Paul Greets the Corinthians

(1 Corinthians 1:1-3)

1Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God—and our brother Timothy: To the Church of God in Corinth, with all God's people throughout Greece.

2May grace and peace be granted to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The God of All Comfort

3Heartfelt thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—the Father who is full of compassion and the God who gives all comfort. 4He comforts us in our every affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction by means of the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5For just as we have more than our share of suffering for the Christ, so also through the Christ we have more than our share of comfort. 6But if, on the one hand, we are enduring affliction, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if, on the other hand, we are receiving comfort, it is for your comfort which is produced within you through your patient fortitude under the same sufferings as those which we also are enduring. 7And our hope for you is stedfast; for we know that as you are partners with us in the sufferings, so you are also partners in the comfort.

8For as for our troubles which came upon us in the province of Asia, we would have you know, brethren, that we were exceedingly weighed down, and felt overwhelmed, so that we renounced all hope even of life. 9Nay, we had, as we still have, the sentence of death within our own selves, in order that our confidence may repose, not on ourselves, but on God who raised the dead to life. 10He it is who rescued us from so imminent a death, and will do so again; and we have a firm hope in Him that He will also rescue us in all the future, 11while you on your part lend us your aid in entreaty for us, so that from many lips thanksgivings may rise on our behalf for the boon granted to us at the intercession of many.

Paul's Change of Plans

12For the reason for our boasting is this—the testimony of our own conscience that it was in holiness and with pure motives before God, and in reliance not on worldly wisdom but on the gracious help of God, that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and above all in our relations with you. 13For we are writing to you nothing different from what we have written before, or from what indeed you already recognize as truth and will, I trust, recognize as such to the very end; 14just as some few of you have recognized us as your reason for boasting, even as you will be ours, on the day of Jesus our Lord.

15It was because I entertained this confidence that I intended to visit you before going elsewhere—so that you might receive a twofold proof of God's favour— 16and to pass by way of Corinth into Macedonia. Then my plan was to return from Macedonia to you, and be helped forward by you to Judaea. 17Did I display any vacillation or caprice in this? Or the purposes which I form—do I form them on worldly principles, now crying "Yes, yes," and now "No, no"? 18As certainly as God is faithful, our language to you is not now "Yes" and now "No." 19For Jesus Christ the Son of God—He who was proclaimed among you by us, that is by Silas and Timothy and myself—did not show Himself a waverer between "Yes" and "No." But it was and always is "Yes" with Him. 20For all the promises of God, whatever their number, have their confirmation in Him; and for this reason through Him also our "Amen" acknowledges their truth and promotes the glory of God through our faith. 21But He who is making us as well as you stedfast through union with the Anointed One, and has anointed us, is God, 22and He has also set His seal upon us, and has put His Spirit into our hearts as a pledge and foretaste of future blessing.

23But as for me, as my soul shall answer for it, I appeal to God as my witness, that it was to spare you pain that I gave up my visit to Corinth. 24Not that we want to lord it over you in respect of your faith—we do, however, desire to help your joy—for in the matter of your faith you are standing firm.