Outline
- Thanksgiving for Divine Comfort in Affliction (1:3-11)
- The Integrity of Paul's Motives and Conduct (1:12;2:4)
- Forgiving the Offending Party at Corinth (2:5-11)
- God's Direction in Ministry (2:12-17)
- The Corinthian Believers -- a Letter from Christ (3:1-11)
- Seeing the Glory of God with Unveiled Faces (3:12;4:6)
- Treasure in Clay Jars (4:7-16a)
- The Prospect of Death and What It Means for the Christian (4:16b;5:10)
- The Ministry of Reconciliation (5:11;6:10)
- A Spiritual Father's Appeal to His Children (6:11;7:4)
- The Meeting with Titus (7:5-16)
2 Corinthians 1 NIV
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the
will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together
with all his holy people throughout Achaia:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so
that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive
from God.
5 For just as we share abundantly in the
sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
6 If we are distressed, it is for your
comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which
produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
7And our hope for you is firm, because we know
that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our
comfort.
8 We do not want you to be uninformed,
brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of
Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that
we despaired of life itself.
9 Indeed, we felt we had received the
sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on
God, who raises the dead.
10 He has delivered us from such a deadly
peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will
continue to deliver us,
11 as you help us by your prayers. Then
many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer
to the prayers of many.
12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience
testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our
relations with you, with integrityand godly sincerity. We have done so, relying
not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace.
13 For we do not write you anything you
cannot read or understand. And I hope that,
14 as you have understood us in part, you
will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of
you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
15 Because I was confident of this, I
wanted to visit you first so that you might benefit twice.
16 I wanted to visit you on my way to
Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me
on my way to Judea.
17 Was I fickle when I intended to do this?
Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both
“Yes, yes” and “No, no”?
18 But as surely as God is faithful, our
message to you is not “Yes” and “No.”
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who
was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and
“No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.”
20 For no matter how many promises God has
made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to
the glory of God.
21 Now it is God who makes both us and you
stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,
22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put
his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
23 I call God as my witness—and I stake my
life on it—that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to
Corinth.
24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but
we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.
2 Corinthians 2 NIV
1 So I made up my mind that I would not
make another painful visit to you.
2For if I grieve you, who is left to make me
glad but you whom I have grieved?
3 I wrote as I did, so that when I came I
would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had
confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy.
4 For I wrote you out of great distress
and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know
the depth of my love for you.
5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not
so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it
too severely.
6 The punishment inflicted on him by the
majority is sufficient.
7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and
comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your
love for him.
9Another reason I wrote you was to see if you
would stand the test and be obedient in everything.
10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And
what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the
sight of Christ for your sake,
11 in order that Satan might not outwit us.
For we are not unaware of his schemes.
12 Now when I went to Troas to preach the
gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me,
13 I still had no peace of mind, because I
did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to
Macedonia.
14 But thanks be to God, who always leads
us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma
of the knowledge of him everywhere.
15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of
Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
16 To the one we are an aroma that brings
death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a
task?
17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for
profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those
sent from God.
