Indeed, the signs of an apostle were performed among you with great perseverance ¹  by signs and wonders and powerful deeds. ² 

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 

as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that many people may give thanks to God ¹  on our behalf for the gracious gift given to us through the help of many.

For all these things are for your sake, so that the grace that is including ¹  more and more people may cause thanksgiving to increase ²  to the glory of God.

Therefore, because we know the fear of the Lord, ¹  we try to persuade ²  people, ³  but we are well known ⁴  to God, and I hope we are well known to your consciences too.

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

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.

to finish what you started, ¹  so that just as you wanted to do it eagerly, ²  you can also complete it ³  according to your means. ⁴ 

And we are sending ¹  with them our brother whom we have tested many times and found eager in many matters, but who now is much more eager than ever because of the great confidence he has in you.

For if I boast somewhat more about our authority that the Lord gave us ¹  for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of doing so. ² 

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

I say again, let no one think that I am a fool. ¹  But if you do, then at least accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.

I urged Titus to visit you ¹  and I sent our ²  brother along with him. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? ³  Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit? Did we not behave in the same way? ⁴ 

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.

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Indeed we felt as if the sentence of death had been passed against us, ¹  so that we would not trust in ourselves ²  but in God who raises the dead.

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.

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.

For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” ¹  is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge ²  of God in the face of Christ. ³ 

In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us ¹  the message of reconciliation.