1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth together with God's people who are in Achaia.
2 May grace and peace be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble by the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 Just as the sufferings of Christ are plentiful in us, so our comfort also is plentiful through Christ.
6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer, or if we are comforted, it is also for your comfort and salvation.
7 Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that just as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will be of the comforting.
8 Brethren, we don't want you to be ignorant of our trouble that happened to us in Asia, for we were under pressure beyond endurance, so much so that we even thought we might die.
9 We had the death sentence on us, so that we shouldn't trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead,
10 who delivered us from such a great death and still delivers; in whom we trust will continue to deliver [us].
11 Also you are helping us by praying for us, so that the gift for us from many people [will cause] many people to give thanks on our behalf.
12 For our rejoicing is this (the witness of our conscience), because with openness and godly sincerity, not human wisdom, but by the grace of God, we've lived in this world and especially towards you.
13 We are not writing anything else to you than what you read and understand, and I trust you will understand even to the end,
14 just as you have partly understood us, because we are your reason to rejoice even as you are ours on the Day of the Lord Jesus.
15 I am so confident about this that I made plans to come to you previously, so that you might have another blessing,
16 and to visit you on my way to Macedonia, then to return from Macedonia to you, and from you to be assisted on my journey towards Judea.
17 Therefore when I had made up my mind, was I fickle, or in the things did I plan with selfish motives, or that yes may be yes and no may be no?
18 God is faithful, for our preaching to you was not "yes" and "no."
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached to you by us--Silas, Timothy, and me--was not "yes" and "no" but in him was "yes."
20 For all God's promises are "yes" and in him, the Amen, for the glory of God through us.
21 Now he who establishes us and you in Christ and who has anointed us is God,
22 who authenticates us as genuine and given us the Holy Spirit as a pledge in our hearts.
23 And I call on God as a witness on my soul, that I didn't come to Corinth, so I could spare you.
24 We are not trying to lord it over your faith, but we are co-workers for your joy, for by faith you stand.
1 I made up my mind, myself, about this, that I would not come to you again with sadness,
2 for if I make you sad, who is the one who will make me happy, but those very ones who were made sad by me?
3 So I wrote the same to you, fearing that when I came, I would be sad because of those whom I should have been rejoicing in, for I had confidence in you all that my joy is your joy.
4 For out of a great burden and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears, not that you would be made very sad, but that you might know the great love which I have for you.
5 But if anyone has caused somebody to be very sad, he hasn't made me sad, only this, so that I may not be overly severe with you all.
6 This punishment is sufficient for such a man by the majority,
7 so that now you should forgive and comfort instead, lest this one would be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
8 Therefore, I plead with you to reaffirm love for him.
9 I also write for this reason, so that I might test you whether you are obedient in everything.
10 Anyone whom you forgive, I forgive also, for if I forgive anything--to the one whom I forgave--it has been for your sake in the presence of Christ,
11 fearing that Satan would take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his evil plans.
12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's Gospel and a door was open for me by the Lord,
13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I didn't find Titus, my brother, so saying goodbye to them, I went to Macedonia.
14 [I give] thanks to God who always causes us to give the victor's shout in Christ and makes clear the fragrance of his knowledge through us everywhere.
15 For we are a sweet fragrance of Christ to God both to those who are saved and those who perish.
16 To the one [we are] the fragrance of death to death and to the other the fragrance of life to life. Who is competent for such things?
17 We are not like many who corrupt the Word of God but of purity as from God; in God's sight we speak about Christ.
1 Are we starting to speak well of ourselves, or do we need, as some others do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?
2 You are our letter written in our hearts, known and read by all people.
3 [You are] clearly seen to be the letter by Christ delivered by us, not written with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, the heart.
4 Such trust we have of God through Christ.
5 Not that I have all that is needed in myself, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who has also enabled us to be servants of the New Covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
7 So if what ministers death--written and engraved on stones--was so glorious that the children of Israel could not look for long at Moses' face, because of the glory of his face (a glory which was going to leave),
8 how much more [glorious] is the ministry of the spirit?
9 For if the ministry of condemnation is glorious, so much more the ministry of righteousness surpasses it in glory.
10 For even that which was made glorious really had no glory in this respect because of the glory that surpasses it.
11 For if what was done away with was glorious, so much more is what remains glorious.
12 Seeing that we have such hope, we speak very bluntly.
13 Not like Moses who put a veil over his face, so the children of Israel wouldn't stare at that which was going to end.
14 Their minds were blinded, for even to this day that same veil remains in place in the reading of the Old Testament. This veil is done away by Christ.
