Because I was confident, I planned to come to you first so you might receive a double blessing.

I planned to leave you in order to go to Macedonia, and then come back to you from Macedonia, and let you send me on to Judea.

This is the very reason I wrote you, so that when I did come I might not be made sad by those who should have made me happy. For I had confidence that all of you would share the joy that I have.

By ourselves we are not qualified to claim that anything comes from us. Rather, our credentials come from God,

Now if the ministry of death that was inscribed in letters of stone came with such glory that the people of Israel could not gaze on Moses' face (because the glory was fading away from it),

For if that which fades away came through glory, how much more does that which is permanent have glory?

For even when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. We suffered in a number of ways. Outwardly there were conflicts, inwardly there were fears.

Otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find out that you are not ready, we would be humiliated to say nothing of you in this undertaking.

I beg you that when I come I will not need to be courageous by daring to oppose some people who think that we are living according to the flesh.

For it is not as though we were overstepping our limits when we came to you. We were the first to reach you with the gospel of the Messiah.

When I was with you and needed something, I did not bother any of you, because our brothers who came from Macedonia supplied everything I needed. I kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.

I am afraid that I may come and somehow find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me. Perhaps there will be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly conduct.

I am afraid that when I come my God may again humble me before you and that I may have to grieve over many who formerly lived in sin and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, and promiscuity that they once practiced.

I have already warned those who sinned previously and all the rest. Although I am absent now, I am warning them as I did on my second visit: If I come back, I will not spare you,

For this reason I am writing this while I am away from you: When I come I do not want to be severe in using the authority the Lord gave me to build you up and not to tear you down.