² Instead, we have renounced shameful secret things, not walking^(A) in deceit or distorting God’s message,^(B) but commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in God’s sight by an open display of the truth.^(C)

¹² We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to be proud of us, so that you may have a reply for those who take pride in the outward appearance^[a] rather than in the heart.

⁴ But as God’s ministers, we commend ourselves in everything:

¹² For we don’t dare classify or compare ourselves with some who commend^(A) themselves. But in measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves,^(B) they lack understanding.^(C)

¹⁷ So the one who boasts must boast in the Lord.^{(A)[a] 18} For it is not the one commending himself who is approved, but the one the Lord commends.^(B)

Signs of an Apostle

¹¹ I have become a fool; you forced it on me. I should have been endorsed by you, since I am not in any way inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.^(A)