2 Corinthians
Chapter 1
Overview
Paul opens this letter with Timothy to the community of Jesus-followers in Corinth and across Achaia, the surrounding Roman province. Their relationship has been strained, and Paul must explain why his travel plans changed without sounding slippery or defensive. He begins, however, with comfort: the kind received in suffering becomes something one can share. His own brush with death leads into trust in God, gratitude for prayer, and a careful defense of his honesty. By chapter’s end, a postponed visit appears not as neglect but as mercy, and authority gives way to partnership in joy.
1Paul, an apostle—a commissioned messenger—of Jesus the Messiah by God’s will, and Timothy, our brother, write to the community of God’s people in Corinth and to all God’s people throughout Achaia.
2May you receive generous kindness and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus the Messiah.
3Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. He is the Father who shows tender mercy and the God who gives every kind of comfort.
4He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort people in every kind of trouble with the same comfort we receive from God.
5Just as the Messiah’s sufferings overflow into our lives, so our comfort also overflows through the Messiah.
6If we suffer, it is for your comfort and rescue. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort. This comfort takes effect as you patiently endure the same sufferings that we also experience.
7Our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
8Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the trouble we experienced in the Roman province of Asia, in what is now western Turkey. The pressure was far beyond our strength—so overwhelming that we gave up hope of staying alive.
9In fact, we felt that we had received a death sentence. This happened so that we would not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
10He rescued us from such terrible danger of death, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our hope in him, confident that he will continue to rescue us.
11You also help us by praying for us. Then many people will thank God on our behalf for the gracious help given to us in answer to the prayers of many.
12This is our reason for confidence: our conscience confirms that we have lived in the world—and especially in our relationship with you—with holiness and sincerity that come from God. We have relied not on merely human cleverness but on God’s generous kindness.
13We are not writing anything other than what you can read and understand. I hope you will eventually understand us fully,
14just as you already understand us in part. Then, when our Lord Jesus comes, you will have reason to be proud of us, just as we will have reason to be proud of you.
15Because I was confident of this, I had planned to visit you earlier so that you could receive a second benefit from me.
16I planned to travel through Corinth on my way to Macedonia, return to you from Macedonia, and then have you help me continue my journey to Judea.
17When I made this plan, was I being careless? Do I make plans from mere human self-interest, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time?
18As surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not both “Yes” and “No.”
19God’s Son, Jesus the Messiah, whom Silvanus, Timothy, and I proclaimed among you, was not both “Yes” and “No.” In him there is a firm “Yes.”
20Every one of God’s promises finds its “Yes” in Jesus. That is why, through Jesus, we say “Amen”—“Yes, it is true”—to honor God.
21God is the one who keeps us, together with you, firmly joined to the Messiah. He has anointed us, setting us apart for his work.
22God has also put his seal on us to show that we belong to him, and he has placed his Spirit in our hearts as the guarantee of what is still to come.
23I call on God as my witness, staking my life on this: I did not return to Corinth because I wanted to spare you.
24We are not trying to control what you believe. Instead, we work alongside you for your joy, because it is by faith that you stand firm.