So if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new being; the old state of things has passed away; there is a new state of things.

He made him who knew nothing of sin to be sin, for our sake, so that through union with him we might become God's uprightness.

God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and give you peace.

Do not get into close and incongruous relations with unbelievers. What partnership can uprightness have with iniquity, or what can light have to do with darkness?

and he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for only where there is weakness is perfect strength developed." So I am perfectly willing to boast of all my weakness, so that the strength of Christ may shelter me.

In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep the light of the good news of the glorious Christ, the likeness of God, from dawning upon them.

And all of us, reflecting the splendor of the Lord in our unveiled faces, are being changed into likeness to him, from one degree of splendor to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father, and the God always ready to comfort!

The blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the participation in the holy Spirit be with you all.

For we must all appear in our true characters before the tribunal of the Christ, each to be repaid with good or evil for the life he has lived in the body.

Such is the confidence that I have through Christ in my relations to God.

This is what I said in my letter, so that I might avoid coming and having my feelings hurt by the very people who might have been expected to make me happy, for I felt sure about you all, that what made me happy would make you all happy.

You know how gracious the Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, in order that by his poverty you might become rich.

He who supplies the sower with seed and so with bread to eat will supply you with seed, and multiply it and enlarge the harvest of your uprightness.

Remember this: The man who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and the man who sows generously will reap generously.

Everyone must give what he has made up his mind to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion; God loves a man who is glad to give.

All this comes from God, who through Christ has reconciled me to himself, and has commissioned me to proclaim this reconciliation??19 how God through Christ reconciled the world to himself, refusing to count men's offenses against them, and intrusted me with the message of reconciliation.

So I never lose heart. Though my outer nature is wasting away, my inner is being renewed every day.

Now the Lord here means the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Such people had better understand that when I arrive and take action I will do just as I say I will in my letters when I am far away.

It is Christ's love that controls me, for I have become convinced that as one has died for all, all have died,

I destroy arguments and every obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God, and I take captive every thought and make it obey Christ,

And I shall go on doing as I do, so as to cut the ground from under those who want to make out that in their boasted apostleship they work on the same terms that I do.

For even if I did hurt your feelings with that letter, I cannot regret it; even if I did regret it, when I saw that the letter had hurt your feelings perhaps for a while,

For I know that if this earthly tent that I live in is taken down, God will provide me a building in heaven to live in, not built by human hands but eternal.

So to keep me from being too much elated a bitter physical affliction was sent to me, a very messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too much elated.

So since we have promises like these, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves of everything that can defile body or spirit, and by reverence for God make our consecration complete.

And no wonder, for even Satan himself masquerades as a shining angel.

(for I have to guide my steps by faith, not by what is seen)??8 yet I am confident, and I prefer to leave my home in the body and make my home with the Lord.

It is for Christ, therefore, that I am an envoy, seeing that God makes his appeal through me. On Christ's behalf I beg you to be reconciled to God.

But I have this treasure in a mere ear then jar, to show that its amazing power belongs to God and not to me.

It is yourselves you must test, to see whether you are holding to the faith. It is yourselves you must examine. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is within you? Unless you fail to stand the test!

I must tell you, brothers, how the favor of God has been shown in the churches of Macedonia,

I do not indeed venture to class or compare myself with certain individuals who approve of themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they do not show good sense.

For though I do live an earthly life, I am not carrying on an earthly war,

But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ.

For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, that is on the face of Christ.

the truth of my teaching, and the power of God; with the weapons of uprightness for the right hand and the left,

for the weapons I use are not earthly ones, but divinely strong for destroying fortresses.

Such men are sham apostles, dishonest workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

But thank God! he always leads me in his triumphal train, through Christ, and spreads the perfume of knowledge of him everywhere through me as his censer-bearer.

You will grow rich in every way, so that through me you can show perfect liberality that will make men thank God for it.

