The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians, chapters 1 - 7
1 FROM PAUL, APOSTLE of Christ Jesus by God's will, and
our colleague Timothy, to the congregation of God's people at
Corinth, together with all who are dedicated to him throughout the
whole of Achaia.
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the all-
merciful Father, the God whose consolation never fails us! He comforts
us in all our troubles, so that we in turn may be able to comfort others in
any trouble of theirs and to share with them the consolation we ourselves
receive from God. As Christ's cup of suffering overflows, and we suffer
with him, so also through Christ our consolation overflows. If distress be
our lot it is the price we pay for your consolation, for your salvation; if our
lot be consolation, it is to help us to bring you comfort, and strength to face
with fortitude the same sufferings we now endure. And our hope for you is
firmly grounded; for we know that if you have part in the suffering, you
have part also in the divine consolation.
In saying this, we should like you to know, dear friends, how serious
was the trouble that came upon us in the province of Asia. The burden of
it was far too heavy for us to bear, so heavy that we despaired of life.
Indeed, we felt in our hearts that we had received a death sentence. This
was meant to teach us not to place reliance on ourselves, but on God who
raises the dead. From such mortal peril God delivered us; and he will
deliver us again, he on whom our hope is fixed. Yes, he will continue to
deliver us, if you will co-operate by praying for us. Then, with so many
people praying for our deliverance, there will be many to give thanks on
our behalf for the gracious favour God has shown towards us.
There is one thing we are proud of: our conscience assures us that in our
dealings with our fellow-men, and above all in our dealings with you, our
conduct has been governed by a devout and godly sincerity, by the grace
of God and not by worldly wisdom. There is nothing in our letters to you
but what you can read for yourselves, and understand too. Partial as your
present knowledge of us is, you will I hope come to understand fully that
you have as much reason to be proud of us, as we of you, on the Day of our
Lord Jesus.
It was because I felt so confident about all this that I had intended to
come first of all to you and give you the benefit of a double visit: I meant to
visit you on my way to Macedonia, and after leaving Macedonia, to return
to you, and you would then send me on my way to Judaea. That was my
intention; did I lightly change my mind? Or do I, when I frame plans,
frame them as a worldly man might, so that it should rest with me to say
'yes' and 'yes', or 'no' and 'no'? As God is true, the language in which we
address you is not an ambiguous blend of Yes and No. The Son of God,
Christ Jesus, proclaimed among you by us (by Silvanus and Timothy, I
mean, as well as myself), was never a blend of Yes and No. With him it
was, and is, Yes. He is the Yes pronounced upon God's promises, every one
of them. That is why, when we give glory to God, it is through Christ Jesus
that we say 'Amen'. And if you and we belong to Christ, guaranteed as his
and anointed, it is all God's doing; it is God also who has set his seal upon us,
and as a pledge of what is to come has given the Spirit to dwell in our hearts.
I appeal to God to witness what I am going to say; I stake my life upon it:
it was out of consideration for you that I did not after all come to Corinth.
Do not think we are dictating the terms of your faith; your hold on the
faith is secure enough. We are working with you for your own happiness.
2 So I made up my mind that my next visit to you must not be another pain-
ful one. If I cause pain to you, who is left to cheer me up, except you, whom
I have offended? This is precisely the point I made in my letter: I did not
want, I said, to come and be made miserable by the very people who ought
to have made me happy; and I had sufficient confidence in you all to know
that for me to be happy is for all of you to be happy. That letter I sent you
came out of great distress and anxiety; how many tears I shed as I wrote it!
But I never meant to cause you pain; I wanted you rather to know the love,
the more than ordinary love, that I have for you.
