Dual Panel1PAUL, AN apostle (a special messenger) of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy [our] brother, to the church (assembly) of God which is at Corinth, and to all the saints (the people of God) throughout Achaia (most of Greece):
2Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) to you and [heart] peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement),
4Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble {or} distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God.
5For just as Christ's [own] sufferings fall to our lot [as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them] abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also [shared and experienced] abundantly by us.
6But if we are troubled (afflicted and distressed), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement) and [for your] salvation; and if we are comforted (consoled and encouraged), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement), which works [in you] when you patiently endure the same evils (misfortunes and calamities) that we also suffer {and} undergo.
7And our hope for you [our joyful and confident expectation of good for you] is ever unwavering (assured and unshaken); for we know that just as you share {and} are partners in [our] sufferings {and} calamities, you also share {and} are partners in [our] comfort (consolation and encouragement).
8For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction {and} oppressing distress which befell us in [the province of] Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down {and} crushed that we despaired even of life [itself].
9Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the [very] sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in {and} depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.
10[For it is He] Who rescued {and} saved us from such a perilous death, and He will still rescue {and} save us; in {and} on Him we have set our hope (our joyful and confident expectation) that He will again deliver us [from danger and destruction and draw us to Himself],
11While you also cooperate by your prayers for us [helping and laboring together with us]. Thus [the lips of] many persons [turned toward God will eventually] give thanks on our behalf for the grace (the blessing of deliverance) granted us at the request of the many who have prayed.
12It is a reason for pride {and} exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world [generally] and especially toward you, with devout {and} pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues).
13For we write you nothing else but simply what you can read and understand [there is no double meaning to what we say], and I hope that you will become thoroughly acquainted [with divine things] {and} know {and} understand [them] accurately {and} well to the end,
14[Just] as you have [already] partially known {and} understood {and} acknowledged us {and} recognized that you can [honestly] be proud of us, even as we [can be proud] of you on the day of our Lord Jesus.
15It was with assurance of this that I wanted {and} planned to visit you first [of all], so that you might have a double favor {and} token of grace (goodwill).
16[I wanted] to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and [then] to come again to you [on my return trip] from Macedonia and have you send me forward on my way to Judea.
17Now because I changed my original plan, was I being unstable {and} capricious? Or what I plan, do I plan according to the flesh [like a worldly man], ready to say Yes, yes, [when it may mean] No, no?
18As surely as God is trustworthy {and} faithful {and} means what He says, our speech {and} message to you have not been Yes [that might mean] No.
19For the Son of God, Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who has been preached among you by us, by myself, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not Yes and No; but in Him it is [always the divine] Yes.
20For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes [answer] in Him [Christ]. For this reason we also utter the Amen (so be it) to God through Him [in His Person and by His agency] to the glory of God.
21But it is God Who confirms {and} makes us steadfast {and} establishes us [in joint fellowship] with you in Christ, and has consecrated {and} anointed us [enduing us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit];
22[He has also appropriated and acknowledged us as His by] putting His seal upon us and giving us His [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as the security deposit {and} guarantee [of the fulfillment of His promise].
23But I call upon God as my soul's witness: it was to avoid hurting you that I refrained from coming to Corinth--
24Not that we have dominion [over you] {and} lord it over your faith, but [rather that we work with you as] fellow laborers [to promote] your joy, for in [your] faith (in your strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through Whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God) you stand firm.