For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life:

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead:

For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our manner of life in the world, and more abundantly toward you.

But as God is true, our word towards you was not yea and nay.

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me, and Silvanus, and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

Moreover, I call God for a witness upon my soul, that to spare you I have not as yet come to Corinth.

Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly to you.

But if any hath caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all.

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.

For we are not as many, who corrupt the word of God: but as from sincerity, but as from God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you.

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart.

Not that we are sufficient by ourselves to think any thing as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;

Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away;

How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious?

And not as Moses, who put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:

Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty; not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but, by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them.

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

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God, and not from us.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man is wasted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not because we would be unclothed, but clothed, that mortality might be swallowed up in life.

(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

For we commend not ourselves again to you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them who glory in appearance, and not in heart.

And that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live to themselves, but to him who died for them, and rose again.

To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them; and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation.

We then, as co-workers with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

Giving no offense in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:

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

Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you;

I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.

And not by his coming only, but by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind towards me; so that I rejoiced the more.

For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it was but for a season.

Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.

For godly sorrow worketh penitence to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

Wherefore, though I wrote to you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

For if I have boasted any thing to him concerning you, I am not ashamed; but as we spoke all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.

And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God:

I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love.

And in this I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.

For I mean not that other men should be eased, and you burdened:

And not that only, but who was also chosen by the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind:

Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

Lest haply if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.

Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, that they would go before to you, and make up before hand your bounty, of which ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not of covetousness.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or by constraint: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings to God;

But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, with which I think to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh:

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:

That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.

For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even to you.

For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not to you; for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ:

Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labors; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you, according to our rule abundantly,

To preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand.

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

For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very greatest apostles.

But though I am rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things.

Why? because I love you not? God knoweth.

That which I speak, I speak it not according to the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.

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

Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is made to fall into sin, and I burn not?

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

That he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Of such one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities.

For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or what he heareth from me.

For what is that in which ye were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

Behold, the 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: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?

For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found by you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:

And lest, when I come again, my God may humble me among you, and I shall bewail many who have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and lewdness, and lasciviousness, which they have committed.

I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them who heretofore have sinned, and to all others, that, if I come again, I will not spare;

Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who toward you is not weak, but is mighty in you.

Examine yourselves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye are reprobates?

But I trust that ye will know that we are not reprobates.

Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we should be as reprobates.

Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.