just as some few of you have recognized us as your reason for boasting, even as you will be ours, on the day of Jesus our Lord.

For in writing to you I have also this object in view--to discover by experience whether you are prepared to be obedient in every respect.

And He who formed us with this very end in view is God, who has given us His Spirit as a pledge and foretaste of that bliss.

Is it a sin that I abased myself in order for you to be exalted, in that I proclaimed God's Good News to you without fee or reward?

You are imagining, all this time, that we are making our defense at your bar. In reality it is as in God's presence and in communion with Christ that we speak; but, dear friends, it is all with a view to your progress in goodness.