15 Even today when Moses is read, this veil is over their heart.
16 Nevertheless when it will return to the Lord, the veil will be taken away.
17 The Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
18 All of us, with an open face seeing the Lord's glory as in a mirror are changed into the same likeness from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.
1 Therefore since we have this ministry, just as we have received mercy, we don't become discouraged,
2 but have thrown off the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in deceptive practices, nor corrupting the Word of God deceitfully, but by showing the truth plainly, showing ourselves [to be alongside the truth] to every one's conscience in the sight of God.
3 If our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost,
4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ--who is the image of God--should shine on them.
5 We don't preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves [are] your servants for Jesus' sake.
6 For God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shinned in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of God's glory on the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the superiority of this power may be of God not from us.
8 We go through hard things but are not distressed; we are perplexed but not to the point of despair.
9 We are persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed.
10 We are always carrying around the death of the Lord Jesus in the body, in order that the life of Jesus might also be easily seen in our body.
11 For we, who live, are always being handed over to death for Jesus' sake in order that the life of Jesus might be clearly seen in our mortal flesh.
12 So then death is working in us but life in you.
13 Having the same spirit of faith just as it is written, "I believed and so I have spoken;" we also believe and so speak,
14 knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up by Jesus and will present us along with you.
15 For everything is for your sake, in order that abundant grace might greatly increase through thanksgiving to the glory of God.
16 For this is the reason we don't give up even though our outward man perishes yet the inward is renewed day after day.
17 Our light weight troubles, which are short lived, accomplish for us exceedingly greater and eternal weight of glory.
18 For we aren't looking at the things which are seen but the things not seen, for what is seen is temporary but the things not seen are eternal.
1 For we know that if our earthly house, our tent, is destroyed, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For we groan at this, so longing to be clothed with our house which is from heaven.
3 So if being clothed, we will not be found naked.
4 For we who are still in this tent, groan, being burdened, not because we prefer to be unclothed but rather clothed, so that what's dying may be swallowed up by life.
5 Now he who has worked on us for that very thing is God, who has also given to us the surety of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we can always be confident that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord
7 (for we walk by faith, not by sight).
8 We are confident and think [it is] good to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
9 And so we make it our goal to please Him whether we are at home or away from home.
10 For all of us must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, in order that every one may get the things [they've done] through their body according to what they did whether good or bad.
11 Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are transparent to God, and I trust are also transparent to your conscientiousness.
12 We don't promote ourselves again to you but give you a opportunity to be proud of us so that you may have something to respond to those who place importance on appearance instead of the heart.
13 So what if we are crazy, [it is] for God, but if we're sane, it is for you.
14 For Christ's love compels us, because we have concluded that if one died for all then all have died.
15 And he died for all, so that those who live wouldn't live for themselves but for him who died for them and rose again.
16 So then now we acknowledge no man according to the flesh. Yes, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we don't know [Him this way] any more.
17 Therefore in anyone is in Christ, [he is] a new creation; the old things are gone, [and] look, the new things have come.
18 All this is from God, who has reconciled us, through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
19 That is because God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning their sins to them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
20 So then we are ambassadors for Christ, in this sense God making an appeal through us; we beg of you on the behalf of Christ, "Be reconciled to God."
21 For he has made him, who knew no sin, "sin" for us, so that we might become God's righteousness in Him.
1 So then we also, along with Him, plead with you that you don't receive God's grace in vain.
2 For he says, "I heard you in an acceptable time, and in the day of salvation I helped you." Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation.
3 We are not giving any one an offense, in order that the ministry won't be blamed.
4 Instead, in everything showing ourselves as God's ministers--in much patience, afflictions, necessities, distresses
5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, hard work, sleeplessness, hunger
6 purity, knowledge, long suffering, kindness, the Holy Spirit, love
7 telling the truth, God's power, the weapons of righteousness on the right and left hand
8 honor and dishonor, slanderous reports and true reports, as deceivers and yet true
9 as unknown and yet well known, as dying and look we live! as punished, but not killed,
10 as being depressed, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, and yet having it all.
11 O Corinthians let us speak freely, we have opened our hearts to you.
12 Our affections towards you are not less, but yours for us has been lessened.
13 Now in return--I speak as [I would] to my children--increase [your love for us].
14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what friendly association does righteousness have with unrighteousness, and what fellowship is there between light and darkness.
