2 Corinthians 1 - 2 — Legacy Standard Bible

God of All Comfort

1Paul, ^aan apostle of ^bChrist Jesus ^cby the will of God, and ^dTimothy our brother, To ^ethe church of God which is at ^fCorinth with all the ¹saints who are throughout Achaia:

²^aGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³^aBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and ^bGod of all comfort, ⁴who ^acomforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in ¹any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵For just ^aas the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶But whether we are afflicted, it is ^afor your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings which we also suffer. ⁷And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that ^aas you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

⁸For ^awe do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our ^baffliction which came to us in ¹^,^cAsia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live. ⁹¹Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; ¹⁰who ^arescued us from so great a peril of death, and will rescue us, ¹He ^bon whom we have set our hope. And He will yet rescue us, ¹¹you also joining in ^ahelping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by ^bmany persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

Paul’s Change of Plans

¹²For our boasting is this: the testimony of ^aour conscience, that in ¹holiness and ^bgodly sincerity, ^cnot in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. ¹³For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand ^auntil the end, ¹⁴just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason for boasting as you also are ours, in ^athe day of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁵And in this confidence I intended at first to ^acome to you, so that you might receive ¹^,^bgrace twice; ¹⁶¹that is, to ^apass ²your way into ^bMacedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be ^chelped on my journey to Judea. ¹⁷Therefore, was I vacillating when I intended to do this? Or what I purpose, do I purpose ^aaccording to the flesh, so that with me there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time? ¹⁸But as ^aGod is faithful, ^bour word to you is not yes and no. ¹⁹For ^athe Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and ^bSilvanus and ^cTimothy—was not yes and no, but has become yes ^din Him. ²⁰For ^aas many as are the promises of God, ^bin Him they are yes. Therefore also through Him is ^cour Amen to the glory of God through us. ²¹Now He who ^aestablishes us with you in Christ and ^banointed us is God, ²²who also ^asealed us and ^bgave the ¹pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.

²³But ^aI call God as witness ¹to my soul, that ^bto spare you I did not come again to ^cCorinth. ²⁴Not that we ^alord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are ^bstanding firm.

2But I determined this ¹for my own sake, that I ^awould not come to you again in sorrow. ²For if I ^acause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful? ³And this is the very thing I ^awrote you, so that ^bwhen I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; having ^cconfidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. ⁴For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I ^awrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have abundantly for you.

Forgive and Love the Sinner

⁵But ^aif any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree—¹in order not to say too much—to all of you. ⁶Sufficient for such a one is ^athis punishment which was inflicted by the majority, ⁷so that on the contrary you should rather ^agraciously forgive and comfort him, lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive sorrow. ⁸Therefore I encourage you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹For to this end also ^aI wrote, so that I might ^bknow your proven character, whether you are ^cobedient in all things. ¹⁰But one whom you graciously forgive anything, I graciously forgive also. For indeed what I have graciously forgiven, if I have graciously forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes ^ain the presence of Christ, ¹¹so that no advantage would be taken of us by ^aSatan, for ^bwe are not ignorant of his schemes.

¹²Now when I came to ^aTroas for the ^bgospel of Christ and when a ^cdoor was opened for me in the Lord, ¹³I ^ahad no rest for my spirit, not finding ^bTitus my brother. But ^csaying farewell to them, I went on to ^dMacedonia.

¹⁴^aBut thanks be to God, who always ^bleads us in triumphal procession in Christ, and manifests through us the ^caroma of the ^dknowledge of Him in every place. ¹⁵For we are a ^afragrance of Christ to God among ^bthose who are being saved and among those who are perishing; ¹⁶^ato the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is ^bsufficient for these things? ¹⁷For we are not like many, ¹^,^apeddling the word of God, but ^bas from sincerity, but as from God, ^cin the sight of God, we speak in Christ.