We are not again commending ourselves to you, but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you may have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart.

I have great confidence in you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. With all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.

and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

And his affection goes out all the more to you, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling.

I am not speaking this as a command, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.

But I am sending the brethren so that our boasting about you may not prove vain in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be;

I, Paul, myself urge you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold to you when I am away!

I beg you that when I am present I may not have to be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.

But I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.

But even if I am unskilled in speech, I am not in knowledge; in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

And what I am doing, I will also continue to do, in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things of which they boast.

What I am saying I am not saying as the Lord would, but as a fool, in this confidence of boasting.

Are they servants of Christ? I am a better oneI am talking like a madmanin far more labors, in far more imprisonments, with more beatings, and often in danger of death.

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I do not inwardly burn?

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

That is why, for Christ's sake, I am content in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not in the least inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing.

Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden to you, for I seek not what is yours but you; for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children.

But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself. Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery!

For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you what I wish you to be, and you may not find me what you wish me to be; I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder.

I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will have to mourn over many of those who sinned before and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and lewdness which they have practiced.

This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

I write these things while I am absent, in order that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority which the Lord gave me for building you up, and not for tearing you down.