Greeting
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Paul, 1an apostle of Christ Jesus 2by the will of God, and 3Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, 4with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
God of All Comfort
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6Blessed be the 7God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and 8God of all comfort,
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9who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
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For as we share abundantly in 10Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.a
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11If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
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Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you 12share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
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For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers,b of 13the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.
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Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us 14rely not on ourselves 15but on God 16who raises the dead.
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17He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. 18On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
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19You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf 20for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
Paul's Change of Plans
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For our boast is this, 21the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicityc and 22godly sincerity, 23not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.
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For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and acknowledged and I hope you will fully acknowledge--
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just as you did 24partially acknowledge us--that 25on the day of our Lord Jesus 26you will boast of us as 27we will boast of you.
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Because I was sure of this, 28I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have 29a second 30experience of grace.
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I wanted to visit you 31on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.
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Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans 32according to the flesh, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time?
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For 35the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, 36Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but 37in him it is always Yes.
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For 38all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our 39Amen to God for his glory.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)