15 What harmony does Christ have with Satan, or what is there in common between a believer and unbeliever?
16 What does the Temple of God have in agreement with idols? For you are the Temple of the Living God, just as God has said, "I will live in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.
17 "So then come out from among them; be separate," says the Lord, "and do not touch [what is] unclean, and I will accept you,
18 and I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty.
1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Accept us, we haven't wronged anyone; we haven't corrupted anyone; we haven't defrauded anyone.
3 I'm not saying this to condemn you, for I have said this before, that you are in our hearts to die and live with you.
4 [I've spoken] frankly about you, boasting about you. I am filled with comfort; I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.
5 For when we had come to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, and we were troubled on every side: outwardly confrontations, inwards fears.
6 Nevertheless, God, who comforts those who are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.
7 Not only by his coming but by the comfort he had from you when he told us your earnest desire, your sorrow, your fervent mind toward me, so that I really rejoiced.
8 For even though I made you sad with the letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret, for I perceive that the same letter has made you sad--though only for a short time.
9 Now I rejoice, not that I made you sad, but that you were sad which lead to your repentance, for you were sad in a godly way, so that you might receive no loss from us in anything.
10 For godly sadness leads to repentance to a deliverance not to be regretted, but the sadness of the world leads to death.
11 For, look, concerning this very thing, you were sad in the godly sense [and] what earnestness it worked in you, indeed, it caused you to clear yourselves, indeed, what disgust, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what handing out of justice. In all this you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.
12 Therefore, even though I wrote to you, not on account of the wrongdoer, nor on account of wronged, but instead that our care for you in God's sight might be obvious to you.
13 So then we were comforted at your comfort, yes and we rejoiced exceedingly at Titus' joy, because his spirit was refreshed by all of you.
14 For if I have bragged about anything to him, I am not ashamed, but like we talked to you about everything in truth, even so our bragging which I did to Titus is also true.
15 His deep care for you is very great as he reflects on your obedience; how with great respect and trembling did you welcome him.
16 Therefore I rejoice for the confidence I have in you in everything.
1 Moreover, brothers, we want you to know of God's grace given to the Macedonian churches.
2 [Despite having] a great test of affliction, the great amount of joy and their deep poverty abounded into the riches of their generosity,
3 for according to their ability, I bear witness, yes even beyond their ability, they were freely voluntary
4 pleading us with great urgency that we would take the gift and fellowship of sharing with God's people.
5 [They did this] not just we hoped for but first gave themselves to the Lord then to us through God's will.
6 We encouraged Titus that as he had started, so he would complete this same grace to you.
7 So since you abound in all faith, speech, knowledge, diligence, and love for us, [see to it] that you abound in this grace, too.
8 I'm not giving an order, but because of the eagerness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love.
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for you he--being rich--became poor, in order that you through his poverty might become rich.
10 So this is the advice I give because it is best for you who have started already a year ago, not only to do this but to also want to do it.
11 Therefore now get going and do it, so that just as there was a willingness to do it, now there can be a doing of it out of what you have.
12 For if at first there is a willingness, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not to what he doesn't have.
13 I'm not [suggesting] that others have it easier and you have it harder but keeping it equal,
14 in order that your abundance may meet their need and their abundance may meet your need, so there will be fairness.
15 Just as it is written, "He who had gathered much had nothing left over, and he who had gathered little had no lack."
16 Thanks be to God, who has placed the same concern into Titus' heart for you,
17 for truly he accepted our urgent appeal, but being even more earnest, he came to you of his own free will.
18 We have sent with him, the brother whose admiration in the Gospel [is known] throughout the churches.
19 Not only that but he was also chosen by the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is ministered by us to the glory of the Lord himself and your eagerness,
20 [and] to avoid a scandal, so no one would blame us for the large gift ministered by us
21 thinking ahead for what is honest not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of men.
22 With them we are sending our brother, whom we have tested many times in many things and even now being very earnest because of his great confidence he has in you.
23 As for Titus, [he is] my partner and fellow helper whether towards you or our brethren, the messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.
24 So prove it to them and the churches, the proof of your love and our boasting on your behalf.
1 Concerning the ministering to God's people, it is really not necessary to write to you.
2 I know the eagerness of your mind, about which I brag about you to those of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal has motivated many.
3 Yet I have sent the brethren, fearing our boasting about you should be a waste of time in this sense, that, as I have said, that you are ready.
