while you join in helping us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.

For I wrote to you with many tears out of an extremely troubled and anguished heart—not that you should be hurt, but that you should know the abundant love I have for you.

For we are not like the many who market God’s message for profit. On the contrary, we speak with sincerity in Christ, as from God and before God.

as grieving yet always rejoicing;
as poor yet enriching many;
as having nothing yet possessing everything.

We have also sent with them our brother. We have often tested him in many circumstances and found him to be diligent—and now even more diligent because of his great confidence in you.

For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many acts of thanksgiving to God.

Since many boast in an unspiritual way, I will also boast.

Are they servants of Christ?
I’m talking like a madman—I’m a better one:
with far more labors,
many more imprisonments,
far worse beatings, near death many times.

labor and hardship,
many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst,
often without food, cold, and lacking clothing.

I fear that when I come my God will again humiliate me in your presence, and I will grieve for many who sinned before and have not repented of the moral impurity, sexual immorality, and promiscuity they practiced.