1 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of our Father, and Timothy our brother, to the church of our Father that is in Corinth, together with all the holy ones throughout the whole of Achaia: 2 Grace to you and peace from our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Father of All Comfort
3 Blessed be our Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those in any affliction with the same comfort we ourselves receive from our Father. 5 For as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so through Christ our comfort also overflows. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience as you patiently endure the same sufferings that we also suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so also you share in the comfort.
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we suffered in the province of Asia: we were under a burden far beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had been handed a death sentence, so that we would not rely on ourselves but on our Father, who raises the dead. 10 He rescued us from such a deadly danger, and he will rescue us. On him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, 11 as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious gift granted us through the prayers of many.
Paul's Change of Plans
12 For this is our boast: the testimony of our conscience that we have lived in the world, and especially toward you, with the holiness and sincerity that come from our Father, not by worldly wisdom but by the grace of our Father. 13 For we write you nothing other than what you can read and understand. And I hope you will understand fully, 14 as you have understood us in part, that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.
15 Because I was confident of this, I planned to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia, and to have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I being fickle, then, when I intended this? Or do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" in the same breath? 18 As surely as our Father is faithful, our word to you has not been "Yes" and "No." 19 For the Son of our Father, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you—Silvanus and Timothy and I—was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." 20 For no matter how many promises our Father has made, they are "Yes" in him. And so through him we speak our "Amen" to our Father, for his glory.
21 Now it is our Father who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, 22 who has also put his seal on us and given us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come. a a v22 'Pledge' is a business term: a down payment. The Spirit is the first installment of our inheritance. 23 I call our Father as my witness, and stake my life on it, that I did not come back to Corinth in order to spare you. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work together with you for your joy, for it is by faith that you stand firm.