For just as I have more than my share in the sufferings of the Christ, so also through the Christ I have more than my share of comfort.

Indeed, I had in myself, and still have, the sentence of death, in order that I might not rely on myself, but on God who raises the dead to life.

He delivered me from such a death, and will deliver me. On him I have set my hopes that he will continue to deliver me,

For this is my proud boast, the testimony of my conscience, that it was in holiness and with pure motives before God, not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God, that I have conducted myself in the world, and above all in my relations with you.

And in this confidence I intended to visit you, before going elsewhere, that you might have a pleasure twice over.

for if I cause you grief, who is there to cause me joy except those whom I have grieved?

If you forgive the man, I forgive him, too; for whatever I have forgiven has been forgiven in the presence of Christ,

Such confidence I have through Christ before God.

So then, as I have this ministry because of God's mercy to me, I do not lose heart.

I have renounced the hidden things of shame, not spending my life in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God; but setting forth the truth openly, I strive to commend myself to every man's conscience as in the sight of God.

But having the same spirit of faith of which it is written, I believed, and therefore have spoken, I also believe and so I speak.

For this reason, as I have said, I do not lose courage, but even though my outward man is wasting away, my inward man is being renewed, day by day.

For I know, if this earthly tent of mine were struck, I have a mansion built by God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

So I have good courage, and am well pleased rather, to be in banishment from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

I am not "commending myself to you again," but I am giving you an occasion of boasting on my behalf, so that you may have an answer ready for those who boast in externals, and not in the heart.

For the love of Christ overmasters me; because I thus judge that if One has died for all, then all have died;

Therefore henceforth I know no one simply as a man??ven if I have known Christ as a man, yet now I do so no longer.

For he said: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, And in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time! behold, now is the day of salvation!

Make room for me in your hearts! I have wronged no man, I have ruined no man, I have defrauded no man.

I am not saying this to blame you, for as I have already said, I hold you in my heart to live together and to die together.

Note the results of this pain which God permitted; what earnestness it has called forth in you, what explanations, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what fervor, what punishment of wrong. In every way you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

This is what comforts me. In addition to this comfort of mine, I have been made still happier by the happiness of Titus; because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

Although I have been boasting a little to him about you, I have not been put to shame. But as in every matter I have spoken the truth to you, so also my boast to Titus has been proved to be the truth.

I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

For I can testify that according to their ability, and even beyond their ability, of their own free will, too, they have given help.

With the result that I have been begging Titus that, as he had been the one to begin the work with you, so he should complete among you this grace also.

But thanks be to God who has inspired in the heart of Titus the same zeal on your behalf that I have.

With them I am sending our brother of whose zeal I have often had proof in many ways, and who is now zealous because of his great confidence in you.

So I have thought that I must ask these brothers to visit you beforehand, and get your promised contribution ready in advance. I want it to be given of your bounty, not extorted from your covetousness.

If, however, I were to boast more loudly concerning the authority which the Lord gave me (not to cast you down, but to build you up), I should have no cause for shame.

I have not indeed the audacity to class myself among, or compare myself with, certain of the self-commenders; yet they are not wise in measuring themselves by one another and in comparing themselves with one another.

For I am not overstepping the limits of my authority, as though I reached you not; since I have already come even as far as Corinth to proclaim the gospel of Christ.

I have a divine jealousy on your behalf; for I betrothed you to one only husband, even to Christ, that I might present you to him, a chaste virgin.

Five times at the hands of the Jews, I have received one short of forty lashes.

Three times I have been scourged by the Romans; once I have been stoned; three times have I been shipwrecked; a night and a day have I been adrift in the open sea.

My journeys have been many; in perils of rivers, in perils of bandits; in perils from my countrymen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness; in perils on the sea, in perils among false brothers;

I am become a fool??ou have forced me to; for you yourselves ought to have been my vindicators. In no respect am I inferior to these superapostolic apostles, even though I am nothing.

and lest when I come again my God may humble me before you, and lest I shall mourn for many those who have sinned before, and have not repented of the impurity and immorality and wantonness which they have practised.

I have said formerly, and I now forewarn you as when I was present the second time, so now when I am absent the second time, so now when I am absent, saying to those who had sinned before, and to all the rest, "If I come again, I will not spare,"

For I have no power against the truth, but only in defense of the truth.

For this reason I am writing thus while absent, so that when I come, I may not have to deal sharply, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for pulling down.