The Concordant Version

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, through the will of God, and brother Timothy, to the ecclesia of God which is in Corinth, together with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
² Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
³ Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of pities and God of all consolation,
⁴ Who is consoling us in our every affliction to enable us to be consoling those in every affliction, through the consolation with which we ourselves are being consoled by God,
⁵ seeing that, according as the sufferings of Christ are superabounding in us, thus, through Christ, our consolation also is superabounding.
⁶ Now, whether we are being afflicted for your consolation and salvation, or whether we are being consoled for your consolation, which is operating in the endurance of the same sufferings which we also are suffering,
⁷ our expectation, also, is confirmed over you, being aware that, as you are participants of the sufferings, thus of the consolation also.
⁸ For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which came to us in the province of Asia, that we were inordinately burdened, over our ability, so that we were despairing of life also.
⁹ But we have the rescript of death in ourselves, that we may be having no confidence in ourselves, but in God, Who rouses the dead,
¹⁰ Who rescues us from a death of such proportions, and will be rescuing; on Whom we rely that He will still be rescuing also;
¹¹ you also assisting together by a petition for us, in order that, from many faces He may be thanked by many for us for the gracious gift given to us.
¹² For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom, but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, yet more superabundantly toward you.
¹³ For no other things are we writing to you than what you are reading or recognizing also. Now I am expecting that you will recognize ultimately,
¹⁴ according as you also recognized us in part, for we are your glorying (even as you also are ours) in the day of our Lord Jesus.
¹⁵ And in this confidence I intended formerly to come to you, that you should be having a second grace,
¹⁶ and through you to pass through into Macedonia, and to come again from Macedonia to you, and by you to be sent forward into Judea.
¹⁷ Intending this, then, consequently do I not use lightness? Or what I am planning, am I planning according to the flesh, that it may be with me "Yes, yes," and "No, no"?
¹⁸ Now God is faithful, for our word toward you is not "Yes" and "No,"
¹⁹ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who is being heralded among you through us -- through me and Silvanus and Timothy -- became not "Yes" and "No," but in Him has become "Yes."
²⁰ For whatever promises are of God, are in Him "Yes." Wherefore through Him also is the "Amen" to God, for glory, through us.
²¹ Now He Who is confirming us together with you in Christ, and anoints us, is God,
²² Who also seals us and is giving the earnest of the spirit in our hearts.
²³ Now I am invoking God as a witness on my soul, that to spare you, I came no longer to Corinth.
²⁴ Not that we are lording it over your faith, but are fellow workers of your joy, for you stand fast in the faith.

¹ Now I decide this with myself, not again to be coming to you in sorrow.
² For if I am making you sorry, who also, is gladdening me, except he who is made sorry by me?
³ And I write this same thing to you, lest, coming, I may have sorrow from those on whom it was binding to be causing me to rejoice; having confidence in you all,
⁴ for my joy is that of you all. For out of much affliction and pressure of heart I write to you, through many tears, not that you may be made sorrowful, but that you may know the love which I have for you more superabundantly.
⁵ Now if anyone has caused sorrow, he has not made me sorry, but in part (lest I may be burdening), you all.
⁶ Enough to such is this rebuke, which is by the majority.
⁷ So that, on the contrary, you are rather to deal graciously and console, lest somehow such may be swallowed up by the more excessive sorrow.
⁸ Wherefore I am entreating you to ratify your love to him.
⁹ For I write also for this, that I may know your testedness, if you are obedient in all things.
¹⁰ Now, with whom you are dealing graciously in anything, I, also. For in what I also have dealt graciously (if I have dealt graciously in anything), it is because of you in the face of Christ,
¹¹ lest we may be overreached by Satan, for we are not ignorant of the things he apprehends.
¹² Now, on coming to Troas for the evangel of Christ, and a door being open for me in the Lord,
¹³ I have no ease in my spirit at my not finding Titus, my brother, but taking leave of them, I came away into Macedonia.
¹⁴ Now thanks be to God, Who always gives us a triumph in Christ, and is manifesting the odor of His knowledge through us in every place,
¹⁵ for we are a fragrance of Christ to God, in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:
¹⁶ to these, indeed, an odor of death for death, yet to those an odor of life for life. And for this who is competent?
¹⁷ For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking.

