But if anyone has caused sadness, he has not saddened me alone, but to some extent (not to exaggerate) ¹  he has saddened all of you as well.

For this reason also I wrote you: ¹  to test you to see ²  if you are obedient in everything.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? ¹ 

You yourselves are our letter, ¹  written on our hearts, known and read by everyone,

Not that we are adequate ¹  in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy ²  is from God,

Now the one who prepared us for this very purpose ¹  is God, who gave us the Spirit as a down payment. ² 

Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away ¹  from the body and at home with the Lord.

and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” ¹  says the All-Powerful Lord. ² 

And they did this not just as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

We did this ¹  as a precaution so that no one should blame us in regard to this generous gift we are administering.

If there is any question ¹  about Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker among you; if there is any question about our brothers, they are messengers ²  of the churches, a glory to Christ.

For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, because I promised you in marriage to one husband, ¹  to present you as a pure ²  virgin to Christ.

What I am saying with this boastful confidence ¹  I do not say the way the Lord would. ²  Instead it is, as it were, foolishness.

but I was let down in a rope-basket ¹  through a window in the city wall, and escaped his hands.

For our reason for confidence ¹  is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives ²  and sincerity which are from God ³  – not by human wisdom ⁴  but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more ⁵  toward you.

We were encouraged ¹  not only by his arrival, but also by the encouragement ²  you gave ³  him, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, ⁴  your deep concern ⁵  for me, so that I rejoiced more than ever.

In addition, ¹  this brother ²  has also been chosen by the churches as our traveling companion as we administer this generous gift ³  to the glory of the Lord himself and to show our readiness to help. ⁴ 

Now I, Paul, appeal to you ¹  personally ²  by the meekness and gentleness ³  of Christ (I who am meek ⁴  when present among ⁵  you, but am full of courage ⁶  toward you when away!) –

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up to the third heaven.

For how ¹  were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this injustice!