and not like Moses who used to put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites ¹  from staring ²  at the result ³  of the glory that was made ineffective. ⁴ 

God ¹  made the one who did not know sin ²  to be sin for us, so that in him ³  we would become the righteousness of God.

and every arrogant obstacle ¹  that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey ²  Christ.

so that we may preach the gospel in the regions that lie beyond you, and not boast of work already done in another person’s area.

And even if I am unskilled ¹  in speaking, yet I am certainly not so in knowledge. Indeed, we have made this plain to you in everything in every way.

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!

Now I will most gladly spend and be spent for your lives! ¹  If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

This is the third time I am coming to visit ¹  you. By the testimony ²  of two or three witnesses every matter will be established. ³ 

to the latter an odor ¹  from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? ² 

revealing ¹  that you are a letter of Christ, delivered by us, ²  written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on stone tablets ³  but on tablets of human hearts.

because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, ¹  so that each one may be paid back according to what he has done while in the body, whether good or evil. ² 

For indeed he was crucified by reason of weakness, but he lives because of God’s power. For we also are weak in him, but we will live together with him, because of God’s power toward you.

Put yourselves to the test to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize regarding yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you – unless, indeed, you fail the test! ¹ 

Now we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong, not so that we may appear to have passed the test, ¹  but so that you may do what is right ²  even if we may appear to have failed the test. ³ 

But if the ministry that produced death – carved in letters on stone tablets ¹  – came with glory, so that the Israelites ²  could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face ³  (a glory ⁴  which was made ineffective), ⁵ 

But we have rejected ¹  shameful hidden deeds, ²  not behaving ³  with deceptiveness ⁴  or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.

So then, even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong, or on account of the one who was wronged, but to reveal to you your eagerness on our behalf ¹  before God.