For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason to be proud as you also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.

For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.

who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.

But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth.

For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you?

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart,

For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.

inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked.

Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,

by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true;

as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death,

as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.

Now in a like exchange—I speak as to children—open wide to us also.

Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,
“I will dwell in them and walk among them;
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more.

For if in anything I have boasted to him about you, I was not put to shame; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, so also our boasting before Titus proved to be the truth.

His affection abounds all the more toward you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.

and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

So we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well.

But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also.

I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also.

But now finish doing it also, so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it by your ability.

as it is written, “He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little had no lack.”

As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker among you; as for our brethren, they are messengers of the churches, a glory to Christ.

But I have sent the brethren, in order that our boasting about you may not be made empty in this case, so that, as I was saying, you may be prepared;

So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren that they would go on ahead to you and arrange beforehand your previously promised bountiful gift, so that the same would be ready as a bountiful gift and not affected by covetousness.

Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

as it is written,
“He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor,
His righteousness endures forever.”

I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh.

You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we.

for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.

But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you.

For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we did not reach to you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ;

not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will be, within our sphere, enlarged even more by you,

so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another.

For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.

But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia.

But what I am doing I will continue to do, so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting.

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

Again I say, let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little.

What I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.

To my shame I must say that we have been weak by comparison.But in whatever respect anyone else is bold—I speak in foolishness—I am just as bold myself.

Are they servants of Christ?—I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death.

For in what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not become a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!

But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself; nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit.

I have previously said when present the second time, and though now absent I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again I will not spare anyone,