4 Otherwise if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we along with you would be ashamed at this same confident boasting.
5 Therefore I thought it necessary to encourage the brothers that they would go on ahead of you and prepare in advance your gift you promised, so that it might be ready as a gift not as greed.
6 But I [do say] this, "He who sows sparingly will harvest sparingly also," and "he who sows bountifully will harvest bountifully also."
7 Every one [needs to give] according as he decides in his heart, not grudgingly or because he has to, because God loves a cheerful giver.
8 God is also able to make every grace overflow to you, in order that you, always having everything sufficiently, may abound to every good work.
9 As it is written, "He has dispersed; He has given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever."
10 Now may He who supplies seed to the sower both give bread for [your] food and multiply your sown seed and increase the fruits of your righteousness
11 being enriched in every thing for every generosity, in that it brings about through us thanksgiving to God.
12 For the ministry of this service not only meets the need of God's people but also is abundant for many thanksgivings to God.
13 Through the approval of this ministry, they glorify God for your openly declared submission to Christ's gospel and for your generous sharing with them and to all.
14 In prayer for you, yearning for you for the surpassing grace of God on you.
15 Thanks to God for His unspeakable gift.
1 Now I, Paul myself, who am insignificant in person, but when absent am assertive towards you, plead with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.
2 I plead with you, so that when I am present, I won't have to be bold by the kind of confidence by which I plan to use against those who think we are walking according to the flesh.
3 For though we do walk in the flesh, we do not make war according to the flesh.
4 For the weapons we use for war are not of the flesh but mighty through to even pulling down strong holds.
5 We destroy arguments and every high, self-exalted opinion against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
6 Having a readiness to punish all disobedience after your obedience is complete.
7 Are you looking at the outward appearance? If any one is confident that he is Christ's, then let him remind himself that as he is Christ's so are we.
8 For even if I brag a little too much about our authority, which the Lord has given to us for edification and not for your destruction, I am not ashamed,
9 so that I wouldn't look like I'm trying to scare you by my letters.
10 "For his letters," he says, "are impressive and forceful, but his physical presence is weak and speech despicable."
11 Let this person think about this: that as we are in the words of our letter when we are absent, so we will be in what we do when we are present.
12 We don't dare judge ourselves to be that way or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves, but they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves to themselves. They are not wise.
13 We will not brag beyond limits but according to the measure of the rule that God has distributed to us--a measure that reaches even you,
14 for we are not overextending ourselves as if we didn't reach you, for we did come all the way to you also in [preaching] the Gospel of Christ.
15 We are not bragging excessively about other men's hard work but having--as your faith increases--hope to greatly increase our sphere of influence among you,
16 to preach the Gospel in areas beyond you, but not to brag about another man's already accomplished work.
17 Now the one who glories, let him glory in the Lord.
18 The one who brags about himself is not approved, but the one the Lord commends.
1 I wish you would allow me a little foolishness; please bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband, so that I can present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
3 I fear lest in some way, like the serpent deceived Eve, through his trickery, so your minds might be corrupted away from the single-heartedness to Christ.
4 For if another comes preaching another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or different gospel which you have not accepted, you might well enough put up with him.
5 I consider myself to not be inferior in any way to these very super "apostles."
6 For though I may be unrefined in speaking, but I am not in knowledge. We have made this very clear to you in everything.
7 Have I committed some offense by abasing myself, so you could be exalted, just because I have preached the Gospel of God freely to you?
8 I robbed other congregations, taking wages from them to minister to you.
9 When I was with you and in need, I was not burdensome to any one, for what was lacking, the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied. In every thing I have kept my self from being a burden to you, and so I will continue to keep myself.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I don't love you? God knows.
12 But what I do, that I will do, so that I may cut off any opportunity from those who are looking for an opportunity, so that they can go on bragging, so they could be thought of as we are.
13 For so fake apostles [are], deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants are disguised as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
16 Let me repeat Let no one take me as a fool; and if otherwise, still receive me as a fool, so that I can boast a little.
17 What I'm talking about now, I'm not talking by the Lord; instead as if foolishly, in this confident boasting.
18 Since many brag after the flesh, I will boast a little too.
19 For you gladly put up with fools, since you are so wise.
20 For you put up with a man if he enslaves you, eats you alive, takes from you, exalts himself, or slugs you on the face.
