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The Second Letter to the Corinthians 1

1 I, Paul, write this letter to you, and Timothy, our fellow believer, is with me. God chose to send me to represent the Messiah Jesus, because that is what God wanted. I send this letter to you who are part of the group of believers belonging to God, which is in the city of Corinth. I also send this letter to all the believers who live throughout the region of Achaia. 2 May God, who is our Father, and the Lord Jesus the Messiah continue to be kind to you and make you peaceful.

3 May we always praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah—he is our merciful Father and our God who always comforts us. 4 God comforts us whenever we suffer. He does that so that we can comfort others who are suffering in any way. God enables us to comfort them in the very same way as he comforts us. 5 You see, the Messiah suffered a lot for us, and now we continue to suffer as the Messiah did because we belong to him. But now the Messiah also comforts us in the same abundant amount. 6 So whenever people cause us to suffer, it is so that God may comfort you and protect you spiritually. Whenever God comforts us, it is so that he may also comfort you. God does this as you patiently endure when people cause you to suffer just as people cause us to suffer. 7 We know that God will also comfort you as you suffer like we suffer. Therefore, we are very confident that you will continue trusting in Jesus.

8 For example, fellow believers, we want you to know about the bad things that happened to us in the province of Asia. They were so difficult that we felt that we could not endure them. We felt certain that we were going to die. 9 We felt like a person feels when he has heard a judge say, “I condemn you to die.” But God allowed us to feel that way so that we would learn to not rely on ourselves but, instead, to rely on God. He causes people who have died to live again. 10 Even though it seemed to us that we would certainly die, God rescued us from the people who wanted to kill us, and he will continue to rescue us from similar people. We confidently expect that he will rescue us again 11 as you help us by praying for us. Please do pray for us so that many people will thank God for what he will graciously do for us because many people prayed for us.

12 We are proud that we can honestly say that we have behaved toward all people in a holy and sincere way, as God has enabled us to do. We do not behave in the way that unbelievers think is wise. Instead, God graciously guides us, especially as we interact with you. 13 To see this, look at my letters. In all of my letters to you I have written only what you can easily read and understand. I hope that soon you will understand us completely 14 just as you partially understand us already. Then when our Lord Jesus returns, you will be just as proud of us as we will be proud of you.

15-16 15-16Because I was confident that you were proud of me, I planned to visit you once on my way to the province of Macedonia, and then to visit you again as I returned from there. In that way, you would benefit twice from having me with you. Also, you could help supply what I would need to go from your city to the province of Judea. 17 I intended to visit you those two times, but then I did not come the second time. That does not mean that I changed my plan lightly. I do not make or change my plans according to what I might desire at the time. I do not say, “Yes, I will do that” and then quickly say, “No, I will not do it.” 18 Just as God is faithful, we are completely sincere in everything that we say to you. We would never say, “Yes” when we really think, “No.” 19 I and Silvanus and Timothy taught you about the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah. You know that he would never say, “Yes” if what he meant was, “No.” Because of who he is, our message about him has also remained consistent and dependable. 20 Because of Jesus, we can rely on all of the promises of God. Jesus fulfills them all. Therefore, Jesus is also the one who enables us to say, “Yes, it is true” when we praise God. 21 It is God who causes us, along with you, to keep on believing strongly in the Messiah. God is also the one who has given us his Spirit so that we can serve him. 22 God gave us the Holy Spirit to live within us. That shows both that we belong to him and that he will also do for us everything else that he has promised to do for us.

23 So now I will tell you why I changed my mind and did not visit you again as I intended to do. May God strike me dead if I am lying, but he knows that what I am telling you is true. The reason that I did not return to Corinth was so that I might not grieve you by having to speak to you severely about the wrong things that you have done. 24 When I say that, I do not mean that we are your masters who give you orders about what to believe and do. Instead, everything that we tell you about living for God is so that you will be joyful. We do not need to command you, because God himself tells you what to believe and do.

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