2 KORINTIËRS 1
1 Van Paulus, 'n apostel van Christus Jesus deur die wil van God, en van die broer Timoteus. Aan die gemeente van God in Korinte en aan almal wat aan die Here behoort in die hele Agaje.
2 Genade en vrede vir julle van God ons Vader en die Here Jesus Christus!
Danksegging na 'n moeilike tyd
3 Aan God, die Vader van ons Here Jesus Christus, kom al die lof toe! Hy is die Vader wat Hom ontferm en die God wat in elke omstandigheid moed gee. 4 In elke moeilikheid bemoedig Hy ons. Daarom kan ons ook ander bemoedig wat in allerlei moeilikhede verkeer. Ons kan hulle bemoedig met dieselfde bemoediging waarmee God ons bemoedig, 5 want net soos daar vir ons 'n oorvloed van lyding is ter wille van Christus, is daar ook vir ons 'n oorvloed van bemoediging deur Christus. 6 As ons dus in beproewing kom, is dit dat julle bemoedig en gered kan word. As ons bemoedig word, is dit om julle te bemoedig en te versterk, sodat julle met geduld dieselfde lyding kan verduur wat ons ook verduur. 7 En wat julle betref, het ons 'n vaste verwagting: ons weet dat net soos julle saam met ons deel het aan die lyding, julle ook aan die bemoediging deel het.
8 Ons wil hê, broers, dat julle moet weet van die moeilikhede wat ons in die provinsie Asië ondervind het. Die swaar wat ons moes verduur, het ver bo ons kragte gegaan, sodat ons selfs die hoop om te bly lewe, laat vaar het. 9 Trouens, dit het vir ons gevoel asof die doodvonnis klaar oor ons uitgespreek is. Maar dit het gebeur, sodat ons nie op onsself sou vertrou nie, maar op God wat die dooies opwek tot die lewe. 10 Dit is Hy wat ons uit so 'n groot doodsgevaar gered het en ons weer sal red. Op Hom is ons hoop gevestig: Hy sal ons ook verder red. 11 Daartoe werk julle mee deur vir ons te bid. So sal die gebede van baie 'n seën van God vir ons bring, en dan sal baie Hom vir ons dank.
Die verandering van Paulus se reisplan
12 Daar is een ding waarop ons trots is: ons gewete verseker ons dat ons oor die algemeen, en teenoor julle in die besonder, opgetree het met die openhartigheid en eerlikheid wat van God kom. Daarin is ons nie deur die wysheid van mense gelei nie, maar deur die genade van God. 13 In ons briewe skryf ons aan julle niks wat julle nie self kan lees en verstaan nie. Ek hoop net julle sal ons eendag heeltemal verstaan. 14 Tot nou toe het julle ons maar gedeeltelik verstaan. Op die dag wanneer ons Here Jesus kom, sal julle dan net so trots op ons wees soos ons op julle.
15 Dit was in hierdie oortuiging dat ek vroeër die plan gemaak het om julle te besoek, sodat julle twee keer 'n bewys van genade kon ontvang. 16 Ek wou julle op die deurreis na Masedonië toe besoek en weer op die terugreis van Masedonië af, en dan met julle hulp my reis voortsit na Judea toe.
17 Was ek miskien oorhaastig toe ek hierdie plan gemaak het? Of word ek deur menslike oorwegings gelei as ek planne maak, sodat ek in een asem “ja” en “nee” sê? 18 So seker as God getrou is, ons woord aan julle was nie tegelyk “ja” en “nee” nie, 19 want Jesus Christus, die Seun van God, wat ons, dit is ek en Silvanus en Timoteus, aan julle verkondig het, is nie “ja” en “nee” tegelyk nie. Hy is die “ja” van God, 20 die “ja” op al die beloftes van God. Daarom is dit ook deur Christus dat ons tot eer van God daarop “Amen” sê. 21 God self het ons saam met julle op hierdie vaste grond gevestig: op Christus. God het ons vir Hom afgesonder, 22 ons as sy eiendom beseël en die Heilige Gees in ons harte gegee as waarborg van wat ons nog sal ontvang.
