Strength in Weakness

In the letter he tells them what had happened. He writes of trouble in Asia so heavy that “we even gave up hope of living.” He had planned to come to Corinth first, go on from there into Macedonia, come back to them from Macedonia, and have them send him on his way to Judea. But he had not come to Corinth. It was to spare them, he says; he had made up his mind not to come to them again in sorrow. And he had written to them out of deep trouble and anguish of heart, with many tears.

He came to Troas for the Good News of Christ, and a door was opened for him there in the Lord. But he found no relief for his spirit, because he didn’t find his brother Titus. So he said goodbye and went on into Macedonia. No relief came there either; there was trouble on every side, fighting outside and fear inside. But God, who comforts those who are brought low, brought comfort when Titus came, and through the comfort Titus himself had found among the believers at Corinth. Titus told of their longing, their mourning and their zeal for Paul, and Paul rejoiced still more.

After the greeting, Paul wrote: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. In all our troubles he comforts us, so that we can comfort people in any trouble at all with the very comfort God has given us.

“Just as the sufferings of Christ come to us in full measure, so our comfort also comes in full measure through Christ. If we are in trouble, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which makes you able to bear patiently the same sufferings we also suffer. Our hope for you is steady. We know that since you share in the sufferings, you share in the comfort as well.

“Brothers and sisters, we don’t want you to be left in the dark about the trouble that came on us in Asia. We were weighed down far beyond our strength, so much that we even gave up hope of living. Yes, inside ourselves we had the sentence of death, so that we would not put our trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.

“He rescued us from such a terrible death, and he does rescue us. We have set our hope on him that he will keep on rescuing us, while you also help us by praying for us. That way, many people may give thanks on your behalf for the gift that was given to us through many.”

“We write you nothing except what you read and recognize. And I hope you will go on recognizing it to the end, just as you have recognized us in part: that you can boast of us, as we can boast of you, on the day of our Lord Jesus.

“With this confidence, I meant to come to you first, so that you would have a second benefit. I would go on from you into Macedonia, come back to you from Macedonia, and then be sent by you on my way to Judea. When I planned this, was I taking it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a merely human way, so that with me it is ‘Yes, yes’ and ‘No, no’?

“But as God is faithful, what we told you was not ‘Yes and no.’ Silvanus, Timothy and I preached the Son of God, Jesus Christ, among you, and he was not ‘Yes and no.’ In him it is ‘Yes.’ However many promises God has made, their ‘Yes’ is in him. That is why the ‘Amen’ also comes through him, to the glory of God through us.

“It is God who makes us firm in Christ, together with you, and who anointed us. He also marked us with his seal, and gave us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.

“I call on God as a witness to my soul: I stayed away from Corinth to spare you. We don’t rule over your faith. We are fellow workers with you for your joy. You stand firm in faith.”

“I wrote this very thing to you so that when I came, I wouldn’t have sorrow from the very people who ought to make me glad. I was sure that every one of you would share my joy. I wrote to you out of great trouble and anguish of heart, with many tears, not to make you sad, but so that you would know how very much I love you.

“If anyone has caused sorrow, he hasn’t caused it to me. He has caused it to all of you, in part. I don’t want to press too hard. The punishment the many gave such a person is enough. Now, instead, you should forgive him and comfort him, or he might be swallowed up by too much sorrow. That is why I beg you to assure him of your love.

“This is also why I wrote: to find out what you are made of, whether you obey in everything. If you forgive anyone anything, I forgive too. If I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes, in the presence of Christ, so that Satan won’t get the better of us. We know his schemes.”

“Now thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us makes known the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place. We are a sweet aroma of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who perish. To some we are a stench from death to death; to others, a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is fit for such things?

“We are not like so many, who go around selling the word of God. We speak in Christ with sincerity, as from God, in the sight of God.

“Are we starting to recommend ourselves again? Or, like some people, do we need letters to you or from you to recommend us? You are our letter. It is written in our hearts, and everyone knows it and reads it. It is plain that you are a letter of Christ that came through our service, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.

“That is the confidence we have toward God through Christ. We are not able, by ourselves, to count anything as our own doing. Our ability comes from God. He has made us able to be servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

“If the service that condemns had glory, the service of righteousness has far more glory. Indeed, in this respect, what was made glorious is not glorious, because of the glory that goes so far beyond it. If what was passing away came with glory, what remains has much more glory.

