Because, as the sufferings of Christ abound toward us, so through Christ our consolation also abounds.

and our hope in your behalf is steadfast, knowing that, as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so are ye of the consolation also.

Who delivered us out of so great a death, and will still deliver: on Whom we have set our hope, that He will also still deliver;

so that, on the contrary, ye ought rather to forgive and console him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his excessive sorrow.

being made manifest that ye are Christ's epistle ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.

But, if the ministration of death, engraven in letters on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look steadily upon the face of Moses on account of the glory of his face, which glory was passing away;

but we renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, not handling the word of God deceitfully; but, by the manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

So that death is working in us, but life in you.

we are of good courage, I say, and are well pleased to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

Him Who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf, that we may become God's righteousness in Him.

but in everything commending ourselves as God's ministers, in much patience, in tribulations, in necessities, in distresses,

I say it not with the view to your condemnation; for I have said before that ye are in our hearts to die together and to live together.

and not by his coming only, but also by the consolation with which he was consoled over you; rehearsing to us your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced the more:

because, even if I did make you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it; for I see that that letter made you sorry, though but for a season.

So, although I wrote to you, it was not on account of him who did the wrong, nor of him who suffered wrong, but that your earnest care on our behalf might be manifested to you in the sight of God.

For, if in anything I have gloried to him on your behalf, I was not made ashamed; but, as we spake all things to you in truth, so also our glorying before Titus was found to be truth.

so that we exhorted Titus that, as he began before, so also he would finish in you this same grace also.

And now complete the doing also; that, as there was a readiness to will, so also there may be the completion out of what ye have;

Lest by any means, if the Macedonians should come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not ye) should be put to shame in this confidence.

But I say this: He that sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he that sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.

Ye look at things according to appearance. If anyone has trusted to himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this again with himself, that, as he is Christ's, so also are we.

not glorying beyond our measure in other men's labors; but, having hope that, as your faith increases, we shall be enlarged among you according to our limit to further abundance,

so as to proclaim the Gospel in the regions beyond you, not to glory in another's limit in the things made ready to our hand.

and, being present with you, and being in want, I was a burden to no one; for the brethren, coming from Macedonia, supplied my lack; and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so will keep myself.

I say again, let no one think me foolish; but, if ye do, yet as foolish receive me, that I too may glory a little.

Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they Abraham's seed? so am I.

in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

Wherefore, I take pleasure in weaknesses, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then am I powerful.

But be it so, I did not burden you; but, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as if present at the second time, and, being now absent, I write to those who heretofore have sinned, and to all the rest; that, if I come again, I will not spare;

since ye seek a proof of Christ's speaking in me, Who toward you is not weak, but is powerful in you;