The Bible

²Open your hearts to us. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one.

³I say this not to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and live together.

⁴Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I overflow with joy in all our affliction.

⁵For even when we had entered Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Fightings were outside. Fear was inside.

⁶Nevertheless, he who comforts the lowly, God, comforted us by the coming of Titus, ⁷and not by his coming only, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you while he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

⁸For though I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you grieve, though just for a while.

⁹I now rejoice, not that you were grieved, but that you were grieved to repentance. For you were grieved in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing.

¹⁰For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.

¹¹For behold, this same thing, that you were grieved in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.

¹²So although I wrote to you, I wrote not for his cause that did the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered the wrong, but that your earnest care for us might be revealed in you in the sight of God.

¹³So we have been comforted. In our comfort we rejoiced the more exceedingly for the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all.

¹⁴For if in anything I have boasted to him on your behalf, I was not disappointed. But as we spoke all things to you in truth, so our glorying also which I made before Titus was found to be truth.

¹⁵His affection is more abundantly toward you, while he remembers all of your obedience, how with fear and trembling you received him.

¹⁶I rejoice that in everything I am confident concerning you.

2 Corinthians Chapter 8

¹Moreover, brothers, we make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the assemblies of Macedonia, ²how in much proof of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded to the riches of their generosity.

³For according to their power, I testify, yes and beyond their power, they gave of their own accord, ⁴begging us with much entreaty to receive this grace and the fellowship in the service to the saints.

⁵This was not as we had expected, but first they gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us through the will of God.

⁶So we urged Titus, that as he had made a beginning before, so he would also complete in you this grace.

⁷But as you abound in everything, in faith, utterance, knowledge, all earnestness, and in your love to us, see that you also abound in this grace.

⁸I speak not by way of commandment, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity also of your love.

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

¹⁰I give a judgment in this: for this is expedient for you who were the first to start a year ago, not only to do, but also to be willing.

¹¹But now complete the doing also, that as there was the readiness to be willing, so there may be the completion also out of your ability.

¹²For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what you have, not according to what you don't have.

¹³For this is not that others may be eased and you distressed, ¹⁴but for equality. Your abundance at this present time supplies their lack, that their abundance also may become a supply for your lack; that there may be equality.

¹⁵As it is written, "He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack." ¹⁶But thanks be to God, who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus.

¹⁷For he indeed accepted our exhortation, but being himself very earnest, he went out to you of his own accord.

¹⁸We have sent together with him the brother whose praise in the Good News is known throughout all the assemblies.

¹⁹Not only so, but he was also appointed by the assemblies to travel with us in this grace, which is served by us to the glory of the Lord himself, and to show our readiness.

²⁰We are avoiding this, that any man should blame us concerning this abundance which is administered by us.

²¹Having regard for honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

²²We have sent with them our brother, whom we have many times proved earnest in many things, but now much more earnest, by reason of the great confidence which he has in you.

²³As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for you. As for our brothers, they are the apostles of the assemblies, the glory of the AnointedOne.

²⁴So show the proof of your love to them in front of the assemblies, and of our boasting on your behalf.

2 Corinthians Chapter 9

¹It is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you concerning the service to the saints, ²for I know your readiness, of which I boast on your behalf to the of Macedonians, that Achaia has been prepared for the past year. Your zeal has stirred up very many of them.

³But I have sent the brothers that our boasting on your behalf may not be in vain in this respect, that, just as I said, you may be prepared, ⁴so that if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (to say nothing of you) would be disappointed in this confident boasting.

⁵So I thought it necessary to entreat the brothers that they go to you and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, so that it might be ready as a matter of generosity, and not of greediness.

⁶Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

⁷Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

⁸And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work.

⁹As it is written, "He has scattered abroad. He has given to the poor. His righteousness remains forever." ¹⁰Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, ¹¹you being enriched in everything to all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.

¹²For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up for lack among the saints, but abounds also through much giving of thanks to God, ¹³seeing that through the proof given by this service, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the Good News of the AnointedOne and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all, ¹⁴while they themselves also, with supplication on your behalf, yearn for you by reason of the exceeding grace of God in you.

¹⁵Now thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!

2 Corinthians Chapter 10

¹Now I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of the AnointedOne, I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.

²Yes, I beg you that I may not, when present, show courage with the confidence with which I intend to be bold against some, who consider us to be walking according to the flesh.

³For though we walk in the flesh, we don't wage war according to the flesh; ⁴for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, ⁵throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of the AnointedOne; ⁶and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience when your obedience is made full.

⁷Do you look at things only as they appear in front of your face? If anyone trusts in himself that he is the AnointedOne's, let him consider this again with himself, that even as he is the AnointedOne's, so we also are the AnointedOne's.

⁸For even if I boast somewhat abundantly concerning our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for casting you down, I will not be ashamed, ⁹that I may not seem as if I desire to terrify you by my letters.

