For what I am writing you is nothing more than what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it perfectly, just as some of you have come to understand me partially;

The man that you forgive I too forgive. For if I have forgiven him anything, it is what I have forgiven him in the very presence of Christ for your sake,

to keep us from being worsted by Satan, for we know what his intentions are.

For on account of its surpassing splendor, what was once so splendid has now no splendor at all.

For if what passed away was introduced with splendor, with how much greater splendor must what is permanent be attended?

not as Moses did, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of what was passing away.

(for here I live by what I believe and not by what I see),

For we must all appear before the judgment-bar of Christ, that each may get his pay for what he has done, whether it be good or bad.

So, since I know what the fear of God can do, I am trying to win men. My inner self is perfectly known to God, and I hope, to your consciences too.

Stop forming intimate and inconsistent relations with unbelievers. What partnership can right-doing have with law-breaking, or how can light participate with darkness?

What harmony exists between Christ and Belial, or what is common between a believer and an unbeliever?

And what agreement can a temple of God make with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said: "I will live in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they will be my people."

Therefore: "'Come out of company with them, and separate from them,' the Lord has said, 'And stop touching what is unclean; then I will welcome you,

For see what this very sorrow, suffered in accordance with the will of God, has done for you! How earnest it has made you, how concerned to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how much it made you long to see me, how loyal to me, how determined to punish the offender! At every point you have cleared yourselves in the matter.

Yes, his heart is running over toward you, as he continues recalling how you all obeyed him, with what reverence and trembling you welcomed him.

Now finish doing it too, so that your readiness to finish it may be just like your readiness to start it, in accordance with what you have.

If a man is ready and willing to give, his gift is acceptable in accordance with what he has, not with what he does not have.

For I am taking the precaution to do what is right, not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the eyes of men.

Each must give what he has purposed in his heart to give, not sorrowfully or under compulsion, for it is the happy giver that God loves.

Such people should consider this: When I arrive for action I shall do exactly what I said I would in my letters when far away.

and when I was with you and needed money, I never burdened a single one of you for a cent, for the brothers came from Macedonia and supplied what I needed. And so I kept myself, as I shall always do, from being a burden to you in any way.

So it is no surprise if his servants also masquerade as ministers for doing right, whose doom shall be in accordance with what they do.

In what respect, then, were you inferior to the rest of the churches, except for the fact that I, and I only, never received from you any financial support? Please forgive me this wrong.