eternal glory, in us who look not on things visible but on things invisible, for visible things are of the moment, but invisible things, eternal.
For we know that if our home in this earthly tabernacle is destroyed, we have from God a home which is a building not made by hands, and eternal, in heaven. For while we are in this one we make complaints, longing to put on above it, like a garment, our habitation in heaven, if we are to be found still in our bodies covered and not naked. For we who are still in this tabernacle groan under our burden, because we wish not to put it off but to put on the other in addition, so that death may be swallowed up by life. And he who brought us to this is God, by granting us a deposit of the Spirit.
Always confident then and knowing that while we live in the body we live away from the Lord, for we go by what we believe, not what we see, we are of good courage and satisfied to leave the body and be at home with the Lord. So we aspire, whether in the body or out of it, to be pleasing to him; for we all must be shown for what we are before the tribnnal of the Christ, so that each may receive good or evil according to what he did in the flesh.
Knowing then the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade men. To God we are well known; and I hope that we are also well knownwn to you in your own consciences. We are not recommending ourselves to you again, but offering you some cause for pride in us, so that you may have an answer to those whose pride is in appearance and not in the heart. If we are out of our wits, it is for God; if we are in our right minds, it is for you. For the love of the Christ constrains us as we consider that he, alone, died for all (but really all died); and he died for all so that all who live may live, no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them, and was raised from the dead.
Thus from now on we know no one in the flesh. Even if we did know Christ in the flesh, we now no longer know him thus. So that one who is in Christ is a new creature; the old is gone, behold, the new is here; and all is from God, who reconciled us with himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of this reconciliation, because when God was in Christ he reconciled the world with himself, not counting their sins against them, and establishing in us the word of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were summoning you through us. For Christ's sake, we implore you, be reconciled with God. He made the one who knew no sin into sin for our sake, so that we, in him, may become the justice of God.
Working with him, we implore you not to let God's grace be given in vain. For he says: At a favorable time I heard you, and on the day for salvation I came to your rescue. Behold, now is the favorable time, now is the day for salvation. We say this, giving no offence in any way, lest our ministry be blamed, but in every way showing ourselves to be ministers of God by enduring much; in afflictions, in duress, in anguish; through beatings, through imprisonments, through riots, through labors, through sleeplessness, through starvation; by purity, by understanding, by forbearance, by goodness, by the Holy Spirit, by undissembling love, by the word of truth, by the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and the left hand; through glory and dishonor, through slander and praise; as false and truthful, as unknown and recognized, as dying, and behold, we live, as punished but not with death, as in pain but always joyful, as poor but making many rich, as having nothing and possessing everything.
Our speech has been open to you, people of Corinth; our hearts are open to you. You are not inhibited by us, your inhibitions are in your own vitals. Give us what we give you; I speak to you as my children; and open your hearts also.
Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what common ground is there for righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship between light and darkness? What agreement is there between Christ and Belial, or what is shared by believer and unbeliever? How can the temple of God make truce with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said: I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God and they will be my people. Therefore go forth from among those others, and be apart from them, says the Lord; and do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you in; and I will be as a father to you, and you shall be as sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from every poHution of the flesh and spirit, completing our sanctification in the fear of God.
Make room for us. We have injured no one, corrupted no one, taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to fault you; I have told you before that you are in our hearts, to live and die together. I have great confidence in you, I take great pride in you; I ^ filled with comfort, I ^ overflowing with joy, through all our affliction.
For when we arrived in Macedonia, our flesh got no relief, but we were afflicted in every way; outward quarrels, inward fears; but God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us through the arrival of Titus; not only by his presence, but in the comfort he had received concerning you; for he told us of your longing, your sorrowing, your enthusiasm for me; so that I rejoiced the more. Even if I did grieve you by that letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it; I see that that letter did grieve you, if only for a while; but now I rejoice: not because you were grieved but because your grief led to repentance, because you were grieved according to God's will, so that you have lost nothing with us. For grief by God's will causes repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the world's grief causes death. This very fact of your being grieved by God's will—see what activity it has caused in you: what defensiveness, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what vindic- tiveness. In every way you have established your innocence in this matter. But if I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the wrongdoer, or of the one who was wronged, but in order to make plain to you, in the sight of God, your own concern for us. Therefore, I have been comforted. And in addition to this, I have been all the more filled with joy over the happiness of Titus, because his spirit was set at rest by all of you. If I have ever boasted of you to him, I have not been put to shame for it; but just as everything I said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved to be true; and his heart is fully given to you as he remembers the obedient spirit in all of you, how you received him with fear and trembling. I am happy that I have full confidence in you.
