Montgomery - II Corinthians

Chapter 1

1:1  To the Church of God which is in Corinth, and to all the saints throughout Greece. from Paul, by God’s will an apostle of Christ, and from brother Timothy.

1:2  Grace to you and peace from God our Father in the Lord Jesus Christ.

1:3  Thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort,

1:4  who ever comforts me in all my troubles, so that I may be continually able to comfort those who are in any trouble by the comfort with which God is ever comforting me.

1:5  For just as I have more than my share in the sufferings of the Christ, so also through the Christ I have more than my share of comfort.

1:6  If I am afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if I am receiving comfort, it is for your comfort - a comfort produced within you by your patient fortitude, under the same sufferings which I also am enduring.

1:7  My hope for you is firm; for I know that as you are comrades in my sufferings, so also are you comrades in my comfort.

1:8  Now, brothers, I want you to know about the troubles which befell me in Asia; how I was burdened altogether beyond my strength, so that I renounced all hope even of life itself.

1:9  Indeed, I had in myself, and still have, the sentence of death, in order that I might not rely on myself, but on God who raises the dead to life.

1:10  He delivered me from such a death, and will deliver me. On him I have set my hopes that he will continue to deliver me,

1:11  while all of you also are helping me by your prayers; so that from many lips thanksgiving may rise on my behalf for the blessings vouchsafed to me through the intercessions of many.

1:12  For this is my proud boast, the testimony of my conscience, that it was in holiness and with pure motives before God, not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God, that I have conducted myself in the world, and above all in my relations with you.

1:13  For I am writing to you nothing different from what you read aloud and very well recognize, and I hope will continue to recognize to the very end,

1:14  as some indeed did recognize in part at last, that I am your cause of boasting, just as you will be mine on the Day of Jesus our Lord.

1:15  And in this confidence I intended to visit you, before going elsewhere, that you might have a pleasure twice over.

1:16  I intended to go by you into Macedonia, and to come again to you from Macedonia, and by you to be sent forward on my way to Judea.

1:17  In purposing this did I display "caprice"? Or what I purpose do I purpose in a worldly way,so that it may mean either "Yes, yes," or "No, no"?

1:18  As God is faithful, my message to you is not now "Yes," now "No."

1:19  For Jesus Christ, Son of God, who was proclaimed among you by us, that is, by Silvanus and Timothy and me, was not wavering between "Yes" and "No," but in him is the everlasting "Yes."

1:20  For however many are the promises of God, in him they are "Yes." Therefore also through him let the Amen be said by our voices to the glory of God.

1:21  And he who has established me with you in the Anointed One, and has anointed me, is God.

1:22  He has also set his seal upon me, and given me the pledge of his Spirit in my heart.

1:23  But for my part I call God to witness, as my soul shall answer for it, that it was to spare you that I came not to Corinth

1:24  (not that I am attempting to lord it over your faith, but rather to work with you for your happiness); for your faith is stedfast.

Chapter 2

2:1  I decided that I would not visit you again in grief;

2:2  for if I cause you grief, who is there to cause me joy except those whom I have grieved?

2:3  And for this very reason I wrote you, that I might not come only to be grieved by those who ought to give me joy; and because I trusted in you all, that my joy is the joy of all of you.

2:4  For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart, through many tears; not to pain you, but to convince you of my love, my abundant love for you.

2:5  As to him who has been, and now is, causing pain, it is not I whom he has pained, but all of you - at least some of you (not to overstate the case).

2:6  Sufficient for the offender is the punishment imposed by the majority;

2:7  so that now you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest he should be overwhelmed by the excess of his grief.

2:8  So I beg you to reinstate him in your love.

2:9  For this very purpose also I wrote you (before), that I might test you, to see if you were obedient in every respect.

2:10  If you forgive the man, I forgive him, too; for whatever I have forgiven has been forgiven in the presence of Christ,

2:11  for your sakes, that I may not be overreached by Satan, for I am not ignorant of his devices.

2:12  Now when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, although a door was opened to me in the Lord,

2:13  I could get no peace of mind because I failed to find Titus, my brother. So I bade them good-bye and started off for Macedonia.

2:14  But thanks be to God, who in every place is leading me in the train of Christ’s triumph, and is making manifest through me the knowledge of him, an odor of incense everywhere.

