For this very purpose also I wrote you (before), that I might test you, to see if you were obedient in every respect.

Nay, their minds were made dull; for to this very day, at the public reading of the Old Testament, the same veil rests thereon, because it is not revealed to them that in Christ the veil is taken away.

For I know, if this earthly tent of mine were struck, I have a mansion built by God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For even after I reached Macedonia, my flesh had no rest, but I was troubled on every hand. Without were fights; within were, fears.

But now I am glad; not because you were pained; but because your pain led you to repentance.

If, however, I were to boast more loudly concerning the authority which the Lord gave me (not to cast you down, but to build you up), I should have no cause for shame.

Let it not seem as if I were overawing you with my letters.

What I am about to say I am not speaking by the Lord's command, but as it were in pure folly, in this boldness of boasting.

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as though I were beside myself), such, far, more, am I; in labors more abundant, in imprisonments also more abundant, in floggings beyond measure, in deaths often.

In truth the signs of the true apostle were wrought among you in all patience by signs and marvels and powers.

In what respect, then, were you inferior to the other churches, except that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!