1:1 Paul, an Ambassador of Anointed Jesus through the will of God, and brother Timothy,To the Congregation of God in Corinth, together with all the holy ones in all of Achaia:

1:2 Favor and peace to you from God our Father and Master Jesus the Anointed.

1:3 Praise the God and Father of our Master Jesus the Anointed, the Father of compassion and God of all consolation!

1:4 He consoles us in all our oppression, so we are able in turn to console others because of how God consoles us.

1:5 So it follows that since the experiences of the Anointed abound in us, so also does our consolation.

1:6 Now if we are being oppressed it’s for the sake of your consolation and salvation; if we are consoled it is for the sake of your consolation and ability to endure unpleasant experiences, because we experience the same things.

1:7 And our hope about you is confirmed, because we are aware of your partnership in these experiences and also in consolation.

1:8 Now we don’t want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of how we came to suffer in the province of Asia. We were loaded down beyond our ability to bear it, to the point where we despaired of our lives.

1:9 But at the same time, though we have carried the death sentence, we never relied on ourselves but on the God who raises the dead.

1:10 He rescued us from this terrible end and will get us through it again, because he is the one we rely on to keep pulling us through.

1:11 You also got involved by your earnest requests for us, making it possible for the many who gave gifts to be thanked on our behalf.

1:12 We can be proud of this: our conscience testifies before God that we conducted ourselves with the simplicity and genuineness of God— not in natural wisdom but God’s favor, not only in the world but especially toward you.

1:13 And we’re really not writing anything to you that you didn’t already know. Now I trust that

1:14 you will understand completely that which you already know in part: that we can be proud of each other on the Day of our Master Jesus.

1:15 I was confident that I would favor you with a double visit

1:16 on my way to Macedonia and back again, so that you could send me on to Judea.

1:17 Now that you know what my intentions were, do you still accuse me of being unreliable? Do you think I am like carnal people and say one thing when I mean another?

1:18 God is my witness that we are not like that!

1:19 For the God-Man, Jesus the Anointed, was proclaimed to you through us— me and Silvanus and Timothy— not as maybe yes and maybe no, but as a resounding Yes!

1:20 In Him we have a definite Yes for the promises of God, so that when we honor God it is truly through Him.

1:21 Now the One who confirms us together with you and anoints us into the Anointed is God.

1:22 He is the One who also sealed us by giving us the down payment of the Spirit in our hearts.

1:23 Now I call God as my witness and stake my life on it, that the reason I didn’t come to Corinth was to spare you.

1:24 And it isn’t that we’re making ourselves masters over your faith but participants of your happiness, because you have stood in the faith.