2:15  I am Christ’s fragrance upwafted unto God, among those who are being saved and those who are perishing;

2:16  to these latter an odor of death to death, to the former, of life to life. For such service as this, who is sufficient?

2:17  I am; for I am not like most, trafficking in the word of God, but rather from a sincere heart, like a man of God, I speak in Christ, in the very presence of God.

Chapter 3

3:1  Am I beginning again to "recommend" myself? Or do I need, as some do, letters of commendation either to you or from you?

3:2  You are my letter, written on my heart, known and read by all men.

3:3  Since all can see that you are a letter of Christ transcribed by men, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts as tablets.

3:4  Such confidence I have through Christ before God.

3:5  Not that I am sufficient in myself to reach any conclusion in my own wisdom; but my sufficiency is from God.

3:6  It is he who has also made me sufficient as a minister of a new covenant; not of a letter but of a spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit makes alive.

3:7  If, however, the administration of death, written with letters and engraved on stones, began in glory, so that the children of Israel could not gaze steadily on the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face - a glory even then fading -

3:8  how much more shall the ministry of the Spirit abide in glory?

3:9  For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, far more is the ministry of righteousness radiant in glory.

3:10  Indeed that which once was glorious has lost its glory, because of the glory which surpasses it.

3:11  For if that which was fading came in glory, far more will that which ever abides be glorious.

3:12  Therefore, cherishing such a hope, I use great freedom of speech.

3:13  I do not do as Moses did, who used to cover his face with a veil to keep the children of Israel from beholding the passing of a fading glory.

3:14  Nay, their minds were made dull; for to this very day, at the public reading of the Old Testament, the same veil rests thereon, because it is not revealed to them that in Christ the veil is taken away.

3:15  Yes, to this very day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their hearts;

3:16  but when their heart turns to our Lord the veil is stripped away.

3:17  (The Lord means the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord abides there is freedom.)

3:18  And we all, with unveiled faces, reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are ourselves continually being transformed into the same likeness, from glory to glory, as by the Lord, the Spirit.

Chapter 4

4:1  So then, as I have this ministry because of God’s mercy to me, I do not lose heart.

4:2  I have renounced the hidden things of shame, not spending my life in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of God; but setting forth the truth openly, I strive to commend myself to every man’s conscience as in the sight of God.

4:3  But even if my gospel, too, is "veiled," it is among those who are on the way to perish that it is "veiled."

4:4  Among them the god of this age has blinded the understanding of the unbelieving so that the sunshine of the gospel of God, should not dawn upon them.

4:5  It is not myself that I proclaim, but Christ Jesus as Master, and myself that I proclaim, and myself your slave for Jesus’ sake.

4:6  For God who said, "Out of darkness light shall shine," is he who has shone in my heart, that the sunrise of the knowledge of God may shine forth in the face of Christ.

4:7  But I hold this treasure in an earthen vessel, in order that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God, and not from myself.

4:8  On every side I am hard pressed, yet not hemmed in; perplexed, but not in despair;

4:9  persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

4:10  Wherever I go, I am always carrying about in my body the dying of Jesus, in order that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in this body of mine.

4:11  For, alive though I am, I am always given over to death for the sake of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may shine forth in my dying flesh.

4:12  So while death is working in me, life is working in you.

4:13  But having the same spirit of faith of which it is written, I believed, and therefore have spoken, I also believe and so I speak.

4:14  For I know that He who raised from the dead the Lord Jesus, will raise me also with Jesus, and set me at your side in his presence.

4:15  For everything is for your sakes, so that more abundant grace, because of the thanksgiving of many voices, might overflow to the glory of God.

4:16  For this reason, as I have said, I do not lose courage, but even though my outward man is wasting away, my inward man is being renewed, day by day.

4:17  For my light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working out for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,

4:18  while I am gazing not at things seen, but at things unseen; for things seen are temporal, but things unseen are eternal.

Chapter 5

5:1  For I know, if this earthly tent of mine were struck, I have a mansion built by God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

5:2  For in this tent I am groaning, earnestly longing to be under the cover of my heavenly habitation; if so be that being so covered,

5:3  I shall not be found naked.

5:4  For in this tent of mine I am groaning in deep trouble; not that I wish to be unclothed, but to be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up in life.

5:5  And He who has wrought me out for this very end is God, who has given me his Spirit as pledge.