For he says, "I have listened to you at a welcome time, And helped you on a day of deliverance!" Now the welcome time has come! This is the day of deliverance!

For the pain that God approves results in a repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets; but the world's pain results in death.

because I keep my eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.

and he has qualified me to serve him in the interests of a new agreement, not in writing but of spirit. For what is written kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For if I have a liberal share of Christ's sufferings, through Christ I have a liberal share of comfort too.

But I will tell you what I think about it. For this is the best way to deal with you, for you were the first not only to do anything about this, but to want to do anything, and that was last year.

For what is there in which the other churches had the better of you, except in the fact that I would not permit myself to be a burden to you? You must forgive me that wrong!

Therefore, "Come out from them, And separate from them, says the Lord, And touch nothing that is unclean. Then I will welcome you,

If the meaning of my preaching of the good news is veiled at all, it is so only in the case of those who are on the way to destruction.

I feel a divine jealousy about you, for I betrothed you to Christ, to present you as a pure bride to her one husband.

I am glad of it now; not because you had your feelings hurt, but because having them hurt led you to repent, for you took it as God meant you to do, so that you should not lose anything at all through me.

So since by the mercy of God I am engaged in this service, I never lose heart.

My hopes for you are unshaken. For I know that just as surely as you share my sufferings, just so surely you will share my comfort.

God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance so that you will always have enough for every situation, and ample means for every good enterprise:

If I am in trouble, it is to bring you comfort and salvation, and if I am comforted, it is for the sake of the comfort which you experience when you steadfastly endure such sufferings as I also have to bear.

So from that time on, I have estimated nobody at what he seemed to be outwardly; even though I once estimated Christ in that way, I no longer do so.

For this slight, momentary trouble is piling up for me an eternal blessedness beyond all comparison,

I know of a man fourteen years ago??hether in the body or out of it, I do not know, God knows??eing actually caught up to the third heaven.

I have to boast. There is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations given me by the Lord.

Here it is the third time that I have been ready to come to see you, and I do not intend to be a burden to you now; for it is not your money but yourselves that I want; for children are not expected to lay up money for their parents, but parents for their children.

You must help me by your prayers, so that many will give thanks to God on my behalf for the blessing granted me in answer to many prayers.

It is no strain for me to do this, as it might be for people who had never got so far, for I was the first to come all the way to you with the good news of the Christ.

So deadly was the peril from which he saved me, as he will save me again! It is on him that I have set my hope that he will save me again.

I repeat, no one should think me a fool, but if you do, show me at least the patience you would show a fool, and let me have my little boast like the others.

in honor or dishonor, in praise or blame; considered an imposter, when I am true,

For what I am writing to you is only what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it fully,

and I may preach the gospel in the lands beyond you without having to boast over work already done in another's field.

Now finish doing it, so that your readiness to undertake it may be equaled by the way you finish it up, as well as your means permit.

For it is not the man who approves of himself who is really approved; it is the man of whom the Lord approves.

For the rendering of this service does more than supply the wants of God's people; it results in a wealth of thanksgiving to God.

So it is nothing strange if his servants also masquerade as servants of uprightness. But their doom will fit their actions.

Why, I felt in my heart that the end must be death. That was to keep me from relying on myself instead of on God, who can even raise the dead.

If a man is willing to give, the value of his gift is in its proportion to what he has, not to what he has not.

But let the man who boasts, boast about the Lord.

As surely as God can be relied on, there has been no equivocation about our message to you.

The way you stand the test of this service must do honor to God, through your fidelity to what you profess as to the good news of Christ, and through the liberality of your contributions for them and for all others;

See how earnest this God-given pain has made you! how eager to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how eager to see me, how zealous, how avenging! At every point you have proved that you are clear of this matter.

I was going to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then to come back to you from Macedonia and have you see me off for Judea.

