We have good courage, however, and are well pleased - rather to be away from home, out of the body, and to come home, unto the Lord.

Therefore indeed we have as our ambition, whether at home [in the body] or absent [from the body], to be acceptable to him.

For we all have to come before Christ to be judged; so that every one of us may get his reward for the things done in the body, good or bad.

having known, therefore, the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, and to God we are manifested, and I hope also in your consciences to have been manifested;

Not again, ourselves, do we commend unto you, but as though an occasion we were giving unto you - something to boast of, in our behalf; that ye may have something suited unto them who, in appearance, are boasting, and not in heart.

For, whether we have been beside ourselves, it hath been for God, or, whether we are sober-minded, it is for you.

For Christ’s love compels us, since we have reached this conclusion: If One died for all, then all died.

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.

So that, we, henceforth, know, no one, after the flesh: if we have even been gaining, after the flesh, a knowledge of Christ,

On the contrary, now, no longer, are we gaining it. So that, if any one is in Christ, there is a new creation! the old things, have passed away, - Lo! they have become new!

As workers together with God we urge you also, who have received God's unearned favor, do not allow it to be for nothing,

For he saith - In an approved season, have I hearkened unto thee, and, in a day of salvation, have succoured thee; - Lo! now, a well-approved season, Lo! now, a day of salvation:

[We are] giving no one an occasion for taking offense in anything, in order that our ministry will not have fault found [with it],

But as God's servants, we have commended ourselves in every way, with great endurance, in persecutions, in difficulties, in distresses,

[We have been] beaten, jailed, and mobbed. [We have] worked hard, missed sleep and gone without food.

[We have ministered] with purity, knowledge, patience and kindness. [We have done this] by [the power of] the Holy Spirit; out of genuine love;

[We have experienced] honor and dishonor; a bad reputation and a good one. [We have been viewed] as deceivers and yet are genuine;

as [both] unknown [to people] and yet well-known; [we have almost] died, and yet as you see, we are still alive; [we have been] punished and yet not killed;

We have spoken openly to you, Corinthians; our heart has been opened wide.

We have not cut you off, but you have cut off your own feelings toward us.

Let us have a like return; I speak as unto children; be ye also enlarged.

Be not getting diversely yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness?

What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

And what agreement does God’s sanctuary have with idols? For we are the sanctuary of the living God, as God said:

I will dwell among them
and walk among them,
and I will be their God,
and they will be My people.

Therefore, dear friends, since we have such promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, completing our sanctification in the fear of God.

Give place to us! no one, have we wronged, no one, have we corrupted, no one, have we defrauded.

Unto condemnation, I am not saying this , for I have before said - In our hearts, are ye, to the end we may die together and live together.

I have great confidence in you; I have great pride in you. I am filled with encouragement; I am overcome with joy in all our afflictions.

Ever since we reached Macedonia, we have had no rest in body or mind; on every side there have been troubles--conflicts without, anxieties within.

Because, if I even grieved you by the letter, I do not regret, - though I could even have regretted, - I see that that letter, if even for an hour, did cause you grief.

Now I rejoice, not that ye have been grieved, but that ye have been grieved to repentance; for ye have been grieved according to God, that in nothing ye might be injured by us.

For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that did hurt, neither for his cause that was hurt: but that our good mind which we have toward you in the sight of God, might appear unto you

For this cause, have we received encouragement. In addition to our encouragement, however, much more abundantly, have we rejoiced over the joy of Titus, - that his spirit hath received refreshment from you all,

That, if in anything - unto him - in your behalf - I have boasted, I have not been put to shame; but, as, all things, in truth, we told you, so, even our boasting before Titus, turned out to be, truth.

I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

I must acquaint you, brethren, with the contribution which the churches of Macedonia have religiously made,

who tho' labouring under great trial of affliction, and extreme poverty, have notwithstanding with exceeding cheerfulness contributed very liberally: being forward of themselves to the utmost of their power,

For I can testify that according to their ability, and even beyond their ability, of their own free will, too, they have given help.

Seriously requesting us that they might have a part in this grace of being servants to the needs of the saints:

They have done more than I expected; they gave themselves to the Lord, to begin with, and then (for so God willed it) they put themselves at my disposal.

With the result that I have been begging Titus that, as he had been the one to begin the work with you, so he should complete among you this grace also.

Now therefore, as ye are rich in all parts, in faith, in word, in knowledge, in all ferventness, and in love, which ye have to us: even so see that ye be plenteous in this benevolence.

For you see the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how though he had wealth, he became poor on your account, so that through his need you might have wealth.

And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

Howbeit, now, the doing also, complete ye, in order that, even according to the forwardness of the desiring, so, may be the completing - out of what ye have.

For, if the forwardness is set forth, according to what one may have, he is well approved, not according to what one hath not.

For I do not mean that others should have relief, and you be burdened:

But so that things may be equal; that from those things of which you have more than enough at the present time their need may be helped, and that if you are in any need they may be a help to you in the same way, making things equal.

As it has been written:

The person who gathered much
did not have too much,
and the person who gathered little
did not have too little.

