Make room for us in your hearts; ¹  we have wronged no one, we have ruined no one, ²  we have exploited no one. ³ 

Three times I was beaten with a rod. ¹  Once I received a stoning. ²  Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I spent adrift in the open sea.

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

(To my disgrace ¹  I must say that we were too weak for that!) ²  But whatever anyone else dares to boast about ³  (I am speaking foolishly), I also dare to boast about the same thing. ⁴ 

I have become a fool. You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you. For I lack nothing in comparison ¹  to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.

For if we are out of our minds, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you.

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

Now I appeal to God as my witness, ¹  that to spare ²  you I did not come again to Corinth. ³ 

For if I make you sad, who would be left to make me glad ¹  but the one I caused to be sad?

For we rejoice whenever we are weak, but you are strong. And we pray for this: that you may become fully qualified. ¹ 

I wish that you would be patient with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are being patient with me!

Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, ¹  and I do not burn with indignation?

And I hope that you will realize that we have not failed the test! ¹ 

I had no relief in my spirit, ¹  because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-bye to them ²  and set out ³  for Macedonia.

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.

I have great confidence in you; I take great pride ¹  on your behalf. I am filled with encouragement; ²  I am overflowing with joy in the midst of ³  all our suffering.

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.

For even if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I would be telling ¹  the truth, but I refrain from this so that no one may regard ²  me beyond what he sees in me or what he hears from me,

And what mutual agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are ¹  the temple of the living God, just as God said, “I will live in them ²  and will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” ³ 

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea ¹  through us. We plead with you ²  on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”