Study Desk

And you also we, as God's fellow workers, entreat not to be found to have received His grace to no purpose.

But He who comforts the depressed--even God-- comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only,

For this reason we feel comforted; and--in addition to this our comfort--we have been filled with all the deeper joy at Titus's joy, because his spirit has been set at rest by you all.

And his strong and tender affection is all the more drawn out towards you when he recalls to mind the obedience which all of you manifested by the timidity and nervous anxiety with which you welcomed him.

For you know the condescending goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ--how for your sakes He became poor, though He was rich, in order that you through His poverty might grow rich.

for Titus welcomed our request, and, being thoroughly in earnest, comes to you of his own free will.

And we send with him the brother whose praises for his earnestness in proclaiming the Good News are heard throughout all the Churches.

Let each contribute what he has decided upon in his own mind, and not do it reluctantly or under compulsion. "It is a cheerful giver that God loves."

As it is written, "He has scattered abroad, he has given to the poor, his almsgiving remains for ever."

Thanks be to God for His unspeakably precious gift!

For they say "His letters are authoritative and forcible, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and as for eloquence, he has none."

But "whoever boasts, let his boast be in the Lord."

But I am afraid that, as the serpent in his craftiness deceived Eve, so your minds may be led astray from their single-heartedness and their fidelity to Christ.

It is therefore no great thing for his servants also to disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will be in accordance with their actions.

What I am now saying, I do not say by the Lord's command, but as a fool in his folly might, in this reckless boasting.

Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as if I were out of my mind.) Much more am I His servant; serving Him more thoroughly than they by my labours, and more thoroughly also by my imprisonments, by excessively cruel floggings, and with risk of life many a time.

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

If however I should choose to boast, I should not be a fool for so doing, for I should be speaking the truth. But I forbear, lest any one should be led to estimate me more highly than what his own eyes attest, or more highly than what he hears from my lips.

but His reply has been, "My grace suffices for you, for power matures in weakness." Most gladly therefore will I boast of my infirmities rather than complain of them--in order that Christ's power may overshadow me.

For though it is true that He was crucified through weakness, yet He now lives through the power of God. We also are weak, sharing His weakness, but with Him we shall be full of life to deal with you through the power of God.