because you are helping me by your prayers for me, so that thanks to God will be given by many on my behalf for God's gracious gift to me in answer to the prayers of many.

It was because of this confidence that first I planned to visit you, to give you a double delight;

and put His seal upon us, and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a first installment of future rewards.

He has qualified even me as a minister of the new covenant, which is not a written but a spiritual covenant. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

So, because I hold a place in this ministry and that because I have had God's mercy shown me, I never give up.

For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, reflected on the face of Christ.

For all the time I continue to live I am being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that in my mortal lower nature the life of Jesus may be clearly shown.

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

Now it is God Himself who has put the finishing touches on me for this change, because He has given me the Spirit as the first installment of future bliss.

This has all originated with God, for He through Christ has reconciled me to Himself and has given me the ministry of reconciliation.

Now I am going to tell you, brothers, of God's spiritual blessing which was given in the churches of Macedonia,

For they have given, I can testify, to the utmost of their ability, and even beyond their ability. Of their own accord,

Now I will give you my opinion on this matter. For this is for your interest, because you were not only the first to do anything about it, but the first to want to do so; you started it a year ago.

If a man is ready and willing to give, his gift is acceptable in accordance with what he has, not with what he does not have.

So I have thought it necessary to urge these brothers to visit you ahead of me and get your promised love-offering ready beforehand, so as to have it ready as a real love-offering, not as one grasped and grudgingly given.

Each must give what he has purposed in his heart to give, not sorrowfully or under compulsion, for it is the happy giver that God loves.

as the Scripture says: "He has generously given to the poor; His deeds of charity go on forever."

In every way you will grow richer and richer so as to give with perfect liberality, which will through me result in thanksgiving to God for it.

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.

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.