¹ Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or need we not, even as some, commendatory letters to you or from you?
² You are our letter, engraven in our hearts, known and read by all men,
³ for you are manifesting a letter of Christ, dispensed by us, and engraven, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets, but on the fleshy tablets of the heart.
⁴ Now such is the confidence we have through Christ toward God
⁵ (not that we are competent of ourselves, to reckon anything as of ourselves, but our competency is of God),
⁶ Who also makes us competent dispensers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit, for the letter is killing, yet the spirit is vivifying.
⁷ (Now if the dispensation of death, by letters chiseled in stone, came in glory, so that the sons of Israel were not able to look intently into the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face, which was being nullified,
⁸ how shall not rather the dispensation of the spirit be in glory?
⁹ For if in the dispensation of condemnation is glory, much rather the dispensation of righteousness is exceeding in glory.
¹⁰ For that also which has been glorified has not been glorified in this particular, on account of the glory transcendent.
¹¹ For if that which is being nullified was nullified through glory, much rather that which is remaining, remains in glory.
¹² Having, then, such an expectation, we are using much boldness,
¹³ and are not even as Moses. He placed a covering over his face, so that the sons of Israel were not to look intently to the consummation of that which is being nullified.
¹⁴ But their apprehensions were calloused, for until this very day the same covering is remaining at the reading of the old covenant, not being uncovered.
¹⁵ for only in Christ is it being nullified. But till today, if ever the reading of Moses should be reached, a covering is lying on their heart.
¹⁶ Yet if ever it should reach a turning back to the Lord, the covering is taken from about it.)
¹⁷ Now the Lord is the spirit; yet where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
¹⁸ Now we all, with uncovered face, mirroring the Lord's glory, are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the spirit.

¹ Therefore, having this dispensation, according as we were shown mercy, we are not despondent.
² But we spurn the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor yet adulterating the word of God, but, by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in God's sight.
³ Now, if our evangel is covered, also, it is covered in those who are perishing,
⁴ in whom the god of this eon blinds the apprehensions of the unbelieving so that the illumination of the evangel of the glory of Christ, Who is the Image of the invisible God, does not irradiate them.
⁵ For we are not heralding ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, yet ourselves your slaves because of Jesus,
⁶ for the God Who says that, out of darkness light shall be shining, is He Who shines in our hearts, with a view to the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
⁷ Now we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the transcendence of the power may be of God and not of us.
⁸ In everything, being afflicted, but not distressed; perplexed, but not despairing;
⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not perishing --
¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the deadening of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
¹¹ For we who are living are ever being given up to death because of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
¹² So that death is operating in us, yet life in you.
¹³ Now having the same spirit of faith, in accord with what is written, "I believe, wherefore I speak also," we also are believing, wherefore we are speaking also,
¹⁴ being aware that He Who rouses the Lord Jesus will be rousing us also, through Jesus, and will be presenting us together with you.
¹⁵ For all is because of you, that the grace, increasing through the majority, should be superabounding in thanksgiving to the glory of God.
¹⁶ Wherefore we are not despondent, but even if our outward man is decaying, nevertheless that within us is being renewed day by day.
¹⁷ For the momentary lightness of our affliction is producing for us a transcendently transcendent eonian burden of glory,
¹⁸ at our not noting what is being observed, but what is not being observed, for what is being observed is temporary, yet what is not being observed is eonian.