5:6  Therefore I am always of good courage, because I well know that while I am at home in the body, I am in banishment from the Lord,

5:7  for I am walking by faith, not by sight.

5:8  So I have good courage, and am well pleased rather, to be in banishment from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

5:9  And for this reason I also make it home with the Lord.

5:10  For we must all be made manifest, in our true characters, before the Judgment-seat of Christ; so that each one may receive according to that which he has done in his body, whether good or evil.

5:11  So, because I know the fear of God, I "persuade men." What I am is manifest to God, and I hope manifest also to your conscience.

5:12  I am not "commending myself to you again," but I am giving you an occasion of boasting on my behalf, so that you may have an answer ready for those who boast in externals, and not in the heart.

5:13  For if I was "beside myself," it was to God; of if I am now "of sound mind," it is for you.

5:14  For the love of Christ overmasters me; because I thus judge that if One has died for all, then all have died;

5:15  and that he died for all in order that the living may live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again for them.

5:16  Therefore henceforth I know no one simply as a man - even if I have known Christ as a man, yet now I do so no longer.

5:17  So there is a new creation when any man is in Christ. The old life has passed away, behold, the new is come.

5:18  And all this is from God, who through Christ reconciled me to himself, and gave me the ministry of reconciliation;

5:19  how that God was in Christ reconciling a world to himself, not reckoning to men their trespasses; and that to me he has entrusted the message of that reconciliation.

5:20  On Christ’s behalf, then, I come as ambassador. It is as though God was entreating you, through me, on Christ’s behalf I beg you to be reconciled to God.

5:21  Him who knew no sin, in our behalf he has made to be sin; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Chapter 6

6:1  As a worker with him I beseech you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

6:2  For he said. In an acceptable time have I heard thee, And in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time! behold, now is the day of salvation!

6:3  I am giving no one a cause of stumbling in order that my ministry may not be discredited;

6:4  but in every way I am striving to commend myself as God’s minister by stedfast endurance, by afflictions, by troubles, by distresses,

6:5  by floggings, by imprisonment; in riots, in labors, in sleepless watching, in hunger and thirst;

6:6  with purity, understanding, patience, and kindness; by the Holy Spirit, by love sincere,

6:7  by a true teaching and an energy divine; by the weapons of righteousness, for attack or for defense,

6:8  amid honor or dishonor, amid evil report and good report; as a deceiver and yet true;

6:9  as unknown and yet well known; as at death’s door, yet, strange to tell, I live on; as chastened, but not killed;

6:10  as grieved, but always glad; as poor, but making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

6:11  O Corinthians, I am unsealing my lips to you; my heart is wide open to you.

6:12  There is no narrowness in my love; but the narrowness is in your own.

6:13  I pray you, therefore, in fair exchange (I speak as to my children), let your hearts also be wide open to me.

6:14  Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? what communion has light with darkness?

6:15  What concord has Christ with Belial? What portion has a believer with an unbeliever?

6:16  And what compact has God’s temple with idols? For we are a temple of the living God, as he has said. I will dwell among them, and walk about among them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.

6:17  Therefore, Come out from among them and separate yourselves, saith the Lord, touch not what is unclean;

6:18  then I will receive you and will be to you a Father, and you shall be to me sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Chapter 7

7:1  As these promises are ours, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, and perfect our holiness in the fear of God.

7:2  Make room for me in your hearts! I have wronged no man, I have ruined no man, I have defrauded no man.

7:3  I am not saying this to blame you, for as I have already said, I hold you in my heart to live together and to die together.

7:4  Great is my faith in you; great is my cheerful assurance in you. I am filled with comfort; in spite of all my troubles, my heart is overflowing with joy.

7:5  For even after I reached Macedonia, my flesh had no rest, but I was troubled on every hand. Without were fights; within were, fears.

7:6  But the God who comforts the down-hearted comforted me by the coming of Titus,

7:7  and not alone by his coming, but also by the comfort you had been to him. For he told me of your eager longing, of your penitence, and of your zeal on my behalf, so that I was happier still.

7:8  Even if I caused you pain by my letter, I do not regret; though I did regret it when I saw that my letter had caused you pain, even for a time.

7:9  But now I am glad; not because you were pained; but because your pain led you to repentance.

7:10  For your pain came from God, and so you took no harm from me. For the pain which is from God works repentance leading to salvation, a repentance never to be regretted. But the world’s pain works death.

