1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, a brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all of Achaia:
2. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation.
4. He consoles us in all our tribulation, so that we too may be able to console those who are in any kind of distress, through the exhortation by which we also are being exhorted by God.
5. For just as the Passion of Christ abounds in us, so also, through Christ, does our consolation abound.
6. So, if we are in tribulation, it is for your exhortation and salvation, or if we are in consolation, it is for your consolation, or if we are exhorted, it is for your exhortation and salvation, which results in the patience endurance of the same passion which we also endure.
7. So may our hope for you be made firm, knowing that, just as you are participants in the suffering, so also shall you be participants in the consolation.
8. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about our tribulation, which happened to us in Asia. For we were weighed down beyond measure, beyond our strength, so that we became weary, even of life itself.
9. But we had within ourselves the response to death, so that we would not have faith in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.
10. He has rescued us, and he is rescuing us, from great peril. In him, we hope that he will continue to rescue us.
11. And you are assisting, with your prayers for us, so that from many persons, by that which is a gift in us, thanks may be given through many persons, because of us.
12. For our glory is this: the testimony of our conscience, which is found in simplicity of heart and in sincerity toward God. And it is not with worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God, that we have conversed with this world, and more abundantly toward you.