| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy. I am writing to God’s church in Corinth and to all of his holy people throughout Greece. | 1From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia. |
| 2May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. God Offers Comfort to All | 2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! |
| 3All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. | 3Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, |
| 4He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. | 4who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. |
| 5For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. | 5For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow toward us, so also our comfort through Christ overflows to you. |
| 6Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. | 6But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort that you experience in your patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. |
| 7We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us. | 7And our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort. |
| 8We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. | 8For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living. |
| 9In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. | 9Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. |
| 10And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. | 10He delivered us from so great a risk of death, and he will deliver us. We have set our hope on him that he will deliver us yet again, |
| 11And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety. Paul’s Change of Plans | 11as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that many people may give thanks to God on our behalf for the gracious gift given to us through the help of many. |
| 12We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have lived with a God-given holiness and sincerity in all our dealings. We have depended on God’s grace, not on our own human wisdom. That is how we have conducted ourselves before the world, and especially toward you. | 12For our reason for confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives and sincerity which are from God--not by human wisdom but by the grace of God--we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more toward you. |
| 13Our letters have been straightforward, and there is nothing written between the lines and nothing you can’t understand. I hope someday you will fully understand us, | 13For we do not write you anything other than what you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely |
| 14even if you don’t understand us now. Then on the day when the Lord Jesus returns, you will be proud of us in the same way we are proud of you. | 14just as also you have partly understood us, that we are your source of pride just as you also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus. |
| 15Since I was so sure of your understanding and trust, I wanted to give you a double blessing by visiting you twice— | 15And with this confidence I intended to come to you first so that you would get a second opportunity to see us, |
| 16first on my way to Macedonia and again when I returned from Macedonia. Then you could send me on my way to Judea. | 16and through your help to go on into Macedonia and then from Macedonia to come back to you and be helped on our way into Judea by you. |
| 17You may be asking why I changed my plan. Do you think I make my plans carelessly? Do you think I am like people of the world who say “Yes” when they really mean “No”? | 17Therefore when I was planning to do this, I did not do so without thinking about what I was doing, did I? Or do I make my plans according to mere human standards so that I would be saying both "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? |
| 18As surely as God is faithful, our word to you does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” | 18But as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." |
| 19For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between “Yes” and “No.” He is the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preached to you, and as God’s ultimate “Yes,” he always does what he says. | 19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the one who was proclaimed among you by us--by me and Silvanus and Timothy--was not "Yes" and "No," but it has always been "Yes" in him. |
| 20For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory. | 20For every one of God's promises are "Yes" in him; therefore also through him the "Amen" is spoken, to the glory we give to God. |
| 21It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. He has commissioned us, | 21But it is God who establishes us together with you in Christ and who anointed us, |
| 22and he has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything he has promised us. | 22who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment. |
| 23Now I call upon God as my witness that I am telling the truth. The reason I didn’t return to Corinth was to spare you from a severe rebuke. | 23Now I appeal to God as my witness, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth. |
| 24But that does not mean we want to dominate you by telling you how to put your faith into practice. We want to work together with you so you will be full of joy, for it is by your own faith that you stand firm. | 24I do not mean that we rule over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because by faith you stand firm. |
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