¹⁰For, "His letters", they say, "are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is despised." ¹¹Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such are we also in deed when we are present.

¹²For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding.

¹³But we will not boast beyond proper limits, but within the boundaries with which God appointed to us, which reach even to you.

¹⁴For we don't stretch ourselves too much, as though we didn't reach to you. For we came even as far as to you with the Good News of the AnointedOne, ¹⁵not boasting beyond proper limits in other men's labors, but having hope that as your faith grows, we will be abundantly enlarged by you in our sphere of influence, ¹⁶so as to preach the Good News even to the parts beyond you, not to boast in what someone else has already done.

¹⁷But "he who boasts, let him boast in ForeverOne." ¹⁸For it isn't he who commends himself who is approved, but whom ForeverOne commends.

2 Corinthians Chapter 11

¹I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you do bear with me.

²For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. For I married you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to the AnointedOne.

³But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in the AnointedOne.

⁴For if someone preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you didn't receive, or a different "good news", which you did not accept, you put up with that well enough.

⁵For I reckon that I am not at all behind the very best apostles.

⁶But though I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not unskilled in knowledge. No, in every way we have been revealed to you in all things.

⁷Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you God's Good News free of charge?

⁸I robbed other assemblies, taking wages from them that I might serve you.

⁹When I was present with you and was in need, I wasn't a burden on anyone, for the brothers, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my need. In everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will continue to do so.

¹⁰As the truth of the AnointedOne is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

¹¹Why? Because I don't love you? God knows!

¹²But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from those who desire an occasion, that in which they boast, they may be found even as we.

¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as the AnointedOne's apostles.

¹⁴And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.

¹⁵So it is no great thing if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their actions.

¹⁶I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.

¹⁷What I speak, I don't speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.

¹⁸Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I will also boast.

¹⁹For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.

²⁰For you bear with a man if he brings you into slavery, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face.

²¹I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.

²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.

²³Are they servants of the AnointedOne? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often.

²⁴Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews.

²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.

²⁶I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; ²⁷in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

²⁸Besides those things that are outside, there is what presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.

²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don't burn with indignation?

³⁰If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus AnointedOne, he who is blessed for evermore, knows that I don't lie.

³²In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the Damascenes' city, desiring to arrest me.

³³I was let down in a basket through a window by the wall, and escaped his hands.

2 Corinthians Chapter 12

¹It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. For I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

²I know a man in the AnointedOne who, fourteen years ago, was caught up into the third heaven (whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know; God knows).

³I know such a man (whether in the body, or outside of the body, I don't know; God knows), ⁴how he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

⁵On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.

⁶For if I would desire to boast, I will not be foolish; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, so that no man may think more of me than what he sees in me or hears from me.

⁷By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, a thorn in the flesh was given to me: a messenger of Satan to torment me, that I should not be exalted excessively.

⁸Concerning this thing, I begged the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

⁹He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." So I will rather glory in my weaknesses most gladly, that the power of the AnointedOne may rest on me.

¹⁰So I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for AnointedOne's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong.

¹¹I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for I am in no way inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.

¹²Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you in all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty acts.

¹³For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, unless it is that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong.

¹⁴Behold, 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 your possessions, but you. For the children ought not to save up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

¹⁵I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?

¹⁶Even so, I myself didn't burden you. "But, being crafty, I caught you with deception." ¹⁷Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you?

¹⁸I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Didn't we walk in the same spirit? Didn't we walk in the same steps?

¹⁹Again, do you think that we are excusing ourselves to you? In the sight of God we speak in the AnointedOne. But all things, dear-ones, are for your edifying.

²⁰For I am afraid that by any means, when I come, I might find you not the way I want to, and that I might be found by you as you don't desire, that by any means there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, or riots, ²¹that again when I come my God would humble me before you, and I would mourn for many of those who have sinned before now, and not repented of the uncleanness, sexual immorality, and lustfulness which they committed.

2 Corinthians Chapter 13

¹This is the third time I am coming to you. "At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." ²I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, I write to those who have sinned before now, and to all the rest, that, if I return, I will not spare; ³seeing that you seek a proof of the AnointedOne who speaks in me; who toward you is not weak, but is powerful in you.

⁴For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you.

⁵Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or don't you know about your own selves, that Jesus AnointedOne is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified!

⁶But I hope that you will know that we aren't disqualified.

⁷Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do what is honorable, though we are as reprobate.

⁸For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

⁹For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. We also pray for this: your becoming perfect.

¹⁰For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for tearing down.

¹¹Finally, brothers, rejoice! Be perfected. Be comforted. Be of the same mind. Live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

¹²Greet one another with a holy kiss.

¹³All the saints greet you.

¹⁴The grace of the Lord Jesus AnointedOne, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.