Look, for the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you, because I do not want your possessions, but you. For children should not have ¹  to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

Because of this I am writing these things while absent, so that when I arrive ¹  I may not have to deal harshly with you ²  by using my authority – the Lord gave it to me for building up, not for tearing down!

For just as the sufferings ¹  of Christ ²  overflow ³  toward us, so also our comfort through Christ overflows to you. ⁴ 

For we do not write you anything other than what ¹  you can read and also understand. But I hope that you will understand completely ² 

But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession ¹  in Christ ²  and who makes known ³  through us the fragrance that consists of the knowledge of him in every place.

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, ¹  but we are speaking in Christ before ²  God as persons of sincerity, ³  as persons sent from God.

And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, ¹  are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, ²  which is from ³  the Lord, who is the Spirit. ⁴ 

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the extraordinary power ¹  belongs to God and does not come from us.

We are not trying to commend ¹  ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, ²  so that you may be able to answer those who take pride ³  in outward appearance ⁴  and not in what is in the heart.

And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.

For he says, “I heard you at the acceptable time, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” ¹  Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation!

Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, ¹  and I will welcome ²  you, ³ 

For even when we came into Macedonia, our body ¹  had no rest at all, but we were troubled in every way – struggles from the outside, fears from within.

Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad, ¹  but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made sad as God intended, ²  so that you were not harmed ³  in any way by us.

because I know your eagerness to help. ¹  I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, ²  that Achaia has been ready to give ³  since last year, and your zeal to participate ⁴  has stirred up most of them. ⁵ 

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. ¹ 

As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine ¹  will not be stopped ²  in the regions of Achaia.

Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times.

And I know that this man (whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows)

Have you been thinking all this time ¹  that we have been defending ourselves to you? We are speaking in Christ before God, and everything we do, dear friends, is to build you up. ²