2 Corinthians 1 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

Introduction

1Paul, an apostle (special messenger, personally chosen representative) of Christ Jesus (the Messiah) by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the church of God which is at Corinth, and to all the saints (God’s people) throughout Achaia (southern Greece):

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 comfort,

4who comforts and encourages us in every trouble so that we will be able to comfort and encourage those who are in any kind of trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

5For just as Christ’s sufferings are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

6But if we are troubled and distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted and encouraged, it is for your comfort, which works when you patiently endure the same sufferings which we experience.

7And our hope for you is firmly grounded, since we know that just as you share as partners in our sufferings, so also you share as partners in our comfort.

8For we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about our trouble in Asia, how we were utterly weighed down, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.

9Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the sentence of death so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

10He rescued us from so great a threat of death, and will continue to rescue us. On Him we have set our hope. And He will again rescue us,

11while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then thanks will be given by many persons on our behalf for the gracious gift granted to us through the prayers of many.

Paul’s Integrity

12This is our proud confidence: our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with pure motives and godly sincerity, not in human wisdom, but in the grace of God.

13For we write you nothing other than what you read and understand. And I hope you will understand until the end;

14just as you have partially understood us, that you can be proud of us just as we are of you, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

15It was with this confidence that I planned at first to visit you, so that you might receive twice a token of grace;

16that is, to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia, and have you send me on my way to Judea.

17So then, was I indecisive or capricious when I was planning this? Or the things I plan, do I plan in a self-serving way like a worldly man, ready to say, “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?

18But God is faithful and means what He says, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No”.

19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not “Yes” and “No,” but has proved to be “Yes” in Him.

20For as many as are the promises of God, in Christ they are “Yes.” So through Him we say our “Amen” to the glory of God.

21Now it is God who establishes and confirms us with you in Christ, and who has anointed us;

22it is He who has also put His seal on us and has given us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

23But I call on God as my soul’s witness, that it was to spare you that I did not come again to Corinth—

24not that we rule over your faith, but rather we work with you for your joy; for in your faith you stand firm.