Any injury that has been done, has not been done to me; to some extent,
not to labour the point, it has been done to you all. The penalty on which
the general meeting has agreed has met the offence well enough. Some-
thing very different is called for now: you must forgive the offender and
put heart into him; the man's sorrow must not be made so severe as to
overwhelm him. I urge you therefore to assure him of your love for him
by a formal act. I wrote, I may say, to see how you stood the test, whether
you fully accept my authority. But anyone who has your forgiveness has
mine too; and when I speak of forgiving (so far as there is anything for me
to forgive), I mean that as the representative of Christ I have forgiven him
for your sake. For Satan must not be allowed to get the better of us; we
know his wiles all too well.
Then when I came to Troas, where I was to preach the gospel of Christ,
and where an opening awaited me for the Lord's work, I still found no
relief of mind, for my colleague Titus was not there to meet me; so I took
leave of the people there and went off to Macedonia. But thanks be to God,
who continually leads us about, captives in Christ's triumphal procession,
and everywhere uses us to reveal and spread abroad the fragrance of the
knowledge of himself! We are indeed the incense offered by Christ to God,
both for those who are on the way to salvation, and for those who are on the
way to perdition: to the latter it is a deadly fume that kills, to the former a
vital fragrance that brings life. Who is equal to such a calling? At least we
do not go hawking the word of God about, as so many do; when we
declare the word we do it sincerely, as from God and in God's sight, as
members of Christ.
3 ARE WE BEGINNING all over again to produce our credentials? Do we,
like some people, need letters of introduction to you, or from you? No,
you are all the letter we need, a letter written on our heart; any man can
see it for what it is and read it for himself. And as for you , it is plain that
you are a letter that has come from Christ, given to us to deliver: a letter
written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, written not on
stone tablets but on the pages of the human heart.
It is in full reliance upon God, through Christ, that we make such claims.
There is no question of our being qualified in ourselves: we cannot claim
anything as our own. The qualification we have comes from God; it is he
who has qualified us to dispense his new covenant — a covenant expressed
not in a written document, but in a spiritual bond; for the written law
condemns to death, but the Spirit gives life.
The law, then, engraved letter by letter upon stone, dispensed death,
and yet it was inaugurated with divine splendour. That splendour, though
it was soon to fade, made the face of Moses so bright that the Israelites
could not gaze steadily at him. But if so, must not even greater splendour
rest upon the divine dispensation of the Spirit? If splendour accompanied
the dispensation under which we are condemned, how much richer in splen-
dour must that one be under which we are acquitted! Indeed, the splendour
that once was is now no splendour at all; it is outshone by a splendour
greater still. For if that which was soon to fade had its moment of splen-
dour, how much greater is the splendour of that which endures!
With such a hope as this we speak out boldly; it is not for us to do as
Moses did: he put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing on
that fading splendour until it was gone. But in any case their minds had
been made insensitive, for that same veil is there to this very day when the
lesson is read from the old covenant; and it is never lifted, because only in
Christ is the old covenant abrogated. But to this very day, every time the
Law of Moses is read, a veil lies over the minds of the hearers. However,
as Scripture says of Moses, 'whenever he turns to the Lord the veil is
removed'. Now the Lord of whom this passage speaks is the Spirit; and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And because for us there is
no veil over the face, we all reflect as in a mirror the splendour of the Lord;
thus we are transfigured into his likeness, from splendour to splendour;
such is the influence of the Lord who is Spirit.
4 SEEING THEN THAT WE have been entrusted with this commission, which
we owe entirely to God's mercy, we never lose heart. We have renounced
the needs that men hide for very shame; we neither practice cunning nor
distort the word of God; only by declaring the truth openly do we recom-
mend ourselves, and then it is to the common conscience of our fellow-
men and in the sight of God. And if indeed our gospel be found veiled,
the only people who find it so are those on the way to perdition. Their
unbelieving minds are so blinded by the god of this passing age, that the
gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the very image of God, cannot dawn
upon them and bring them light. It is not ourselves that we proclaim; we
proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants, for Jesus'
sake. For the same God who said, 'Out of darkness let light shine', has
caused his light to shine within us, to give the light of revelation — the
revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We are no better than pots of earthenware to contain this treasure, and
this proves that such transcendent power does not come from us, but is
God's alone. Hard-pressed on every side, we are never hemmed in;
bewildered, we are never at our wits' end; hunted, we are never abandoned
to our fate; struck down, we are not left to die. Wherever we go we carry
death with us in our body, the death that Jesus died, that in this body also
life may reveal itself, the life that Jesus lives. For continually, while still
alive, we are being surrendered into the hands of death, for Jesus' sake, so
that the life of Jesus also may be revealed in this mortal body of ours. Thus
death is at work in us, and life in you.
