For just as Christ’s sufferings are ours in abundance [as they overflow to His followers], so also our comfort [our reassurance, our encouragement, our consolation] is abundant through Christ [it is truly more than enough to endure what we must].

And our hope for you [our confident expectation of good for you] is firmly grounded [assured and unshaken], since we know that just as you share as partners in our sufferings, so also you share as partners in our comfort.

For what I am writing you is nothing more than what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it perfectly, just as some of you have come to understand me partially;

just as you have [already] partially understood us, [and one day will recognize] that you can be proud of us just as we are of you, in the day of our Lord Jesus.

So, when I made this decision, was I just vacillating [in uncertainty]? Or, do I make plans in a worldly way [i.e., just to suit my own fancy], so that my "yes" and "no" [do not really mean anything]?

But just as certainly as God is dependable, our message to you is not [both] "yes" and "no" [at the same time].

And are not just like Moses, who kept putting a veil upon his face, so that the sons of Israel should not look steadily unto the end of that which was to be done away.

And we all, with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory into glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

Because of this, [since we] have this ministry, just as we have been shown mercy, we do not lose heart,

And in just requital--I speak as to my children--let your hearts expand also.

And what agreement [does the] temple of God [have] with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said, "I will live in them and will walk about [among them], and I will be their God and they will be my people."

For though I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you sorry, though just for a while.

See how the very fact that you were made sorry from a godly motive has produced earnestness in you! [It produced] a desire to vindicate yourselves [i.e., by making amends for your wrongdoing]; an attitude of just anger [i.e., toward the wrongdoers]; a sense of fear [i.e., a fear of God for doing wrong]; an eager desire [i.e., to do the right thing]; a zeal [i.e., to correct problems]; and an attitude of avenging [i.e., that punished the wrongdoer]. You demonstrated in everything [you did] that you were pure [i.e., innocent] in this matter. [Note: This whole description of their conduct appears to be a reference to the incident mentioned in 2:1-11].

For if I have boasted to him at all concerning you, I was not disappointed. But just as everything we ever said to you was true, so our boasting [about you] to Titus has proved true also.

and not just as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and [then] to us, by the will of God.

So we urged Titus that, just as he had previously begun [it], thus he would also complete for you this [act of] grace.

But just as you excel in everything--in faith and in speaking and in knowledge and with all diligence and in the love from us [that is] in you--so may you excel in this grace also.

So now also complete the doing [of it], in order that just as [you have] the eagerness to want [to do it], thus also [you may] complete [it] from [what you] have.

just as it is written, "The [one] who [gathered] much did not have too much, and the [one] who [gathered] little did not have too little."

Therefore shew unto them, and in the presence of the churches, a proof of your love, and of our [just] boasting in you.

But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you would not prove to be empty in this case, so that you may be prepared just as I was saying,

Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.

Just as it is written, "He scattered widely, he gave to the poor; his righteousness remains {forever}."

You are looking at things according to appearance. If anyone is convinced he himself is Christ's, he should consider this concerning himself again: that just as Christ himself [is], so also [are] we.

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.

However, I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve by its tricks, so your minds may somehow be lured away from sincere and pure devotion to the Messiah.

But what I am doing, I will also do, in order that I may remove the opportunity of those who want an opportunity, that they may be found just as also we [are] in what they are boasting about.

What I am saying in this boastful [show of] confidence is not what the Lord would [say], but is [just plain] "foolishness."

To my shame I must say that we have been weak by comparison.But in whatever respect anyone else is bold—I speak in foolishness—I am just as bold myself.

It makes me satisfied, for Christ's sake, with weakness, insults, trouble, persecution, and calamity; for I am strong just when I am weak.

I have said it, and I say it again before I come, just as if I were with you on my second visit, though for the moment absent, I say to those who have been long sinning, as well as to all others--that if I come again, I shall spare no one.