Category: 2 Corinthians

[1:1] From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and from our brother Timothy— To the church of God in Corinth, and to all God's people throughout Achaia:

[1:2] May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

[1:3] Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, the God from whom all help comes!

[1:4] He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God.

[1:5] Just as we have a share in Christ's many sufferings, so also through Christ we share in God's great help.

[1:6] If we suffer, it is for your help and salvation; if we are helped, then you too are helped and given the strength to endure with patience the same sufferings that we also endure.

[1:7] So our hope in you is never shaken; we know that just as you share in our sufferings, you also share in the help we receive.

[1:8] We want to remind you, friends, of the trouble we had in the province of Asia. The burdens laid upon us were so great and so heavy that we gave up all hope of staying alive.

[1:9] We felt that the death sentence had been passed on us. But this happened so that we should rely, not on ourselves, but only on God, who raises the dead.

[1:10] From such terrible dangers of death he saved us, and will save us; and we have placed our hope in him that he will save us again,

[1:11] as you help us by means of your prayers for us. So it will be that the many prayers for us will be answered, and God will bless us; and many will raise their voices to him in thanksgiving for us.

[2:5] Now, if anyone has made somebody sad, he has not done it to me but to all of you—in part, at least. (I say this because I do not want to be too hard on him.)

[2:6] It is enough that this person has been punished in this way by most of you.

[2:7] Now, however, you should forgive him and encourage him, in order to keep him from becoming so sad as to give up completely.

[2:8] And so I beg you to let him know that you really do love him.

[2:9] I wrote you that letter because I wanted to find out how well you had stood the test and whether you are always ready to obey my instructions.

[2:10] When you forgive people for what they have done, I forgive them too. For when I forgive—if, indeed, I need to forgive anything—I do it in Christ's presence because of you,

[2:11] in order to keep Satan from getting the upper hand over us; for we know what his plans are.

[2:12] When I arrived in Troas to preach the Good News about Christ, I found that the Lord had opened the way for the work there.

[2:13] But I was deeply worried, because I could not find our brother Titus. So I said good-bye to the people there and went on to Macedonia.

[2:14] But thanks be to God! For in union with Christ we are always led by God as prisoners in Christ's victory procession. God uses us to make the knowledge about Christ spread everywhere like a sweet fragrance.

[2:15] For we are like a sweet-smelling incense offered by Christ to God, which spreads among those who are being saved and those who are being lost.

[2:16] For those who are being lost, it is a deadly stench that kills; but for those who are being saved, it is a fragrance that brings life. Who, then, is capable for such a task?

[2:17] We are not like so many others, who handle God's message as if it were cheap merchandise; but because God has sent us, we speak with sincerity in his presence, as servants of Christ.

[3:1] Does this sound as if we were again boasting about ourselves? Could it be that, like some other people, we need letters of recommendation to you or from you?

[3:2] You yourselves are the letter we have, written on our hearts for everyone to know and read.

[3:3] It is clear that Christ himself wrote this letter and sent it by us. It is written, not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, and not on stone tablets but on human hearts.

[3:4] We say this because we have confidence in God through Christ.

[3:5] There is nothing in us that allows us to claim that we are capable of doing this work. The capacity we have comes from God;

[3:6] it is he who made us capable of serving the new covenant, which consists not of a written law but of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

[3:7] The Law was carved in letters on stone tablets, and God's glory appeared when it was given. Even though the brightness on Moses' face was fading, it was so strong that the people of Israel could not keep their eyes fixed on him. If the Law, which brings death when it is in force, came with such glory,

[3:8] how much greater is the glory that belongs to the activity of the Spirit!

[3:9] The system which brings condemnation was glorious; how much more glorious is the activity which brings salvation!

[3:10] We may say that because of the far brighter glory now the glory that was so bright in the past is gone.

[3:11] For if there was glory in that which lasted for a while, how much more glory is there in that which lasts forever!

[3:12] Because we have this hope, we are very bold.

[3:13] We are not like Moses, who had to put a veil over his face so that the people of Israel would not see the brightness fade and disappear.

[3:14] Their minds, indeed, were closed; and to this very day their minds are covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. The veil is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.

[3:15] Even today, whenever they read the Law of Moses, the veil still covers their minds.

[3:16] But it can be removed, as the scripture says about Moses: “His veil was removed when he turned to the Lord.”

[3:17] Now, “the Lord” in this passage is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is freedom.

[3:18] All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.

[4:1] God in his mercy has given us this work to do, and so we do not become discouraged.

[4:2] We put aside all secret and shameful deeds; we do not act with deceit, nor do we falsify the word of God. In the full light of truth we live in God's sight and try to commend ourselves to everyone's good conscience.

[4:3] For if the gospel we preach is hidden, it is hidden only from those who are being lost.

[4:4] They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

[4:5] For it is not ourselves that we preach; we preach Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

[4:6] The God who said, “Out of darkness the light shall shine!” is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts, to bring us the knowledge of God's glory shining in the face of Christ.

[4:7] Yet we who have this spiritual treasure are like common clay pots, in order to show that the supreme power belongs to God, not to us.

[4:8] We are often troubled, but not crushed; sometimes in doubt, but never in despair;

[4:9] there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed.

[4:10] At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life also may be seen in our bodies.

[4:11] Throughout our lives we are always in danger of death for Jesus' sake, in order that his life may be seen in this mortal body of ours.

[4:12] This means that death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

[4:13] The scripture says, “I spoke because I believed.” In the same spirit of faith we also speak because we believe.

[4:14] We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus to life, will also raise us up with Jesus and take us, together with you, into his presence.

[4:15] All this is for your sake; and as God's grace reaches more and more people, they will offer to the glory of God more prayers of thanksgiving.