For out of great sorrow and distress of heart, yes, while shedding many tears, I wrote you, not to make you sad but to make you realize that my love for you continues running over.

You are my letter of recommendation, written on my heart, read and understood by everybody,

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.

On every side I am ever hard-pressed, but never hemmed in; always perplexed, but never to the point of despair;

I am not trying to recommend myself to you again. I am giving you ground for speaking well of me, that you may have something to say to those who are constantly prating about external privileges and not concerned about the state of the heart.

O Corinthians, my tongue is telling you everything; my heart is stretched with love for you.

You are not squeezed into a tiny corner in my heart, but you are in your own affections.

I do not mean this for your condemnation, because, as I have said before, you have such a place in my heart that I would live with you or die with you.

Yes, his heart is running over toward you, as he continues recalling how you all obeyed him, with what reverence and trembling you welcomed him.

But thanks be to God, who kindles in the heart of Titus the same enthusiasm for you that I have;

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.

was actually caught up into paradise, and heard things that must not be told, which no man has a right even to mention.