For we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about our trouble in [the west coast province of] Asia [Minor], how we were utterly weighed down, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life [itself].

And of you who help together by supplication for us (a gift for us from many persons, because of many), so that there may be gratitude about you.

For this is what we boast about: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world with pure motives and godly sincerity, without earthly wisdom but with God's grace especially toward you.

And, indeed, you have already partly acknowledged it about us--that you have a right to be proud of us, as we shall be proud of you, on the Day of our Lord Jesus.

Therefore when I was planning to do this, I did not do so without thinking about what I was doing, did I? Or do I make my plans according to mere human standards so that I would be saying both "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time?

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

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—did not become “Yes and no”; on the contrary, a final “Yes” has come in Him.

In fact, I made up my mind about this: I would not come to you on another painful visit.

And I wrote this very [thing] in order that [when I] came, I would not experience sorrow from those who ought to have made me glad, [because I] have confidence about you all, that my joy {belongs to all of you}.

Now when I came into the Troad to spread there the Good News about the Christ, even though in the Lord's providence a door stood open before me,

I disown those practices which very shame conceals from view; I do not go about it craftily; I do not falsify the word of God; I state the truth openly and so commend myself to every man's conscience before God.

For our preaching is not about ourselves, but about Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants through Jesus.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

But, we have the same spirit [i.e., type] of faith as that written about [Psa. 116:10], "I believed [God's message], so I spoke." We also believe [it], and so we also speak [about it].

And he having brought us about to this same, God, he having also given us the pledge of the Spirit.

For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of the Christ, so that each man may receive back about the things that he did through the body, whether good or bad.

We are not commending ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to boast about us, in order that you may have [an answer] for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.

And what agreement [does the] temple of God [have] with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and will walk about [among them], and I will be their God and they will be my people."

I have the utmost confidence in you; I am always boasting about you. I am full of encouragement and, in spite of all our troubles, my heart is overflowing with happiness.

and not only by his arrival but also by the comfort he had received from you. He told us about your longing for me, your sorrow, and your eagerness to take my side, and this made me even happier.

For grief according to [the will of] God brings about a repentance [leading] to salvation, not to be regretted, but worldly grief brings about death.

For behold how much diligence this very [thing], being grieved according to [the will of] God, has brought about in you: what defense [of yourselves], what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! In everything you have demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

Because if I boasted to him anything about you, I have not been put to shame; but as we have spoken to you all things in truth, so also our boasting to Titus has been the truth;

I am glad I can have so much confidence in you about everything.

Now, brothers and sisters, we want to tell you about the grace of God which has been evident in the churches of Macedonia [awakening in them a longing to contribute];

I give you my opinion in this matter: this is to your advantage, who were the first to begin a year ago not only to take action [to help the believers in Jerusalem], but also [the first] to desire to do it.

In order that their surplus may come to be for your deficiency: that there may come about an equality: -

We intend that no one should blame us about this liberal gift which we are administering,

For we are concerned about what is right not only before the Lord but also before men.

Whether any inquire about Titus, he is my partner and my fellow-worker to you-ward, or our brethren, they are the messengers of the churches, they are the glory of Christ.

Shew therefore to them, before the assemblies, the proof of your love, and of our boasting about you.

Now it is unnecessary for me to write to you about the offering [that is to be made] for the saints [in Jerusalem];

for I know your eagerness [to promote this cause], and I have [proudly] boasted to the people of Macedonia about it, telling them that Achaia has been prepared since last year [for this contribution], and your enthusiasm has inspired the majority of them [to respond].

But I have sent the brethren, in order that our boasting about you may not be made void in this respect, in order that, as I have said, ye may be prepared;

lest if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, wenot to say anything about you would be ashamed of having been so confident.

Everyone is to give what he has made up his mind to give; there is to be no grudging or compulsion about it, for God loves the giver who gives cheerfully.

and by their supplication about you, yearning for you because of the transcending grace of God in you.

but I pray, that being present I may not be bold with the confidence with which I consider myself bold towards certain ones who regard us as walking about according to the flesh.

For though walking about in flesh, we do not war according to flesh.

You look at me and measure me by outward appearances. If anyone is confident in himself that he belongs to Christ, let him have another thought about himself, that just as he belongs to Christ, so do I.

For even though I boast rather freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed [of the truth],

This say I, lest I should seem as though I went about to make you afraid with letters.

For we will not make comparison of ourselves with some of those who say good things about themselves: but these, measuring themselves by themselves, and making comparison of themselves with themselves, are not wise.

We will not boast about what cannot be evaluated. Instead, we will stay within the field that God assigned us, so as to reach even you.

For we were not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach as far as you, because we were the first to reach as far as you with the gospel about Christ.

We are not bragging beyond measure about other people’s labors. But we have the hope that as your faith increases, our area of ministry will be greatly enlarged,

so that we may proclaim the good news to the regions beyond you, not boasting about what has already been done in someone else’s area of ministry.

[Jer. 9:24 says], "But the person who boasts should boast about the Lord."

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

But even if I am unskilled in speaking, yet I am not [untrained] in knowledge [I know what I am talking about]; but we have made this evident to you in every way, in all things.

Did I do wrong in taking a lowly place to let you have an exalted one, in that I preached the good news about God to you without accepting any pay?

As sure as the truth of Christ is in my heart, no one will stop me from boasting about this [arrangement] throughout the regions of Achaia. [Note: This was the province where Corinth was located].

But what I am doing, I will also do, in order that I may remove the opportunity of those who want an opportunity, that they may be found just as also we [are] in what they are boasting about.

What I am about to say I am not speaking by the Lord's command, but as it were in pure folly, in this boldness of boasting.

Since many [other] people boast about worldly matters, I will boast about such things also.

(To my disgrace I must say that we were too weak for that!) But whatever anyone else dares to boast about (I am speaking foolishly), I also dare to boast about the same thing.

Apart from these external things, [there is] the pressure on me every day of the anxiety about all the churches.

If it is necessary to boast, I will boast [about] {the things related to my weakness}.

In Damascus the governor under king Aretas, placed guards about the city to seize me:

I must boast, although it does not do any good. Let's talk about visions and revelations from the Lord.

I know a man in [fellowship with] Christ who, fourteen years ago, was taken [literally, "snatched"] up to the third heaven. [Note: The first heaven would be where birds fly; the second where the stars are; and the third where God is]. (I do not know whether he was in his physical body or whether it was an "out-of-the-body" experience, but God knows). [Note: Paul is obviously telling about a personal experience. See verse 7].

I will boast about this person, but not about myself, except of my weaknesses.

However, if I did want to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I am not going to do it in order to keep anyone from thinking more of me than what he sees and hears about me.

Concerning this I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might leave me;

But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.

So I most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the strength of Christ may overshadow me. That is why I take such pleasure in weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecution, and difficulties, which I endure for Christ's sake, for it is when I am consciously weak that I am really strong.

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

For I have a fear that, when I come, you may not be answering to my desire, and that I may not be answering to yours; that there may be fighting, hate, angry feeling, divisions, evil talk about others, secrets, thoughts of pride, outbursts against authority;

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?