7:11  Note the results of this pain which God permitted; what earnestness it has called forth in you, what explanations, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what fervor, what punishment of wrong. In every way you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

7:12  So then, even if I did write to you, it was not for the sake of the wrong-doer, or of him who had been wronged, but to make clear to yourselves in the sight of God your earnest care for me.

7:13  This is what comforts me. In addition to this comfort of mine, I have been made still happier by the happiness of Titus; because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

7:14  Although I have been boasting a little to him about you, I have not been put to shame. But as in every matter I have spoken the truth to you, so also my boast to Titus has been proved to be the truth.

7:15  And his tender affection is all the greater toward you, when he calls to mind the obedience of you all, and the fear and trembling with which you received him.

7:16  I rejoice that I have complete confidence in you.

Chapter 8

8:1  Now, brothers, I wish to tell you about the grace of God which has been manifest in the churches of Macedonia.

8:2  For although in heavy trial of affliction, their overbrimming happiness, even in spite of their deep poverty, abounded to the opulence of their unselfishness.

8:3  For I can testify that according to their ability, and even beyond their ability, of their own free will, too, they have given help.

8:4  With earnest entreaty they craved of me the privilege of a share in ministering to the saints in Jerusalem.

8:5  And this not as I had expected, but in accordance with the will of God, they first gave themselves to God and to me.

8:6  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.

8:7  Now then, as you excel in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and all zeal and in your love to me, see to it that you excel in this grace also.

8:8  I do not say this by way of command, but by the zeal of others I am trying to prove the reality of your love.

8:9  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.

8:10  And I will give you my opinion in this matter; for this offering is fitting in your case, considering that you made a beginning before others, not only in the willingness to do something but also in actually doing something a year ago.

8:11  So now complete the doing of it also, in order that just as there was the readiness to will, so there may be the accomplishment according to your means.

8:12  For if there be first willing mind, the gift is accepted according to what a man has, and not according to what he has not.

8:13  Nor are other people to be relieved, and you to be distressed;

8:14  but burdens are to be equalized. Now your abundance at this present time present time is a supply for their want, in supply for your want; and so burdens be equalized,

8:15  even as it is written, He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little did not lack.

8:16  But thanks be to God who has inspired in the heart of Titus the same zeal on your behalf that I have.

8:17  For he not only consented to my request, but being thoroughly in earnest, comes to you of his own accord.

8:18  And I am sending with him that brother whose fame in the service of the gospel is spread through all the churches.

8:19  More than that, he is the one chosen by the churches to accompany me on my journey, in administering this gift of yours for the Lord’s glory. And this has my full consent,

8:20  because I am on my guard in this, that no one should blame me, in respect to this bounty which I am administering.

8:21  For I aim at being above reproach, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

8:22  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.

8:23  As for Titus, remember that he is a partner of mine, and is also my associate in labors for you. As for the other brothers, remember that they are delegates from the churches, men in whom Christ is glorified.

8:24  So show to the churches an evidence of your love, and a justification to these brothers of my boasting about you.

Chapter 9

9:1  It is indeed unnecessary for me to write you in regard to the ministration to the saints at Jerusalem,

9:2  for I know how ready you are, and am always boasting about you to the Macedonians, telling them that Greece has been ready for a year past; and your zeal has been a spur to the majority of them.

9:3  Nevertheless I am sending the brothers in order that my boast about you may not prove vain in this instance; so that, as I kept saying, you may be prepared.

9:4  For if any Macedonians come with me and find you not ready, shame would come upon me (not to speak of you) in respect to this confidence.

9:5  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.

9:6  Mark this; he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

9:7  But let each give according to the purpose of his heart; not grudgingly of under compulsion. It is a cheerful giver that God loves.

9:8  And God is able to give you an overflowing measure of every grace, so that all your wants of every kind may be supplied at all times, and you may give of your abundance to every good work;

9:9  As it is written. He scattered broadcast, he gave to the poor; His almsgiving continues forever.

9:10  He who ever supplies seed to the sower, and bread for the food of man, will supply and make plentous your seed, and increase the harvest springing up from your almsgiving.

9:11  You yourselves will be enriched with all good things, that you may give ungrudgingly; and your gifts, of which I am the agent, will make men give thanks to God.

9:12  Because the ministry of this contribution not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also overflows in many a thanksgiving to God.

