The Living Bible (367 page)

2 Corinthians

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2 Corinthians
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Dear friends: This letter is from me, Paul, appointed by God to be Jesus Christ’s messenger; and from our dear brother Timothy. We are writing to all of you Christians there in Corinth and throughout Greece.
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 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ mightily bless each one of you and give you peace.

    
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 What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us.
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 You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with his comfort and encouragement.
^6-7
 We are in deep trouble for bringing you God’s comfort and salvation. But in our trouble God has comforted us—and this, too, to help you: to show you from our personal experience how God will tenderly comfort you when you undergo these same sufferings. He will give you the strength to endure.

    
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 I think you ought to know, dear brothers, about the hard time we went through in Asia. We were really crushed and overwhelmed, and feared we would never live through it.
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 We felt we were doomed to die and saw how powerless we were to help ourselves; but that was good, for then we put everything into the hands of God, who alone could save us, for he can even raise the dead.
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 And he did help us and saved us from a terrible death; yes, and we expect him to do it again and again.
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 But you must help us too by praying for us. For much thanks and praise will go to God from you who see his wonderful answers to your prayers for our safety!

    
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 We are so glad that we can say with utter honesty that in all our dealings we have been pure and sincere, quietly depending upon the Lord for his help and not on our own skills. And that is even more true, if possible, about the way we have acted toward you.
^13-14
 My letters have been straightforward and sincere; nothing is written between the lines! And even though you don’t know me very well (I hope someday you will), I want you to try to accept me and be proud of me as you already are to some extent; just as I shall be of you on that day when our Lord Jesus comes back again.

    
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 It was because I was so sure of your understanding and trust that I planned to stop and see you on my way to Macedonia, as well as afterwards when I returned, so that I could be a double blessing to you and so that you could send me on my way to Judea.

    
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 Then why, you may be asking, did I change my plan? Hadn’t I really made up my mind yet? Or am I like a man of the world who says yes when he really means no?
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 Never! As surely as God is true, I am not that sort of person. My yes means yes.

    
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 Timothy and Silvanus and I have been telling you about Jesus Christ the Son of God. He isn’t one to say yes when he means no. He always does exactly what he says.
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 He carries out and fulfills all of God’s promises, no matter how many of them there are; and we have told everyone how faithful he is, giving glory to his name.
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 It is this God who has made you and me into faithful Christians and commissioned us apostles to preach the Good News.
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 He has put his brand upon us—his mark of ownership—and given us his Holy Spirit in our hearts as guarantee that we belong to him and as the first installment of all that he is going to give us.

    
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 I call upon this God to witness against me if I am not telling the absolute truth: the reason I haven’t come to visit you yet is that I don’t want to sadden you with a severe rebuke.
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 When I come, although I can’t do much to help your faith, for it is strong already, I want to be able to do something about your joy: I want to make you happy, not sad.

2 Corinthians
2

“No,” I said to myself, “I won’t do it. I’ll not make them unhappy with another painful visit.”
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 For if I make you sad, who is going to make me happy? You are the ones to do it, and how can you if I cause you pain?
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 That is why I wrote as I did in my last letter, so that you will get things straightened out before I come.
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Then, when I do come, I will not be made sad by the very ones who ought to give me greatest joy. I felt sure that your happiness was so bound up in mine that you would not be happy either unless I came with joy.

    
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 Oh, how I hated to write that letter! It almost broke my heart, and I tell you honestly that I cried over it. I didn’t want to hurt you, but I had to show you how very much I loved you and cared about what was happening to you.

    
^5-6
 Remember that the man I wrote about, who caused all the trouble, has not caused sorrow to me as much as to all the rest of you—though I certainly have my share in it too. I don’t want to be harder on him than I should. He has been punished enough by your united disapproval.
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 Now it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so bitter and discouraged that he won’t be able to recover.
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 Please show him now that you still do love him very much.

    
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 I wrote to you as I did so that I could find out how far you would go in obeying me.
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 When you forgive anyone, I do too. And whatever I have forgiven (to the extent that this affected me too) has been by Christ’s authority, and for your good.
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 A further reason for forgiveness is to keep from being outsmarted by Satan, for we know what he is trying to do.

    
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 Well, when I got as far as the city of Troas, the Lord gave me tremendous opportunities to preach the Gospel.
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 But Titus, my dear brother, wasn’t there to meet me and I couldn’t rest, wondering where he was and what had happened to him. So I said good-bye and went right on to Macedonia to try to find him.

    
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 But thanks be to God! For through what Christ has done, he has triumphed over us so that now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Gospel like a sweet perfume.
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 As far as God is concerned there is a sweet, wholesome fragrance in our lives. It is the fragrance of Christ within us, an aroma to both the saved and the unsaved all around us.
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 To those who are not being saved, we seem a fearful smell of death and doom, while to those who know Christ we are a life-giving perfume. But who is adequate for such a task as this?
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 Only those who, like ourselves, are men of integrity, sent by God, speaking with Christ’s power, with God’s eye upon us. We are not like those hucksters—and there are many of them—whose idea in getting out the Gospel is to make a good living out of it.

2 Corinthians
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Are we beginning to be like those false teachers of yours who must tell you all about themselves and bring long letters of recommendation with them? I think you hardly need someone’s letter to tell you about us, do you? And we don’t need a recommendation from you, either!
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 The only letter I need is you yourselves! By looking at the good change in your hearts, everyone can see that we have done a good work among you.
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 They can see that you are a letter from Christ, written by us. It is not a letter written with pen and ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not one carved on stone, but in human hearts.

    
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 We dare to say these good things about ourselves only because of our great trust in God through Christ, that he will help us to be true to what we say,
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 and not because we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success comes from God.
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 He is the one who has helped us tell others about his new agreement to save them. We do not tell them that they must obey every law of God or die; but we tell them there is life for them from the Holy Spirit. The old way, trying to be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives them life.

    
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 Yet that old system of law that led to death began with such glory that people could not bear to look at Moses’ face. For as he gave them God’s law to obey, his face shone out with the very glory of God—though the brightness was already fading away.
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 Shall we not expect far greater glory in these days when the Holy Spirit is giving life?
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 If the plan that leads to doom was glorious, much more glorious is the plan that makes men right with God.
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 In fact, that first glory as it shone from Moses’ face is worth nothing at all in comparison with the overwhelming glory of the new agreement.
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 So if the old system that faded into nothing was full of heavenly glory, the glory of God’s new plan for our salvation is certainly far greater, for it is eternal.

    
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 Since we know that this new glory will never go away, we can preach with great boldness,
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 and not as Moses did, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelis could not see the glory fade away.

    
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 Not only Moses’ face was veiled, but his people’s minds and understanding were veiled and blinded too. Even now when the Scripture is read it seems as though Jewish hearts and minds are covered by a thick veil, because they cannot see and understand the real meaning of the Scriptures. For this veil of misunderstanding can be removed only by believing in Christ.
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 Yes, even today when they read Moses’ writings their hearts are blind and they think that obeying the Ten Commandments is the way to be saved.

    
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 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord from his sins, then the veil is taken away.
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 The Lord is the Spirit who gives them life, and where he is there is freedom from trying to be saved by keeping the laws of God.
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 But we Christians have no veil over our faces; we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.