Thank God, he puts the same devotion to you that I feel into Titus' heart,

as some of you have come to understand me, and that you will understand that you have a right to be proud of me, as I have of you, on the Day of our Lord Jesus.

I do not mean to be easy upon others and hard upon you,

For if I was out of my senses, as they say, it was between God and me; and if I am in my right mind, it is for your good.

But if the religion of death, carved in letters of stone, was ushered in with such splendor, so that the Israelites could not look at Moses' face on account of the brightness that was fading from it,

For I was in great trouble and distress of mind when I wrote you, and I shed many tears as I did it, yet it was not to hurt your feelings, but to make you realize the extraordinary affection I have for you.

It was because I was sure of this that I wanted to come to see you before going anywhere else, to give you a double pleasure;

and put his seal upon us and given us his Spirit in our hearts, as earnest-money.

obscure, when I am well known, at the point of death, yet here I am alive, punished, but not dead yet,

I do not indulge in extravagant boasts over work done by others, but I do hope that as your faith increases, my influence may be immensely enlarged through you,

So although I did write to you, it was not on account of the offender, nor of the injured man, but in the sight of God to reveal to you your devotion to me.

Was it vacillating of me to want to do that? Do I make my plans like a worldly man, ready to say "Yes" and "No" in the same breath?

but to equalize the burden, and in the present situation to have your plenty make up for what they need, so that some day their plenty may make up for what you need, and so things may be made equal??15 as the Scripture says, "The man who got much did not have too much, and the man who got little did not have too little."

why should not the religion of the Spirit be attended with much greater splendor?

Yet did I make anything out of you by anybody that I sent to you?

If I did express some pride in you to him, I have had no reason to be ashamed of it, but just as all I said to you was true, my boasting before Titus has also proved true.

When I boast in this reckless way, I do not say what I am saying for the Lord, but as a fool would talk.

I am not trying to recommend myself to you again. I am giving you cause to be proud of me, to use in answering men who pride themselves on external advantages and not on sincerity of heart.

then they will long for you and pray for you, because of the extraordinary favor God has shown you.

But upon my soul I call God to witness that it is simply to spare you that I have stayed away from Corinth.

never free from the danger of being put to death like Jesus, so that in my body the life of Jesus also may be seen.

routed, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed;

The Son of God, Christ Jesus, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus, Timothy, and I, you have not found wavering between "Yes" and "No." With him it has always been "Yes,"

That is why I am so comforted. With all my own comfort, I was still more overjoyed at the gladness of Titus, for his mind has been set at rest by you all.

But if anyone has hurt anybody's feelings, it is not so much mine, as yours, or at least those of some of you, not to be too hard upon you all.

Not that we are the masters of you and your faith; we are working with you to make you happy, for in your faith you stand firm enough.

And I will be glad to spend all I have and all I am for your sake. Are you going to love me the less for loving you so intensely?

I am sending with him his brother, who is famous in all the churches for his work in spreading the good news.

If there was splendor in the religion of condemnation, the religion of uprightness must far surpass it in splendor.

But granting that I did not burden you myself, I was clever about it, you say, and took you in by a trick.

For if what faded away came with splendor, how much more splendid what is permanent must be!

To my shame I must admit that I was too weak for that sort of thing. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of?? am playing the part of a fool?? will dare to boast of too.

For you like to put up with fools, you are so wise yourselves!

pained, when I am always glad, poor, when I make many others rich, penniless, when really I own everything.

Have you been supposing all along that it is before you I have been defending myself? It is in the sight of God and as a follower of Christ that I have been speaking. But it is all to do you good, dear friends,

Since many are so human as to boast, I will do it also.

For every day I live I am being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be visible in my mortal nature.

I appeal to you personally, by the gentleness and forbearance of Christ??he Paul who is so humble when face to face with you, but so bold in dealing with you when he is far away!

I asked Titus to go and I sent his brother with him. Did Titus make anything out of you? Did not he and I act in the same spirit, and take the very same steps?