¹ For we are aware that, if our terrestrial tabernacle house should be demolished, we have a building of God, a house not made by hands, eonian, in the heavens.
² For in this also we are groaning, longing to be dressed in our habitation which is out of heaven,
³ if so be that, being dressed also, we shall not be found naked.
⁴ For we also, who are in the tabernacle, are groaning, being burdened, on which we are not wanting to be stripped, but to be dressed, that the mortal may be swallowed up by life.
⁵ Now He Who produces us for this same longing is God, Who is also giving us the earnest of the spirit.
⁶ Being, then, courageous always, and aware that, being at home in the body, we are away from home from the Lord
⁷ (for by faith are we walking, not by perception),
⁸ yet we are encouraged, and are delighting rather to be away from home out of the body and to be at home with the Lord.
⁹ Wherefore we are ambitious also, whether at home or away from home, to be well pleasing to Him.
¹⁰ For all of us must be manifested in front of the dais of Christ, that each should be requited for that which he puts into practice through the body, whether good or bad.
¹¹ Being aware, then, of the fear of the Lord, we are persuading men, yet we are manifest to God. Now I am expecting to be manifest in your consciences also.
¹² Not again are we commending ourselves to you, but are giving an incentive to you by boasting over you, that you may have it for those who are boasting in personal appearance and not in heart.
¹³ For, whether we were beside ourselves, it is to God, whether we are sane, it is to you.
¹⁴ For the love of Christ is constraining us, judging this, that, if One died for the sake of all, consequently all died.
¹⁵ And He died for the sake of all that those who are living should by no means still be living to themselves, but to the One dying and being roused for their sakes.
¹⁶ So that we, from now on, are acquainted with no one according to flesh. Yet even if we have known Christ according to flesh, nevertheless now we know Him so no longer.
¹⁷ So that, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the primitive passed by. Lo! there has come new!
¹⁸ Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation,
¹⁹ how that God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them, and placing in us the word of the conciliation.
²⁰ For Christ, then, are we ambassadors, as of God entreating through us. We are beseeching for Christ's sake, "Be conciliated to God!"
²¹ For the One not knowing sin, He makes to be a sin offering for our sakes that we may be becoming God's righteousness in Him.

¹ Now, working together, we are also entreating you not to receive the grace of God for naught.
² For He is saying, "In a season acceptable I reply to you, And in a day of salvation I help you." Lo! Now is a most acceptable era! Lo! Now is a day of salvation!
³ We are giving no one cause to stumble in anything, lest flaws be found with the service,
⁴ but in everything we are commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
⁵ in blows, in jails, in turbulences, in toil, in vigils, in fasts,
⁶ in pureness, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in holy spirit, in love unfeigned,
⁷ in the word of truth, in the power of God, through the implements of righteousness of the right hand and of the left,
⁸ through glory and dishonor, through defamation and renown, as deceivers and true,
⁹ as unknown and recognized, as dying, and lo! we are living, as disciplined and not put to death,
¹⁰ as sorrowing, yet ever rejoicing, as poor, yet enriching many, as having nothing, and retaining all.
¹¹ Our mouth is open toward you, Corinthians: Has your heart broadened?
¹² Not distressed are you in us, yet you are distressed in your compassions. 13 Now, as a recompense in kind (as to children am I saying this), you also be broadened!
¹⁴ Do not become diversely yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or what communion has light with darkness?
¹⁵ Now what agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what part a believer with an unbeliever?
¹⁶ Now what concurrence has a temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, according as God said, that I will be making My home and will be walking in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
¹⁷ Wherefore, Come out of their midst and be severed, the Lord is saying. And touch not the unclean, and I will admit you,
¹⁸ and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.

