Paul Defends His Ministry

¹iI, Paul, myself entreat you, by the jmeekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— ²I beg of you kthat when I am present I may not have to show lboldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. ³For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. ⁴For the mweapons of nour warfare are not of the flesh but have odivine power pto destroy strongholds. ⁵We destroy arguments and qevery lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to robey Christ, ⁶sbeing ready to punish every disobedience, twhen your obedience is complete.

⁷uLook at what is before your eyes. vIf anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as whe is Christ's, xso also are we. ⁸For even if I boast a little too much of your authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. ⁹I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. ¹⁰For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but zhis bodily presence is weak, and ahis speech of no account.” ¹¹Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. ¹²Not that we dare to classify or bcompare ourselves with some of those who care commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are dwithout understanding.

¹³But we will not boast ebeyond limits, but will fboast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, gto reach even to you. ¹⁴For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. hFor we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that ias your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be jgreatly enlarged, ¹⁶so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. ¹⁷“Let kthe one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” ¹⁸For it is lnot the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one mwhom the Lord commends.