For in comparison with its surpassing splendor, what was splendid has come to have no splendor at all.

This makes me sigh with longing to put on my heavenly dwelling,

for I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me. I am afraid that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, bad feeling, rivalry, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder,

I have kept nothing back from you, men of Corinth; I have opened my heart to you.

and that when I come back my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn over many who have kept on in their old sins and have never repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality in which they have indulged.

For you put up with it if a man makes you his slaves, or lives on you, or takes you in, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face.

I send with them another brother of ours whose devotion we have often tested in many ways, which is now greater than ever, because of his perfect confidence in you.

Five times I have been given one less than forty lashes, by the Jews.

If they are Hebrews, so am I! If they are Israelites, so am I! If they are descended from Abraham, so am I!

Their minds were dulled. For to this day, that same veil remains unlifted, when they read the old agreement, for only through union with Christ is it removed.

For that individual, this censure by the majority of you is punishment enough,

To pay me back, I tell you, my children, you must open your hearts too.

His heart goes out all the more to you, as he recalls how you all obeyed him, and with what reverence and trembling you received him.

It is God himself who has prepared me for this change, and he has given me the Spirit as his guaranty.

For I who am still in my tent sigh with anxiety, because I do not want to be stripped of it, but to put on the other over it, so that what is only mortal may be absorbed in life.

How can Christ agree with Belial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

What is more, he has been appointed by the churches to travel with me in the interests of this generous undertaking, which I am superintending to honor the Lord and to show our readiness to help.

So you must give proof to them before all the churches of your love, and justify my pride in you.

through toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, often without food, and exposed to cold.

with my frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the heathen, danger in the city, danger in the desert, danger at sea, danger from false brothers,

I mean to have no one able to find any fault with the way I handle this munificence.

I am glad that I can feel perfect confidence in you.

not like Moses, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the fading of the splendor from it.

for he has responded to my appeal, but he goes to you really of his own accord, he is so devoted to you.

It is not that I am cramping you, it is your own affections.

When I was at Damascus, the governor under King Aretas had the city gates watched in order to catch me,

for if I do, I shall never find myself disembodied.

And besides everything else, the thing that burdens me every day is my anxiety about all the churches.

So I beg you to restore him to his place in your affections.

sure that he who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise me also like Jesus, and bring me side by side with you into his presence.

I intend to do what is right not only in the Lord's sight but in the eyes of men.

When you forgive a man, I forgive him too. For anything I had to forgive has been forgiven on your account, and as in the very presence of Christ,

So it is death that operates in my case, but life that operates in yours.

for in spite of a severe ordeal of trouble, their extraordinary gladness, combined with their extreme poverty, has overflowed in a wealth of generosity.

So as far as Titus is concerned, he is my partner and comrade in my work for you, while these brothers of ours represent the churches, and are a credit to Christ.

For they say, "His letters are impressive and telling, but his personal appearance is insignificant and as a speaker he amounts to nothing."

Make room for me in your hearts. I have not wronged or harmed or got the better of anybody.

for I know how willing you are to help in it; I boast of you for it to the people in Macedonia, telling them that Greece has been ready since last year, and your enthusiasm has been a stimulus to most of them.

Why, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil hangs over their minds,

I beg you not to make me take as bold an attitude when I come, as I count on taking toward some people who suspect me of acting from worldly motives.

When I went to Troas to preach the good news of the Christ there, I found a good opening for the Lord's work,

but "whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed."

For even when I reached Macedonia, my poor human nature could get no relief??here was trouble at every turn; fighting without, and fear within.

You are my recommendations, written on my heart, for everybody to read and understand.

I have the greatest confidence in you. I take the greatest pride in you. I am fully comforted. After all my trouble, I am overjoyed.

So I have thought it necessary to ask these brothers to go on to you ahead of me, to arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so as to have it ready, like an expression of your good will, not of your avarice.

