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

Yes, I felt within my very self the sentence of death, to keep me from depending on myself instead of God who raises the dead.

He saved me from a death so horrible, and He will save me again! He it is on whom I have set my hope that He will still save me,

For my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

that is, to go by you on my way to Macedonia, and then to come back to you from Macedonia, and have you send me on to Judea.

so you must do the opposite, freely forgive and comfort him, to keep him from being overwhelmed by his excessive sadness.

to keep us from being worsted by Satan, for we know what his intentions are.

Now who is qualified for such a task? I am, for I am not a peddler of God's message, like the most of them, but like a man of sincerity, like a man that is sent from God and living in His presence, in union with Christ I speak His message.

Am I beginning to recommend myself again? I do not, like some people, do I, need letters of recommendation to you or from you?

Not that I am myself qualified to consider anything as coming from me myself. No, my qualification comes from God, for

Now if the old religious service which resulted in death, although its law was carved in letters of stone, was introduced with a splendor so great that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on Moses' face because of the splendor that was fading from it,

not as Moses did, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was passing away.

And all of us, with faces uncovered, because we continue to reflect like mirrors the splendor of the Lord, are being transformed into likeness to Him, from one degree of splendor to another, since it comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

In their case, the god of this world has blinded the eyes of the unbelievers, to keep the glorious light of the good news of Christ, who is the likeness of God, from dawning upon them.

because I know that He who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise me too in fellowship with you.

So I never give up; instead, although my outer nature is wasting away, my inner nature is constantly renewed from day to day.

For I know that if this earthly tent in which I live is taken down, I have a building in heaven which comes from God, a house not built by human hands but eternal.

So I am always cheerful and confident, although I know that as long as I am at home in the body I am away from home and the Lord

and yet I am cheerful and confident, but really I prefer to be away from home in the body and to be at home with the Lord.

So whether I am at home or away from home, it is my constant ambition to please Him.

So from this moment on, I do not estimate anybody by the standard of outward appearances. Although I once did estimate Christ by this standard, I do not do so any longer.

To keep my ministry from being found fault with, I am trying not to put a single hindrance in anybody's way.

Therefore: "'Come out of company with them, and separate from them,' the Lord has said, 'And stop touching what is unclean; then I will welcome you,

So, since we have such promises as these, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that defiles our bodies and spirits, and in reverence to God carry on our consecration to completeness.

and not only by his coming but by the comfort he had gotten from you, because he kept on telling me how you were longing to see me, how sorry you were, and how loyal you were to me, so that I was gladder still.

I am glad of it now, not because you had such sorrow, but because your sorrow led you to repentance, for you took your sorrow in accordance with the will of God, so that you should not suffer any loss at all from me.

to keep me -- not to mention you -- from being humiliated for having such confidence in you, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready.

I beg you not to make me too courageous in that confidence in which I think to take a daring stand against some people who try to think that I am acting from the lowest human motives.

But I am apprehensive that, somehow or other, as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts may be turned aside from single-hearted devotion to Christ.

For if anybody comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one I preached, or you receive another spirit different from the one you did receive or a glad message different from the one you did accept, you listen to it all right!

I sponged on other churches by taking pay from them to render service to you,

and when I was with you and needed money, I never burdened a single one of you for a cent, for the brothers came from Macedonia and supplied what I needed. And so I kept myself, as I shall always do, from being a burden to you in any way.

And I shall keep on doing as I am, in order to cut the ground from under the feet of those who want an opportunity to show themselves on a level with me in the matters of which they boast.

Five times I have taken thirty-nine lashes from the Jews,

I have served Him on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the heathen, dangers in the city, dangers in the desert, dangers at sea, dangers from false brothers,

but through a hole in the wall I was lowered in a basket, and so escaped from his clutches.

I have to keep on boasting. There is no good to be gotten from it, but I will go on to visions and revelations which the Lord has given me.

However, if I want to boast, I will not play the fool, for it will be nothing but the truth that I will tell. But I refrain from doing so, to keep anybody, on account of the superiority of the revelations, from giving me a higher rating than my actions and teachings deserve.

So, to keep me from being over-elated, there was sent upon me a physical disease, sharp as a piercing stake, a messenger of Satan, to continue afflicting me, and so to keep me, I repeat, from being over-elated.

In what respect, then, were you inferior to the rest of the churches, except for the fact that I, and I only, never received from you any financial support? Please forgive me this wrong.

But let it be granted, you say, that I never received from you financial support, yet, you say, by being a trickster I cheated you by my cunning.

This is why I am writing this while far away from you, that when I do come, I may not have to deal harshly with you in accordance with the authority which the Lord has given me, for building you up, not for tearing you down.