¹ Having, then, these promises, beloved, we should be cleansing ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, completing holiness in the fear of God.
² Make room for us. We injure no one; we corrupt no one; we overreach no one.
³ I am not saying this with a view to condemnation, for I have declared before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together.
⁴ Much is my boldness toward you; much is my boasting over you, I am filled full with consolation,
⁵ I am superexceeding in joy in all our affliction. For even at our coming into Macedonia, our flesh has no ease, but we are afflicted in everything: outside fightings; inside fears.
⁶ But God, Who is consoling the humble, consoles us by the presence of Titus,
⁷ yet not only by his presence, but by the consolation also with which he was consoled over you, informing us of your longing, your anguish, your zeal for my sake; so that I rather rejoice that,
⁸ even if I make you sorry by an epistle, I am not regretting it, even if I did regret. For I am observing that that epistle makes you sorry, even if it is for an hour.
⁹ Now I am rejoicing, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry according to God, that in nothing you may suffer forfeit by us.
¹⁰ For sorrow according to God is producing repentance for unregretted salvation, yet the sorrow of the world is producing death.
¹¹ For lo! this same thing-for you to made sorry according to God -- how much it produces in you of diligence, nay, defense, nay, resentment, nay, fear, nay, longing, nay, zeal, nay, avenging! In everything you commend yourselves to be pure in this matter.
¹² Consequently, even if I write to you, it is not on account of the one who injures, but neither on account of the one being injured, but on account of manifesting to you your diligence for our sake in God's sight.
¹³ Therefore we are consoled, yet in our consolation we rather rejoiced more exceedingly in the joy of Titus, for his spirit has been soothed by you all,
¹⁴ for, if I have boasted any to him over you, I was not disgraced, but as we speak all in truth to you, thus also our boasting before Titus came to be truth.
¹⁵ And his compassions for you are superabundantly more, having a recollection of the obedience of you all, as, with fear and trembling, you receive him.
¹⁶ I am rejoicing that in everything I am encouraged in you.

¹ Now we are making known to you, brethren, the grace of God which has been bestowed in the ecclesias of Macedonia,
² for, in a test of much affliction, the superabundance of their joy and the corresponding depth of their poverty superabounds to the riches of their generosity,
³ for, according to their ability, I am testifying, and beyond their ability, of their own accord,
⁴ with much entreaty beseeching of us the grace and the fellowship of the service for the saints;
⁵ and not according as we expect, but themselves they give first to the Lord, and to us through the will of God.
⁶ So that we entreat Titus that, according as he undertakes before, thus also should he be completing in you this grace also.
⁷ But, even as you are superabounding in everything -- in faith and word and knowledge and all diligence and the love that flows out of you into us -- that you may be superabounding in this grace also.
⁸ I am not saying this as an injunction, but, through the diligence of others, testing also the genuineness of this love of yours.
⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, being rich, because of you He became poor, that you, by His poverty, should be rich.
¹⁰ And in this I am giving an opinion, for this is expedient for you, who, for a year past, undertake before, not only the doing but the willing also.
¹¹ Yet now complete the doing also, so that, even as the eagerness to will, thus also may be the completion, out of what you have.
¹² For if eagerness lies before, it is most acceptable according to whatever one may have, not according to what he has not.
¹³ For it is not, that, to others ease, yet to you affliction,
¹⁴ but by an equality, in the current occasion, your superabundance is for their want, that their superabundance also may be coming to be for your want, so that there may be coming to be an equality,
¹⁵ According as it is written: the one with much increases not, and the one with few lessens not.
¹⁶ Now thanks be to God, Who is imparting the same diligence for you to the heart of Titus,
¹⁷ for he, indeed, receives the entreaty, yet being inherenty more diligent, of his own accord he came out to you.
¹⁸ Now we send together with him the brother whose applause in the evangel is through all the ecclesias,
¹⁹ yet not only so, but who was selected also by the ecclesias to be our fellow traveler with this grace which is being dispensed by us to the glory of the Lord Himself; our eagerness,
²⁰ also, putting this so that no one should find flaws in us in this exuberance which is being dispensed by us,
²¹ for we are providing the ideal, not only in the sight of the Lord, but in the sight of men also.
²² Now we send together with them our brother, whom we test in many things, often, being diligent, yet now much more diligent, yet with much confidence in you,
²³ whether for the sake of Titus, my mate and fellow worker for you, or our brethren, the apostles of the ecclesias, the glory of Christ.
²⁴ Then the display of your love and our boasting over you to them is being displayed in the face of the ecclesias.

