Now I did not resort to fickleness, did I, in planning that? Or, do I make my plans in accordance with worldly notions, to have my "Yes" mean "No," if I want it so?

As certainly as God is to be trusted, my message to you has not been a "Yes" that might mean "No."

For God's Son, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us, Silvanus, Timothy, and me, did not become a "Yes" that might mean "No."

For if I make you sad, who is there to make me glad but the very man who has been made sad by me?

To a man like that, this censure by the majority has been sufficient punishment,

The man that you forgive I too forgive. For if I have forgiven him anything, it is what I have forgiven him in the very presence of Christ for your sake,

Now who is qualified for such a task? I am, for I am not a peddler of God's message, like the most of them, but like a man of sincerity, like a man that is sent from God and living in His presence, in union with Christ I speak His message.

But I am keeping this jewel in an earthen jar, to prove that its surpassing power is God's, not mine.

So, since I know what the fear of God can do, I am trying to win men. My inner self is perfectly known to God, and I hope, to your consciences too.

For it was through Christ that God was reconciling the world to Himself instead of debiting men's offenses against them, and He has committed to me the message of this reconciliation.

I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters of mine,' The Lord Almighty said."

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.

If a man is ready and willing to give, his gift is acceptable in accordance with what he has, not with what he does not have.

just as the Scripture says, "The man who gathered much did not have too much, and the man who gathered little did not have too little."

For I am taking the precaution to do what is right, not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.

Indeed, I do not dare to count or compare myself with certain men who are always recommending themselves. But they do not show good sense, because they do continue measuring themselves with one another and comparing themselves with one another.

I am not going too far in my boasting, and actually boasting of other men's labors, but I am cherishing the hope that your faith may so continue to grow that through you my work within my sphere may be so enlarged as to run over,

so that I can preach the good news in the regions beyond you, without boasting in another man's sphere of work already done by him.

"But the man who boasts must boast in the Lord.

For it is not the man who keeps on recommending himself who is really approved, but it is the man whom the Lord recommends.

I wish you would now listen to a little folly of mine. Please do listen to me!

and when I was with you and needed money, I never burdened a single one of you for a cent, for the brothers came from Macedonia and supplied what I needed. And so I kept myself, as I shall always do, from being a burden to you in any way.

But the truth of Christ in me, this boasting of mine shall never be stopped in the boundaries of Greece.

For such men are sham apostles, dishonest workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

For you listen to a man, if he makes you his slave, or spends your money for his living, or cheats you, or puts on airs, or slaps you in the face.

Are they ministers of Christ? So am I. I am talking like a man that has gone crazy -- as such I am superior! -- serving Him with labors greater by far, with far more imprisonments, with floggings vastly worse, and often at the point of death.

I know a man in union with Christ fourteen years ago -- whether in the body or out of it, I do not know, but God knows -- who was caught up to the third heaven.

Yes, I know that this man -- whether in or out of the body, I do not know, but God knows --

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

On behalf of this man with such an experience I will boast, but on behalf of myself personally I will boast only about my weaknesses.

I have made a fool of myself, but you have forced me to do it, for I am the man who ought to have been constantly approved by you. For I am not a single bit inferior to your surpassingly superior apostles, though really I am "nobody."

It is now the third time that I have been ready to come to see you, and I will never ask you for financial support, for it is not your money but you yourselves that I want; for children are not by duty bound to lay up money for their parents, but parents for their children.

So in my own case, I will most happily spend my money and myself for your sakes. If I love you much more than I love others, am I to be loved less by you?

I did not make any money out of you through anybody that I sent to you, did I?

I actually begged Titus to go, and sent the well-known brother with him. Titus did not make any money out of you, did he? Did not he and I act in the same spirit, and take the very same steps?