So ¹  I made up my own mind ²  not to pay you another painful visit. ³ 

and through your help to go on into Macedonia and then from Macedonia to come back ¹  to you and be helped on our way into Judea by you.

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? We don’t need letters of recommendation to you or from you as some other people do, do we? ¹ 

We are not trying to commend ¹  ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, ²  so that you may be able to answer those who take pride ³  in outward appearance ⁴  and not in what is in the heart.

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.

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 am afraid that ¹  when I come again, my God may humiliate me before you, and I will grieve for ²  many of those who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness that they have practiced.

I said before when I was present the second time and now, though absent, I say again to those who sinned previously and to all the rest, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone, ¹