Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”

Now because we are fellow workers, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

For sadness as intended by God produces a repentance that leads to salvation, leaving no regret, but worldly sadness brings about death.

Now we make known to you, brothers and sisters, the grace of God given to the churches of Macedonia,

And in their prayers on your behalf they long for you because of the extraordinary grace God has shown to you.

Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you could be exalted, because I proclaimed the gospel of God to you free of charge?

In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to arrest me,

but I was let down in a rope-basket through a window in the city wall, and escaped his hands.

On behalf of such an individual I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except about my weaknesses.

Indeed, the signs of an apostle were performed among you with great perseverance by signs and wonders and powerful deeds.

Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

just as also you have partly understood us, that we are your source of pride just as you also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

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.

and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from staring at the result of the glory that was made ineffective.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal body.

For all these things are for your sake, so that the grace that is including more and more people may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God.

For we know that if our earthly house, the tent we live in, is dismantled, we have a building from God, a house not built by human hands, that is eternal in the heavens.

Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade people, but we are well known to God, and I hope we are well known to your consciences too.

For the love of Christ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ died for all; therefore all have died.