He comforts me in all my trouble, so that I can comfort people who are in any trouble with the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God.

My hopes for you are unshaken. For I know that just as surely as you share my sufferings, just so surely you will share my comfort.

Not that we are the masters of you and your faith; we are working with you to make you happy, for in your faith you stand firm enough.

Yes, I am the fragrance of Christ to God, diffused among those who are being saved, and those who are perishing alike;

You are my recommendations, written on my heart, for everybody to read and understand.

You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by me, written not in ink, but in the Spirit of the living God, and not on tablets of stone, but on the human heart.

And all of us, reflecting the splendor of the Lord in our unveiled faces, are being changed into likeness to him, from one degree of splendor to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

If the meaning of my preaching of the good news is veiled at all, it is so only in the case of those who are on the way to destruction.

What bargain can a temple of God make with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and move among them, And I will be their God and they will be my people."

See how earnest this God-given pain has made you! how eager to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how eager to see me, how zealous, how avenging! At every point you have proved that you are clear of this matter.

So as far as Titus is concerned, he is my partner and comrade in my work for you, while these brothers of ours represent the churches, and are a credit to Christ.

for I know how willing you are to help in it; I boast of you for it to the people in Macedonia, telling them that Greece has been ready since last year, and your enthusiasm has been a stimulus to most of them.

for if some people from Macedonia come with me, and find that you are not ready, it will humiliate me??o say nothing of you??or having expressed such confidence.

for the weapons I use are not earthly ones, but divinely strong for destroying fortresses.

For they say, "His letters are impressive and telling, but his personal appearance is insignificant and as a speaker he amounts to nothing."

Such men are sham apostles, dishonest workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

Since many are so human as to boast, I will do it also.

For you like to put up with fools, you are so wise yourselves!

If they are Hebrews, so am I! If they are Israelites, so am I! If they are descended from Abraham, so am I!

If they are Christian workers?? am talking like a madman!?? am a better one! with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, vastly worse beatings, and in frequent danger of death.

That is why I am pleased with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties, when they are endured for Christ's sake, for it is when I am weak that I am strong.

Here it is the third time that I have been ready to come to see you, and I do not intend to be a burden to you now; for it is not your money but yourselves that I want; for children are not expected to lay up money for their parents, but parents for their children.

And I will be glad to spend all I have and all I am for your sake. Are you going to love me the less for loving you so intensely?

Even if he was crucified through weakness, by the power of God he is alive. For we are weak as he was, but you will find that by the power of God we will be alive as he is.

It is yourselves you must test, to see whether you are holding to the faith. It is yourselves you must examine. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is within you? Unless you fail to stand the test!

I am glad to be weak, if you are strong! That is what I pray for??he perfecting of your characters.