¹ For, indeed, concerning the dispensation for the saints, it is superfluous for me to be writing to you.
² For I am aware of your eagerness, of which I am boasting over you to the Macedonians, that "Achaia has been prepared a year past." And your zeal provokes the majority.
³ Yet I send the brethren, lest our boasting over you may be made void in this particular, that you may be prepared according as I said,
⁴ lest somehow, if the Macedonians should be coming together with me and finding you unprepared, we may be disgraced (not that we should say you!) in this assumption of boasting.
⁵ I deem it necessary, then, to entreat the brethren that they may be coming before to you and should be adjusting beforehand your bounty as promised before. This to be ready thus, as a bounty and not as greed,
⁶ yet as this: who is sowing sparingly, sparingly shall be reaping also, and who is sowing bountifully, bountifully shall be reaping also,
⁷ each according as he has proposed in his heart, not sorrowfully, nor of compulsion, for the gleeful giver is loved by God.
⁸ Now God is able to lavish all grace on you, that, having all contentment in everything always, you may be superabounding in every good work,
⁹ according as it is written, He scatters, He gives to the drudges, His righteousness remains for the eon.
¹⁰ Now may He Who is supplying seed to the sower, and bread for food, be furnishing and multiplying your seed and be making the product of your righteousness grow,
¹¹ being enriched in everything, for all the generosity, which is producing through us thanksgiving to God,
¹² for the dispensation of this ministry not only is replenishing the wants of the saints, but is superabounding also through much thanksgiving, to God,
¹³ through the testedness of this dispensation, glorifying God at the subjection of your avowal to the evangel of Christ, and in the generosity of the contribution for them and for all,
¹⁴ and in their petition for you, longing to be acquainted with you, because of the transcendent grace of God on you.
¹⁵ Now thanks be to God for His indescribable gratuity!

¹ Now I, Paul, myself am entreating you, through the meekness and leniency of Christ, who, as to personal appearance, indeed, am humble among you, yet, being absent, have courage toward you. ² Yet I am beseeching, that I may not, being present, have to have courage with the confidence with which I am reckoning to dare any who reckon us as walking according to the flesh, ³ For, walking in flesh, we are not warring according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful to God toward the pulling down of bulwarks; ⁵ pulling down reckonings and every height elevating itself against the knowledge of God, and leading into captivity every apprehension into the obedience of Christ, ⁶ and having all in readiness to avenge every disobedience, whenever your obedience may be completed. ⁷ Are you looking at that on the surface? If anyone is presuming to have confidence in himself to be Christ's, let him be reckoning this again with himself, that, according as he is Christ's, thus also are we. ⁸ For if ever I, besides, should also be boasting somewhat more excessively concerning our authority (which the Lord gives us for building you up and not for pulling you down), ⁹ lest I should seem as ever terrifying you through epistles, ¹⁰ seeing that he is averring, "His epistles, indeed, are weighty and strong, yet his bodily presence is weak and his expression to be scorned." ¹¹ Let such a one be reckoning this, that such as we are in word, through epistles, being absent, such also, being present, are we in act. ¹² For we are not daring to judge ourselves by, or compare ourselves with, some who are commending themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, do not understand. ¹³ Now we shall not be boasting immeasurably, but according to the measure of our range -- which measure God parts to us -- to reach on as far as you also ¹⁴ (for it is not as though, not reaching on to you, we are overstretching ourselves, for we outstrip others even as far as you in the evangel of Christ), ¹⁵ not boasting immeasurably in others' toils, yet having the expectation, your faith growing, to be magnified among you superabundantly, ¹⁶ according to our range, so as to bring the evangel beyond you, not to boast in another's range over that which is ready. ¹⁷ Now he who is boasting, in the Lord let him be boasting. ¹⁸ For not he who is commending himself is qualified, but whom the Lord is commending.

