Greeting
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, a and Timothy b our brother:
To the church of God at Corinth, c with all the saints who are throughout Achaia. d
2 Grace to you and peace e from God our Father f and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The God of Comfort
3 Blessed be g the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies h and the God of all comfort. i 4 He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as the sufferings j of Christ k overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. l 6 If we are afflicted, m 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 that we suffer. n 7 And our hope o for you is firm, because we know that as you share p in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.
8 We don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia. q We were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength r—so that we even despaired s of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God t who raises u the dead. 10 He has delivered v us from such a terrible death, w and he will deliver us. We have put our hope in him that he will deliver us again 11 while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.
A Clear Conscience
12 Indeed, this is our boast: The testimony x of our conscience y is that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with godly sincerity and purity, not by human wisdom z but by God’s grace. a 13 For we are writing nothing to you other than what you can read and also understand. I hope you will understand completely— 14 just as you have partially understood us—that we are your reason for pride, b just as you also are ours c in the day of our Lord Jesus. d
A Visit Postponed
15 Because of this confidence, I planned to come to you first, e so that you could have a second benefit, 16 and to visit you on my way to Macedonia, f and then come to you again from Macedonia and be helped by you g on my journey h to Judea. i 17 Now when I planned this, was I of two minds? Or what I plan, do I plan in a purely human ,j way so that I say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As God is faithful, k our message to you is not “Yes and no.” 19 For the Son of God, l Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you—Silvanus, ,m Timothy, and I—did not become “Yes and no.” On the contrary, in him it is always “Yes.” n 20 For every one of God’s promises o is “Yes” in him. Therefore, through him we also say “Amen” p to the glory of God. q 21 Now it is God who strengthens us together with you in Christ, and who has anointed r us. 22 He has also put his seal on us and given us the Spirit in our hearts s as a down payment. t
23 I call on God as a witness, u on my life, that it was to spare you that I did not come to Corinth. v 24 I do not mean that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you for your joy, because you stand firm in your w faith.
1:1–2. Paul again opens his letter with a customary greeting (see 1 Co 1:1–3). After naming himself as the sender of the letter, together with Timothy, he describes himself to the church in words almost identical to those used in his earlier letter: as an apostle of Christ, by God’s will (1:1). The letter’s address indicates that Christians elsewhere in Achaia, probably principally at Cenchreae (Ac 18:18; Rm 16:1) and Athens (Ac 17:34), have been affected by the recent affairs in the church at Corinth (likely the largest in Achaia). The salutation concludes with Paul’s usual Christian greeting (1:2).
1:3–11. Thanksgiving typically follows the greeting (see 1 Co 1:4–9), but Paul’s thanksgiving here is not given over to God for his grace and love at work in the church. Instead, Paul praises God for his comfort made manifest in a particular experience of suffering in Paul’s life (1:4). The experience itself, which he compares to the “sufferings of Christ” (1:5), remains unmentioned (perhaps indicating that the Corinthians knew the facts well enough, including the part their own failure to honor Paul and his gospel had played in the apostle’s sufferings). Paul chooses rather to extol God (1:3), from whom he has received the strength to sustain himself in suffering.
A. The basis for Paul’s behavior and an appeal for understanding (1:12–14). Paul appeals to the Corinthians in conciliation to reassess their estimation of him and his ministry. Boasting and the kind of criticism that belittles one in order to exalt another had consistently troubled the church and severely complicated its relationship with Paul (1 Co 3:21; 4:7; 5:6). Such boasting and criticism were also no doubt responsible in large measure for the pain that Paul had experienced on his last visit to Corinth, pain which led him, in turn, to compose a letter that struck back severely in anguished self-defense (2 Co 2:1–4).
B. The cause for Paul’s change of plans (1:15–2:2). 1:15–17. In 1 Co 16:2–8 and at the beginning of this section (1:15–16) are found two different itineraries relating to Paul’s plans to revisit the Corinthian church. However, as 2:1 indicates, neither plan was carried through. Thus, it appeared as though Paul were at best not truly concerned with his relationship to the church and at worst a fickle person who made promises with “two minds” (1:17) and constantly went back on his word.
1:18–22. Once more Paul meets this obstacle to reconciliation squarely and clarifies the reasons for his conduct by relating his actions to the conviction he shares with the Corinthians concerning God’s faithfulness (1:18). Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy preached Christ with consistency in such a way as to emphasize that all God’s promises were faithfully fulfilled in him (1:19–20). No matter their number or the length of time taken in mercy to bring them to fulfillment or the manner, expected or unexpected, in which they are fulfilled, the eventual fulfillment of God’s promises demonstrates his glorious faithfulness. Those who are in Christ place their hope for what is yet to come on this kind of faithfulness, demonstrated especially in the receipt of the Holy Spirit (1:21–22).
1:23–2:2. But it is also just this kind of faithfulness that has motivated Paul to change the manner in which his plans should come to pass. Not out of a faithless, fickle sense of self-importance, but out of a merciful desire not to grieve the church (2:2), Paul has changed his plans; his desire is to work with the Corinthians rather than to act based purely on his own original agenda (1:24). This goal has led Paul to set aside his previous plans and to work out a different schedule for their eventual fulfillment (2:1).