THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE ΤΟ THE CORINTHIANS. CHAPTER I. PAUL, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God which is in Corinth, together with all the saints that are in all Achaia: 2 grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ! 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; 4 who comforteth us in all our tribulation; that we may be able to comfort those that are in any tribulation, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God: 5 for, as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also doth our consolation abound through Christ: 6 and if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation, which worketh in you by the patient enduring of the same sufferings that we also suffer; and our hope of you is steadfast: 7 or, if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation; knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so ye will also be of the consolation. 8 For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, of the affliction which befell us in Asia; that we were oppressed above measure, above our strength, so that we despaired even of life: 9 yea, we had the sentence of death in ourselves; that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead: 10 who hath delivered us from so great a death; and will deliver us: 11 in whom we hope, that he will deliver us; ye, also, striving together for us in supplication, that, for the benefit bestowed on us through many persons, thanksgiving may be rendered by many on our behalf. 5, 6. 12 For, our rejoicing is this; the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, and not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world; and more abundantly toward you: 13 for, in this, we write no other to you than that which ye acknowledge, (and, I hope will acknowledge, even to the end; as indeed ye have in part acknowledged us to be ;) 14 that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also will be ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ: 15 and, in this confidence, I 1 Cor. xvi. first determined to go to you, that ye might have a double joy; 16 and both to pass through you into Macedonia, and to come to you again from Macedonia; and to be conducted V. 23. 20 for, all the promises of God in him are yea; (because they are, through him, who is the AMEN, to the glory of God Rev. iii. 14. by us:) 21 and he who establisheth us, and hath anointed us together with you, in Christ, is God; 22 who hath also set his seal upon us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 23 But, I call God for a witness on my soul, that it was to spare you that I went not v. 17. yet to Corinth: 24 for, we not only do not exercise dominion over your faith, but we work together for your joy: for by your faith ye stand. CHAPTER II. forward by you, toward Judea: AND I determined this in 17 when, therefore, I so determined, did I use fickleness? or, what I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh; so that there is with me, both yea yea, and nay nay? 18 But, God is a faithful witness, that our word to you is not both yea and nay; 19 for, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, namely, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not both yea and nay, but yea only was in him : myself; not to go again to you in sorrow : 2 for, if I make you sorrowful, who would there be to cheer me, but he who is made sorrowful by me? 3 and for this very cause I wrote, lest, if I came, I should have sorrow upon sorrow from them in whom I ought to rejoice; being persuaded of you all, that my joy is that of you all: 4 for I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of Y 8 wherefore, I beseech you to confirm your love toward him; 9 for I wrote also for this purpose, that I might know the proof of you, if ye are obedient in all things. 10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive it also: for, 14 But thanks be to God, who causeth us always to triumph in Christ; and who manifesteth, through us, the savour of the knowledge of him, in every place! 15 for, we are a sweet savour of Christ, to God, both in them that are saved, and in them that perish: 16 in the one, indeed, we are a savour of death, to death; but in the other, a savour of life, to life: and who, of himself, is sufficient for these things? 17 for, we are not as the many who adulterate the word of God: but, as of sincerity, yea, as from God, we speak it in the presence of God, in the civ.2. person of Christ. CHAPTER III. whatever I have forgiven (if IWE begin again to have forgiven any thing), I for- 11 that Satan might not gain an advantage over us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. 12 And, when I went to Troas Acts, xvi. 8,9. to preach the gospel of Christ, and a door was opened to me by the Lord, c. vii. 5. 13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but, taking leave of them that were there, I went from thence into Macedonia. E begin again to com- c. v. 13; mend ourselves: 2 for, we have no need, as some, of commendatory letters to you, or from you; xii. 16. 3 ye yourselves are our letter, 1 Cor. ix. 2 even written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 4 for ye are manifested to be a letter of Christ, ministered by us; not written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart. 5 And such confidence we have, through Christ, toward God: 6 not that we are sufficient of ourselves to determine any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; 7 who also hath qualified us to be ministers of the New Covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for, the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 8 But, if the ministry of death, engraven with writing on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look on the face of Moses, for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away; 9 how shall not the ministry of the spirit be more glorious? 10 for, if the ministry of condemnation was glory, much more doth the ministry of justification exceed in glory. 11 For, indeed, that which was rendered glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that surpasseth it: 12 for, if that which was to be done away by glory, was glorious, much more is that which continueth in glory. 13 Having, therefore, such a hope, we use much confidence; 14 and do not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel might not look to the end even of that which was to be abolished: 15 yea, their minds were blinded; for, to this day, the same veil remaineth unremoved, in the reading of the Old Covenant; which veil is done away in Christ: 16 yea, even to this day, whenever Moses is read, the veil lieth on their heart; 17 yet, when it turneth to the Rom. xi. 25. Lord, the veil is taken away. 18 Now, the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, is freedom: 19 and we all, looking, as in a glass, at the glory of the Lord with his face unveiled, are changed into the same image, 1 John, iii. 2. from glory to glory; as by the Spirit of the Lord. CHAPTER IV. WHEREFORE, having this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; 2 but have renounced the hidden things of shamefulness, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but, commending c. ii. 17. ourselves to every man's conscience by the manifestation of the truth, in the sight of God. 3 And, if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to them only that are lost: 4 in whom the god of this world hath so blinded the minds of them that believe not, that the light of the glorious gospel c. v. 1. of Christ, who is the image of God, shineth not in them: 5 for, we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake: 6 for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, that hath shined in our hearts; to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the person of Christ. 7 And we have this treasure in our earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be God's, and not our own. 8 Though troubled on every side, yet we are not distressed; though perplexed, yet not in despair; 9 though persecuted, yet not forsaken; though cast down, yet not destroyed; 10 always bearing about with us in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. 11 For we, while we live, are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our deadened flesh : 12 so that death worketh in us, but life in you: Jesus, and establish us together with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes; that the grace which aboundeth to you may, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God: 16 wherefore, we faint not; but, though our outward manhood perish, yet our inward is renewing day by day : 17 for our present light affliction, worketh for us a perpetually increasing and eternal weight of glory; 18 while we look, not to the things that are seen, but to those which are not seen: for, the things which are seen, are temporary, but the things which are not seen, are eternal. |