But Scripture says, 'I believed, and therefore I spoke out', and we too,
in the same spirit of faith, believe and therefore speak out; for we know
that he who raised the Lord Jesus to life will with Jesus raise us too, and
bring us to his presence, and you with us. Indeed, it is for your sake that all
things are ordered, so that, as the abounding grace of God is shared by
more and more, the greater may be the chorus of thanksgiving that ascends
to the glory of God.
No wonder we do not lose heart! Though our outward humanity is in
decay, yet day by day we are inwardly renewed. Our troubles are slight
and short-lived; and their outcome and eternal glory which outweighs them
far. Meanwhile our eyes are fixed, not on the things that are seen, but on the
things that are unseen: for what is seen passes away; what is unseen is
5 eternal. For we know that if the earthly frame that houses us today should
be demolished, we possess a building which God has provided — a house
not made by human hands, eternal, and in heaven. In this present body we
do indeed groan; we yearn to have our heavenly habitation put on over this
one — in the hope that, being thus clothed, we shall not find ourselves naked.
We groan indeed, we who are enclosed within this earthly frame; we are
oppressed because we do not want to have the old body stripped off. Rather
our desire is to have the new body put on over it, so that our mortal part
may be absorbed into life immortal. God himself has shaped us for this
very end; and as a pledge of it has given us the Spirit.
Therefore we never cease to be confident. We know that so long as we
are at home in the body we are exiles from the Lord; faith is our guide, we
do not see him. We are confident, I repeat, and would rather leave our
home in the body and go to live with the Lord. We therefore make it our
ambition, wherever we are, here or there, to be acceptable to him. For we
must all have our lives laid open before the tribunal of Christ, where each
must receive what is due to him for his conduct in the body, good or bad.
WITH THIS FEAR of the Lord before our eyes we address our appeal to
men. To God our lives lie open, as I hope they also lie open to you in your
heart of hearts. This is not another attempt to recommend ourselves to you:
we are rather giving you a chance to show yourselves proud of us; then you
will have something to say to those whose pride is all in outward show and
not in inward worth. It may be we are beside ourselves, but it is for God;
if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ leaves us no
choice, when once ewe have reached the conclusion that one man died for
all and therefore all mankind has died. His purpose in dying for all was
that men, while still in life, should cease to live for themselves, and should
live for him who for their sake died and was raised to life. With us therefore
worldly standards have ceased to count in our estimate of any man; even if
once they counted in our understanding of Christ, they do so now no
longer. When anyone is united to Christ, there is a new world; the old
order has gone, and a new order has already begun.
From first to last this has been the work of God. He has reconciled us men
to himself through Christ, and he has enlisted us in this service of recon-
ciliation. What I mean is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to
himself, no longer holding men's misdeeds against them, and that he has
entrusted us with the message of reconciliation. We come therefore as
Christ's ambassadors. It is as if God were appealing to you through us: in
Christ's name, we implore you, be reconciled to God! Christ was innocent
of sin, and yet for our sake God made him one with the sinfulness of men,
so that in him we might be made one with the goodness of god himself.
6 Sharing in God's work, we urge this appeal upon you: you have received
the grace of God; do not let it go for nothing. God's own words are:
'In the hour of my favour I gave heed to you;
on the day of deliverance I came to your aid.'
The hour of favour has now come; now, I say, has the day of deliverance
dawned.
