for as I have greatly suffered for Christ, so I have been greatly comforted thro' Christ.

For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, of the tribulation which came to us in Asia, that above measure we have been burdened beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life:

Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.

You at the same time helping together by your prayer for us; so that for what has been given to us through a number of persons, praise may go up to God for us from all of them.

For my boast is what my conscience tells me, that my relations to the world and still more to you have been marked by pure motives and godly sincerity, not by worldly shrewdness but by the favor of God.

Even as you have been ready, in part, to say that we are your glory, in the same way that you are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

and to have passed by you into Macedonia, and to have come again out of Macedonia unto you, and to have been led forth to Jewry ward of you.

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

The Son of God, Christ Jesus, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus, Timothy, and I, you have not found wavering between "Yes" and "No." With him it has always been "Yes,"

It is not that we are trying to rule over your faith, but rather to work with you for your joy, because you have been standing firm in the faith.

For if I make you sad, who is there to make me glad but the very man who has been made sad by me?

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.

But if anyone has been a cause of sorrow, he has been so, not to me only, but in some measure to all of you (I say this that I may not be over-hard on you).

To a man like that, this censure by the majority has been sufficient punishment,

When you forgive a man, I forgive him too. For anything I had to forgive has been forgiven on your account, and as in the very presence of Christ,

And having come to Troas for the good news of the Christ, and a door to me having been opened in the Lord,

our letter ye are, having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men,

because ye are manifestly seen to be the letter of Christ, of which we have been the secretaries, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly tables of the heart.

But if the ministry of death, having been engraved in letters in stone was with glory (so that the sons of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses because of the glory of his face), which was being done away;

for also even that which hath been glorious, hath not been glorious -- in this respect, because of the superior glory;

For if that which has been done away was glorious, much more that which remains is glorious.

and we are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites would not gaze at the end of the glory which was fading away.

But their thoughts have been darkened, for unto this day the same veil remains in reading the old covenant, unremoved, which in Christ is annulled.

But we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord Spirit.

Because of this, [since we] have this ministry, just as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart,

And, even if our Gospel has been veiled, it has been veiled in those who perish;

Men whose minds have been blinded by the God of this Age, unbelievers as they are, so that the light from the Good News of the glory of the Christ, who is the very incarnation of God, should not shine for them.

in every way having been troubled, but not having been hemmed in; having been perplexed, but not utterly at a loss;

having been persecuted, but not having been forsaken; having been thrown down, but not having been destroyed;

And having the same spirit of the faith, according to that which hath been written, 'I believed, therefore I did speak;' we also do believe, therefore also do we speak;

for the all things are because of you, that the grace having been multiplied, because of the thanksgiving of the more, may abound to the glory of God;

since, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.

For we [believers will be called to account and] must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be repaid for what has been done in the body, whether good or bad [that is, each will be held responsible for his actions, purposes, goals, motives—the use or misuse of his time, opportunities and abilities].

having known, therefore, the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, and to God we are manifested, and I hope also in your consciences to have been manifested;

For, whether we have been beside ourselves, it hath been for God, or, whether we are sober-minded, it is for you.

and he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised.

So that, we, henceforth, know, no one, after the flesh: if we have even been gaining, after the flesh, a knowledge of Christ,

(For he says, I have given ear to you at a good time, and I have been your helper in a day of salvation: see, now is the good time; now is the day of salvation):

[We have been] beaten, jailed, and mobbed. [We have] worked hard, missed sleep and gone without food.

[We have experienced] honor and dishonor; a bad reputation and a good one. [We have been viewed] as deceivers and yet are genuine;

as [both] unknown [to people] and yet well-known; [we have almost] died, and yet as you see, we are still alive; [we have been] punished and yet not killed;

Our mouth hath been open unto you, O Corinthians, our heart hath been enlarged!

Let your hearts be open to us: we have done no man wrong, no man has been damaged by us, we have made no profit out of any man,

great is my freedom of speech unto you, great my glory on your behalf; I have been filled with the comfort, I overabound with the joy on all our tribulation,

Ever since we reached Macedonia, we have had no rest in body or mind; on every side there have been troubles--conflicts without, anxieties within.

and not by his coming only, but also by the consolation wherewith he had been comforted among you, declaring to us your fervent desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced the more.

Now I rejoice, not that ye have been made sorrowful, but that ye have sorrowed unto repentance; for ye have been made sorry in a godly manner, that ye might receive damage from us in nothing.