“Since we have a hope like this, we speak very boldly, not like Moses, who put a veil on his face so that the Israelites would not fix their eyes on the end of what was passing away.

“But their minds were hardened. To this very day, when the old covenant is read, the same veil remains, because it is in Christ that it passes away. Yes, to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. With faces unveiled, all of us see the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, and we are being changed into the same image, from glory to glory. This comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”

“Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying. In them the god of this world has blinded the minds of the people who don’t believe, so that the light would not dawn on them: the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

“We don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. That is because God, who said, ‘Light will shine out of darkness,’ is the one who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of knowing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“Yet we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the power, great beyond measure, may be from God and not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; at a loss, yet not in despair; hunted, yet not deserted; struck down, yet not destroyed.

“We always carry in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, so that Jesus’ life may also be shown in our body. We who live are always handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that Jesus’ life may also be shown in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.

“We have the same spirit of faith, as it is written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke.’ We too believe, and so we too speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also through Jesus, and will present us together with you. All this is for your sakes, so that as grace is multiplied through many people, it may cause thanksgiving to grow and grow, to the glory of God.

“So we don’t lose courage. Though on the outside we are wearing out, on the inside we are made new day by day. Our light trouble, which is only for a moment, is bringing us an eternal weight of glory, greater and greater still, while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. The things that are seen don’t last, but the things that are not seen are eternal.”

“We who are in this tent do groan, weighed down. We don’t want to be unclothed; we want to be clothed, so that life may swallow up what is mortal. It is God who made us for this very thing, and he has given us the down payment of the Spirit.

“That is why we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are brave, I say, and we think it better to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

“So whether we are at home or absent, our aim is to please him. All of us must be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ, so each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

“The love of Christ drives us on, because we have come to this conclusion: one died for all, so all died. He died for all, so that the living would stop living for themselves and would live for the one who died and rose again for their sake.

“So from now on we know no one in a merely human way. Even though we have known Christ in a merely human way, we no longer know him like that. And so if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new.

“All things are from God. He reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, which is this: God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding their wrongs against them. And he has put the word of reconciliation in our hands.

“So we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God. God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

“Working together, we also plead with you: don’t receive the grace of God in vain. He says, ‘At a welcome time I listened to you. In a day of salvation I helped you.’ Look, now is the welcome time. Look, now is the day of salvation.”

“Corinthians, we have held nothing back in speaking to you. Our heart has been made wide. You are not cramped by us; you are cramped in your own affections. Now in return, open your hearts too. I speak to you as my children.

“Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers. What fellowship can righteousness have with wrongdoing? What fellowship does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial? What share does a believer have with an unbeliever? What agreement does a temple of God have with idols? You are a temple of the living God. Just as God said, ‘I will make my home in them and walk in them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.’

“So, ‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you. I will be a Father to you. To me you will be sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty. These promises are ours, dear friends. So let’s make ourselves clean from everything that stains flesh and spirit, and make holiness complete in the fear of God.”

“Even after we had come into Macedonia, our bodies found no relief. We were troubled on every side: fighting outside, fear inside. But God, who comforts those who are brought low, comforted us when Titus came. And it was not just his coming. It was also the comfort he had found among you, while he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

“Though I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you grieve, though just for a while. Now I am glad, not that you were grieved, but that your grief brought you to repentance. Your grief was godly, so that you would lose nothing because of us.

“Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death. Look at what this godly grief of yours has done in you: what earnest care! Yes, how you spoke up for yourselves, how angry you were, how afraid, how you longed, how eager you were, how you wanted to set things right! In everything you have shown yourselves to be pure in the matter.

“So although I wrote to you, I didn’t write for the sake of the one who did wrong, or for the sake of the one who was wronged. I wrote so that your earnest care for us might be made plain among you in the sight of God. That is why we have been comforted. And in our comfort we were gladder still because of Titus’ joy, because all of you had refreshed his spirit.

“If I have boasted to him about you in anything, I was not let down. All that we told you was said in truth, and in the same way, the boast I made about you in front of Titus was found to be true. He feels even more warmly toward you as he remembers how all of you obeyed, and how with fear and trembling you received him. I am glad that in everything I am confident about you.”