just as some few of you have recognized us as your reason for boasting, even as you will be ours, on the day of Jesus our Lord.

But He who is making us as well as you stedfast through union with the Anointed One, and has anointed us, is God,

it is He who has also put His seal on us [that is, He has appropriated us and certified us as His] and has given us the [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as a pledge [like a security deposit to guarantee the fulfillment of His promise of eternal life].

you are well known to be a letter of Christ, written by us as his ministers, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

Who also qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive.

And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit. Cross references: 2 Corinthians 3:3 : Ex 24:12; 31:18; 32:15, 16; Jer 31:33 2 Corinthians 3:6 : Jer 31:31 2 Corinthians 3:7 : Ex 34:29-35 2 Corinthians 3:17 : Is 61:1, 2 end of crossrefs

So, we [apostles] are ambassadors, [speaking] on behalf of Christ. [It is] as though God were appealing [to people] through us: "We urge you people, on behalf of Christ, to be restored to fellowship with God."

Not only [did they give materially] as we had hoped, but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us [as His representatives] by the will of God [disregarding their personal interests and giving as much as they possibly could].

For the business has been so ordered by us as to have the approval, not only of the Lord, but of men.

But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

But we will not glory beyond our measure, but according to the measure of the province which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even unto you.

What I am saying with this boastful confidence I do not say the way the Lord would. Instead it is, as it were, foolishness.

Wise as you yourselves are, you find pleasure in tolerating fools.

You are imagining, all this time, that we are making our defense at your bar. In reality it is as in God's presence and in communion with Christ that we speak; but, dear friends, it is all with a view to your progress in goodness.