Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God’s will, and Brother Timothy, to God’s church at Corinth with all the people of God in all Achaea; 2 grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, 4 who encourages us upon all our distress so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any distress with the encouragement that is given to us ourselves by God, 5 because as the Christ’s sufferings are coming plentifully to us, so through the Christ our encouragement too comes in plentiful measure. 6 And be it that we are distressed, this is for your encouragement and salvation; or be it that we are encouraged, this is for your encouragement, which takes effect in the steadfast endurance of the same sufferings that we too undergo, 7* and our hope is firm for you, knowing as we do that as you are included in the sufferings, so too you are included in the encouragement.

8 For we do not want you to go without the knowledge, brothers, as to our distress in Asia, that we had an extraordinarily hard time, too hard for our powers, so that we had no prospect of even living, 9 but have had in our own selves the answer of death, in order that we may not be confident in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, 10* who delivered us out of that awful death and will do so; on whom we have set our hope. And he will deliver us still, 11* while you cooperate helpfully on our behalf by petition, in order that from many faces thanks for the favor bestowed on us may be given through many on our behalf.

12 For this is our boast, the testimony of our conscience that it was in God’s holiness and candor, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, that we lived the life we did in the world; and very specially in relation to you. 13 For we do not write anything else to you but what you read or even recognize, and we hope will recognize to the full, 14 as you did in part recognize us to be your boast, the same as you are ours on the day of our Lord Jesus.

15* And in this assurance I wanted to come first to you, in order that you might have a second glad time, 16 and to go through to Macedonia by way of you and come from Macedonia to you again and have you see me off for Judea. 17 Wanting to do this, then, did I act capriciously? or is it in the way of flesh that I plan what I plan, so that with me there should be “O yes” and “O no”? 18 But, as God is faithful, our words to you are not yes-and-no. 19 For God’s Son Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you through us, Silvanus and Timothy and me, has not shown himself a yes-and-no, but in him there has been a Yes. 20 For in him is the Yes to as many promises of God as there are; for which reason through him also comes the Amen for glory to God through us. 21 And the one who brings us with you into a settled position in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22* the same who sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as earnest-money.

23* But I call God as witness against my own self that it was out of consideration for you I broke off coming to Corinth. 24 Not that we have any control over your faith, but we are cooperators in your joy; for it is by faith you stand.

2 But I made this resolution, not to come to you with an annoyance again. 2 For if I annoy you, then who is it that gladdens me but the one who is annoyed by me? 3 And I wrote that very thing in order that I might not, when I come, have annoyance from those over whom I ought to be rejoicing, being confident of you all that my joy is that of all of you. 4* For in much distress and heartache I wrote to you with many tears, not in order that you might be annoyed but in order that you might know the love I specially feel toward you. 5 And if anyone has caused an annoyance he has caused it not to me but in part, not to come down too hard, to all of you. 6 For such a one this rebuke by the majority is sufficient; 7* so that on the contrary you should rather be condoning and encouraging, for fear such a one should be crushed with excessive grief. 8 For which reason I urge you to take the line of love toward him; 9 for this was what I wrote for, in order to ascertain your quality, whether you are obedient on all points. 10 But to him to whom you condone anything, so do I—for what I have condoned, if anything I have, has been on your account before Christ’s face, 11 in order that we may not be overreached by Satan; for we are not unacquainted with his contrivances.

12 But when I came to Troas to preach Christ’s gospel, and had a door opened for me in the Lord, 13 I did not have any relief for my spirit owing to my not finding my brother Titus, but bade them farewell and went out to Macedonia. 14* But thanks be to God who is always leading us about in his triumph and through us diffusing in every place the odor of the knowledge of him, 15 because we are Christ’s genial scent to God among those who are being saved and among those who are being lost— 16 to these an odor from death, to death, but to those an odor from life, to life. And for this who is adequate? 17* For we are not like so many, peddling God’s word for a living; it is as in honor bound, it is as from God, in God’s presence, in Christ, that we speak.

3 Are we beginning to recommend ourselves again? or do we want, as some folks do, letters of commendation to you or from you? 2 You are our letter, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by all men, 3 manifested to be a letter of Christ’s delivered by us, inscribed not in ink but in Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on heart-tablets of flesh.

