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2 CORINTHIANS
2 Corinthians 1:1-2
Paul and Timothy greet the Christians who are in Corinth.
We thank God that he encourages us in all our troubles so that we are able to encourage you when you suffer. We suffered so much in Asia province that we were sure that we were going to die, but we learned to trust in God. He saved us from death and he will continue to save us from death.
You can trust what I tell you. I did not visit you, because I wanted to give you the opportunity to obey the instructions that I wrote to you. Now that you have punished enough the man who caused those problems, I urge you to forgive him and to encourage him.
I did not find Titus in Troas, so I went on to Macedonia province. Everywhere we go, God causes people to know Christ through our teaching. We do not teach in order to get money; we teach with sincere motives.
The way you now live proves that we teach the truth about Jesus Christ.
Our work of teaching people about God’s New Agreement is much greater than the work of teaching people about his Old Agreement.
We teach a message that transforms people’s lives. So we teach it with great confidence.
We are servants of Jesus. It is Jesus who has shown us how great God is.
As Jesus’ servants we suffer, but through our suffering many people will receive eternal life and thank and praise God.
As our bodies get weaker, God continually makes our inner lives stronger. He will reward us for all that we have suffered.
God will give all of us new heavenly bodies, and he will reward us according to what we did while we were living in our earthly bodies.
Christ has shown me how much he loves people. That is why I teach his message with all the strength that I have. Therefore, I plead with you to believe that God will forgive you because of what Christ did for you.
In spite of much suffering, we have lived as servants of God should live.
I ask you to accept us and love us as we love you.
Do not get involved with people who do not honor God.
I love you all and I have great confidence in you.
Titus told me that my letter caused you to repent, and so now I am very happy.
The believers in Macedonia have already collected the money that they are going to send to the believers in Jerusalem. You should also finish collecting the money that you are preparing to send, and have it ready to send to Jerusalem soon.
I am sending Titus to you, along with two other believers, to help you get your gift ready. They are all well respected and trustworthy men, so treat them well. It will be good if you have your gift ready to send to Judea province by the time I arrive in Corinth.
You and I will be ashamed if your gift is not ready when I arrive.
If you give generously and willingly, God will always continue to bless you so that you will have enough to continue giving generously, and your generosity will cause many other people to praise and honor God.
I Paul say to you, “Do not listen to those who say that I am afraid to rebuke you when I am with you and that I behave like people do who are not believers.”
Those who teach what is false must come to realize that I also belong to Christ and that God has given me authority over you. I worry that they will deceive you and that you will stop being faithful to Christ alone.
You are mistaken if you think that I do not love you because I refused to accept money from you for my teaching. I will go on doing that to prevent those false apostles among you from boasting that they work just as I do.
You seem to listen to those who boast, so I too will boast. I will boast about being a Jew (as those others do), and I will boast about having suffered greatly for Christ, and about an extraordinary vision that God gave me. Although God caused me to suffer an affliction, he promised that he would help me and strengthen me.
When I was with you, I did things that showed you that I am truly Christ’s representative. But I still will not take pay from you when I come to visit you again. And those people are wrong who say that I tricked you by sending Titus to get money for myself from you.
I am worried that when I visit you I will find that many of you are still sinning. I pray that God will help you turn from your sinful behavior, so that I will not have to discipline you when I come.
I finish my letter with some advice. All of us here send you our greetings, and I pray that God will bless you.

© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.