9:13  For this ministration proves you. On account of it men glorify God for your faithfulness to your professions of the gospel of Christ, and for the liberality of your gifts to them and to all.

9:14  Moreover, in their prayers for you they will be longing after you, because of the exceeding grace of God that is resting upon you.

9:15  THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS UNSPEAKABLE GIFT!

Chapter 10

10:1  Now I Paul, myself, appeal to you by the humble-heartedness and selflessness of Christ - Paul who "in your presence is humble, but bold enough when he is absent" -

10:2  I beseech you, and I say, do not make me show my boldness, when I come in the boldness with which I think I shall show my courage against some who think that I am walking on the low level of the flesh.

10:3  Though I do walk on the low level of the flesh, I do not make war as the flesh does;

10:4  for the weapons of my warfare are not weapons of the flesh, but mighty for God, in pulling down all fortresses.

10:5  For I pull down imaginations and every crag that lifts itself against the knowledge of God. And I carry every thought away into captivity and subjection to Christ;

10:6  and I am fully prepared to punish every act of disobedience, when once your submission has been put beyond question.

10:7  Look these facts in the face. If any man is fully persuaded as regards himself that he belongs to Christ, let him consider again with himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also am I.

10:8  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.

10:9  Let it not seem as if I were overawing you with my letters.

10:10  "His letters indeed," says one, "are mighty and forcible, but his personality is weak, and his speech contemptible."

10:11  Let such a man assure himself that my actions, when I am present, will be just like my words in my letters when I am absent.

10:12  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.

10:13  I, however, will not indulge in undue boasting, but will confine it within the limits of the sphere to which God has assigned me - a sphere which reaches even to you.

10:14  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.

10:15  I am not "boasting beyond measure in the labors of others," but it is my hope that, as your faith goes on increasing among yourselves, by the enlargement of my appointed limits,

10:16  I may carry the gospel to countries beyond you; and not be boasting of work made ready to my hand within another man’s limit.

10:17  Meanwhile. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

10:18  For a man is proved worthy, not by his self-commendation, but when he is commended by the Lord.

Chapter 11

11:1  Would that you could put up with a little "folly" from me! Nay, do bear with me.

11:2  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.

11:3  But I fear lest, just as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, so your minds should be seduced from your single-mindedness and purity toward Christ.

11:4  If indeed some one is coming to preach another Jesus, whom I did not preach, or you are receiving a Spirit other than you once received, or another gospel which you did not accept before, you would do well to bear with me.

11:5  For I reckon that I am in no respect behind your superapostolic apostles.

11:6  Yes, though I be unskilled in speech, at least I am not in knowledge; indeed I made this perfectly plain to you in all things and among all men.

11:7  Is it a sin, forsooth, that I humbled myself that you might be exalted, in preaching the gospel to you free of cost?

11:8  Other churches I spoiled, and took their wages to do you service.

11:9  Even when I lacked the actual necessities of life while I was with you, I was a burden to no one; for whatever I lacked, the brothers from Macedonia supplied, when they came. So I kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.

11:10  As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine shall not be stopped within the boundaries of Greece!

11:11  And why? Because I love you not? God knows I do.

11:12  I am doing and will continue to do this in order to cut away the ground from under those who wish some cause for slander; and that the ground of their boasting may appear as does mine.

11:13  For such fellows are sham apostles of Christ.

11:14  No wonder! for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.

11:15  It is no great marvel, then, if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.

11:16  I say again, let no one think me a fool. Or, if you must, at least bear with me as a fool, that I, too, may do a little boasting.

11:17  What I am about to say I am not speaking by the Lord’s command, but as it were in pure folly, in this boldness of boasting.

11:18  Since so many are making worldly boasts, I shall boast, too!

11:19  Although you are wise, you put up with fools willingly enough!

11:20  You put up with it, though they make slaves of you, live on you, seize your property, lord it over you, even strike you in the face, in the way of degradation!

11:21  I say that I was weak, and yet for whatever reason any one is bold (I speak in mere folly) I too am bold.

11:22  Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they descendants of Israel? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

11:23  Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as though I were beside myself), such, far, more, am I; in labors more abundant, in imprisonments also more abundant, in floggings beyond measure, in deaths often.

11:24  Five times at the hands of the Jews, I have received one short of forty lashes.

11:25  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.

