The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament (195 page)

   D. Ministry of Reconciliation (
5:11-6:10
)

   E. Paul's Reconciliation with Corinth (
6:11-7:16
)

3. The Jerusalem Collection (
8:1-9:15
)

   A. Example of the Macedonians (
8:1-7
)

   B. Supplying the Needs of Others (
8:8-15
)

   C. Arrival of Titus and Companions (
8:16-24
)

   D. Appeal for Generosity (
9:1-15
)

4. Paul's Apostolic Defense (
10:1-13:10
)

   A. Paul's Ministry of Divine Power (
10:1-12
)

   B. Boasting in the Lord (
10:13-11:20
)

   C. Boasting in Suffering and Weakness (
11:21-33
)

   D. Paul's Heavenly Journey (
12:1-10
)

   E. Appeal for Unity and Peace (
12:11-13:10
)

5. Epilogue (
13:11-14
)

   A. Farewell (
13:11-13
)

   B. Trinitarian Benediction (
13:14
)

THE SECOND LETTER OF SAINT PAUL TO THE

Chapters

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Essays and Charts

Not Made with Hands (2 Cor 5:1)

Salutation

1
 
Paul,
an apostle
of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.

To the Church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Acha'ia:

2
 
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul's Thanksgiving after Affliction

3
 
Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
⁴
who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
⁵
For as we share abundantly in
Christ's sufferings
, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
^a
6
If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
⁷
Our hope for you is
unshaken
; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

8
 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of the affliction
 
*
we experienced
in Asia
; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself.
⁹
Why, we felt that we had received the sentence of death; but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead;
¹⁰
he delivered us from so deadly a peril, and he will deliver us; on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
¹¹
You also must
help us by prayer
, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to many prayers.

12
 For our boast is this, the testimony of
our conscience
that we have behaved in the world, and still more toward you, with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God.
¹³
For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand; I hope you will understand fully,
¹⁴
as you have understood in part, that you can be proud of us as we can be of you, on the
day of the Lord Jesus
.

The Postponement of Paul's Visit

15
 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have
a double pleasure
;
^b
16
I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way
to Judea
.
¹⁷
Was I vacillating
when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say Yes and No at once?
¹⁸
As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No.
¹⁹
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you,
Silva'nus and Timothy and I
, was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes.
²⁰
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the
Amen
through him, to the glory of God.
²¹
But it is God
who establishes us with you in Christ, and has
commissioned us
;
²²
he has put
his seal
upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

23
 But
I call God to witness
against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming to Corinth.
²⁴
Not that we lord it over your faith; we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in

2
  your faith.
¹
For I made up my mind not to make you
another painful visit
.
²
For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained?
³
And
I wrote
as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.
⁴
For I wrote you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

Forgiveness for the Offender

5
 
But if any one
has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to you all.
⁶
For such a one this punishment by the majority is enough;
⁷
so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him,
or he may be overwhelmed
by excessive sorrow.
⁸
So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him.
⁹
For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything.
¹⁰
Any one whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ,
¹¹
to keep Satan from gaining the advantage over us; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

Paul's Anxiety in Troas

12
 When I came to
Troas
to preach the gospel of Christ, a door was opened for me in the Lord;
¹³
but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother
Titus
there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia.

14
 
But thanks be to God
, who in Christ always
leads us in triumph
, and
through us spreads the fragrance
of the knowledge of him everywhere.
¹⁵
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
¹⁶
to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
Who is sufficient
for these things?
¹⁷
For we are
not, like so many, peddlers
of God's word; but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

Ministers of the New Covenant

3
  
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do,
letters of recommendation
to you, or from you?
²
You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your
^c
hearts
, to be known and read by all men;
³
and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with
the Spirit
of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4
 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
⁵
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us;
our sufficiency is from God
,
⁶
who has qualified us to be ministers of a
new covenant
, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7
 Now if the dispensation of death,
carved in letters on stone
, came with such splendor that the Israelites could not look at
Moses' face
because of its brightness, fading as this was,
⁸
will not the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor?
⁹
For if there was splendor in the dispensation of condemnation, the dispensation of righteousness must far exceed it in splendor.
¹⁰
Indeed, in this case, what once had splendor has come to have no splendor at all, because of the splendor that surpasses it.
¹¹
For if what faded away came with splendor, what is
permanent
must have much more splendor.

12
 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,
¹³
not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor.
¹⁴
But their minds were hardened; for to this day, when they read the old covenant,
that same veil
remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.
¹⁵
Yes, to this day whenever
Moses is read
a veil lies over their minds;
¹⁶
but when a man
turns to the Lord
the veil is removed.
¹⁷
Now
the Lord is the Spirit
, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
¹⁸
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding
^d
the glory of the Lord, are
being changed
into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
 
*

4
  
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God,
^e
we do not lose heart
.
²
We have renounced
disgraceful, underhanded ways
; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
³
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.
⁴
In their case
the god of this world
has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.
⁵
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants
^f
for Jesus' sake.
⁶
For it is the God who said, "
Let light shine out
of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

7
 But we have this treasure
in earthen vessels
, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.
⁸
We are afflicted
in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
⁹
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
¹⁰
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
¹¹
For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
¹²
So death is at work in us,
but life in you
.
 
*

13
 Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "
I believed, and so I spoke
," we too believe, and so we speak,
¹⁴
knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.
¹⁵
For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.