2 Corinthians 1
1Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the assembly of God that is in Corinth, along with all the consecrated ones throughout the whole of Achaia: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all strengthening encouragement, 4who encourages us in all our crushing pressure, so that we may be able to encourage those in any kind of crushing pressure through the same strengthening encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God. 5For just as the sufferings of the Christ overflow into us, so through the Christ our strengthening encouragement overflows as well. 6If we are under crushing pressure, it is for your strengthening encouragement and deliverance; if we are encouraged, it is for your strengthening encouragement, which is made effective in the patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. 7Our hope for you is firm, knowing that as you are partners in the sufferings, so you are also partners in the strengthening encouragement.
8For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about the crushing pressure that came upon us in Asia: we were burdened so far beyond our strength that we despaired even of living. 9In fact, we had the death sentence within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises the dead. 10He rescued us from such a deadly peril and will rescue us; we have set our hope on him that he will continue to rescue us, 11as you also join in helping us through your petition. Then, through the prayers of many people, the favor granted to us will result in many giving thanks on our behalf.
12For this is our boast: the testimony of our conscience, that we have conducted ourselves in the world—and especially toward you—in the holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God. 13For we do not write anything to you other than what you read or even understand; and I hope you will understand until the end, 14just as you have understood us in part—that we are your boast, just as you are ours, on the day of our Lord Jesus.
15Confident in this, I intended to come to you first, so that you might have a second favor, 16and to pass through you into Macedonia, and to come to you again from Macedonia and be sent on my way by you to Judea. 17Since I intended this, I didn’t do it lightly, did I? Or do I make my plans according to the flesh, so that with me it is "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? 18But as God is faithful, our word to you is not both "Yes" and "No." 19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you through us—through me, Silvanus, and Timothy—did not become "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." 20For every one of God’s promises finds its "Yes" in him. Therefore, through him, the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21Now the one who confirms us with you into Christ and who anointed us is God, 22who also sealed us and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.
23I call upon God as a witness against my own soul that it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth. 24It is not that we lord it over your faith, but we are fellow-workers for your joy, for you stand firm in the faith.