Now we have such confidence in God through Christ.

we are persecuted, but not abandoned; ¹  we are knocked down, ²  but not destroyed,

in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, ¹  in troubles, ²  in sleepless nights, in hunger,

I rejoice because in everything I am fully confident in you.

But the one who boasts must boast in the Lord. ¹ 

But since we have the same spirit of faith as that shown in ¹  what has been written, “I believed; therefore I spoke,” ²  we also believe, therefore we also speak.

Blessed is ¹  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

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

For indeed, what had been glorious now ¹  has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it. ² 

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

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.

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

If you forgive anyone for anything, I also forgive him – for indeed what I have forgiven (if I have forgiven anything) I did so for you in the presence of Christ,

At the present time, your abundance will meet their need, ¹  so that one day their abundance may also meet your need, and thus there may be equality,

But I am sending ¹  these brothers so that our boasting about you may not be empty in this case, so that you may be ready ²  just as I kept telling them.

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 

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.

just as also you have partly understood us, that we are your source of pride just as you also are ours ¹  in the day of the Lord Jesus. ² 

For the love of Christ ¹  controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ ²  died for all; therefore all have died.

But be that as it may, I have not burdened you. Yet because I was a crafty person, I took you in by deceit!