Now in return for the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be you also enlarged in heart.

And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? for you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.

And not by his coming only, but by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.

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

Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which you have.

But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality:

If any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker concerning you: or if our brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ.

For concerning the ministering to the saints, it is unnecessary for me to write to you:

Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf; that, as I said, you may be ready:

Lest perhaps if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we (that we say not, you) should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, though I think to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.

I wish that you could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.

For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

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

As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them who desire occasion; that when they glory, they may be found even as we.

I say again, Let no man think me foolish; but if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.

In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

Besides those things that are outside, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches.

If I must boast, I will boast of the things which concern my weaknesses.

In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of Damascus with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:

It is not expedient for me doubtless to boast. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

Of such a one will I boast: yet of myself I will not boast, but in my weaknesses.

For though I would desire to boast, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he sees me to be, or that he hears of me.

And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

For this thing I besought the Lord three times, that it might depart from me.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended by you: for in nothing am I behind the very chief apostles, though I be nothing.

For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall mourn over many who have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and licentiousness which they have committed.

Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who toward you is not weak, but is mighty in you.

Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord has given me to edification, and not to destruction.

And all the brethren who are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:

But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

For you have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:

And advanced in the Jews' religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,

To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them who were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

And they glorified God in me.

Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.

But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:

But of these who seemed to be somebody, (whatsoever they were, it makes no matter to me: God accepts no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somebody in conference added nothing to me:

But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;

(For he that worked effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)

And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship; that we should go unto the Gentiles, and they unto the circumcision.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as you are: you have not injured me at all.

And my trial which was in my flesh you despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

Where is then the blessedness you spoke of? for I bear you witness, that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

I desire to be present with you now, and to change my tone; for I stand in doubt of you.

Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law?

You see with what large letters I have written unto you with my own hand.

For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.

But God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me toward you:

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote before in few words,

By which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

Of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

Therefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ:

Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

That it may be well with you, and you may live long on the earth.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Therefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that in this I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

But that you also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,

Even as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; since as both in my bonds, and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of my grace.

For God is my witness, how greatly I long after you all in the affections of Jesus Christ.

And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

That you may approve things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ;

But I wish you to understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have served rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;

So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places;

And many of the brethren in the Lord, becoming confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

The one preach Christ out of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds:

For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,

According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I know not.

That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.

Only let your manner of life be as it becomes the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

Having the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.

Fulfill you my joy, that you be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.