4 But we have such assurance through the Christ toward God, 5 not that we are adequate of ourselves to count anything as from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 6 the same who made us adequate as servitors of a new covenant not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills but the spirit brings to life. 7 And if the service of death, in letters, imprinted in stones, came in glory so that the sons of Israel could not fix their eyes on Moses’s face because of that glory of his face which was being superseded, 8 how shall the service of the Spirit not be more greatly in glory? 9* For if the service of condemnation is glory, much more surpassing in glory is the service of righteousness; 10 for the glorified is even gloryless in this aspect, on account of the glory that outdoes it. 11 For if what is superseded comes in glory, much more does what remains stand in glory.

12 So, having such a hope, we practice great frankness, 13* and do not do as Moses did when he put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel should not set eyes on the end of what was being superseded; 14 but their senses became callous, for to this very day the same veil remains over the reading of the old covenant, not thrown back—because it is superseded in Christ, 15 but to this day when Moses is read a veil lies over their heart. 16 But when he returns to the Lord the veil is taken off. 17 And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Lord’s Spirit is, freedom is. 18* But we all of us, viewing the reflection of the Lord’s glory with face freed from its veil, are transfigured into the same likeness, from glory into glory, as should be the case from the Lord’s Spirit.

4* For this reason, having this service to perform as mercy was granted to us, we do not give up trying, 2* but have renounced the concealments of shame, not walking in trickery nor adulterating God’s word, but by giving publicity to the truth commending ourselves to every human conscience before God. 3 And if our gospel be veiled, it is veiled in the case of those who are being lost, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded unbelievers’ senses so that they should not eye the refulgence of the gospel of the glory of the Christ, who is image of God. 5 For we are not preaching ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves servants to you on Jesus’s account, 6 because it was God, he who said “Light shall shine out of darkness,” that shone in our hearts to produce the refulgence of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Christ.

7* But we have this treasure in earthen jars, in order that the surpassing power may be God’s and not out of us: 8 every way hard pressed but not cornered, perplexed but not baffled, 9 persecuted but not deserted, felled but not ended, 10 always carrying about in our body Jesus’s deadness in order that Jesus’s life too may be made visible in our body. 11 For we who are alive are all the time being sent to death on Jesus’s account, in order that Jesus’s life too may be made visible in our mortal flesh, 12 so that death is at work in us but life in you.

13 And, having the same spirit of faith, in accordance with the written words “I believed, for that reason I spoke,” we too believe and it is for that reason we speak, 14* knowing that he who raised Jesus will raise us too with Jesus and present us together with you. 15 For everything is on your account, in order that the grace, growing vaster by the greater number, may make thanksgiving the more abundant to the glory of God. 16* Wherefore we do not give up trying, but though our outer man be perishing our inner is renewed day by day, 17* for the light pressure of our present distress is producing for us in unparalleled richness an unequaled weight of eternal glory; 18 while we look not to the seen but to the unseen, for what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.

5** For we know that if our earthly housing in the tent is pulled down we have a building that comes from God, an eternal unmanufactured house, in the heavens. 2 For this is what we groan about, longing to be clothed with the overgarment of our habitation from heaven, 3 if we are to have put it on and not be found naked— 4 for we who are in the tent are weighed down and groan over our wish not to be stripped but to be clothed with an overgarment in order that mortality may be engulfed by life. 5 And the one that framed us to this very end was God, he who gave us the Spirit as earnest-money. 6 So, being always ready for anything, and knowing that while at home in the body we are abroad from the Lord— 7 for we are walking by faith, not by a sight, 8 but we are ready for anything and willing, more willing, to be abroad from the body and at home with the Lord; 9 for this reason we make it our ambition too, whether at home or abroad, to be pleasing to him. 10* For we all have to come out to the bar of the Christ, each to get the payment for what he has done with his body, be it a good thing or a bad thing.