We would have you know, brothers, of the grace of God which was granted in the churches of Macedonia; that through a great ordeal of affliction the abundance of their joy, even though their poverty was extreme, overflowed into lavish generosity. I bear you witness that, to the extent of their means, and even beyond their means, of their own free will, they begged us with much entreaty to let them share in our ministering to the saints. And this was not as we had expected, but first they gave themselves, by God's will, to the Lord and to us; so that we asked Titus that, as he had originated this gift of grace, he should go to you to bring it to completion. Then, as you are lavishly endowed with faith and eloquence and understanding and every kind of enthusiasm, and in the love we have inspired in you, be lavish also in this work of grace.
In saying this I am not giving you an order; but by the example of others' eagerness I am trying to prove the genuineness of your own love; for you know the gra- ciousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, and how, when he was rich, he made himself poor so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter, here is my opinion. This is to your advantage. You made a good beaming last year, not only in what you did but in your willingness to do it. Now finish the work, so that your willingness to give may be matched by your actual giving, within your means. For the will is acceptable if one gives what he has, not beyond what he has. It should not be relief for others and hardship for you; but as it is now your surplus should be matched against their deficit, so that when they have a surplus it may meet your deficit
, and aU be made equal. As it is written: He who got much had no excess, and he who got little did not go short.
Thanks be to God, who granted that the same zealous concern for you should be in the heart of Titus, who accepted our plea and, in an excess of zeal, goes of his own accord to you. With we are sending the brother whose preaching of the gospel is praised in all the churches; in addition to which he was elected by the churches to journey with us on this mission of grace which is being administered by us, for the glory of the Lord and to satisfy our own urge. We have this in mind, to avoid harsh criticism for the lavishness of this contribution administered by us; for we look for honor, not only in the judgment of God but in that of men. With them we are sending one of our brothers whom we have proved often in many circumstances to be enthusiastic, and who will be all the more so, by far, by reason of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for you; as for our brothers, they are apostles of the churches, the glorification of Christ. Give proof of your love for them, and the truth of the claims we made to them about you, in the presence of the congregations.
11 It would be superfluous for me to write to you concerning contribution for the saints; for I know your great enthusiasm, a thing about which I have boasted to the Macedonians, saying that Achaea has been ready since last year; and your zeal stirred up most of them. But I ^ sending the brothers, to keep the boasts I have made about you in this matter from being proved empty; so that you may be ready, as I told them you were; to save us, not to mention you, from being embarrassed by your condition, supposing that some Macedonians were to arrive along with me and find you unprepared. So we thought it necessary to ask the brothers to go on to you before us and arrange for that bounty which has already been promised, so that it will be ready as a bountiful gift, not as something extorted. Consider this: He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows abundantly will reap abundantly. Let each give as he thinks right in his heart, not painfully, not forcibly, since God loves a cheerful giver. God has the power to make every grace abound for you, so that, always having full sufficiency in every way, you may have enough for every good work; as it is written: He scattered his bounty abroad, he gave to the poor; his righteousness abides into eternity. He who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will provide and multiply your store of seed and increase the products of your righteousness. You will be rich enough for all that generosity which, through us, brings about thanksgiving to God; because the ministering of this service not only is the supplying of the saints' needs, but also overflows into thanksgiving to God by many. Through the proof of this ministry you will be glorifying God, in addition to the obedience of your confession to the gospel of the Christ, and the generosity of your sharing with them and with all; and to their prayers for your sakes when they love you for the surpassing grace of God in you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.
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