We are; for, unlike most teachers, we are not fraudulent hucksters of God's Message; but with transparent motives, as commissioned by God, in God's presence and in communion with Christ, so we speak.

Nay, we have renounced the secrecy which marks a feeling of shame. We practice no cunning tricks, nor do we adulterate God's Message. But by a full clear statement of the truth we strive to commend ourselves in the presence of God to every human conscience.

For if we have been beside ourselves, it has been for God's glory; or if we are now in our right senses, it is in order to be of service to you.

as obscure persons, and yet are well known; as on the point of death, and yet, strange to tell, we live; as under God's discipline, and yet we are not deprived of life;

You are imagining, all this time, that we are making our defense at your bar. In reality it is as in God's presence and in communion with Christ that we speak; but, dear friends, it is all with a view to your progress in goodness.

They not only did this, as we had expected, but first of all in obedience to God's will they gave their own selves to the Lord and to us.

For we seek not only God's approval of our integrity, but man's also.

And you also we, as God's fellow workers, entreat not to be found to have received His grace to no purpose.

On the contrary, as God's servants, we seek their full approval--by unwearied endurance, by afflictions, by distress, by helplessness;

For God who said, "Out of darkness let light shine," is He who has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory, which is radiant on the face of Christ.

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God--and our brother Timothy: To the Church of God in Corinth, with all God's people throughout Greece.

With earnest entreaty they begged from us the favour of being allowed to share in the service now being rendered to God's people.

For the service rendered in this sacred gift not only helps to relieve the wants of God's people, but it is also rich in its results and awakens a chorus of thanksgiving to God.