Day 272 of 365

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 them of Macedonia, that Achaia has been prepared for a year past. 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 I won't by any means, if there come with me any of Macedonia and find you unprepared, we (to say nothing of you) should be disappointed in this confidence.

⁵I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brothers that they would go before to you, and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, that the same 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 he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;

¹¹you being enriched in everything to all liberality, which works through us thanksgiving to God.

¹²For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up for lack among the saints, but abounds also through many givings 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 Christ, 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!

¹Now I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ; I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am of good courage 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 do not 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 Christ;

⁶and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience will be made full.

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

⁸For though I should boast somewhat abundantly concerning our authority, (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for casting you down) I will not be disappointed,

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 do not stretch ourselves too much, as though we did not reach to you. For we came even as far as to you with the Good News of Christ,

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 proclaim 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 the Lord."

¹⁸For it is not he who commends himself who is approved, but whom the Lord commends.

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 Christ.

³But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

⁴For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we did not proclaim, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not 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.

⁶Even though I am unskilled in speech, I am not unskilled in knowledge. But in every way we have made this known 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 churches, taking wages from them that I might serve you.

⁹When I was present with you and was in need, I was not 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 Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

¹¹Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.

¹²But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them that 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 Christ's apostles.

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

¹⁵It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

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

¹⁷That which I speak, I do not speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.

¹⁸Seeing that many boast after 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 bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you on the face.

²¹I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet however any 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 seed of Abraham? So am I.

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

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

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 that which presses on me daily, anxiety for all the churches.

²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not 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 Christ, he who is blessed forevermore, knows that I do not lie.

³²In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes to arrest me.

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

¹It is necessary to boast, though it is not profitable. But I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

²I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I do not know, or whether out of the body, I do not know; God knows), such a one caught up into the third heaven.

³I know such a man (whether in the body, or apart from the body, I do not 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 that which he sees in me, or hears from me.

⁷By reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, that I should not be exalted excessively, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, 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 power is made perfect in weakness." Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.

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

¹¹I have become foolish. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing.

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

¹³For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the churches, 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 what is yours, 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?

¹⁶But be it so, I did not myself burden you. But, being crafty, I caught you with deception.

¹⁷Did I take advantage of you by anyone of them whom I have sent to you?

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

¹⁹Have you been thinking all this time that we have been defending ourselves before you? In the sight of God we speak in Christ; and all things, beloved, 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 do not desire; that by any means there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, 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 and sexual immorality and lustfulness which they committed.