23 Ek roep God tot getuie en staan met my lewe daarvoor in: dit was om julle te spaar dat ek toe nie na Korinte toe gekom het nie. 24 Ons wil nie as heersers voorskryf wat julle moet glo nie. Julle staan immers vas in die geloof. Maar ons wil medewerkers wees om julle geluk te bevorder.
2 Corinthians 1
1 PAUL, AN apostle (a special messenger) of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy [our] brother, to the church (assembly) of God which is at Corinth, and to all the saints (the people of God) throughout Achaia (most of Greece):2 Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) to you and [heart] peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement),4 Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God.5 For just as Christ’s [own] sufferings fall to our lot [as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them] abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also [shared and experienced] abundantly by us.6 But if we are troubled (afflicted and distressed), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement) and [for your] salvation; and if we are comforted (consoled and encouraged), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement), which works [in you] when you patiently endure the same evils (misfortunes and calamities) that we also suffer and undergo.7 And our hope for you [our joyful and confident expectation of good for you] is ever unwavering (assured and unshaken); for we know that just as you share and are partners in [our] sufferings and calamities, you also share and are partners in [our] comfort (consolation and encouragement).8 For we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about the affliction and oppressing distress which befell us in [the province of] Asia, how we were so utterly and unbearably weighed down and crushed that we despaired even of life [itself].9 Indeed, we felt within ourselves that we had received the [very] sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.10 [For it is He] Who rescued and saved us from such a perilous death, and He will still rescue and save us; in and on Him we have set our hope (our joyful and confident expectation) that He will again deliver us [from danger and destruction and draw us to Himself],11 While you also cooperate by your prayers for us [helping and laboring together with us]. Thus [the lips of] many persons [turned toward God will eventually] give thanks on our behalf for the grace (the blessing of deliverance) granted us at the request of the many who have prayed.12 It is a reason for pride and exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world [generally] and especially toward you, with devout and pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues).13 For we write you nothing else but simply what you can read and understand [there is no double meaning to what we say], and I hope that you will become thoroughly acquainted [with divine things] and know and understand [them] accurately and well to the end,14 [Just] as you have [already] partially known and understood and acknowledged us and recognized that you can [honestly] be proud of us, even as we [can be proud] of you on the day of our Lord Jesus.15 It was with assurance of this that I wanted and planned to visit you first [of all], so that you might have a double favor and token of grace (goodwill).16 [I wanted] to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and [then] to come again to you [on my return trip] from Macedonia and have you send me forward on my way to Judea.17 Now because I changed my original plan, was I being unstable and capricious? Or what I plan, do I plan according to the flesh [like a worldly man], ready to say Yes, yes, [when it may mean] No, no?18 As surely as God is trustworthy and faithful and means what He says, our speech and message to you have not been Yes [that might mean] No.19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who has been preached among you by us, by myself, Silvanus, and Timothy, was not Yes and No; but in Him it is [always the divine] Yes.20 For as many as are the promises of God, they all find their Yes [answer] in Him [Christ]. For this reason we also utter the Amen (so be it) to God through Him [in His Person and by His agency] to the glory of God.21 But it is God Who confirms and makes us steadfast and establishes us [in joint fellowship] with you in Christ, and has consecrated and anointed us [enduing us with the gifts of the Holy Spirit];22 [He has also appropriated and acknowledged us as His by] putting His seal upon us and giving us His [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as the security deposit and guarantee [of the fulfillment of His promise].23 But I call upon God as my soul’s witness: it was to avoid hurting you that I refrained from coming to Corinth--24 Not that we have dominion [over you] and lord it over your faith, but [rather that we work with you as] fellow laborers [to promote] your joy, for in [your] faith (in your strong and welcome conviction or belief that Jesus is the Messiah, through Whom we obtain eternal salvation in the kingdom of God) you stand firm.