Chronological Plan

¹Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia:

²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the 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 in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

⁵For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.

⁶Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.

⁷And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation.

⁸For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.

⁹Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead,

¹⁰who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us,

¹¹you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.

¹²For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.

¹³For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end

¹⁴(as also you have understood us in part), that we are your boast as you also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

¹⁵And in this confidence I intended to come to you before, that you might have a second benefit—

¹⁶to pass by way of you to Macedonia, to come again from Macedonia to you, and be helped by you on my way to Judea.

¹⁷Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No?

¹⁸But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No.

¹⁹For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes.

²⁰For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

²¹Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God,

²²who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

²³Moreover I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth.

²⁴Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.

¹But I determined this within myself, that I would not come again to you in sorrow.

²For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?

³And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all.

⁴For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you.

⁵But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe.

⁶This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man,

⁷so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow.

⁸Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.

⁹For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things.

¹⁰Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ,

¹¹lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.

¹²Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and a door was opened to me by the Lord,

¹³I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia.

¹⁴Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.

¹⁵For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

¹⁶To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

¹⁷For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.

¹Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you?

²You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

³clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

⁴And we have such trust through Christ toward God.

⁵Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

⁶who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away,

⁸how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious?

⁹For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.

¹⁰For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels.

¹¹For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

¹²Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—

¹³unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.

¹⁴But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.

¹⁵But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.

¹⁶Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

¹⁸But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

¹Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.

²But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

³But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,

⁴whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

⁵For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake.

⁶For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁷But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

⁸We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—

¹⁰always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

¹¹For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

¹²So then death is working in us, but life in you.

¹³And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,

¹⁴knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.

¹⁵For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

¹⁶Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

¹⁷For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,

¹⁸while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.