I do not say this to condemn you, for I told you before that you are in our hearts so that we die together and live together with you.

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.

Therefore we have been encouraged. And in addition to our own encouragement, we rejoiced even more at the joy of Titus, because all of you have refreshed his spirit.

So here is my opinion on this matter: It is to your advantage, since you made a good start last year both in your giving and your desire to give,

For I do not say this so there would be relief for others and suffering for you, but as a matter of equality.

But I am sending these brothers so that our boasting about you may not be empty in this case, so that you may be ready just as I kept telling them.

And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work.

You are looking at outward appearances. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should reflect on this again: Just as he himself belongs to Christ, so too do we.

But we will not boast beyond certain limits, but will confine our boasting according to the limits of the work to which God has appointed us, that reaches even as far as you.

For we were not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach as far as you, because we were the first to reach as far as you with the gospel about Christ.

Until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision.

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaimed the gospel to Abraham ahead of time, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”

in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles, so that we could receive the promise of the Spirit by faith.

Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the descendant to whom the promise had been made. It was administered through angels by an intermediary.

envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

For those who are circumcised do not obey the law themselves, but they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your flesh.

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body by human hands –

I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person,

you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.