Not that we want to lord it over you in respect of your faith--we do, however, desire to help your joy--for in the matter of your faith you are standing firm.

Therefore, cherishing a hope like this, we speak without reserve, and we do not imitate Moses,

(For we do not proclaim ourselves, but we proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for the sake of Jesus.)

Yes, we who are in this tent certainly do sigh under our burdens, for we do not wish to lay aside that with which we are now clothed, but to put on more, so that our mortality may be absorbed in Life.

Therefore for the future we know no one simply as a man. Even if we have known Christ as a man, yet now we do so no longer.

I do not say this to imply blame, for, as I have already said, you have such a place in our hearts that we would die with you or live with you.

For if I gave you pain by that letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it then. I see that that letter, even though for a time it gave you pain, had a salutary effect.

I do not urge you to give in order that others may have relief while you are unduly pressed,

We do not exceed our due limits, and take credit for other men's labours; but we entertain the hope that, as your faith grows, we shall gain promotion among you--still keeping within our own sphere--promotion to a larger field of labour,

And why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do.

What I am now saying, I do not say by the Lord's command, but as a fool in his folly might, in this reckless boasting.

I know a Christian man who fourteen years ago-- whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows--was caught up (this man of whom I am speaking)

And I know that this man-- whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know;

For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may not find you to be what I desire, and that you may find me to be what you do not desire; that perhaps there may be contention, jealousy, bitter feeling, party spirit, ill-natured talk, backbiting, undue eulogy, unrest;

Those who cling to their old sins, and indeed all of you, I have forewarned and still forewarn (as I did on my second visit when present, so I do now, though absent)