11 So, knowing the fear of the Lord, we are persuading men but are displayed in our true colors to God, and, I hope, in your consciences too. 12** We are not recommending ourselves to you again, but giving you material for boasting about us, in order that you may have something to say to those who boast of what they have to show and not of what is in them. 13 For if we are out of our senses it looks toward God, and if we are of sound mind it looks toward you. 14 For Christ’s love puts a pressure on us, our conclusion being that one died for all, hence all died, 15 and he died for all in order that those who are alive may no longer be alive looking toward themselves but toward the one who died and rose for them, 16 so that we, from now on, do not know anybody in the way of flesh. Even though we have known Christ in the way of flesh, yet now we no longer do. 17 So that if one is in Christ it is a new creation, what originally existed is bygone, here have new things come into existence. 18 But everything is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the errand of communicating the reconciliation, 19* how God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their offenses against them, and consigning to us the word of the reconciliation.

20 So we come as ambassadors for Christ, as if it were God appealing to you by us; speaking for Christ we beg you, be reconciled to God. 21 Him who had not known sin he made into sin for us in order that we may become righteousness of God’s in him.

6 And in cooperation too we appeal to you not to give God’s grace such a reception as will make it amount to nothing; 2 for he says “At a time of acceptance I listened to you and on a day of salvation I helped you.” Here is the time of acceptance now, here is the day of salvation now. 3 And we do not give anything for people to object to in any case, in order that the business we are on may not be found fault with, 4 but in every case are commending ourselves as agents of God, in holding out through many hard things, in distresses, in necessities, in tight pinches, 5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in mobbings, in hard work, in sleepless nights, in foodless days, 6 in integrity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in Holy Spirit, in unfeigned love, 7 in words of truth, in God’s power, by the right-hand and left-hand armament of righteousness; 8 through glory and dishonor, through denunciation and commendation; as deceivers and truthful, 9 as unknown and noted, as dying and here we are alive, as punished for discipline and not put to death, 10 as grieving but always glad, as poor but enriching many, as not having anything but in possession of everything.

11 Our mouth is open to you, Corinthians, our heart is expanded. 12 You are not narrowed down in us but narrowed down in your own sympathies. 13* But in due requital, I say as speaking to children of mine, be expanded yourselves.

14 Do not be in incongruous yoking with unbelievers; for what have righteousness and wickedness in common? or what solidarity has light with darkness? 15* and what agreement between Christ and Belial is there? or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 and what unity is there between a temple of God and idols? for we are a temple of the living God, as God said “I will live among them and walk among them, and will be their God and they shall be my people; 17 wherefore come out from their midst and separate yourselves, says the Lord, and do not touch an unclean thing, 18 and I will take you in and be father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

7 So, dear friends, having these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, working out holiness in the fear of God.

2 Find room for us; we did not wrong anybody, wreck anybody, overreach anybody. 3* I am not saying it by way of condemnation; for I have said before that you are in our hearts to live and die with us. 4 I have great confidence in speaking to you, great boasts on your account; I am filled full of encouragement, I have superabundant gladness with all our distress— 5* for when we came to Macedonia our human nature had no relief; but in distress at every point—outwardly fights, inwardly fears— 6 but he who encourages those that are brought low, God, encouraged us with Titus’s arrival, 7 and not only his arrival but also the encouragement he had over you as he reported to us your longing, your lamenting, your jealousy for me, so that I had more of gladness; 8 because if I did grieve you in my letter, I do not regret it; if I did regret it (I see that that letter did, if only momentarily, grieve you) 9 I am glad now, not that you were grieved but that you were grieved into repentance. For you were grieved in God’s way, in order that you might not be in any respect the worse off by us; 10 for grief that is felt in God’s way causes repentance into salvation, which there is no regretting, but the world’s grief produces death. 11* For look what earnestness, nay, words of self-defense, nay, indignation, nay, fear, nay, longing, nay, jealousy, nay, castigation! every way you kept your skirts clean in the matter. 12 So then if I did write to you it was not on account of the one who did the wrong nor of the one who was wronged, but for the sake of having your earnestness on our behalf made apparent to yourselves before God. 13 For this reason we have felt encouraged; and along with our encouragement we were all the gladder at Titus’s gladness because his spirit has been set at rest by all of you, 14 because if I have made any boast to him about you I was not put to shame, but as we told you everything truthfully, so too our boasting before Titus proved true. 15 And his sympathies are most pronounced toward you as he remembers the obedience of all of you, how you received him with fear and trembling. 16* I am glad to say that on every score I am in good spirits as regards you.