Wherefore if I wrote in such a manner to you, it was not merely on his account who had done the wrong, nor for his sake who had been injured; but that our care for you in the sight of God might be manifested among you.

That is why I am so comforted. With all my own comfort, I was still more overjoyed at the gladness of Titus, for his mind has been set at rest by you all.

Indeed, if I have been doing some boasting of you to him, I have never been ashamed of it; but just as all I said to him was true, so now my boasting before Titus has been shown to be true.

I must tell you, brothers, how the favor of God has been shown in the churches of Macedonia,

So that we exhorted Titus, that as he had been active before, so also he would perfect in you this grace also.

according as it hath been written, 'He who did gather much, had nothing over; and he who did gather little, had no lack.'

What is more, he has been appointed by the churches to travel with me in the interests of this generous undertaking, which I am superintending to honor the Lord and to show our readiness to help.

And so that no man might be able to say anything against us in the business of this giving which has been put into our hands:

For the business has been so ordered by us as to have the approval, not only of the Lord, but of men.

And we have sent with them our brother, whose ready spirit has been made clear to us at times and in ways without number, but it is now all the more so because of the certain faith which he has in you.

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.

So my reason for sending our Brothers is to prevent what we said about you from proving, in this particular matter, an empty boast, and to enable you to be as well prepared as I have been saying that you are.

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.

Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brothers that they would go forward to you, and make up beforehand your blessing, it having been promised that this would be ready, thus as a matter of blessing, and not as of covetousness.

But God is able to make all grace abound unto you; in order that, always having all sufficiency in every thing, you may abound unto every good work: as has been written,

(according as it hath been written, 'He dispersed abroad, he gave to the poor, his righteousness doth remain to the age,')

and having in readiness to avenge all disobedience when your obedience shall have been fulfilled.

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.

For I have a very great care for you: because you have been married by me to one husband, and it is my desire to give you completely holy to Christ.

For if he that cometh to you preach another Jesus than him whom we preached, or if ye receive another spirit than that which ye have received, either another gospel than that ye have received; ye might right well have been content.

for I reckon that I have been nothing behind the very chiefest apostles,

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

and being present with you, and having been in want, I was chargeable to no one, for my lack did the brethren supply -- having come from Macedonia -- and in everything burdenless to you I did keep myself, and will keep.

I speak as concerning rebuke, as though we had been weak. Howbeit, whereinsoever any man dare be bold - I speak foolishly - I dare be bold also.

Are they the Messiah's servants? I am insane to talk like this, but I am a far better one! I have been involved in far greater efforts, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and have faced death more than once.

Five times I have been given one less than forty lashes, by the Jews.

Thrice was I beaten with rods. I was once stoned. I suffered thrice shipwreck. Night and day have I been in the deep of the sea.

In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers; in jeopardies of mine own nation, in jeopardies among the heathen. I have been in perils in cities, in perils in wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

I have been in hardship and toil; often in watchings; in hunger and thirst; often in fastings; in cold and nakedness;

I knew a man in Christ, fourteen years ago, whether in the body, I know not; whether out of the body, I know not, such a one having been caught up even to the third heaven.

And judging by the stupendous grandeur of the revelations--therefore lest I should be over-elated there has been sent to me, like the agony of impalement, Satan's angel dealing blow after blow, lest I should be over-elated.

But his reply has been-- 'My help is enough for you; for my strength attains its perfection in the midst of weakness.' Most gladly, then, will I boast all the more of my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Christ may overshadow me.

I am made a fool in boasting myself. Ye have compelled me: I ought to have been commended of you. For in nothing was I inferior unto the chief apostles, though I be nothing:

The marks indeed of an apostle have been shewn among you with all patience, by signs, and wonders, and miracles.

For what is there wherein ye have been inferior to the other churches, except that I have not been burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong.

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.

Granting that I have not been a burden to you, was I a clever schemer who trapped you by some trick?

Have you been thinking all along that we are trying to defend ourselves before you? We are speaking before God in the authority of the Messiah, and everything, dear friends, is meant to build you up.

I am afraid lest, on my next visit, my God may humble me in regard to you, and that I may have to mourn over many who have long been sinning, and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality, in which they have indulged.

I have said it, and I say it again before I come, just as if I were with you on my second visit, though for the moment absent, I say to those who have been long sinning, as well as to all others--that if I come again, I shall spare no one.

for if indeed he has been crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power; for indeed we are weak in him, but we shall live with him by God's power towards you,)