1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God in Corinth, and to all the saints in the whole of Achaia.
2 May you receive grace and peace from God our Father and from Christ Jesus, the Lord.
Blessed be God, the source of all comfort
3 Blessed be God, the Father of Christ Jesus, our Lord, the all-merciful Father and the God of all comfort!
4 He encourages us in all our trials, so that we may also encourage those in any trial, with the same comfort that we receive from God.
5 For whenever the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so, through Christ, a great comfort also overflows.
6 So, if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and sters, we want you to know some of the trials we experienced in the province of Asia. We were crushed; it was too much; it was more than we could bear and we had already lost all hope of coming through alive.
7 Our hope for you is most firm; just as you share in our sufferings, so shall you also share in our consolation.
8 Brothers, we want you to know some of the trials we experienced in the province of Asia. We were crushed; it was too much, it was more than we could bear.
9 We felt branded for death, but this happened that we might no longer rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
10 He freed us from such a deadly peril and will continue to do so. We trust he will continue protecting us,
11 but you must help us with your prayers. When such a favor is ob tained by the intercession of many, so will there be many to give thanks to God on our behalf.
The plans of Paul
12 There is something we are proud of: our conscience tells us that we have lived in this world with the openness and sincerity that comes from God. We have been guided, not by human motives, but by the grace of God, especially in relation to you.
13 There were no hidden intentions in my letter, but only what you can read and understand.
14 I trust that what you now only partly realize, you will come to understand fully, and so be proud of us, as we shall also be proud of you on the Day of the Lord Jesus.
15 With this assurance, I wanted to go and visit you first and this would have been a double blessing for you,
16 for I would have left you to go through Mace donia and I would have come back to you on my way back from Macedonia and you would have sent me on my way to Judea.
17 Have I planned this with out thinking at all? Or do I change my decisions on the spur of the moment, so that I am between No and Yes?
18 God knows that our dealing with you is not Yes and No,
19 just as the Son of God, Christ Jesus, whom we – Silvanus, Timothy and I – preach to you, was not Yes and No; with him it was simply Yes.
20 In him all the promises of God have come to be a Yes, and we also say in his name: Amen! giving thanks to God.
21 God him self has anointed us and strength ens us with you to serve Christ;
22 he has marked us with his own seal in a first outpouring of the Spirit in our hearts.
Paul refers to a scandal
23 God knows, and I swear to you by my own life, that if I did not return to Corinth, it was because I wanted to spare you.
24 I do not wish to lord it over your faith, but to contribute to your happiness; for regarding faith, you already stand firm.
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Comments 2 Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 1
• 1.3 From the very beginning, Paul describes his own situation as an apostle of Christ – wandering, persecuted, ill – to the Co rinthians who know how to take it easy. While they feel proud of their large community and look for brilliant preachers (as will be seen below), Paul shares in the passion of Christ. Paul suggests that they too will know the true consolation of God when it is their turn to suffer for him.
The word comfort will often occur in this letter. God would not be satisfied by just teaching us resignation: comfort is the experience of the presence of God, but relies in part on the signs that show him acting among us. The two go together. Jesus told us to ask so that God would answer and his responses would be a source of joy (Jn 15:24). In any case, God does not free us of trials but gives strength and perseverance to overcome them.
• 12. The Corinthians did not take it well that Paul put off the promised visit. He feels obliged to confess that he has passed the stage of an apostolate based on human projects. He is a man of the Spirit and does not make decisions in the same way as many others do. The Spirit in him matures his decisions and he knows that he is not alone. He will not be one of those who are precipitate in making decisions or who back-pedal because they are not sure of themselves.
In him all the promises of God have come to be a Yes (v. 20). God fulfilled his promises when he sent his Son among us. Christ also did only what his Father wanted. Thus, Christ is a ‘yes’ consenting to the Father’s plan. From there, Paul draws the consequences for Christians. In baptism we say the first yes to Christ. At every Eucharist we repeat the same yes. The “amen” that we say in prayers means yes, it is true. The opposite of all this is sin which is the same as saying ‘no’ to Christ.
In a first outpouring (v. 22). Paul actually says: he gave us the first payment of the Spirit. See commentary on Ephesians 1:14.
• 23. Here Paul refers to the letters preceding this one and which we mentioned in the introduction. We referred to a previous letter that is perhaps preserved in chapters 10–13 of this “second letter.”
I do not wish to lord it over your faith (1:24): see 10:5-6. May it be that, when I come, I do not feel sad (2:3): see 12:21.
Paul alludes here to the triumph of the victorious Roman generals: the prisoners to be massacred later were dragged behind their chariots. Paul sees himself here as “the prisoner of Christ” (Eph 4:1). Jesus had taken him by force (1 Cor 9:16), making him his apostle. We understand these words as we do for Jeremiah (20:7): this irresistible call of God is in fact the access to a higher form of freedom.
The triumph was the occasion for offering a lot of incense: the perfume was the sign of glory for the one who was being honored rather like a god, a sign of death for the prisoners who were there. This comparison allowed Paul to continue in another direction: for some it smells of death (v. 16). The Gospel divides people. Even without going deeper into the mystery they are able to appreciate the “odor,” namely the style of Christian existence. Some are especially aware of the demands of Christian life, which to them seems a death. Others, on the contrary, envy the mys terious force that animates believers in the midst of their trials, and letting them understand that life is there.
Who is worthy of such a mission? In seeing this, the apostle feels inadequate for his mission. He would like everyone to recognize Christ and the radiance of his love through him, but he is a long way from that! On the contrary, the false apostle does not even think about that, but only wishes to be approved and to make money out of the word of God by hiding its demands: such apostles are famous and are not persecuted by anyone.