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- Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
- To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:
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- Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
- The God of All Comfort
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- Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
- the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
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- who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort
- those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
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- For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives,
- so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
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- If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation;
- if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you
- patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
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- And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as
- you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
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- We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers,
- about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia.
- We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure,
- so that we despaired even of life.
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- Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death.
- But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God,
- who raises the dead.
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- He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.
- On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us,
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- as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for
- the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
- Paul's Change of Plans
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- Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves
- in the world, and especially in our relations with you,
- in the holiness and sincerity that are from God.
- We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace.
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- For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that,
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- as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully
- that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
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- Because I was confident of this,
- I planned to visit you first so that you might benefit twice.
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- I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you
- from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea.
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- When I planned this, did I do it lightly?
- Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say,
- "Yes, yes" and "No, no"?
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- But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No."
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- For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you
- by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No,"
- but in him it has always been "Yes."
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- For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ.
- And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.
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- Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us,
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- set his seal of ownership on us,
- and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
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- I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you
- that I did not return to Corinth.
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- Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy,
- because it is by faith you stand firm.