¹ Would that you had borne with any little imprudence of mine! Nay, and be bearing with me, ² for I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God. For I betroth you to one Man, to present a chaste virgin to Christ. ³ Yet I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deludes Eve by its craftiness, your apprehensions should be corrupted from the singleness and pureness which is in Christ. ⁴ For if, indeed, he who is coming is heralding another Jesus whom we do not herald, or you are obtaining a different spirit, which you did not obtain, or a different evangel, which you do not receive, you are bearing with him ideally. ⁵ For I am reckoning to be deficient in nothing pertaining to the paramount apostles. ⁶ Yet even if I am plain in expression, nevertheless I am not in knowledge, but in everything being made manifest in all for you. ⁷ Or do I sin in humbling myself that you may be exalted, seeing that I bring the evangel of God to you gratuitously? ⁸ Other ecclesias I despoil, getting rations for dispensing to you. ⁹ And, being present with you and in want, I am not an encumberance to anyone (for the brethren coming from Macedonia replenish my wants), and in everything I keep and shall be keeping myself that I be not burdensome to you. ¹⁰ The truth of Christ is in me, for this boasting shall not be barred from me in the regions of Achaia. ¹¹ Wherefore? Seeing that I am not loving you? God is aware! ¹² Now what I am doing and will be doing is that I should strike off the incentive from those wanting an incentive, that in what they are boasting they may be found according as we also. ¹³ For such are false apostles, fraudulent workers, being transfigured into apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no marvel, for Satan himself is being transfigured into a messenger of light. ¹⁵ It is no great thing, then, if his servants also are being transfigured as dispensers of righteousness -- whose consummation shall be according to their acts. ¹⁶ Again I am saying, no one should presume me to be imprudent. Otherwise surely, even if it should be as imprudent, receive me, that I also should boast some little! ¹⁷ What I speak, I am not speaking in accord with the Lord, but as in imprudence, in this assumption of boasting. ¹⁸ Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I also shall be boasting. ¹⁹ For with relish are you bearing with the imprudent, being prudent. ²⁰ For you are bearing with it if anyone is enslaving you, if anyone is devouring, if anyone is obtaining, if anyone is elevating himself, if anyone is lashing you in the face. ²¹ By way of dishonor am I saying this, as that we are weakened. Now in whatever anyone is daring (in imprudence am I saying it), I also am daring. ²² Hebrews are they? I also! Israelites are they? I also! The seed of Abraham are they? I also! ²³ Servants of Christ are they? (Being insane, I am speaking.) Above them am I! In weariness more exceedingly, in jails more exceedingly, in blows inordinatley, in deaths often. ²⁴ By Jews five times I got forty save one. ²⁵ Thrice am I flogged with rods, once am I stoned, thrice am I shipwrecked, a night and a day have I spent in a swamp, ²⁶ in journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers of my race, in dangers of the nations, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brethren; 27 in toil and labor, in vigils often, in famine and thirst, in fasts often, in cold and nakedness; ²⁸ apart from what is outside, that which is coming upon me daily, the solicitude for all the ecclesias. ²⁹ Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is snared and I am not on fire? ³⁰ If I must boast, I will be boasting in that which is of my weakness. ³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, Who is blessed for the eons, is aware that I am not lying. ³² In Damascus the ethnarch of Aretas, the king, garrisoned the city of the Damascenes, wanting to arrest me, ³³ and I am lowered in a wicker basket through a window through the wall, and escaped his hands.

