Because, as the sufferings of Christ abound toward us, so through Christ our consolation also abounds.

and our hope in your behalf is steadfast, knowing that, as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so are ye of the consolation also.

as also ye did acknowledge in part, that we are your theme of boasting, as ye also will be ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.

But, as God is faithful, our word to you is not "Yea" and "Nay."

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who was preached among you through us??hrough me and Sylvanus and Timothy??as not "Yea" and "Nay," "Nay," but in Him is "Yea."

But I invoke God as a witness upon my soul, that, as sparing you, I came not yet to Corinth.

For we are not as the many, making merchandise of the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

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

not that we are sufficient of ourselves to reckon anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God;

Who also qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive.

and not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the sons of Israel might not look steadily to the end of that which was passing away.

But we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transfigured into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Therefore, having this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we faint not;

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord; and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake;

On behalf of Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors, as though God were beseeching through us, we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God

but in everything commending ourselves as God's ministers, in much patience, in tribulations, in necessities, in distresses,

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

as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;

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

Now, for a recompense in like kind (I am speaking as to my children), be ye also enlarged.

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

For, if in anything I have gloried to him on your behalf, I was not made ashamed; but, as we spake all things to you in truth, so also our glorying before Titus was found to be truth.

beseeching us with much entreaty as to the grace and the participation in the ministering to the saints;

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

so that we exhorted Titus that, as he began before, so also he would finish in you this same grace also.

But, as ye abound in everything??n faith, and speech, and knowledge, and all diligence, and in your love to us??ee that ye abound in this grace also.

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

And now complete the doing also; that, as there was a readiness to will, so also there may be the completion out of what ye have;

as it has been written, "He that gathered much had nothing over; and he that gathered little had no lack."

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;

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;

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.

as it has been written, "He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor; his righteousness abides forever."

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.

Ye look at things according to appearance. If anyone has trusted to himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this again with himself, that, as he is Christ's, so also are we.

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

Let such a one consider this: that such as we are in word through letters, when absent; such also are we in deed, when present.

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 I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a pure virgin to Christ;

but I fear lest, by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and purity which is toward Christ.

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

But what I am doing, I also will do, that I may cut off the occasion from those desiring occasion, that wherein they glory they may be found even as we.

It is no great thing, therefore, if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end will be according to their works.

I say again, let no one think me foolish; but, if ye do, yet as foolish receive me, that I too may glory a little.

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

I speak by way of dishonor, as though we were weak; but in whatever anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I also am bold.

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as beside myself) I am more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often;

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;

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;

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?