2 Corinthians
| 2 Corinthians: Chapters -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- |
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| 1:1 Paul, an apostle, one sent of Christ Jesus through the desire of God, and Timothy our brother; to the church and assembly of God that is in Corinth, together with all the devoted ones that are throughout Achaia. 2 Grace to you and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ. • 3 We bless and speak well of the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of compassions and the God of all comfort and encouragement; 4 the One who comforts and encourages us in all our pressures of travail, inside and out, enabling us to comfort those who are inside every pressure, through the comfort and encouragement with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 Because, as the sufferings and passions of Christ abound into us, in just the same way, our comfort and encouragement also abound through Christ. • 6 More than that, If we are pressed with travail, it is for the sake of your comfort and salvation. If we are called to encouragement, it is for your comfort, energeoing inside the steadfastness of the same passions that we also suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm and certain, knowing that, as you share of the sufferings and passions, so also you share of the comfort and encouragement. 8 Indeed, we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers and sisters, of the difficulties that happened to us in Asia, for we were weighted down excessively, against our ability, so as even to despair in our desire to live. 9 But we possessed inside ourselves the sentence of death, that we should not be confidencing upon ourselves, but upon God, the One who raises the dead, the One who has delivered us from such a great death and will deliver us. 10 You also join together in help for our sakes by supplication, that out from many persons the gift of good speaking might be given into us for our sakes. 12 For our boasting is this, the testimony of our consciousness [our knowing together], that inside of devotion and the clarity of God, not in fleshly wisdom, but inside the grace of God, we have sojourned inside the world to be more abundant now towards you. 13 Indeed, no other things we write to you, other than what you know with certainty or even acknowledge; I hope moreover, that you will acknowledge fully, 14 (for you have acknowledged us in part), so that, even as we are presently boasting of you, you also would boast of us now inside of the day of our Lord, Jesus. 15 And with this confidence, I intended previously to come to you, that you might possess a second grace, 16 and through you to pass on into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia, to come to you, and to be sent by you forward into Judea. 17 Therefore, did I use levity in my intention? Or what I intend, do I intend according to the flesh, that there should be with me, “Yes, yes,” and “No, no?” • 18 Moreover, God is faithful, that our word towards you was not “Yes and No.” 19 Indeed, the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was proclaimed by us, that is, by me, Silvanus, and Timothy, to be among you, was not “Yes and No,” but it has always been “YES” inside of Him. 20 Indeed, as the many promises of God are inside of Him, as the “Yes” is also through Him, so also the proclamation, “Let it be so – it is so,” [a] is connecting with God towards glory through us. • 21 More than that, the One who is presently and actively establishing us, planting us firmly together with you into Christ, and who has anointed us, is God. 22 He is the One also who sealed us, having given us the down-payment of the Spirit inside our hearts. 23 I, however, call God as witness upon my soul, that to spare you is why I have not yet come to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers together with your joy; indeed, you presently and actively stand firm inside of faith. |
| Gospel Word | Notes |
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| • Speak Christ: We speak blessing into God, our Father, the One who always speaks comfort and encouragement into us. Then we take that same comfort we have received from God and impart it to one another inside of all travail. • Life: The knowledge of God’s comfort and encouragement passes from one to another through travail. We share the same suffering; we share the same comfort. This is a reciprocity of giving, one of the meanings of Gospel Life. • The Form for God through Jesus: Pearls, the entrances into God’s city, are formed by turning suffering and difficulty into treasures of goodness, that is, giving thanks. But when we share one another’s sufferings and comfort in reciprocity, we in turn become God’s highway into our world. God dwells inside our shared life together. • Covenant: Paul is working towards an expression of the New Covenant (see 2 Cor. 3:3-6), the Bond that is Jesus, joining us together with the Father. Christ Jesus is spoken into us as a sure and certain word containing all that God has promised. Our part is to respond back with, “Let it be so; it is so.” • Covenant: God alone saves us. He has done so by planting us firmly into Christ Jesus. We know that He has through faith. God has also given us His Spirit, now inside our hearts, even part of our humanity (see 1 Corinthians 2:12 & 6:17). The Spirit enables us to know and connect with God, sealing the Bond. |
a. The Greek word is actually “amen.” It’s correct translation is “Let it be so; it is so,” which carries far greater meaning. |