Now as a fair exchange – I speak as to my ¹  children – open wide your hearts to us ²  also.

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

and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” ¹  says the All-Powerful Lord. ² 

Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself ¹  so that you could be exalted, because I proclaimed ²  the gospel of God to you free of charge?

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

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 you know the grace ¹  of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich, he became poor for your sakes, so that you by his poverty could become rich.

For if any of the Macedonians should come with me and find that you are not ready to give, we would be humiliated ¹  (not to mention you) by this confidence we had in you. ² 

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.

Now we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong, not so that we may appear to have passed the test, ¹  but so that you may do what is right ²  even if we may appear to have failed the test. ³