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¹ PAUL a legate of Jesus the Messiah, by the good pleasure of God; and Timothy a brother; to the church of God that is at Corinth, and to all the saints that are in all Achaia.² Grace be with you, and peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

³ Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation;⁴ who comforteth us in all our afflictions, that we also might be able to comfort those who are in all afflictions, with the consolation wherewith we are comforted by God.⁵ For, as the sufferings of the Messiah abound in us, so also our consolation aboundeth by the Messiah.⁶ And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and for your life that we are afflicted; or whether we be comforted, it is, that ye may be comforted; and that there may be in you an eagerness, wherewith ye may endure those sufferings which we also suffer.

⁷ And our hope concerning you is steadfast: for we know, that if ye partake of the sufferings, ye will also partake of the consolation.⁸ But, my brethren, we wish you to know, respecting the affliction that was upon us in Asia, that we were afflicted exceedingly, beyond our strength, insomuch that our life was ready to terminate.⁹ And we passed a sentence of death upon ourselves, that our confidence might not be in ourselves, but in God, who raiseth up the dead;¹⁰ who rescued us from imminent death: and we hope that he will again rescue us,¹¹ by the aid of your prayers in our behalf; so that his gift to us may be a favor done for the sake of many, and many may praise him on our account.

¹² For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and purity, and by the grace of God, and not in the wisdom of the flesh, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially towards you.¹³ We write no other things unto you, than those which ye know and acknowledge. And I trust, ye will acknowledge them to the end:¹⁴ as ye have also partially acknowledged that we are your rejoicing, as ye also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

¹⁵ And in this confidence, I was before disposed to come to you, that ye might receive the grace doubly;¹⁶ 16 and to pass by you into Macedonia, and again to come to you from Macedonia, and [fn] ye would accompany me to Judaea. ¹⁷ When therefore I thus purposed, did I purpose as one inconsiderate? Or, were the things I purposed, things of the flesh; so that there should be in them Yes, yes, and No, no?¹⁸ God is the witness, that our word to you was not Yes and No.¹⁹ 19 For the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah, who was preached to you by us, [fn] by me, by Sylvanus, and by Timotheus, was not Yes and No; but it was Yes in him. ²⁰ 20 For all the promises of God in him, the Messiah, are Yes; for which cause, we through him give [fn] Amen, to the glory of God. ²¹ Now it is God who establisheth us, with you, in the Messiah, and hath anointed us,²² and hath sealed us, and hath given the earnest of his Spirit in our hearts.²³ Moreover, I call God for a witness on my soul, that it was in order to spare you, that I came not to Corinth.²⁴ Not that we are lords over your faith, but we are helpers of your joy; for it is by faith ye stand.