2 Corinthians PAUL, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy the brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth with all the holy that are in all Achaia:

Riverside⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ PAUL, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy the brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth with all the holy that are in all Achaia: ² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of loving kindness and the God of all encouragement, ⁴ who encourages us in every distress so that we may be able to encourage those who are in every distress by the encouragement by which we ourselves have been encouraged by God. ⁵ Because as the sufferings of Christ are abundant in our case, so through Christ our encouragement is abundant. ⁶ But if we are in distress, it is for your encouragement and salvation. If we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement which is effective in the endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. ⁷ Our hope is strong regarding you, since we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings so you are of the encouragement. ⁸ For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, regarding the distress that came on us in Asia — that we were exceedingly weighed down, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. ⁹ Indeed we have the sentence of death within ourselves, that our trust may not rest on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He delivered us from such a death and will deliver, and we have hope in him that he will go on delivering, ¹¹ while you help by your prayers for us, so that from many persons thanksgiving may arise for the gift granted to us through the prayers of many for us. ¹² For this is what we boast of, the witness of our conscience that in holiness, and sincerity before God, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we have lived in the world and especially toward you. ¹³ For we are not writing to you anything but what you read and acknowledge and I hope you will acknowledge to the end, ¹⁴ as you have partly acknowledged it about us, that we are your ground of boasting and you are ours on the day of our Lord Jesus. ¹⁵ With this confidence I intended to come to you first, so that you might have a second favor, ¹⁶ by my visiting you on the way to Macedonia and again coming back from Macedonia to you and being sped by you on my way toward Juda. ¹⁷ When I was intending this, did I show fickleness? Or do I plan what I plan according to the flesh, so that I may say yes, yes, and no, no? ¹⁸ As God is faithful, my word to you is not yes and no. ¹⁹ For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was proclaimed among you by us — myself and Silvanus and Timothy — was not yes and no, but in him was yes. ²⁰ For all the promises of God, however many, have their yes in him. Therefore also through him is the Amen to the glory of God through us. ²¹ It is God who makes us and you steadfast to Christ, and has anointed us ²² and sealed us and has given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts. ²³ I call God as a witness against my soul that in order to spare you I have not yet come to Corinth. ²⁴ Not that we are lords over your faith, but fellow workers sharing your joy, for you are standing firm in the faith.