And if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation, wrought by a patient endurance the same sufferings which we also suffer, and our hope for you is strong; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort and salvation,

you also cooperating in our behalf in prayer; in order that, the gift which is bestowed upon us from many persons, may through many be a source of thanks given in our behalf.

Indeed, our main ground for satisfaction is this--Our conscience tells us that our conduct in the world, and still more in our relations with you, was marked by a purity of motive and a sincerity that were inspired by God, and was based, not on worldly policy, but on the help of God.

So the very reason I wrote was that I might not come only to be pained by those who ought to give me joy; I relied on you all, I felt sure that my joy would be a joy for everyone of you.

so that now you ought rather to forgive, and comfort him, for fear he should be overwhelm'd by an excess of sorrow.

you are well known to be a letter of Christ, written by us as his ministers, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

who also hath enabled me to be a minister of the new covenant, not of the literal sense, but of the spiritual meaning: it is the letter that denounces death, but the spirit gives life.

Instead, we have renounced shameful secret things, not walking in deceit or distorting God’s message, but commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in God’s sight by an open display of the truth.

For God, who said [Gen. 1:3], "Light will shine out of darkness," has [also] shone in our hearts to provide [us with] the light of the knowledge of God's splendor [as it shines] on the face of Christ. [Note: This allusion to "splendor shining on Christ's face" may be a continuation of the analogy used in 3:13].

for the light affliction, which I at present suffer, will be infinitely over-ballanced by an eternal weight of glory;

we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

Wherefore, whether we be at home, or from home, we endeavor our selves to please him.

therefore, if any man be a christian, he is in a new creation: the old state of things is chang'd to one entirely new.

It is all the doing of the God who has reconciled me to himself through Christ and has permitted me to be a minister of his reconciliation.

So we are the representatives of Christ, as if God was making a request to you through us: we make our request to you, in the name of Christ, be at peace with God.

He made Him who personally knew nothing of sin to be a sin-offering for us, so that through union with Him we might come into right standing with God.

by a true teaching and an energy divine; by the weapons of righteousness, for attack or for defense,

By glory and by shame, by an evil name and a good name; as untrue, and still true;

And what agreement to the temple of God with images? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God said, That I will dwell in them, and will go round about; and will be their God, and they shall be a people to me.

Therefore, "'Come out from among them and separate yourselves,' says the Lord, 'and touch nothing impure; and I will receive you, and will be a Father to you,

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

For if I grieved you by a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that this letter made you sorry, though but for a season.

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].

But now finish the task as well, that just as there was eagerness to desire it, so there may also be a completion from what you have.

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

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:

and not so only, but is also chosen of the congregations to be a fellow with us in our journey, as concerning this benevolence that is ministered by us unto the praise of the Lord, and to stir up your prompt mind.

And we have sent with him our brother, whom we have often experienced in many things to be a man of diligence, but now much more diligent, through the great confidence which I have in you.

So let them have proof of how you can love, and of my reasons for being proud of you; it will be a proof read by the churches.

Now I have sent the brothers so that our boasting about you in this matter may not prove to be an idle boast, and so that you may stand ready, just as I said.

lest peradventure if they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, the boast that I made in this matter should be a shame to us: I say not unto you.

So it seemed to me wise for the brothers to go before, and see that the amount which you had undertaken to give was ready, so that it might be a cause for praise, and not as if we were making profit out of you.

For though I might take pride in our authority (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for your destruction), it will not be a cause of shame to me:

but this I do, and shall do, to make them drop their hire, who are so bent upon hire: and then indeed they will be as they pretend to be, like me.

Again I say, Let not any one think me to be a fool; but if otherwise, receive me then even as a fool, that I also may boast myself some little.

and I was let down in a rope-basket, by a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.

For though I would desire to glory, 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 seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.

For what is there wherein ye were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, - save that, I myself, would not allow myself to be a burden unto you? Forgive me this wrong!

Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be a burden to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

You will admit that I was not a burden to you but you say that I was "crafty" and caught you "by a trick"!

Test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are in the faith and living your lives as [committed] believers. Examine yourselves [not me]! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves [by an ongoing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit?

Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.

For the rest, brethren, rejoice; be perfected; be encouraged; be of one mind; be at peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

Salute each other by a holy kiss.