But thanks be to God who has inspired in the heart of Titus the same zeal on your behalf that I have.

And we have sent with him the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches;

And not only so, but he was marked out by the churches to go with us in the grace of this giving which we have undertaken to the glory of the Lord and to make clear that our mind was ready:

I mean to have no one able to find any fault with the way I handle this munificence.

For the business has been so ordered by us as to have the approval, not only of the Lord, but of men.

With them I am sending our brother of whose zeal I have often had proof in many ways, and who is now zealous because of his great confidence in you.

Wherefore show unto them the proof of your love, and of the rejoicing that we have of you, that the congregations may see it.

for I have known your readiness of mind, which in your behalf I boast of to Macedonians, that Achaia hath been prepared a year ago, and the zeal of you did stir up the more part,

Nevertheless I have sent the brethren, that, our boast in your behalf, be not made void, in this respect, that, even as I was saying, ye may be prepared, -

So I have thought that I must ask these brothers to visit you beforehand, and get your promised contribution ready in advance. I want it to be given of your bounty, not extorted from your covetousness.

But in the Writings it says, He who puts in only a small number of seeds, will get in the same; and he who puts them in from a full hand, will have produce in full measure from them.

Each of you must give what you have decided in your heart, not with regret or under compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver.

And God is able to cause all grace to abound to you, so that in everything at all times, [because you] have enough of everything, you may overflow in every good work.

You will be made rich in everything so you can be generous in every way. This will result in people thanking God [for what you have done] through us.

For when, through this work of giving, they see what you are, they give glory to God for the way in which you have given yourselves to the good news of Christ, and for the wealth of your giving to them and to all;

And they will have deep affection for you in their prayers on your behalf because of the surpassing grace of God in you.

Praise be to God for what he has given, which words have no power to say.

And I, Paul, myself, do call upon you -- through the meekness and gentleness of the Christ -- who in presence, indeed am humble among you, and being absent, have courage toward you,

and I beseech you, that, being present, I may not have courage, with the confidence with which I reckon to be bold against certain reckoning us as walking according to the flesh;

For the weapons of our warfare are not those of the world. Instead, they have the power of God to demolish fortresses. We tear down arguments

and I am prepar'd, when you have discharg'd your duty, to make examples of the rest for their disobedience.

You look at me and measure me by outward appearances. If anyone is confident in himself that he belongs to Christ, let him have another thought about himself, that just as he belongs to Christ, so do I.

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.

That I may not seem to have the desire of causing you fear by my letters.

For his letters, they say, have weight and are strong; but in body he is feeble, and his way of talking has little force.

I have not indeed the audacity to class myself among, or compare myself with, certain of the self-commenders; yet they are not wise in measuring themselves by one another and in comparing themselves with one another.

For I am not overstepping the limits of my authority, as though I reached you not; since I have already come even as far as Corinth to proclaim the gospel of Christ.

We are not bragging beyond measure about other people’s labors. But we have the hope that as your faith increases, our area of ministry will be greatly enlarged,

I wish you could have borne with a little foolish boasting on my part. Nay, do bear with me.

I have a divine jealousy on your behalf; for I betrothed you to one only husband, even to Christ, that I might present you to him, a chaste virgin.

But I have a fear, that in some way, as Eve was tricked by the deceit of the snake, your minds may be turned away from their simple and holy love for Christ.

For, if, indeed, he that cometh, is proclaiming, another Jesus, whom we have not proclaimed, or, a different Spirit, ye are receiving, which ye had not received, or a different glad-message, which ye have never welcomed, ye are, well, bearing.

For I reckon not to have come a whit behind the exceeding overmuch apostles;

But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.

Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?

by taking wages of other churches, I may have injured them, to do you service.

And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.

Why? because I have no love for you? let God be judge.

I repeat, no one should think me a fool, but if you do, show me at least the patience you would show a fool, and let me have my little boast like the others.

You tolerate anyone who makes you his slaves, devours what you have, takes what is yours, orders you around, or slaps your face!

I say this to our shame: We have been weak.

But in whatever anyone dares to boast—I am talking foolishly—I also dare:

so am I: are they ministers of Christ? is it my vanity? I am more so: in toilsome labours I surpass them, in stripes I am exceedingly beyond them, in prisons I have been oftner, and frequently in the very jaws of death.

Five times at the hands of the Jews, I have received one short of forty lashes.

Three times I have been scourged by the Romans; once I have been stoned; three times have I been shipwrecked; a night and a day have I been adrift in the open sea.

My journeys have been many; in perils of rivers, in perils of bandits; in perils from my countrymen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness; in perils on the sea, in perils among false brothers;

I have worked and suffered. I have often gone without sleep, been hungry and thirsty, often gone without food [i.e., for spiritual reasons], been cold and had inadequate clothing.

Besides everything else, I have a daily burden because of my anxiety about all the churches.

Who is weak, and I do not feel [his] weakness? Who is made to sin, and I am not on fire [with sorrow and concern]?

If I have to take credit to myself, I will do so in the things in which I am feeble.

In the city of Damascus, the governor of the people under king Aretas, laid watch in the city of the Damascenes, and would have caught me,