but we had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we might not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead:

you also assisting by prayer for us, that the favor obtained for us by the prayers of many might be thankfully acknowledged by many on our account.

And in this confidence I had a mind to come to you first, (that ye might have a second benefit,) and to pass by you into Macedonia;

For through much affliction and distress of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not that ye might be grieved, but that ye might know the love with which I abound towards you.

For to this end also did I write, that I might have proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things.

And to whom ye forgive any thing, I also forgive it: for if I have forgiven any thing, I forgave it him, to whom I did forgive it, for your sakes, in the person of Christ; that we might not be foiled by Satan:

since what was then made glorious was not in comparison glorious, because of the glory that surpasseth it.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power might be evidently of God, and not of us:

cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body.

For all these things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the gratitude of many redound to the glory of God.

For we know that if our earthly house, which is but as a tent, were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

And He died for all, that those who live might no longer live to themselves, but to Him who died for them and rose again.

But all these things are from God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and made us ministers of the reconciliation;

For He hath made Him, who knew no sin, to be a sin-offering for us, that in Him we might be made righteous before God.

However, now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance; for ye were grieved after a godly manner, so that ye received no damage from us.

Wherefore if I wrote in such a manner to you, it was not merely on his account who had done the wrong, nor for his sake who had been injured; but that our care for you in the sight of God might be manifested among you.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye by his poverty might be rich.

hereby taking care that no one might blame us in the disposal of this large sum which is administered by us:

But I have sent the brethren, that our boasting of you might not become vain in this respect, but that ye might be ready, as I had said:

For if he, that cometh to you, preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached; or if ye receive another Spirit which ye have not received, or another gospel which ye have not embraced, ye might indeed bear with him.

Have I committed an offence in humbling myself that ye might be exalted? and in that I have preached the gospel of God to you gratis?

For this I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

And therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, and in straits for the sake of Christ: for when I am thus weak, then am I made strong.