1God decided to make me, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. Timothy, who is also a believer, and I now write this letter to you, the congregation of God in the city of Corinth. We are also writing to everyone who belongs to God in the province of Achaia. 2We pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will be merciful to you and that He will give you his peace.
Paul tells how he suffered in Asia
3Everyone must praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our Father who is very good to us and always encourages us. 4He comforts us when we suffer or have big problems. Then we can also encourage other people who suffer when they have trouble. We can do it because God comforts us. 5Yes, we do suffer a lot because we belong to Christ, but God encourages us because we belong to Christ. 6When we suffer, we suffer so that we can encourage you to live_spiritually and be saved. When God encourages us, He does it so that we can encourage you. When you suffer, you feel how we suffer and you feel how God comforts you. 7We are sure that your faith will be strong. You also suffer like us and that is why we know that God will also encourage you, as He encourages us.
8Friends, we want you to know how much we suffered in Asia. We suffered so much that we thought it was too much for us and we thought that we would die. 9We were sure that we would die. It was as if a judge had decided that we should die. We could not help ourselves. We could only trust in God because He is the One who gives life to people after they have died. 10Then God saved us from this danger of death and He will save us again. We hope and we are sure that He will always save us. 11You also help us a lot when you pray for us. When God saves us, there are many people in the congregation of God who thank Him because He is so good.
Paul changes his plans
12We are proud because we know that we have lived like people of God should live in the world, and when we were there with you. We know in our hearts that it is God who has made us live in the right way because He is merciful to us. It was not because we are clever like the people of this world. 13The things that we say in our letters are the things we want to tell you. You must not think that they mean something else and I hope you will keep understanding everything more and more 14as you have started to understand what we have said. Yes, we want you to be proud of us, as proud as we will be of you on the day when our Lord Jesus comes again.
15I was sure that you understood and that is why I decided to visit you first, so that you could see me twice and you would be happy when you saw me again. 16I wanted to come to you first and then go to the province of Macedonia. Then I wanted to come back to you again after I had been to Macedonia. I wanted you to help me to go to the province of Judea. 17That is what I wanted to do, and I did not tell you a lie, but then I could not come back to you again after I had been to Macedonia. I did not make these plans without thinking and I did not say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ at the same time like the people of this world do. 18You know that God always does what He has promised and we also do what we promise. When we say ‘yes,’ it is yes and when we say ‘no,’ it is no.
19Remember that Silvanus, Timothy and I told you the message of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and you know that Jesus was not ‘yes’ and ‘no’ at the same time. Jesus showed us that God always says ‘yes’ to the things that He has promised us.
20Everything that God had promised us happened when Christ came. When we say ‘Amen’, we say everything that we believe about Christ is true. And when we do that, we glorify God. 21It is God who makes us sure that we belong to Christ. God chose us to work for Him. 22He showed us that we belong to Him when He sent the Holy_Spirit to come into our hearts. The Holy_Spirit tells us that we will always belong to Him.
23When I came back from Macedonia, I did not come back to Corinth. This was because I felt sorry for you. God knows it is true, and He can punish me if I am not telling the truth. 24Do not think that I want to tell you how you must believe. No, we want to work with you so that you may rejoice because your faith is strong.
