and they did this not as we hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and to us through the will of God;

I am not speaking by way of command; but as proving, through the diligence of others, the sincerity of your love.

And I give my judgment in this; for this is profitable for you, who, indeed, began before others, a year ago, not only to do, but also to will.

for, if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he has not.

For it is not that there may be relief to others, but distress to you;

and not that only, but who was also appointed by the assemblies, as our fellow-traveler with this gift which is ministered by us to the glory of the Lord, and our zeal;

for we provide things honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

But I sent the brethren, that our glorying on your behalf may not be made void in this respect; that even as I said, ye may be prepared;

Lest by any means, if the Macedonians should come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not ye) should be put to shame in this confidence.

I thought it necessary, therefore, to exhort the brethren, that they should go before to you, and make up beforehand your previously promised bounty, that this may be ready as a matter of bounty and not as of covetousness.

Let each one do as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver.

Because the ministry of this service not only fully supplies the deficiencies of the saints, but abounds also through many thanksgivings to God;

but I pray that, when present, I may not show courage with the confidence with which I purpose to be bold against some who reckon us as walking according to the flesh.

For, though walking in flesh, we are not warring according to the flesh,

(for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God for the casting down of strongholds);

For, even if I glory somewhat more abundantly concerning our authority??hich the Lord gave for building you up, and not for tearing you down?? shall not be put to shame;

that I may not seem as if I would terrify you with letters;

For we are not bold to judge ourselves among, or to compare ourselves with, some of those who commend themselves; but they measuring themselves among themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding.

But we will not glory beyond our measure, but according to the measure of the limit which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even to you.

For we stretch not ourselves overmuch, as if not reaching to you; for we came even as far as to you in the Gospel of Christ;

not glorying beyond our measure in other men's labors; but, having hope that, as your faith increases, we shall be enlarged among you according to our limit to further abundance,

so as to proclaim the Gospel in the regions beyond you, not to glory in another's limit in the things made ready to our hand.

for not he that commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

For, if he that comes preaches another Jesus, Whom we did not preach; or, if ye receive a different spirit, which ye did not receive, or a different Gospel, which ye did not accept; well do ye bear with him.

And, though I be rude in speech, yet am I not rude in knowledge; but in every way having manifested it toward you in all things.

As the truth of Christ is in me, this glorying shall not be stopped in regard to me in the regions of Achaia.

Wherefore? because I do not love you? God knoweth!

What I am speaking I speak not according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.

thrice I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have spent in the deep;

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I burn not?

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I lie not.

It is needful for me to glory, though, indeed, not profitable; but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or whether out of the body I know not, God knoweth), such a one caught up even to the Third Heaven.

And I know such a man (whether in the body, or apart from the body, I know not, God knoweth),

that he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unutterable sayings, which it is not lawful for a man to speak.

On behalf of such a one I will glory; but on my own behalf I will not glory, except in my weaknesses.

For, if I should desire to glory, I would not be foolish, for I shall be speaking truth; but I forbear, lest some one should think, in regard to me, above what he sees me to be, or hears from me.

And, that I might not be exalted overmuch by the exceeding greatness of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I might not be exalted overmuch.

For what is there in which ye were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong!

Behold, this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be burdensome to you; for I seek not yours, but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

But be it so, I did not burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

I entreated Titus, and sent with him the brother. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? did we not walk in the same steps?

For I fear, lest by any means, when I come, I should find you not such as I desire, and that I, too, should be found by you such as ye do not desire; lest, by any means, there should be strife, jealousy, wraths, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults;

lest, when I come again, my God should humble me before you, and I should mourn for many of those who have heretofore sinned, and repented not of the uncleanness, and fornication and lasciviousness which they practiced.

I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as if present at the second time, and, being now absent, I write to those who heretofore have sinned, and to all the rest; that, if I come again, I will not spare;

since ye seek a proof of Christ's speaking in me, Who toward you is not weak, but is powerful in you;

Try yourselves, whether ye are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or know ye not as to yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless ye be rejected?

But I hope that ye shall know, that we are not rejected.

Now we pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that ye may do what is honorable, though we be rejected.

For this cause, I write these things while absent; that I may not, when present, deal sharply according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not casting down.

Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead),

which is not another; only there are some who are troubling you, and wishing to pervert the Gospel of Christ.

For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I seeking to please men? If still I were pleasing men, I should not be Christ's servant.

For I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed by me is not according to man;

to reveal His Son in me, that I might proclaim the good news of Him among the gentiles; straightway I conferred not with flesh and blood,

But other of the apostles I saw not, except James, the brother of the Lord.

Now as to the things I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying.

But not even Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised;

to whom not even for an hour did we yield in subjection, that the truth of the Gospel might continue with you.

But from those reputed to be something (whatever they were, it matters not to me: God does not accept man's person): to me, in fact, those of repute added nothing;

But, when I saw that they were not walking uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said to Cephas in presence of them all, "If you, being a Jew, live as do the gentiles, and not as the Jews, how do you compel the gentiles to live as do the Jews?"

We who are by nature Jews, and not sinners from among the gentiles,

yet knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed on Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of law; because by works of law no flesh shall be justified.

But, if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is, then, Christ a minister of sin? It could not be!

I do not set aside the grace of God; for, if righteousness is through law, then Christ died needlessly!

For as many as are of works of law are under a curse; for it has been written, "Cursed is every one who continues not in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them."

Now the law is not of faith; but "He who did them shall live in them."

Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his Seed. He saith not, "And to seeds," as of many; but as of One, "and to your Seed"; which is Christ.

But this I say: A covenant previously confirmed by God, the law, which came into existence four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate, that it should make the promise of no effect.

Now a mediator is not of one, but God is one.

Is the law, then, against the promises of God? It could not be! For, if a law had been given, which was able to make alive, truly righteousness would have been by law;

But then, indeed, when ye knew not God, ye served those which by nature are no gods;

and my trial in my flesh ye despised not, nor spurned; but ye received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

They are zealously seeking you, not nobly; they are wishing to shut you out, that ye may zealously seek them.

But it is good to be zealously sought in a good thing at all times, and not only when I am present with you,

Tell me, ye who are wishing to be under law, do ye not hear the law?

for it has been written, "Rejoice, O barren, that bear not! Break forth and cry, you that travail not! because many are the children of the desolate, rather than of her who has the husband."

Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a bond-woman, but of the free-woman.

For freedom did Christ make us free; stand fast, therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage.

Ye were running well; who hindered you, that ye should not obey the truth,

The persuasion is not from Him Who calleth you.

For ye were called to freedom, brethren; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love serve one another;

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and ye will not fulfill the desire of the flesh.

For the flesh covets against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary one to the other, that ye may not do the things which ye wish.

But, if ye are being led by the Spirit, ye are not under law.

envyings, drunkenness, revelings, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, as I also said before, that those practicing such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Let us not become vain-glorious, provoking one another, envying one another.

But let each one prove his own work, and then will he have ground of glorying in respect to himself alone, and not to another.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sows, the same shall be also reap;

And, in doing what is noble, let us not grow weary; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

As many as wish to make a fair show in the flesh, these constrain you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

But it could not be that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has become crucified to me, and I to the world.

cease not to give thanks on your behalf, making mention of you in my prayers;

far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that to come;

For by grace ye have been saved through faith: and this, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God:

not of works, lest any one should boast;

which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;

Wherefore, I ask that ye faint not at my tribulations in your behalf, which, indeed, is your glory.

from Whom all the body, fitly framed and knit together through every joint of supply, according to the working in due measure of each single part, secures the growth of the body to the upbuilding of itself in love.

But ye did not so learn Christ;