8* But let us make you acquainted, brothers, with God’s grace that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 that under a great test of distress the plentifulness of their joy and their deep poverty became a plentiful source for the wealth of their liberality, 3* because to the extent of their power, I can testify, and beyond it, 4 they gave voluntarily, imploring us with strong appeals for the favor and the participation in the service to God’s people— 5* and not as we had hoped, but giving themselves first to the Lord, and to us by God’s will, 6 so that we invited Titus, as he had made the first start, so too to bring to completion in you this grace too. 7* But as you are plentiful in everything, faith and the gift of speech and knowledge and all earnestness and love on our part toward you, try to be also plentiful in this grace. 8 I do not say it in the way of an order, but to get proof, through the earnestness of others, of the genuineness of your love too— 9 for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how on your account he became poor when he was rich, in order that you might become rich by his poverty— 10* and as this is what I am doing I offer an opinion; for this will be good for you, who made the first start last year not only in doing but also in wanting to. 11* But now bring to completion the doing too, so that to the heartiness of wanting to there may correspond the completion that comes from having the wherewithal; 12 for if the hearty readiness is there it is acceptable on the basis of what one has, not of what he does not have. 13 For the idea is not that others are to get an easy time, you a hard one, 14 but to have it on an equality, your surplus coming in just now for their shortage in order that their surplus may also come in for your shortage, so that there may be equality, 15 as it is written “The one who had taken more had no surplus and the one who had taken less had no shortage.”

16* But thanks be to God who is putting into Titus’s heart the same earnestness on your behalf, 17* because he has accepted the invitation and, so earnest he was, has gone off to you on his own initiative. 18 And we sent with him the brother whose praise in the preaching of the gospel runs through all the churches, 19* and, besides, who has with a view to the glory of the Lord himself and our hearty preference been elected by the churches as our fellow-traveler in the matter of this grace that is being administered by us, 20 to avoid having anybody find fault with us in the matter of this bounty that is being administered by us; 21 for we are keeping in mind what is going to look well not only before the Lord but also before men. 22* And we sent with them our brother whom we have many times found by many evidences to be energetic, but now much more energetic by the confidence he has in you. 23* As to Titus, he is our comrade and co-worker for you; our brothers, they are church delegates, glory of Christ. 24* So when you give the demonstration of your love and of our boast about you to them, it is in presence of the churches.

9 For about the service to God’s people it is superfluous for me to write to you, 2* for I know your heartiness, as to which I am boasting of you to the Macedonians that Achaea has been prepared ever since last year, and rivalry with you has stirred up the greater part of them. 3 But I send the brothers in order that our boast of you may not be made an empty one in this respect; in order that you may, as I said, be prepared, 4 for fear that if Macedonians should come with me and find you unprepared we (not to say you) should be shamed about this pledge; 5 so I thought it necessary to request the brothers to go to you in advance and get this already promised bounty of yours into shape in advance to be ready in that way, as a bounty and not as a grab.

6* But there is this, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7* Each as he has his mind made up, not in annoyance nor under compulsion, for God “loves a cheerful giver.” 8 And God is powerful to make all grace superabound toward you, in order that you, always having in every respect all sufficiency for yourselves, may superabound to every good work 9 (as it is written “He scattered, gave to the poor, his sainthood lasts forever”; 10* and he who furnishes seed for the sower and bread for eating will furnish your sowings, and that abundantly, and make the produce of your right-doing grow), 11 enriched with everything for all liberality, which through you produces thanksgiving to God 12 because the dispensing of this service not only supplements the shortages of God’s people but also through many thanksgivings superabounds to God; glorifying God, 13 through the evidence of this ministration, with the good discipline of your professed allegiance to the gospel of the Christ, and the generousness of your solidarity to them and to everybody, 14 and their prayers for you as they yearn over you because of God’s surpassing grace upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.

10 —And I Paul myself urge you by the Christ’s gentleness and reasonableness, I who face to face am a nobody among you, but at a distance am stouthearted toward you— 2 but I beg that I may not at close quarters be stout with that assurance with which I reckon on venturing against some people, those who reckon us as walking in the way of flesh. 3 For, while we walk in flesh, we do not carry on our campaign in the way of flesh; 4* for the weapons of our campaigning are not fleshly but divinely powerful for the demolishing of fortified positions, 5 demolishing argumentations and every high structure raised against the knowledge of God and taking every idea prisoner into obedience to the Christ, 6 and all ready to deal out penalties for every noncompliance when your obedience has come to the full.

