Now I will give you my opinion on this matter. For this is for your interest, because you were not only the first to do anything about it, but the first to want to do so; you started it a year ago.

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 do not want it to be a relief for others and a burden on you,

but through an equalizing of matters in the present crisis I do want your abundance to relieve their need, that some day their abundance may relieve your need, so that equality may exist --

just as the Scripture says, "The man who gathered much did not have too much, and the man who gathered little did not have too little."

Not only that, but he has been selected by the churches to travel with me for this gracious contribution which is being raised by me, so that it may turn out for the glory of the Lord and a proof of my readiness to serve.

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.

But I send the brothers that in this matter my boasting of you may not turn out to be an idle boasting, that you all may be ready, as I have told them you will be,

to keep me -- not to mention you -- from being humiliated for having such confidence in you, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready.

So I have thought it necessary to urge these brothers to visit you ahead of me and get your promised love-offering ready beforehand, so as to have it ready as a real love-offering, not as one grasped and grudgingly given.

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.

Because the service rendered by this sacred offering is not only fully supplying the needs of God's people, but it is also running over with many thanks to God for it.

I beg you not to make me too courageous in that confidence in which I think to take a daring stand against some people who try to think that I am acting from the lowest human motives.

For though I do still live the life of a physical human creature, I am not waging this war in accordance with physical human standards,

for the weapons used in my warfare are not mere human ones, but through my God are mighty for demolishing fortresses.

For if I do boast a little too much about my authority, which the Lord gave me for building you up and not for tearing you down, I shall never have to blush for doing so.

I do not want to seem to be frightening you with my letters.

Indeed, I do not dare to count or compare myself with certain men who are always recommending themselves. But they do not show good sense, because they do continue measuring themselves with one another and comparing themselves with one another.

For I am not overstepping my authority as though I should not reach you, for I was the very first to reach as far as you with the good news of Christ.

I am not going too far in my boasting, and actually boasting of other men's labors, but I am cherishing the hope that your faith may so continue to grow that through you my work within my sphere may be so enlarged as to run over,

For it is not the man who keeps on recommending himself who is really approved, but it is the man whom the Lord recommends.

For I consider myself not a single bit inferior to those surpassingly superior apostles of yours!

Although I am untrained as an orator, yet I am not so in the field of knowledge. Surely, I have always made that perfectly clear to you.

Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.

But when I talk in this boastful confidence, I am not talking in accordance with the way the Lord talked, but just as a fool talks.

three times I have been beaten by the Romans, once I was pelted with stones; three times I have been shipwrecked, and once I have spent a day and a night adrift at sea.

through toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, through many a fasting season, poorly clad and exposed to cold.

I know a man in union with Christ fourteen years ago -- whether in the body or out of it, I do not know, but God knows -- who was caught up to the third heaven.

Yes, I know that this man -- whether in or out of the body, I do not know, but God knows --

was actually caught up into paradise, and heard things that must not be told, which no man has a right even to mention.

However, if I want to boast, I will not play the fool, for it will be nothing but the truth that I will tell. But I refrain from doing so, to keep anybody, on account of the superiority of the revelations, from giving me a higher rating than my actions and teachings deserve.

I have made a fool of myself, but you have forced me to do it, for I am the man who ought to have been constantly approved by you. For I am not a single bit inferior to your surpassingly superior apostles, though really I am "nobody."

It is now the third time that I have been ready to come to see you, and I will never ask you for financial support, for it is not your money but you yourselves that I want; for children are not by duty bound to lay up money for their parents, but parents for their children.

I did not make any money out of you through anybody that I sent to you, did I?

I actually begged Titus to go, and sent the well-known brother with him. Titus did not make any money out of you, did he? Did not he and I act in the same spirit, and take the very same steps?

Are you thinking all this time that I am defending myself to you? It is in the very presence of God and as one who is in union with Christ that I am speaking. And it is all for building you up, beloved, for I am apprehensive that, somehow or other, when I come I shall find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me.

and that when I come back my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn over some of those who formerly have committed shocking sins, and have not repented for them -- their impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality, which once they practiced.

I have already warned those who formerly committed shocking sins, and all the rest, and though so far away I warn them now, as I did on my second visit, that if I come back I will not spare them,

since you demand a proof that Christ is speaking through me. For Christ is not exhibiting weakness toward you but power in you.

You yourselves must continue testing yourselves to see whether you are continuing in the faith. You must continue standing the test. Do you not know by a growing experience that Jesus Christ is in you? -- provided you stand the test.

But I am praying God that you may never do anything wrong, not to show that I am standing the test, but that you should continue doing right, though I should fail to stand the test.

This is why I am writing this while far away from you, that when I do come, I may not have to deal harshly with you in accordance with the authority which the Lord has given me, for building you up, not for tearing you down.

Paul, an apostle sent not from men or by any man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead --

which is not really another one; only there are certain people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of Christ upside down.

Am I now trying to win men's favor, or God's? Or, am I trying to be pleasing to men? If I were still trying to be pleasing to men, I would not be a slave of Christ at all.

For I tell you, brothers, the good news which was preached by me is not a human message,

for I did not get it from any man; I was not taught it, but I got it through a revelation given by Jesus Christ.

and not another single one of the apostles did I see, except James, the Lord's brother.

