1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise to the God of All Comfort
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters,[The Greek word for brothers and sisters (adelphoi) refers here to believers, both men, and women, as part of God’s family; also in 8:1; 13:11.] about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him, we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
Paul’s Change of Plans
12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity [Many manuscripts holiness] and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace. 13 For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, 14 as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
15 Because I was confident of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you might benefit twice. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?
18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas [Greek Silvanus, a variant of Silas] and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” 20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
23 I call God as my witness—and I stake my life on it—that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.
NOTES:
1:1–11 The opening follows the usual Pauline form, except
that the thanksgiving takes the form of a doxology or glorification of God (2
Cor 1:3). This introduces a meditation on the experience of suffering and
encouragement shared by Paul and the Corinthians (2 Cor 1:4–7), drawn, at least
in part, from Paul’s reflections on a recent affliction (2 Cor 1:8–10). The
section ends with a modified and delayed allusion to thanksgiving (2 Cor 1:11).
1:3 God of all encouragement: Paul expands a standard Jewish
blessing so as to state the theme of the paragraph. The theme of
“encouragement” or “consolation” (paraklēsis) occurs ten times in this opening,
against a background formed by multiple references to “affliction” and
“suffering.”
1:5 Through Christ: the Father of compassion is the Father
of our Lord Jesus (2 Cor 1:3); Paul’s sufferings and encouragement (or
“consolation”) are experienced in union with Christ. Cf. Lk 2:25: the
“consolation of Israel” is Jesus himself.
1:7 You also share in the encouragement: the eschatological
reversal of affliction and encouragement that Christians expect (cf. Mt 5:4; Lk
6:24) permits some present experience of reversal in the Corinthians’ case, as
in Paul’s.
1:8 Asia: a Roman province in western Asia Minor, the
capital of which was Ephesus.
1:9–10 The sentence of death: it is unclear whether Paul is
alluding to a physical illness or to an external threat to life. The result of
the situation was to produce an attitude of faith in God alone. God who raises
the dead: rescue is the constant pattern of God’s activity; his final act of
encouragement is the resurrection.
1:12–2:13 The autobiographical remarks about the crisis in
Asia Minor lead into consideration of a crisis that has arisen between Paul and
the Corinthians. Paul will return to this question, after a long digression, in
2 Cor 7:5–16. Both of these sections deal with travel plans Paul had made,
changes in the plans, alternative measures adopted, a breach that opened
between him and the community, and finally a reconciliation between them.
1:12–14 Since Paul’s own conduct will be under discussion
here, he prefaces the section with a statement about his habitual behavior and
attitude toward the community. He protests his openness, single-mindedness, and
conformity to God’s grace; he hopes that his relationship with them will be
marked by mutual understanding and pride, which will constantly increase until
it reaches its climax at the judgment. Two references to boasting frame this
paragraph (2 Cor 1:12, 14), the first appearances of a theme that will be
important in the letter, especially in 2 Cor 10–13; the term is used in a
positive sense here (cf. note on 1 Cor 1:29–31).
1:15 I formerly intended to come: this plan reads like a
revision of the one mentioned in 1 Cor 16:5. Not until 2 Cor 1:23–2:1 will Paul
tell us something his original readers already knew, that he has canceled one
or the other of these projected visits.
1:17 Did I act lightly?: the subsequent change of plans
casts suspicion on the original intention, creating the impression that Paul is
vacillating and inconsistent or that human considerations keep dictating shifts
in his goals and projects (cf. the counterclaim of 2 Cor 1:12). “Yes, yes” and
“no, no”: stating something and denying it in the same or the next breath;
being of two minds at once, or from one moment to the next.
1:18–22 As God is faithful: unable to deny the change in
plans, Paul nonetheless asserts the firmness of the original plan and claims a
profound constancy in his life and work. He grounds his defense in God himself,
who is firm and reliable; this quality can also be predicated in various ways
of those who are associated with him. Christ, Paul, and the Corinthians all
participate in analogous ways in the constancy of God. A number of the terms
here, which appear related only conceptually in Greek or English, would be
variations of the same root, ’mn, in a Semitic language, and thus naturally
associated in a Semitic mind, such as Paul’s. These include the words yes (2
Cor 1:17–20), faithful (2 Cor 1:18), Amen (2 Cor 1:20), gives us security (2
Cor 1:21), faith, stand firm (2 Cor 1:24).
1:21–22 The commercial terms gives us security, seal, first
installment are here used analogously to refer to the process of initiation
into the Christian life, perhaps specifically to baptism. The passage is
clearly trinitarian. The Spirit is the first installment or “down payment” of
the full messianic benefits that God guarantees to Christians. Cf. Eph 1:13–14.
1:23–24 I have not yet gone to Corinth: some suppose that
Paul received word of some affair in Corinth, which he decided to regulate by
letter even before the first of his projected visits (cf. 2 Cor 1:16). Others
conjecture that he did pay the first visit, was offended there (cf. 2 Cor 2:5),
returned to Ephesus, and sent a letter (2 Cor 2:3–9) in place of the second
visit. The expressions to spare you (2 Cor 1:23) and work together for your joy
(2 Cor 1:24) introduce the major themes of the next two paragraphs, which are
remarkable for insistent repetition of key words and ideas. These form two
clusters of terms in the English translation: (1) cheer, rejoice, encourage,
joy; (2) pain, affliction, anguish. These clusters reappear when Paul resumes
treatment of this subject in 2 Cor 7:5–16.
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