11:26  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;

11:27  in toil and weariness, often in sleepless watching, in hunger and thirst, often without anything to eat; in cold and in nakedness.

11:28  Not to mention other things, there is the crowding pressure of each day upon me, the care of all the churches.

11:29  Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, but I burn with indignation?

11:30  If boast I must, it shall be concerning my weakness.

11:31  The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am telling the truth.

11:32  In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the King, kept guard over the city of the Damascus, to arrest me;

11:33  but through an opening in the wall I was let down in a basket, and so escaped and out of his hands.

Chapter 12

12:1  I am forced to boast, though it is unprofitable, but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. ;18 I urged Titus to go, and with him I sent our brother. Did Titus make gain of you? And did I not walk in the same spirit as he did? Did I not take the very same steps?

12:2  I know a Christian man who, fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body, I know not. God knows), was caught up- -this man of whom I speak - even into the third heaven.

12:3  And I know such a man (whether in the body or apart from the body I know not, God knows),

12:4  who was caught up into Paradise, and heard unutterable words which no human being is permitted to utter.

12:5  Of such a one I will boast; but on my own behalf I will not boast except in my weaknesses.

12:6  If I should choose to continue boasting I should not be foolish, for I should be speaking the truth. But I refrain, lest by the stupendous grandeur of the revelation any one should estimate me beyond what he sees in me, or hears from me.

12:7  It was for this reason, lest I should be over-elated, that there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me, lest I should be over-elated.

12:8  Concerning this, three times over I supplicated the Lord that it might leave me;

12:9  but he has answered me. "My grace is sufficient for you; it is in weakness that my power is perfected."

12:10  Most gladly therefore will I boast rather of my weakness, that over me like a tent may be pitched the power of Christ. That is why I rejoice in weakness, in ill-treatment, in troubles, in persecutions and calamities for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.

12:11  I am become a fool - you have forced me to; for you yourselves ought to have been my vindicators. In no respect am I inferior to these superapostolic apostles, even though I am nothing.

12:12  In truth the signs of the true apostle were wrought among you in all patience by signs and marvels and powers.

12:13  In what respect, then, were you inferior to the other churches, except that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!

12:14  And now for the third time I am preparing to visit you. I will not be a burden to you, for I am not seeking yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

12:15  For my part, I will most gladly spend, yea, and will myself be spent, for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I to be loved the less?

12:16  But though it be granted that I was not a burden to you, yet, you say, this was my cunning with which I caught you by a trick.

12:17  Did I make gain of you through any of those whom I sent to you?

12:19  Do you think that all this time I am defending myself to you? It is before the presence of God that I am speaking in Christ; and all, beloved, for your upbuilding.

12:20  For I dread that perhaps, when I come, I may not find you to be such as I wish, and that I may be found by you such as you do not wish; I dread lest there should be quarrels, jealousy, tempers, party spirit, slandering, gossip, arrogance, tumults;

12:21  and lest when I come again my God may humble me before you, and lest I shall mourn for many those who have sinned before, and have not repented of the impurity and immorality and wantonness which they have practised.

Chapter 13

13:1  This will be my third visit to you. Out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be confirmed.

13:2  I have said formerly, and I now forewarn you as when I was present the second time, so now when I am absent the second time, so now when I am absent, saying to those who had sinned before, and to all the rest, "If I come again, I will not spare,"

13:3  Since you want a proof of Christ who is speaking in me, he who is not feeble toward you, but powerful among you.

13:4  For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he now lives through the power of God. I also am weak, sharing in his weakness, but I shall live with him by the power of God.

13:5  Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith; put your own selves to the proof. Or do you not know, your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to abide the proof?

13:6  But I hope you will find that I abide the proof.

13:7  And my prayer to God is that you may do no evil; not in order that I may appear approved, but that you may do what is noble, though I should seem unable to abide the proof.

13:8  For I have no power against the truth, but only in defense of the truth.

13:9  For I am always glad whenever I am weak, but you are strong. For this also I am praying, for your perfect reformation.

13:10  For this reason I am writing thus while absent, so that when I come, I may not have to deal sharply, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for pulling down.

13:11  Finally, brothers, farewell. Aim at perfection, take courage, be of one mind, live in peace; so shall the God of love and peace be with you.

13:12  Salute one another with a holy kiss.

13:13  All the saints salute you.

13:14  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.