7** Look at what you see before your faces. If somebody feels confident that he belongs to Christ, let him think this over again to himself, that we belong to Christ just the same as he does. 8 For if I boast more or less freely about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for demolishing you, I shall not be shamed;— 9 not to speak as if I were sort of scaring you by my letters, 10* because “the letters,” he says, “are impressive and strong, but the personal presence is weak and the talk does not amount to anything.” 11 Let such a man think this over, that what we are like in talk by letters while absent is just what we are like in action when present.

12 For we do not venture to put ourselves in the same class with, or compare ourselves with, some of those who are recommending themselves; but they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves with themselves, do not see what is what. 13 But we will not boast beyond the range of measurement, but suitably to the measurement of the yardstick of the measure God gave us, to come clear through to you. 14 For we are not overstretching ourselves, as we might be if we were not coming through to you; for we did get clear through to you in preaching the Christ’s gospel; 15 not boasting out of measure on the basis of other people’s hard work, but having a hope that as your faith grows we may be greatened in you, conformably to our yardstick, to a further extension, 16 to preach the gospel in the places out beyond you, not in somebody else’s yard to brag of ready-made progress. 17 But “let him who boasts boast of the Lord.” 18 For it is not he who recommends himself that rates as up to the standard, but he whom the Lord recommends.

11 I wish you would put up with a little bit of silliness from me; yes, do put up with me. 2 For I am jealous over you, feeling God’s jealousy. For I betrothed you to one husband, to present you to Christ a pure virgin; 3 and I am afraid lest, as the snake befooled Eve by his trickery, your sentiments should be seduced away from Christ-directed single-mindedness and purity. 4 For if the one who comes preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or you get a different spirit that you did not get, or a different gospel that you did not receive, you are quite right in putting up with him. 5 For I figure that I have in no respect fallen behind the superlative apostles. 6* And even if I am uneducated in talk I am not in knowledge, but in everything we have made it manifest by everything on all occasions among you.

7 Or did I commit a sin by lowering myself to have you upraised, in that I preached God’s gospel to you gratis? 8 I looted other churches, taking pay for service to you; 9 and when I was there with you and was in want I did not squeeze anybody, for the brothers came from Macedonia and supplemented my shortage; and in everything I kept myself from being a load on you, and will do so. 10* It is gospel truth what I am telling you, I am not going to have this boast blocked against me in the territories of Achaea. 11 Why? because I do not love you? God knows. 12 But what I am doing and will do is in order to cut away the foothold of those who desire a foothold to start from, in order that in the point they boast of they may be found to be the same as we are. 13 For men of that sort are false apostles, tricky workmen, reshaping themselves into apostles of Christ’s— 14 and no wonder, for Satan himself reshapes himself into an angel of light, 15 so it is no great thing if his agents too reshape themselves like agents of righteousness; their end will be suitable to their deeds.

16* I say again, do not any of you think I am silly. But if you do, at least give me a silly man’s hearing so that I too may do a little boasting. 17 What I am saying I am not saying along the Lord’s line but, so to speak, in silliness, in this insistence on boasting. 18 Since many are boasting along the line of flesh, so will I. 19* For you do like to put up with silly people, you being so sensible; 20* for you put up with it if one enslaves you, if one eats you out of house and home, if one takes things, if one holds his head high, if one strikes you in the face.

21 I am speaking in terms of disrespect as if the point were that we had been weak. But as to what anybody presumes on, I say in silliness, so do I presume. 22 They are Hebrews—so am I. They are Israelites—so am I. They are descendants of Abraham—so am I. 23 They are Christ’s messengers—I am out of my senses to say it, more so I, with an uncommon amount of hard work, an uncommon number of imprisonments, a record-breaking number of beatings, a great number of deaths. 24 At Jews’ hands I five times received forty stripes lacking one; 25* three times I was beaten with Roman rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked, I have spent a day and a night in the deep; 26 often on the move, in dangers by rivers, dangers by robbers, dangers from those of my blood, dangers from foreigners, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among pretended brothers, 27 in toil and drudgery, with many a sleepless night, with hunger and thirst, many times without anything to eat, with cold and nakedness. 28* Apart from the things outside me, there is what takes up my mind day after day, anxiety about all the churches. 29* Who is sick and I am not sick? who trips up and my face does not burn? 30 If I have to boast I will boast of things connected with my weakness. 31 The Lord Jesus Christ’s God and Father knows, he who is blessed forever, that I am not lying: 32 at Damascus King Harithath’s sheik had a force in the city of the Damascenes to arrest me, 33 and I was let down in a basket through the wall by a window and escaped his hands.