They did far more than I hoped, for first in obedience to God's will, they gave themselves to the Lord, and to me.

I do not mean this as a command. I only want to test the genuineness of your love by the devotion of others.

For it is all for your benefit, in order that as God's favor reaches greater and greater numbers, it may result in more and more thanksgiving in praise of God.

and so you must now turn around and forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by his remorse.

For I made up my mind not to make you another painful visit.

and begged me most earnestly, of their own accord, to let them share in the support of their fellow-Christians.

But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted me by the coming of Titus,

This has led me to urge Titus to complete the arrangements he had formerly begun among you for this gracious undertaking.

For they have given to the utmost of their ability, as I can bear them witness, and beyond it,

I have been making a fool of myself, but you forced me to do it, when you ought to have been expressing your approval of me. For I am not a bit inferior to your superfine apostles, even if I am nobody!

as the Scripture says, "He scatters his gifts to the poor; His uprightness will never be forgotten."

But I send the brothers so that our pride in you may not have a fall in this matter, but you may be all ready as I have told them you will;

You look at things externally. If anyone is sure he belongs to Christ, let him think again and understand that I belong to Christ just as much as he.

and am prepared to punish any trace of disobedience when you have made your obedience perfectly clear.

and not only by his coming, but by the comfort you had given him, for he told me how you longed to see me, how sorry you were, and how you took my part, which made me happier still.

I do not mean this as a reflection upon you, for as I said before, you will always have a place in my heart whether I live or die.

For that is why I wrote you??o find out how you would stand the test, and see if you would obey me absolutely.

For suppose I do boast a little too much of my authority??hich the Lord gave me to build you up, not to pull you down?? will not have to blush for it.

I do not want to seem to scare you with my letters.

for if some people from Macedonia come with me, and find that you are not ready, it will humiliate me??o say nothing of you??or having expressed such confidence.

I put no obstacles in anyone's path, so that no fault may be found with my work.

What bargain can a temple of God make with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, And I will be their God and they will be my people."

And I know that this man?? do not know whether it was in the body or out of it, God knows??4 was caught up into Paradise, and heard things that must not be told, which no human being can repeat.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, and all God's people all over Greece;

to the one, a deathly, deadly odor, to the other a vital, life-giving one. Who is qualified for this task? I am!

For it is not myself but Christ Jesus that I am proclaiming as Lord; I am only a slave of yours for Jesus' sake.

I have been beaten three times by the Romans, I have been stoned once, I have been shipwrecked three times, a night and a day I have been adrift at sea;

Three times I have prayed to the Lord about this, begging that it might leave me,

for to all the promises of God he supplies the "Yes" that confirms them. That is why we utter the "Amen" through him, when we give glory to God.

I am hard pressed on every side, but never cut off: perplexed, but not driven to despair;

This will be my third visit to you. Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

For if I hurt your feelings, who is there to cheer me up but the man whose feelings I hurt?

On the contrary, as a servant of God I try in every way to commend myself to them, through my great endurance in troubles, difficulties, hardships,

but my mind could not rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.

But it is God who guarantees us and you to Christ; he has anointed us

As God's fellow-worker, I appeal to you, too, not to accept the favor of God and then waste it.

It is with this knowledge of what the fear of the Lord means that I appeal to men. My true character is perfectly plain to God, and I hope to your consciences too.

In the same spirit of faith as his who said, "I believed, and so I spoke," I too believe, and so I speak,

So since I have such a hope, I speak with great frankness,

to keep Satan from getting the better of us. For we know what he is after.

Just as you excel in everything else??aith, expression, knowledge, perfect devotion, and the love we have awakened in you??ou must excel in this generous undertaking too.

Do you think that I did wrong in degrading myself to uplift you, because I preached God's good news to you without any compensation?

For I do not want you, brothers, to misunderstand the distress that I experienced in Asia, for I was so utterly and unendurably crushed, that I actually despaired of life itself.

