³Give praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is the Father who gives tender love. All comfort comes from him. ⁴He comforts us in all our troubles. Now we can comfort others when they are in trouble. We ourselves have received comfort from God. ⁵We share the sufferings of Christ. We also share his comfort.

⁶If we are having trouble, it is so that you will be comforted and renewed. If we are comforted, it is so that you will be comforted. Then you will be able to put up with the same suffering we have gone through. ⁷Our hope for you remains firm. We know that you suffer just as we do. In the same way, God comforts you just as he comforts us.

⁸Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the hard times we suffered in Asia Minor. We were having a lot of trouble. It was far more than we could stand. We even thought we were going to die. ⁹In fact, in our hearts we felt as if we were under the sentence of death.

But that happened so that we would not depend on ourselves but on God. He raises the dead to life. ¹⁰God has saved us from deadly dangers. And he will continue to do it. We have put our hope in him. He will continue to save us.

¹¹You must help us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because of what will happen to us. They will thank God for his kindness to us in answer to the prayers of many.

Paul Changes His Plans

¹²Here is what we take pride in. Our sense of what is right and wrong gives witness that we have acted in God’s holy and honest ways. That is how we live in the world. We live that way most of all when we are dealing with you. Our way of living is not wise in the eyes of the world. But it is in keeping with God’s grace.

¹³We are writing only what you can read and understand. And here is what I hope. ¹⁴Up to this point you have understood some of the things we have said. But now I hope that someday you will be able to take pride in us, just as we will take pride in you on the day the Lord Jesus returns. When you are able to do that, you will understand us completely.

¹⁵I was sure of those things. So I planned to visit you first. Here is how I thought you would be helped twice. ¹⁶I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia. I would have come back to you from there. Then you would have sent me on my way to Judea.

¹⁷When I planned all of that, did I do it without much thought? No. I don’t make my plans the way the world makes theirs. In the same breath the world says, “Yes! Yes!” and “No! No!”

¹⁸But just as sure as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” ¹⁹Silas, Timothy and I preached to you about the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Our message did not say “Yes” and “No” at the same time. The message of Christ has always been “Yes.”

²⁰God has made a great many promises. They are all “Yes” because of what Christ has done. So through Christ we say “Amen.” We want God to receive glory.

²¹He makes both us and you stand firm because we belong to Christ. He anointed us. ²²He put his Spirit in our hearts and marked us as his own. We can now be sure that he will give us everything he promised us.

²³I call God as my witness. I wanted to spare you. So I didn’t return to Corinth. ²⁴Your faith is not under our control. You stand firm in your own faith. But we work together with you for your joy.

2So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you. ²If I make you sad, who is going to make me glad? Only you, the one I made sad.

³I wrote what I did for a special reason. When I came, I didn’t want to be troubled by those who should make me glad. I was sure that all of you would share my joy. ⁴I was very troubled when I wrote to you. My heart was sad. My eyes were full of tears. I didn’t want to make you sad. I wanted to let you know that I love you very deeply.

Forgive Those Who Make You Sad

⁵Suppose someone has made us sad. In some ways, he hasn’t made me sad so much as he has made all of you sad. But I don’t want to put this too strongly. ⁶He has been punished because most of you decided he should be. That is enough for him.

⁷Now you should forgive him and comfort him. Then he won’t be sad more than he can stand. ⁸So I’m asking you to tell him again that you still love him.

⁹I wrote to you for a special reason. I wanted to see if you could stand the test. I wanted to see if you could obey everything that was asked of you.

¹⁰Anyone you forgive I also forgive. Was there anything to forgive? If so, I have forgiven it for your benefit, knowing that Christ is watching. ¹¹We don’t want Satan to outsmart us. We know how he does his evil work.

Serving Under the New Covenant

¹²I went to Troas to preach the good news about Christ. There I found that the Lord had opened a door of opportunity for me. ¹³But I still had no peace of mind. I couldn’t find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to the believers at Troas and went on to Macedonia.

¹⁴Give thanks to God! He always leads us in the winners’ parade because we belong to Christ. Through us, God spreads the knowledge of Christ everywhere like perfume. ¹⁵God considers us to be the sweet smell that Christ is spreading among people who are being saved and people who are dying. ¹⁶To the one, we are the smell of death. To the other, we are the perfume of life. Who is able to do that work?

¹⁷Unlike many people, we aren’t selling God’s word to make money. In fact, it is just the opposite. Because of Christ we speak honestly before God. We speak like people God has sent.

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