But they did not even try to compel my companion, Titus, although he was a Greek, to be circumcised --

they did not try it even for the sake of the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who stole in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to make us slaves again.

But we did not for a moment yield them submission, in order that the truth of the good news might prevail for you.

But when I saw that they were not living up to the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas, and that before them all, "If you are living like a heathen and not like a Jew, although you are a Jew yourself, why do you try to make the heathen live like Jews?"

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not heathen sinners, and yet,

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God.

Now if, in our efforts to come into right standing with God through union with Christ, we have proved ourselves to be sinners like the heathen themselves, does that make Christ a party to our sin? Of course not.

For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them."

Now the promises were made to Abraham and his descendant. It does not say, "and to your descendants," in the plural, but in the singular, "and to your descendant," that is, Christ.

I mean this: The law which was given four hundred and thirty years later could not annul the contract which had already been ratified by God, so as to cancel the promise.

Is the law then contrary to God's promises? Of course not. For if a law had been given that was able to impart life, surely, then, right standing would have come through law.

I mean this: As long as the heir is under age he is not a whit better off than a slave, although he is heir of all the property,

But at that former time, as you did not know the true God, you were slaves to gods that do not really exist,

but still you did not scorn the test my illness made of you, nor did you spurn me for it; on the contrary, you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.

These men are paying you special attention, but not sincerely. They want to shut you off from me, so that you may keep on paying them special attention.

Now it is a fine thing to have special attention paid you, if it is done sincerely and unceasingly, and not only when I am with you.

I wish I could be with you right now and change the tone of my speech, for I do not know which way to turn in your case.

Tell me, you who want to be subject to law, will you not listen to what the law says?

So, brothers, we are children, not of a slave girl but of a free woman.

For you, brothers, were called to freedom; only you must not let your freedom be an excuse for the gratification of your lower nature, but in love be slaves to one another.

But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.

envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I now warn you, as I have done before, that those who practice such things shall not be heirs of the kingdom of God.

Everyone should test his own work until it stands the test, and then he will have ground for boasting with reference to himself alone, and not with reference to someone else.

Do not be deceived anymore; God is not to be scoffed at. A person will reap just what he sows, whatever it is.

Let us stop getting tired of doing good, for at the proper time we shall reap if we do not give up.

Indeed, the very men who let themselves be circumcised do not themselves observe the law. But they simply want you to let yourselves be circumcised, so that they can boast of you as members of their party.

far above every other government, authority, power, and dominion, yea, far above every other title that can be conferred, not only in this world but in the world to come.

For it is by His unmerited favor through faith that you have been saved; it is not by anything that you have done, it is the gift of God.

It is not the result of what anyone can do, so that no one can boast of it.

which in the earlier ages, so different from the present, was not made known to mankind as fully as now, but through the Spirit it has been revealed to His Holy apostles and prophets --

So I beg you not to lose heart over the sorrows that I am suffering for your sake, for they bring you honor.

so that we may not be babies any longer, or like sailors tossed about and driven around by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men through their cunning in inventing new methods of error.

But this is not the way you have learned what Christ means,

If you do get angry, you must stop sinning in your anger. Do not ever let the sun go down on your anger;

But sexual vice and any form of immorality or sensual greed must not so much as be mentioned among you, as that is the only course becoming in God's people;

So you must be very careful how you live, not thoughtlessly but thoughtfully,

not serving them as though they were watching you, but as true slaves of Christ, trying to carry out the will of God.

Heartily and cheerfully keep on working as slaves, as though it were for the Lord and not for men,

For our contest is not with human foes alone, but with the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark world; that is, with the spirit-forces of evil challenging us in the heavenly contest.

the former are preaching Christ from the motive of rivalry, not in sincerity, supposing that this is making it harder for me to bear my imprisonment.

For it has been graciously granted to you for Christ's sake, not only to trust in Him but also to suffer for Him,

Though He was existing in the nature of God, He did not think His being on an equality with God a thing to be selfishly grasped,

So, my dearly loved friends, as you have always been obedient, so now with reverence and awe keep on working clear down to the finishing point of your salvation not only as though I were with you but much more because I am away;

for most people are looking out for their own interests, not for the interests of Jesus Christ.

For he was so sick that he was on the point of dying, but God took pity on him, and not only on him but on me too, to keep me from having one sorrow after another.

Finally, my brothers, continue to be glad that you are in union with the Lord. I am not tired of writing you the same things over and over: it means your safety.

For we are the true circumcision, who by the Spirit of God worship Him, who take pride in Christ Jesus only, and do not rely on outward privileges,

and be actually in union with Him, not having a supposed right standing with God which depends on my doing what the law commands, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the real right standing with God which originates from Him and rests on faith.

It is not a fact that I have already secured it or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, the ideal for which I was captured by Christ Jesus.

Brothers, I do not think that I have captured it yet, but here is my one aspiration, so forgetting what is behind me and reaching out for what is ahead of me,

I was made very happy as a Christian to have your interest in my welfare revived again after so long; because you have always had the interest but not the opportunity to show it.

Not that I refer to any personal want, for I have learned to be contented in whatever circumstances I am.