Thanksgiving for God’s Comfort

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow toward us, so also our comfort through Christ overflows to you.

But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort that you experience in your patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer.

And our hope for you is steadfast because we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort.

For we do not write you anything other than what you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely

And with this confidence I intended to come to you first so that you would get a second opportunity to see us,

and through your help to go on into Macedonia and then from Macedonia to come back to you and be helped on our way into Judea by you.

Why Paul Postponed His Visit

Now I appeal to God as my witness, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth.

so that now instead you should rather forgive and comfort him. This will keep him from being overwhelmed by excessive grief to the point of despair.

A Living Letter

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we?

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

For if what was made ineffective came with glory, how much more has what remains come in glory!

But we have rejected shameful hidden deeds, not behaving with deceptiveness or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.

An Eternal Weight of Glory

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison

We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may be able to answer those who take pride in outward appearance and not in what is in the heart.

So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!

But as God’s servants, we have commended ourselves in every way, with great endurance, in persecutions, in difficulties, in distresses,

And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever?

Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you,

Completing the Collection for the Saints

Now we make known to you, brothers and sisters, the grace of God given to the churches of Macedonia,

Thus we urged Titus that, just as he had previously begun this work, so also he should complete this act of kindness for you.

I am not saying this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love by comparison with the eagerness of others.

to finish what you started, so that just as you wanted to do it eagerly, you can also complete it according to your means.