This is what I said in my letter, so that I might avoid coming and having my feelings hurt by the very people who might have been expected to make me happy, for I felt sure about you all, that what made me happy would make you all happy.

and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.

He made him who knew nothing of sin to be sin, for our sake, so that through union with him we might become God's uprightness.

You know how gracious the Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was rich, he became poor for your sake, in order that by his poverty you might become rich.

It is no strain for me to do this, as it might be for people who had never got so far, for I was the first to come all the way to you with the good news of the Christ.

Three times I have prayed to the Lord about this, begging that it might leave me,