who comforts me in all my distress, so that I am able to comfort people who are in any distress by the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God.

in fact I told myself it was the sentence of death. But that was to make me rely not on myself but on the God who raises the dead;

for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by us (by myself and Silvanus and Timotheus) was not 'yes and no' ??the divine 'yes' has at last sounded in him,

And it is God who confirms me along with you in Christ, who consecrated me,

who stamped me with his seal and gave me the Spirit as a pledge in my heart.

For if I pain you, then who is to give me pleasure? None but the very people I am paining!

So the very reason I wrote was that I might not come only to be pained by those who ought to give me joy; I relied on you all, I felt sure that my joy would be a joy for everyone of you.

I live for God as the fragrance of Christ breathed alike on those who are being saved and on those who are perishing,

to the one a deadly fragrance that makes for death, to the other a vital fragrance that makes for life. And who is qualified for this career?

Such being my hope then, I am quite frank and open ??13 not like Moses, who used to hang a veil over his face to keep the children of Israel from gazing at the last rays of a fading glory.

there the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to prevent them seeing the light thrown by the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.

For God who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," has shone within my heart to illuminate men with the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Christ.

sure that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise me too with Jesus and set me at your side in his presence.

I am prepared for this change by God, who has given me the Spirit as its pledge and instalment.

This is not 'recommending myself to you again'; it is giving you an incentive to be proud of me, which you can use against men who are proud of externals instead of the inward reality.

and that he died for all in order to have the living live no longer for themselves but for him who died and rose for them.

It is all the doing of the God who has reconciled me to himself through Christ and has permitted me to be a minister of his reconciliation.

For our sakes He made him to be sin who himself knew nothing of sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

But the God who comforts the dejected comforted me by the arrival of Titus.

This has led me to ask Titus to complete the arrangements for the same gracious contribution among yourselves, as it was he who started it.

Thus it is to give and take ??as it is written, He who got much had nothing over, and he who got little had not too little.

Thanks be to God who has inspired Titus with an interest in you equal to my own;

Mark this: he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows generously will reap a generous harvest.

Everyone is to give what he has made up his mind to give; there is to be no grudging or compulsion about it, for God loves the giver who gives cheerfully.

He who furnishes the sower with seed and with bread to eat will supply seed for you and multiply it; he will increase the crop of your charities ??11 you will be enriched on all hands, so that you can be generous on all occasions, and your generosity, of which I am the agent, will make men give thanks to God;

I appeal to you myself by the gentleness and consideration of Christ ??the Paul who is 'humble enough to your face when he is with you, but outspoken enough when he gets away from you.'

I beg of you that when I do come I may not have to speak out and be peremptory; but my mind is made up to tackle certain people who have made up their minds that I move on the low level of the flesh.

I am prepared to court-martial anyone who remains insubordinate, once your submission is complete.

However, let him who boasts boast of the Lord;

for it is not the self-praiser with his own recommendations who is accepted, it is the man whom the Lord recommends.

even when I ran short, during my stay with you, I was no encumbrance to anybody, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my wants. Thus I kept myself, as I intend to keep myself, from being a burden to you in any way.

No, I intend to go on as I am doing, in order to checkmate those who would fain make out that in the apostolate of which they boast they work on the same terms as I do.

You put up with fools so readily, you who know so much!

You put up with a man who assumes control of your souls, with a man who spends your money, with a man who dupes you, with a man who gives himself airs, with a man who flies in your face.

Who is weak, and I do not feel his weakness? Whose faith is hurt, and I am not aglow with indignation?

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed for ever, He knows I am telling the truth!

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. In the body or out of the body? That I do not know: God knows.

For I am afraid I may perhaps come and find you are not what I could wish, while you may find I am not what you could wish; I am afraid of finding quarrels, jealousy, temper, rivalry, slanders, gossiping, arrogance, and disorder ??21 afraid that when I come back to you, my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn for many who sinned some time ago and yet have never repented of the impurity, the sexual vice, and the sensuality which they have practised.

I warned you already, on my second visit, and I warn you now before I come, both you who sinned some time ago and the rest of you as well, that I will spare no one if I come back.