Not that I am of myself qualified to claim anything as originating with me. My qualification is from God,

and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.

For when somebody comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one I preached, or you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!

If there must be boasting, I will boast of the things that show my weakness!

So whether I am at home or away from it, it is my ambition to please him.

On this man's account I am ready to boast, but about myself I will boast only of my weaknesses.

By the truth of Christ that is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced anywhere in Greece.

Now brothers, goodbye! Be what you ought to be, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and God the source of love and peace will be with you.

So I am confident. I know well that as long as I am at home in the body I am away from the Lord

If they are Christian workers?? am talking like a madman!?? am a better one! with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, vastly worse beatings, and in frequent danger of death.

For my boast is what my conscience tells me, that my relations to the world and still more to you have been marked by pure motives and godly sincerity, not by worldly shrewdness but by the favor of God.

That is why I am pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties, when they are endured for Christ's sake, for it is when I am weak that I am strong.

Though if I do choose to boast, I will not be such a fool, for I will only be telling the truth. But I will refrain from it, for I do not want anyone to be influenced by the wonderful character of these revelations to think more of me than is justified by my words or conduct.

For I think that I am not in the least inferior to these superfine apostles of yours.

He comforts me in all my trouble, so that I can comfort people who are in any trouble with the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God.

For I am no peddler of God's message, like most men, but like a man of sincerity, commissioned by God and in his presence, in union with Christ I utter his message.

Even if I have no particular gifts in speaking, I am not wanting in knowledge. Why, I have always made that perfectly clear in my dealings with you.

through my purity of life, my knowledge, my patience, my kindness, my holiness of spirit, my genuine love,

But my boasting will not be extravagant, nor exceed the limits God has allowed me, which reach all the way to you.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is forever blessed, knows that I am telling the truth.

Am I falling into self-recommendation again? Do I, like some people, need letters of recommendation to you or from you?

Who is weak without my being weak? Whose conscience is hurt without my being fired with indignation?

I disown disgraceful, underhanded ways. I refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's message. It is by the open statement of the truth that I would commend myself to every human conscience in the sight of God.

beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, and hunger,

You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by me, written not in ink, but in the Spirit of the living God, and not on tablets of stone, but on the human heart.

Thank God for his indescribable gift!

Yes, I am the fragrance of Christ to God, diffused among those who are being saved, and those who are perishing alike;

And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.

I wish you would put up with a little folly from me. Do put up with it!

The signs that mark a true apostle were most patiently shown when I was among you, in signs, wonders, and marvels.

All God's people wish to be remembered to you.

Even if he was crucified through weakness, by the power of God he is alive. For we are weak as he was, but you will find that by the power of God we will be alive as he is.

It is really unnecessary for me to write to you about this fund for your fellow-Christians,

I will become a father to you, And you shall become my sons and daughters, Says the Lord Almighty."

I robbed other churches, letting them pay me so that I could work for you!

And when I was with you and wanted money, I did not burden any of you, for when the brothers came from Macedonia they supplied what I needed. So I kept myself, as I shall always do, from being a burden to you in any way.

Greet one another with a sacred kiss.

Those who have kept on in their old sins and all the rest I have warned, and I warn them now while I am still away, as I did on my second visit, that if I come back I will spare nobody??3 since you demand proof that Christ really speaks through me. He is not weak in dealing with you. On the contrary, right among you he exhibits his power.

But I pray to God that you may not do wrong??ot to prove me equal to the test, but that you should do right even if I fail to stand it.

That is why I write this while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be harsh in my use of the authority the Lord has given me, for it was to build you up, not to pull you down.

For I cannot do anything against the truth, but only for it.

I am glad to be weak, if you are strong! That is what I pray for??he perfecting of your characters.

I hope you will see that I do not fail to stand it.

but I was lowered in a basket from an opening in the wall, and got out of his clutches.