¹ If boasting must be, though it is not expedient, indeed, yet I shall also be coming to apparitions and revelations of the Lord. ² I am acquainted with a man in Christ, fourteen years before this, (whether in a body I am not aware, or outside of the body, I am not aware -- God is aware) such a one was snatched away to the third heaven. ³ And I am acquainted with such a man (whether in a body or outside of the body I am not aware -- God is aware) ⁴ that he was snatched away into paradise and hears ineffable declarations, which it is not allowed a man to speak. ⁵ Over such a one I shall be boasting; yet over myself I shall not be boasting, except in my infirmities. ⁶ For, if ever I should be wanting to boast, I shall not be imprudent, for I shall be declaring the truth. Yet I am reticent. No one should be reckoning me to be above what he is observing of me or anything he is hearing of me. ⁷ Wherefore also, lest I should be lifted up by the transcendence of the revelations, there was given to me a splinter in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that he may be buffeting me, lest I may be lifted up. ⁸ For this I entreat the Lord thrice, that it should withdraw from me. ⁹ And He has protested to me, "Sufficient for you is My grace, for My power in infirmity is being perfected." With the greatest relish, then, will I rather be glorying in my infirmities, that the power of Christ should be tabernacling over me. ¹⁰ Wherefore I delight in infirmities, in outrages, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for, whenever I may be weak, then I am powerful. ¹¹ I have become imprudent; you compel me. For I ought to be commended by you, for I am not deficient in anything pertaining to the paramount apostles, even if I am nothing. ¹² Indeed, the signs of an apostle are produced among you in all endurance, besides in signs and miracles and powerful deeds. ¹³ For is there anything in which you were discomfited above the rest of the ecclesias, except that I myself am not an encumbrance to you? Deal graciously with me for this injustice! ¹⁴ Lo! this third time I hold myself ready to come to you and I shall not be an encumberance, for I am not seeking yours but you. For the children ought not to be hoarding for the parents, but the parents for the children. ¹⁵ Yet with the greatest relish shall I spend and be bankrupted for the sake of your souls, even if loving you more exceedingly diminishes your love for me. ¹⁶ Now, let be, I do not overburden you, but, being inherently crafty, I got you by guile! ¹⁷ Did not anyone of those whom I have dispatched to you? Through him do I overreach you? ¹⁸ I entreat Titus, and dispatch together with him a brother. Does Titus not overreach you? Walk we not in the same spirit? Not in the same footprints? ¹⁹ Again, you are presuming that we are defending ourselves to you. Facing God, in Christ, are we speaking, yet all, beloved, for the sake of your edification. ²⁰ For I fear, lest somehow, on coming, I may not be finding you such as I want, and I may be found by you such as you do not want; lest somehow there be strife, jealousy, fury, factions, vilifications, whisperings, puffing up, turbulences. ²¹ Not again at my coming will my God be humbling me toward you, and I shall be mourning for many who have sinned before and are not repenting of the uncleanness and prostitution and wantonness which they commit.

¹ Lo! This is the third time I am coming to you. At the mouth of two witnesses, and three, shall every declaration be made to stand. ² I have declared before, and am predicting as when being present the second time, and now, being absent, to those having sinned before and to all the rest, that if I should be coming again, I shall not spare, ³ since you are seeking a test of Christ speaking in me, Who is not weak for you, but powerful among you. ⁴ For even if He was crucified out of weakness, nevertheless He is living by the power of God. For we also are weak together with Him, but we shall be living together with Him by the power of God for you. ⁵ Try yourselves, if you are in the faith; test yourselves. Or are you not recognizing yourselves that Christ Jesus is in you, except you are somewhat disqualified? ⁶ Now I am expecting that you will know that we are not disqualified! ⁷ Now we are wishing to God that you do not do anything evil, not that we may be appearing qualified, but that you may be doing that which is ideal, yet we may be as disqualified. ⁸ For we are not able for anything against the truth, but for the sake of the truth. ⁹ For we are rejoicing whenever we may be weak, yet you may be powerful. Now this are we wishing also: your adjustment. ¹⁰ Therefore I am writing these things, being absent, that, being present, I should not be using severity, according to the authority which the Lord gives me for building up and not for pulling down. ¹¹ Furthermore, brethren, rejoice, adjust, be entreated, be mutually disposed, be at peace, and the God of love and of peace will be with you. ¹² Greet one another with a holy kiss. ¹³ All the saints are greeting you. ¹⁴ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the holy spirit be with you all! Amen!