It is true that we have our full share of the sufferings of the Christ, but through the Christ we have also our full share of consolation.

As God is true, the Message that we brought you does not waver between 'Yes' and 'No'!

I do not mean that we are to dictate to you with regard to your faith; on the contrary, we work with you for your true happiness; indeed, it is through your faith that you are standing firm.

So I wrote as I did, for fear that, if I had come, I should have been pained by those who ought to have made me glad; for I felt sure that it was true of you all that my joy was in every case yours also.

For at the Bar of the Christ we must all appear in our true characters, that each may reap the results of the life which he has lived in the body, in accordance with his actions--whether good or worthless.

Therefore, because we know the fear inspired by the Lord, it is true that we are trying to win men, but our motives are plain to God; and I hope that in your inmost hearts they are plain to you also.

Amid honor and disrepute, amid slander and praise; regarded as deceivers, yet proved to be true;

As unknown, yet well-known; as at death's door, yet, see, we are living; as chastised, yet not killed;

With these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that pollutes either body or spirit, and, in deepest reverence for God, aim at perfect holiness.

So, then, even though I did write to you, it was not for the sake of the wrong-doer, or of the man who was wronged, but to make you conscious, in the sight of God, of your own earnest care for us. And it is this that has encouraged us.

Although I have been boasting a little to him about you, you did not put me to shame; but, just as every thing we had said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus about you has also proved to be the truth.

What I am doing now I shall continue to do, that I may cut away the ground from under those who are wishing for some ground for attacking me, so that as regards the thing of which they boast they may appear in their true characters, just as we do.

Are they 'Servants of Christ'? Though it is madness to talk like this, I am more so than they! I have had more of toil, more of imprisonment! I have been flogged times without number. I have been often at death's door.

The marks of the true Apostle were exhibited among you in constant endurance, as well as by signs, by marvels, and by miracles.

Have you all this time been fancying that it is to you that we are making our defense? No, it is in the sight of God, and in union with Christ, that we are speaking. And all this, dear friends, is to build up your characters;