If we meet with trouble, it is for the sake of your consolation and salvation; and, if we find consolation, it is for the sake of the consolation that you will experience when you are called to endure the very sufferings that we ourselves are enduring;

For my own sake, as well, I decided not to pay you another painful visit.

To the latter we are an odor which arises from death and tells of Death; to the former an odor which arises from life and tells of Life. But who is equal to such a task?

If the system of religion which involved Death, embodied in a written Law and engraved on stones, began amid such glory, that the Israelites were unable to gaze at the face of Moses on account of its glory, though it was but a passing glory,

With such a hope as this, we speak with all plainness;

(For it is not ourselves that we proclaim, but Christ Jesus, as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.)

Indeed, we who still live are continually being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the Life also of Jesus may be exhibited in our mortal nature.

So, then, even though I did write to you, it was not for the sake of the wrong-doer, or of the man who was wronged, but to make you conscious, in the sight of God, of your own earnest care for us. And it is this that has encouraged us.

For the rendering of a public service such as this, not only relieves the needs of your fellow-Christians, but also results in the offering to God of many a thanksgiving.

Let such a man be assured of this--that our words in our letters show us to be, when absent, just what our deeds will show us to be, when present.

We have not indeed the audacity to class or compare ourselves with some of those who indulge in self-commendation! But, when such persons measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they show a want of wisdom.

About such a man I will boast, but about myself I will not boast except as regards my weaknesses.