For I consider myself not at all inferior to those “super-apostles.” ¹ 

now I ask that when I am present I may not have to be bold with the confidence that (I expect) I will dare to use against some who consider us to be behaving ¹  according to human standards. ² 

Not that we are adequate ¹  in ourselves to consider anything as if it were coming from ourselves, but our adequacy ²  is from God,

You are looking at outward appearances. ¹  If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should reflect on this again: Just as he himself belongs to Christ, so too do we.

Let such a person consider this: What we say ¹  by letters when we are absent, we also are in actions when we are present.

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.

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,