2 Corinthians 1

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus,

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

¹Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,

¹Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

²To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

¹⁰If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is doing the work of the Lord, just as I am.

⁷To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

²³Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

³Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

¹Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.

²To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁵Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you harmony with one another in Christ Jesus,

⁶so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving, rich in loving devotion to all who call on You.

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

⁹To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against Him

¹¹Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing.

¹²“I, even I, am He who comforts you. Why should you be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who withers like grass?

¹⁶Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope,

¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.

⁶But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,

⁷and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort he had received from you. He told us about your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced all the more.

¹“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

⁷You are my hiding place. You protect me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

²⁴Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.

¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death,

²⁰I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have complete boldness so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

¹⁶Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope,

¹⁷encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.

¹⁰We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

¹¹For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body.

¹Therefore if you have any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,

¹⁰For this reason I endure all things for the sake of the elect, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

¹⁵All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is extending to more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow, to the glory of God.

¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.

⁴who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

²⁸And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.

¹⁹because I know that through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my distress will turn out for my deliverance.

¹³So I ask you not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

¹⁷And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us.

⁴That is why we boast among God’s churches about your perseverance and faith in the face of all the persecution and affliction you are enduring.

⁵All this is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment. And so you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.

¹²Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.

³and continually recalling before our God and Father your work of faith, your labor of love, and your enduring hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴Brothers who are beloved by God, we know that He has chosen you,

²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,

³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

¹²if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us;

⁷Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.

⁸We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;

⁸Already you have all you want. Already you have become rich. Without us, you have become kings. How I wish you really were kings, so that we might be kings with you!

³²If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for human motives, what did I gain? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

⁹because a great door for effective work has opened to me, even though many oppose me.

²³About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way.

²⁴It began with a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines of Artemis, bringing much business to the craftsmen.

¹David, however, said to himself, “One of these days now I will be swept away by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will stop searching for me all over Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”

⁵Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim that anything comes from us, but our competence comes from God.

⁷Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.

¹⁹Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and in a sense, he did receive Isaac back from death.

⁷or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

⁸Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

¹⁷As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the presence of God, in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not yet exist.

¹⁸Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

¹⁴Then I will confess to you that your own right hand can save you.

¹⁰To this end we labor and strive, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of everyone, and especially of those who believe.

⁹if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

³⁷David added, “The Lord, who delivered me from the claws of the lion and the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” “Go,” said Saul, “and may the Lord be with you.”

³¹Pray that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there,

¹⁷But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.

¹⁹because I know that through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my distress will turn out for my deliverance.

¹⁵All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is extending to more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow, to the glory of God.

⁵So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was fervently praying to God for him.

³as you pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

¹⁸Pray for us; we are convinced that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.

¹Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may spread quickly and be held in honor, just as it was with you.

¹³And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.

¹⁷For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.

¹³Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

¹⁴But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth.

¹⁰You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless our conduct was among you who believed.

¹⁸Pray for us; we are convinced that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.

¹⁰But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

⁶I pray that your partnership in the faith may become effective as you fully acknowledge every good thing that is ours in Christ.

²Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not practice deceit, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by open proclamation of the truth, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

⁶And I hope you will realize that we have not failed the test.

¹¹Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is clear to God, and I hope it is clear to your conscience as well.

¹⁹After all, who is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting, if it is not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?

²⁰You are indeed our glory and our joy.

¹⁶as you hold forth the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

⁸He will sustain you to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹³so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.

¹Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you must stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

¹⁰so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

²⁹I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

¹¹For I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you,

¹⁹But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out not only what these arrogant people are saying, but what power they have.

¹As God’s fellow workers, then, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

³⁴If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you come together it will not result in judgment. And when I come, I will give instructions about the remaining matters.

²⁵Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith,

²⁶so that through my coming to you again your exultation in Christ Jesus will resound on account of me.

⁵After I go through Macedonia, however, I will come to you; for I will be going through Macedonia.

⁶Perhaps I will stay with you awhile, or even spend the winter, so that you can help me on my journey, wherever I go.

²¹After these things had happened, Paul resolved in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must see Rome as well.”

²²He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed for a time in the province of Asia.

⁵But when our time there had ended, we set out on our journey. All the disciples, with their wives and children, accompanied us out of the city and knelt down on the beach to pray with us.

³⁷Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.

¹²Above all, my brothers, do not swear, not by heaven or earth or by any other oath. Simply let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, so that you will not fall under judgment.

²I beg you that when I come I may not need to be as bold as I expect toward those who presume that we live according to the flesh.

³For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.

¹⁸But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.”

¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not “Yes” and “No,” but in Him it has always been “Yes.”

¹⁵You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

³²“Indeed,” declares the Lord, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the Lord.

⁹God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

⁷To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the One who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open.

¹⁴To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation.

²⁸Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “You know Me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of My own accord, but He who sent Me is true. You do not know Him,

³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is forever worthy of praise, knows that I am not lying.

²³I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.

⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

¹⁷When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,

⁹Anyone who runs ahead without remaining in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever remains in His teaching has both the Father and the Son.

⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.

¹⁸To the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a blazing fire and whose feet are like polished bronze.

²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

²⁴As for you, let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If it does, you will also remain in the Son and in the Father.

²⁵And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.

²²But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.

¹²saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

⁶to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.

¹³And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

²⁷And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.

²⁰You, however, have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.

¹⁰And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore you, secure you, strengthen you, and establish you.

⁹You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

¹The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners,

³But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.

³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

⁵And it is God who has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come.

¹³And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

¹⁴who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.

²⁷Do not work for food that perishes, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval.”

¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption to sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”

²³Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

²⁰I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie.

²¹Which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and with a gentle spirit?

⁹God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you

¹⁰This is why I write these things while absent, so that when I am present I will not need to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.

²I already warned you the second time I was with you. So now in my absence I warn those who sinned earlier and everyone else: If I return, I will not spare anyone,

⁸God is my witness how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

³not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

¹Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, and in which you stand firm.

²⁴And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing.

²⁵He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

²⁵Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith,

²⁶so that through my coming to you again your exultation in Christ Jesus will resound on account of me.

⁵For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.