Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double benefit.

When I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a fleshly manner so that in the same breath I say, "Yes, Yes" and "No, No"?

For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by usby me and Silvanus and Timothywas not Yes and No, but in him it has always been Yes.

But I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.

Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority,

Now when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord,

Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,

For if what was fading away came with glory, much more is the glory of that which lasts.

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of the radiance that was fading away.

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

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.

So although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your zeal for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God.

For if I have boasted to him about you, I was not put to shame; but just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting before Titus has proved true.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.

And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the open sea.

but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped his hands.

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

was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, which a man is not permitted to tell.

And to keep me from being too elated because of the abundance of revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.

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.

For he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God for you.