grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

he rescued me from so terrible a death, he rescues still, and I rely upon him for the hope that he will continue to rescue me.

I intended to take you on my way to Macedonia, and to visit you again on my way back from Macedonia, so as to be sped by you on my journey to Judaea.

I call God to witness against my soul, it was to spare you that I refrained from revisiting Corinth.

This censure from the majority is severe enough for the individual in question,

Am I beginning again to 'commend' myself? Do I need, like some people, to be commended by written certificates either to you or from you?

It is not that I am personally qualified to form any judgment by myself; my qualifications come from God,

Now if the administration of death which was engraved in letters of stone, was invested with glory ??so much so, that the children of Israel could not gaze at the face of Moses on account of the dazzling glory that was fading from his face;

Such being my hope then, I am quite frank and open ??13 not like Moses, who used to hang a veil over his face to keep the children of Israel from gazing at the last rays of a fading glory.

Besides, their minds were dulled, for to this very day, when the Old Testament is read aloud, the same veil hangs. Veiled from them the fact that the glory fades in Christ!

But we all mirror the glory of the Lord with face unveiled, and so we are being transformed into the same likeness as himself, passing from one glory to another ??for this comes of the Lord the Spirit.

I disown those practices which very shame conceals from view; I do not go about it craftily; I do not falsify the word of God; I state the truth openly and so commend myself to every man's conscience before God.

I know that if this earthly tent of mine is taken down, I get a home from God, made by no human hands, eternal in the heavens.

Come what may, then, I am confident; I know that while I reside in the body I am away from the Lord

and in this confidence I would fain get away from the body and reside with the Lord.

Hence also I am eager to satisfy him, whether in the body or away from it;

O Corinthians, I am keeping nothing back from you; my heart is wide open for you.

Therefore come away from them, separate, saith the Lord, touch not what is unclean; then I will receive you,

As these great promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates either flesh or spirit; let us be fully consecrated by reverence for God].

For I got no relief from the strain of things, even when I reached Macedonia; it was trouble at every turn, wrangling all round me, fears in my own mind.

but I am glad now ??not glad that you were pained but glad that your pain induced you to repent. For you were pained as God meant you to be pained, and so you got no harm from what I did;

I aim at being above reproach not only from God but also from men.

I appeal to you myself by the gentleness and consideration of Christ ??the Paul who is 'humble enough to your face when he is with you, but outspoken enough when he gets away from you.'

I wish you would put up with a little 'folly' from me. Do put up with me,

but I am afraid of your thoughts getting seduced from a single devotion to Christ, just as the serpent beguiled Eve with his cunning.

You put up with it all right, when some interloper preaches a second Jesus (not the Jesus I preached), or when you are treated to a Spirit different from the Spirit you once received, and to a different gospel from what I gave you! Why not put up with me?

I made a levy on other churches, I took pay from them so as to minister to you;

even when I ran short, during my stay with you, I was no encumbrance to anybody, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my wants. Thus I kept myself, as I intend to keep myself, from being a burden to you in any way.

Are they Hebrews? so am I. Israelites? so am I. Descended from Abraham? so am I.

five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews,

I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers ??27 through labour and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, starving many a time, cold and ill-clad, and all the rest of it.

but I was lowered in a basket from a loophole in the wall, and so managed to escape his clutches.)

(If I did care to boast of other things, I would be no 'fool,' for I would have a true tale to tell; however, I abstain from that ??I want no one to take me for more than he can see in me or make out from me.)

My wealth of visions might have puffed me up, so I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to rack me and keep me from being puffed up;