12 I have to boast; it is not good for me, but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2* I know of a man in Christ fourteen years ago, whether in body I do not know or whether outside the body I do not know, God knows,—of that person’s being snatched up to the third heaven; 3* and I know that man (whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows) 4 to have been snatched up into Paradise and heard unutterable words which it is not permissible for a man to speak. 5* As to that person I will boast, but as to myself I will do no boasting except of my weaknesses. 6 For if I do choose to boast I shall not be silly, for I shall be speaking the truth; but I am holding back for fear somebody should rate me above what he sees me to be or hears from me 7 by the very extraordinariness of the revelations. For which reason, in order that I may not feel too lofty, I was given a thorn for my flesh, a messenger of Satan’s to bang me about in order that I may not feel too lofty. 8 As to this I appealed to the Lord three times to have it leave me; 9 and he has said to me “My grace suffices you; for power comes to its completion in weakness.” Most gladly, then, will I boast rather of weaknesses, in order that the Christ’s power may settle on me. 10* For which reason I welcome weaknesses—brutal treatment, necessities, persecutions, and tight pinches for Christ; for when I am weak, then I am powerful.

11 I have become silly; you drove me to it. For I ought to be getting recommendations from you. For there is nothing in which I have fallen behind the superlative apostles, even if I do not amount to anything. 12 The tokens of the apostle have been produced among you with all perseverance, by tokens and wonders and miracles. 13 For what point is there in which you were left worse off than the rest of the churches, except that I did not personally squeeze you? excuse me for this unfairness. 14 This makes the third time now that I have been ready to come to you, and I will not squeeze you, for I am not after what is yours but after you. For the children ought not to be laying by for the parents, but the parents for the children. 15* And I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I specially love you am I less loved?— 16 But say I did not burden you myself, but, foxy that I am, I caught you by trickery. 17 Of those that I have sent to you has there been anyone through whom I took an advantage of you? 18* I invited Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him; did Titus take any advantage of you? did we not walk by the same spirit? in the same steps?

19* You have been thinking all along that it was to you we were making our defense; it is before God that we have been speaking in Christ. But everything, dear friends, has been for your upbuilding; 20 for I have been afraid that possibly when I come I may find you not such as I want to, and have you find me such as you do not want to; that possibly quarreling, jealousy, fits of passions, schemes of church politics, detractions, whisperings, inflated airs, disorders— 21* that when I come again God is going to humble me in your presence and I am to mourn over great numbers of those who had previously sinned and have not repented over the nastiness and unchastity and indecency they have practiced.

13 This makes the third time I am coming to you, “Every point shall be established at the mouths of two witnesses, and of three.” 2 I have said beforehand, and am saying beforehand, the same now that I am away as when I was there the second time, that if I come again I will not spare, 3 since you are looking for evidence of the genuineness of the Christ who speaks in me— 4* who is not weak toward you, but is powerful in you; for he was crucified as a result of weakness, but he is alive as a result of God’s power; for we too are weak in him but shall live with him as a result of God’s power toward you. 5 Make the test of yourselves, if you are in the faith; see about your own genuineness. Or do you not recognize in your own case that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you are counterfeit, 6 but I hope you will find that we are not counterfeits. 7 But we pray to God that you may not do anything bad, not in order that we may show up as genuine but that you may be doing what is good and we be as if we were counterfeits; 8 for we cannot do anything against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad when we are weak but you are powerful; this is the very thing we are praying for, your advance to soundness. 10 That is why I write this while I am away, so that when I am there I may not act rigorously under the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for demolishing.

11 For the rest, brothers, be joyous, sound, cheerful, unanimous, peaceful, and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Give my greetings to each other with a holy kiss. 13 All God’s people send you greetings.

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

MARGINAL NOTES TO SECOND CORINTHIANS