21 I am ashamed to admit that we were too weak, but in what someone is bold (I am speaking foolishly), I am bold, too.
22 Are they Hebrews? Me too. Are they Israelites? Me too. Are they descendants of Abraham? Me too.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like a fool); I am even more in hard work--greater; receiving stripes [from whippings]--excessively; in imprisonments--more frequently; even more frequently near death.
24 Five times I received from the Jews forty stripes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with clubs; once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck; I spent a day and night in the deep.
26 [Also I have had] more frequents trips, dangers in water, from robbers, from my own countrymen, from the heathen, in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea, and from fake brethren.
27 in physical fatigue, in pain, deprived of sleep, hungry, thirsty, frequent fasting, cold and lacking clothes.
28 Beside all those outward things, I have the daily heavy burden of worrying about the congregations.
29 Does someone feel weak, and I don't feel weak [with them]? Does someone cause another to stumble, and I don't burn [with anger].
30 If I have to boast, I will boast about my weaknesses.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.
32 In Damascus, the governor under Aretas, the king, was keeping a constant watch around the city of Damascus so he could seize me.
33 I was let down in a basket through a window by the wall and escaped his hands.
1 There is no advantage for me to now brag, so I will move on to visions and revelations from the Lord.
2 I know a man in Christ 14 years ago (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knows). This one was taken up to the third heaven.
3 I know such a man (if in the body or out of body, I just don't know), [but] God knows.
4 How that he was taken into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which are not lawful for a man to talk about.
5 Of this one will I boast, yet of myself I will not boast, just in my weaknesses.
6 For even if I would like to brag, I'm not going to be a fool, but I will speak the truth, but now I will not, fearing somebody would think more of me then what he sees me to be or what he hears about me.
7 So that I wouldn't be lifted up by pride--because of the many revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to repeatedly punch me, lest I would be arrogant.
8 I plead with the Lord about this three times, so that it might leave me.
9 He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made complete in weakness." Therefore I would rather gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ might rest on me.
10 Therefore I find pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in distress, in persecutions, in calamities because of Christ, for when I am weak, then am I strong.
11 I have become a fool in boasting; you have forced me, when I should have been commended by you, for I am not one speck less then those super apostles, though I am a nobody.
12 Truly the signs of an apostle were fully done among you in full patience, in signs, wonders, and mighty works.
13 How is it that you were inferior to other congregations, except in that I, myself, was not a burden to you; would you forgive me for that?
14 Look, I am ready to come to you this third time, and I will not be a burden to you, for I am not seeking your [stuff] but you. For the children shouldn't have to provide for the parents but parents for the children.
15 I will very gladly wear myself out for you and be exhausted for you even though the more I love you, the less you love me.
16 But so be it. I did not make myself a burden to you, nevertheless being crafty, "I caught you with deception."
17 Did I profit off you by any of those whom I sent to you?
18 I requested Titus, and I sent a brother with him. Did Titus make a profit off you? Didn't we walk in the same spirit? Didn't we follow the same steps.
19 So again, do you think that we making excuses to you? We are speaking in God's sight, in Christ, and dearly beloved we do everything for your edification.
20 For I am afraid that when I come, I will not find you as I would want, and that I will be found by you as you wouldn't want with debates, envyings, strong anger, fighting, mouthing off, talking behind somebody's back, bragging, [and] chaos.
21 And fearing when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I will grieve over many who have already sinned and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and uncontrollable lust which they have done.
1 This is the third time that I am coming to you. Any dispute must be verbally established by two or three witnesses.
2 I have told you before and warn you beforehand, as if I were there already the second time. Now even though I am absent I write to those who have sinned and to the others, that if I come again, I will not spare.
3 Since you are looking for proof of Christ speaking in me, (He is not weak with you but powerful among you
4 for even though it was in weakness that he was crucified, yet he lives by God's power. For we also are weak with him, but we will live with him by God's power toward you.)
5 examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith; test yourselves. Don't you, yourselves, know that Jesus Christ is in you--unless you are castaways?
6 I am confident that you will know that we are not castaways.
7 Now I pray to God that you won't do any evil, not in order that we may appear to be approved but that you should do what is right though we might seem as castaways.
8 For we cannot do anything against the truth only for the truth.
9 For we are happy when we are weak, and you are strong. We also pray for your complete restoration.
10 Therefore since I am absent, I write these things, lest when present I might be too sharp, according to the authority which the Lord has given to me for edification but not for destruction.
11 Finally brethren, good bye. Be restored, be comforted, be unified, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.
13 All God's people greet you.
14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.