For the ground of our rejoicing is this: the testimony of our conscience that we have lived in the world more abundantly, indeed, for you in sincerity and godly purity, not in carnal wisdom, but in the grace of God.

hunted down and persecuted, but not deserted [to stand alone]; struck down, but never destroyed;

We are not again commending ourselves to your favour, but are furnishing you with a ground of boasting on our behalf, so that you may have a reply ready for those with whom superficial appearances are everything and sincerity of heart counts for nothing.

Show them, therefore--so that the Churches may see it-- the proof of your affection, and the ground for our boasting to them about you.

for if the Macedonians should come with me, and find you unprepared, how shall I, not to say you, be ashamed for having had so little ground to boast of you?

But I will persist in the same line of conduct in order to cut the ground from under the feet of those who desire an opportunity of getting themselves recognized as being on a level with us in the matters about which they boast.