¹From Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy the brother, to the church of God which is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaea, ²grace to you and peace from God our father and Lord, Jesus Christ. ³Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴who comforts us at every tribulation of ours, so that we can comfort those in any tribulation, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵For as the sufferings of Christ abound towards us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶And if we are in tribulation, it is for your comfort and salvation, which is effective in endurance of the same sufferings which we also suffer. And our hope for you is firm, and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort and salvation, ⁷knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so are you also of the comfort. ⁸For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, of our tribulation which came on us in Asia, because we were exceedingly weighed down beyond our ability to cope, so that we even despaired of surviving. ⁹But we ourselves have had the sentence of death in ourselves so that we should not be trusting in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, ¹⁰who has rescued us from so great a death, and who is rescuing us, in whom we have put our hope that he will also rescue still, ¹¹while you also support us by your supplication for us, so that thanks may be offered for the favour shown to us by many individuals, through many tribulations, on your behalf. ¹²For our exultation is this: the witness of our consciences – that we have conducted ourselves in godly simplicity and sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, in the world and all the more towards you. ¹³For we do not write to you any other things than either what you read or acknowledge, and I hope that you will also continue to acknowledge them until the end, ¹⁴as you have also acknowledged us in part, that we are your pride, as indeed you are ours, on the day of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁵And I wanted to come to you in this confidence before, so that you might have a second benefit, ¹⁶and to cross through your way to Macedonia, and to come to you again from Macedonia, and to be sent on by you to Judaea. ¹⁷Now then, when I resolved to do this, did I indulge in frivolity at all? Or the things I resolve to do – do I resolve to do them according to the flesh, so that it is, “Yes, yes” one day and, “No, no” another day with me? ¹⁸But as God is faithful, our word to you was not, “Yes” one day and, “No” another day. ¹⁹For the son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not, “Yes” and, “No”, but in him was, “Yes.” ²⁰For as regards all God's promises, in him is “Yes” and in him is “Amen”, with a view to glory to God through us. ²¹Now he who confirms us with you into Christ, and who has anointed us, is God, ²²who has also sealed us to himself and given the pledge of the spirit in our hearts. ²³And I call on God as a witness to my soul that I had stopped coming to Corinth to spare you. ²⁴Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are co-workers of your joy, for you stand by faith.