Study Desk

Now I am sending these believers, so that our boasting about you in this matter may not turn out to be empty words. But, just as I said, you will be ready with your help.

I, Paul, make a personal appeal to you—I who am said to be meek and mild when I am with you, but harsh with you when I am away. By the gentleness and kindness of Christ

I beg you not to force me to be harsh when I come; for I am sure I can deal harshly with those who say that we act from worldly motives.

For I am not ashamed, even if I have boasted somewhat too much about the authority that the Lord has given us—authority to build you up, not to tear you down.

I do not want it to appear that I am trying to frighten you with my letters.

I wish you would tolerate me, even when I am a bit foolish. Please do!

I am jealous for you, just as God is; you are like a pure virgin whom I have promised in marriage to one man only, Christ himself.

I am afraid that your minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and pure devotion to Christ—in the same way that Eve was deceived by the snake's clever lies.

I do not think that I am the least bit inferior to those very special so-called "apostles" of yours!

Perhaps I am an amateur in speaking, but certainly not in knowledge; we have made this clear to you at all times and in all conditions.

I will go on doing what I am doing now, in order to keep those other "apostles" from having any reason for boasting and saying that they work in the same way that we do.

I repeat: no one should think that I am a fool. But if you do, at least accept me as a fool, just so I will have a little to boast of.

Of course what I am saying now is not what the Lord would have me say; in this matter of boasting I am really talking like a fool.

I am ashamed to admit that we were too timid to do those things! But if anyone dares to boast about something—I am talking like a fool—I will be just as daring.

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I.

Are they Christ's servants? I sound like a madman—but I am a better servant than they are! I have worked much harder, I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often.

And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

When someone is weak, then I feel weak too; when someone is led into sin, I am filled with distress.

If I must boast, I will boast about things that show how weak I am.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus—blessed be his name forever!—knows that I am not lying.