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.

I am giving no one a cause of stumbling in order that my ministry may not be discredited;

And for this very reason I wrote you, that I might not come only to be grieved by those who ought to give me joy; and because I trusted in you all, that my joy is the joy of all of you.