For just as I have more than my share in the sufferings of the Christ, so also through the Christ I have more than my share of comfort.

If I am afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if I am receiving comfort, it is for your comfort?? comfort produced within you by your patient fortitude, under the same sufferings which I also am enduring.

My hope for you is firm; for I know that as you are comrades in my sufferings, so also are you comrades in my comfort.

while all of you also are helping me by your prayers; so that from many lips thanksgiving may rise on my behalf for the blessings vouchsafed to me through the intercessions of many.

For however many are the promises of God, in him they are "Yes." Therefore also through him let the Amen be said by our voices to the glory of God.

He has also set his seal upon me, and given me the pledge of his Spirit in my heart.

For this very purpose also I wrote you (before), that I might test you, to see if you were obedient in every respect.

It is he who has also made me sufficient as a minister of a new covenant; not of a letter but of a spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit makes alive.

Wherever I go, I am always carrying about in my body the dying of Jesus, in order that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in this body of mine.

For, alive though I am, I am always given over to death for the sake of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may shine forth in my dying flesh.

But having the same spirit of faith of which it is written, I believed, and therefore have spoken, I also believe and so I speak.

For I know that He who raised from the dead the Lord Jesus, will raise me also with Jesus, and set me at your side in his presence.

And for this reason I also make it home with the Lord.

So, because I know the fear of God, I "persuade men." What I am is manifest to God, and I hope manifest also to your conscience.

I pray you, therefore, in fair exchange (I speak as to my children), let your hearts also be wide open to me.

and not alone by his coming, but also by the comfort you had been to him. For he told me of your eager longing, of your penitence, and of your zeal on my behalf, so that I was happier still.

Although I have been boasting a little to him about you, I have not been put to shame. But as in every matter I have spoken the truth to you, so also my boast to Titus has been proved to be the truth.

With the result that I have been begging Titus that, as he had been the one to begin the work with you, so he should complete among you this grace also.

Now then, as you excel in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and all zeal and in your love to me, see to it that you excel in this grace also.

And I will give you my opinion in this matter; for this offering is fitting in your case, considering that you made a beginning before others, not only in the willingness to do something but also in actually doing something a year ago.

So now complete the doing of it also, in order that just as there was the readiness to will, so there may be the accomplishment according to your means.

For I aim at being above reproach, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

As for Titus, remember that he is a partner of mine, and is also my associate in labors for you. As for the other brothers, remember that they are delegates from the churches, men in whom Christ is glorified.

Mark this; he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Because the ministry of this contribution not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also overflows in many a thanksgiving to God.

Look these facts in the face. If any man is fully persuaded as regards himself that he belongs to Christ, let him consider again with himself, that just as he is Christ's, so also am I.

It is no great marvel, then, if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as though I were beside myself), such, far, more, am I; in labors more abundant, in imprisonments also more abundant, in floggings beyond measure, in deaths often.

For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he now lives through the power of God. I also am weak, sharing in his weakness, but I shall live with him by the power of God.

For I am always glad whenever I am weak, but you are strong. For this also I am praying, for your perfect reformation.