But we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not have our trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;

For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and sincerity before God, (not in fleshly wisdom but in God's grace,) we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly towards you.

even as also ye have recognised us in part, that we are your boast, even as ye are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

And with this confidence I purposed to come to you previously, that ye might have a second favour;

But I call God to witness upon my soul that to spare you I have not yet come to Corinth.

But I have judged this with myself, not to come back to you in grief.

And I have written this very letter to you, that coming I may not have grief from those from whom I ought to have joy; trusting in you all that my joy is that of you all.

For out of much tribulation and distress of heart I wrote to you, with many tears; not that ye may be grieved, but that ye may know the love which I have very abundantly towards you.

For to this end also I have written, that I might know, by putting you to the test, if as to everything ye are obedient.

But to whom ye forgive anything, I also; for I also, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, it is for your sakes in the person of Christ;

that we might not have Satan get an advantage against us, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts.

And such confidence have we through the Christ towards God:

But their thoughts have been darkened, for unto this day the same veil remains in reading the old covenant, unremoved, which in Christ is annulled.

Therefore, having this ministry, as we have had mercy shewn us, we faint not.

But we have rejected the hidden things of shame, not walking in deceit, nor falsifying the word of God, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every conscience of men before God.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassingness of the power may be of God, and not from us:

And having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I have believed, therefore have I spoken; we also believe, therefore also we speak;

For we know that if our earthly tabernacle house be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For indeed in this we groan, ardently desiring to have put on our house which is from heaven;

Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men, but have been manifested to God, and I hope also that we have been manifested in your consciences.

For we do not again commend ourselves to you, but we are giving to you occasion of boast in our behalf, that ye may have such with those boasting in countenance, and not in heart.

For the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this: that one died for all, then all have died;

So that we henceforth know no one according to flesh; but if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer.

So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new:

(for he says, I have listened to thee in an accepted time, and I have helped thee in a day of salvation: behold, now is the well-accepted time; behold, now the day of salvation:)

Receive us: we have injured no one, we have ruined no one, we have made gain of no one.

I do not speak for condemnation, for I have already said that ye are in our hearts, to die together, and live together.

For if also I grieved you in the letter, I do not regret it, if even I have regretted it; for I see that that letter, if even it were only for a time, grieved you.

Now I rejoice, not that ye have been grieved, but that ye have been grieved to repentance; for ye have been grieved according to God, that in nothing ye might be injured by us.

For, behold, this same thing, your being grieved according to God, how much diligence it wrought in you, but what excusing of yourselves, but what indignation, but what fear, but what ardent desire, but what zeal, but what vengeance: in every way ye have proved yourselves to be pure in the matter.

For this reason we have been encouraged. And we the rather rejoiced in our encouragement more abundantly by reason of the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

Because if I boasted to him anything about you, I have not been put to shame; but as we have spoken to you all things in truth, so also our boasting to Titus has been the truth;

But now also complete the doing of it; so that as there was the readiness to be willing, so also to complete out of what ye have.

For if the readiness be there, a man is accepted according to what he may have, not according to what he has not.

but we have sent with him the brother whose praise is in the glad tidings through all the assemblies;

And we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved to be of diligent zeal in many things, and now more diligently zealous through the great confidence he has as to you.

But I have sent the brethren, in order that our boasting about you may not be made void in this respect, in order that, as I have said, ye may be prepared;

and having in readiness to avenge all disobedience when your obedience shall have been fulfilled.

For we do not, as not reaching to you, overstretch ourselves, (for we have come to you also in the glad tidings of the Christ;)

For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy which is of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ.

For if indeed he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or ye get a different Spirit, which ye have not got, or a different glad tidings, which ye have not received, ye might well bear with it.

Have I committed sin, abasing myself in order that ye might be exalted, because I gratuitously announced to you the glad tidings of God?

From the Jews five times have I received forty stripes, save one.

Thrice have I been scourged, once I have been stoned, three times I have suffered shipwreck, a night and day I passed in the deep:

I have become a fool; ye have compelled me; for I ought to have been commended by you; for I have been nothing behind those who were in surpassing degree apostles, if also I am nothing.

For in what is it that ye have been inferior to the other assemblies, unless that I myself have not been in laziness a charge upon you? Forgive me this injury.

Did I make gain of you by any of those whom I have sent to you?

I begged Titus, and sent the brother with him: did Titus at all make gain of you? have we not walked in the same spirit? have we not in the same steps?

Ye have long been supposing that we excuse ourselves to you: we speak before God in Christ; and all things, beloved, for your building up.

lest my God should humble me as to you when I come again, and that I shall grieve over many of those who have sinned before, and have not repented as to the uncleanness and fornication and licentiousness which they have practised.

I have declared beforehand, and I say beforehand as present the second time, and now absent, to those that have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare.