And we are sending with them our brother whom we have tested many times and found eager in many matters, but who now is much more eager than ever because of the great confidence he has in you.

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we behave with great boldness,

as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that many people may give thanks to God on our behalf for the gracious gift given to us through the help of many.

I have great confidence in you; I take great pride on your behalf. I am filled with encouragement; I am overflowing with joy in the midst of all our suffering.

For if what was made ineffective came with glory, how much more has what remains come in glory!

Since many are boasting according to human standards, I too will boast.

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you.

For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness excel in glory!

But as God’s servants, we have commended ourselves in every way, with great endurance, in persecutions, in difficulties, in distresses,

as sorrowful, but always rejoicing, as poor, but making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

begging us with great earnestness for the blessing and fellowship of helping the saints.

as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God.

that during a severe ordeal of suffering, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in the wealth of their generosity.

because the service of this ministry is not only providing for the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God.

I am afraid that when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, and I will grieve for many of those who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness that they have practiced.