In order that our service may not be brought into discredit, we avoid giving
offence in anything. As God's servants, we try to recommend ourselves
in all circumstances by our steadfast endurance: in distress, hardships,
and dire straits; flogged, imprisoned, mobbed; overworked, sleepless,
starving. e recommend ourselves by the innocence of our behaviour,
our grasp of truth, our patience and kindliness; by gifts of the Holy Spirit,
by sincere love, by declaring the truth, by the power of God. We wield the
weapons of righteousness in the right hand and left. Honour and dishonour,
praise and blame, are alike our lot: we are the imposters who speak the
truth, the unknown men whom all men know; dying we still live on;
disciplined by suffering, we are not done to death; in our sorrows we
have always cause for joy; poor ourselves, we bring wealth to many;
penniless, we own the world.
Men of Corinth, we have spoken very frankly to you; we have opened
our heart wide to you all. On our part there is no constraint; any constraint
there may be is in yourselves. In fair exchange then (may a father speak so
to his children?) open wide your hearts to us.
DO NOT UNITE yourselves with unbelievers; they are no fit mates
for you. What has righteousness to do with wickedness? Can light
consort with darkness? Can Christ agree with Belial, or a believer join
hands with an unbeliever? Can there be a compact between the temple of
God and the idols of the heathen? And the temple of the living God is
what we are. God's own words are: 'I will live and move about among
them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' And therefore,
'come away and leave them, separate yourselves, says the Lord; touch
nothing unclean. Then I will accept you, says the Lord, the Ruler of all
being; I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters.'
7 Such are the promises that have been made to us, dear friends. Let us
therefore cleanse ourselves from all that can defile flesh and spirit, and in the
fear of God complete our consecration.
DO MAKE A PLACE for us in your hearts! We have wronged no one, ruined
no one, taken advantage of no one. I do not want to blame you. Why, as I
have told you before, the place you have in our heart is such that, come
death, come life, we meet it together. I am perfectly frank with you. I have
great pride in you. In all our many troubles my cup is full of consolation,
and overflows with joy.
Even when we reached Macedonia there was still no relief for this poor
body of ours; instead, there was trouble at every turn, quarrels all round
us, forebodings in our hearts. But God, who brings comfort to the downcast,
has comforted us by the arrival of Titus, and not merely by his arrival,
but by his being so greatly comforted about you. He has told us how you
long for me, how sorry you are, and how eager to take my side; and that
has made me happier still.
Even if I did wound you by the letter I sent, I do not now regret it. I
may have been sorry for it when I saw the letter had caused you pain,
even if only for a time; but now I am happy, not that your feelings were
wounded but that the wound led to a change of heart. You bore the smart
as God would have you bear it, and so you are no losers by what we did.
For the wound which is borne in God's way brings a change of heart too
salutary to regret; but the hurt which is borne in the world's way brings
death. You bore your hurt in God's way, and see what its results have been!
It made you take the matter seriously and vindicate yourselves. How
angered you were, how apprehensive! How your longing for me awoke,
yes, and your devotion and your eagerness to see justice done! At every
point you have cleared yourselves of blame in this trouble. And so, although
I did send you that letter, it was not the offender or his victim that most
concerned me. My aim in writing was to help to make plain to you, in the
sight of God, how truly you are devoted to us. That is why we have been so
encouraged.
But beside being encouraged ourselves we have also been delighted
beyond everything by seeing how happy Titus is: you have all helped to
set his mind completely at rest. Anything I may have said to him to show
my pride in you has been justified. Every word we ever addressed to you
bore the mark of truth; and the same holds of the proud boast we made in
the presence of Titus: that has also proved true. His heart warms all the
more to you as he recalls how ready you all were o do what he asked, meet-
ing him as you did in fear and trembling. How happy I am now to have
complete confidence in you!
The New English Bible (with Apocrypha)
Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, 1970
Posted Dec 28, 2018, 2:41 AM UTC
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