For we are not writing [anything] else to you except what you can read or also understand. But I hope that you will understand {completely},

It was because I was sure of this that I wanted to come to see you before going anywhere else, to give you a double pleasure;

So forgive and comfort him, or else he will drown in his excessive grief.

Yes, just as you are growing rich in everything else, in faith, expression, knowledge, perfect enthusiasm, and the love inspired in you by us, you must see to it that you grow rich in this gracious contribution too.

Because you people have proven [yourselves] by this service, the poor Christians in Jerusalem will praise God for your obedient [spirit] in professing [commitment to] the Gospel of Christ, and for your generous contribution to them and to everyone else.

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.

I say again, lest any man think that I am foolish: or else even now take me as a fool, that I may boast myself a little.

I am ashamed to say that I was, as it were, so weak in the matter. And yet in whatever respect anyone else is daring to boast -- I am talking like a fool -- I too will dare to boast.

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