For I do not want you to be uninformed about the sorrow that I suffered in Asia, because I was so crushed beyond any power to endure that I was in dire despair 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.

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.

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.

I am not trying to recommend myself to you again. I am giving you ground for speaking well of me, that you may have something to say to those who are constantly prating about external privileges and not concerned about the state of the 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.

For if I have been doing some boasting about you to him, I have never been ashamed of it. Moreover, since everything we told you was true, our boasting to Titus has also proved to be true.

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

We want you to know, brothers, about God's grace that was given to the churches of Macedonia.

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.

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 -- about Titus -- my partner and towards you fellow-worker, whether -- our brethren, apostles of assemblies -- glory of Christ;

Therefore, demonstrate to the churches that you love them and show them publicly why we boast about you.

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

for I know your readiness to help in it. I am boasting of you about it to the Macedonians, reminding them that Greece has been ready since last year, and your enthusiasm has stimulated the most of them.

Now I have sent the brothers so that our boasting about you in this matter may not prove to be an idle boast, and so that you may stand ready, just as I said.

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 if I do boast a little too much about my authority, which the Lord gave me for building you up and not for tearing you down, I shall never have to blush for doing so.

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 boasting about work done by others that cannot be evaluated. On the contrary, we cherish the hope that your faith may continue to grow and enlarge our sphere of action among you until it overflows.

Then we can preach the gospel in the regions far beyond you without boasting about things already accomplished by someone else.

But let the man who boasts, 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 I will go on doing what I'm doing in order to deny an opportunity to those people who want an opportunity to be recognized as our equals in the work 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.

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

If I must boast, I will boast about the things that show how weak I am.

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].

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

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

but he has told me, "My grace is all you need, because my power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the Messiah's power may rest on 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?