³ since you seek a proof of Christ ^(A)speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty ^(B)in you.

^20 (A)for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

^12 (A)Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and ^(B)wonders and mighty ^(C)deeds.

⁸ For even if I should boast somewhat more ^(A)about our authority, which the Lord gave ^[a]us for ^[b]edification and not for your destruction, ^(B)I shall not be ashamed— ⁹ lest I seem to terrify you by letters. ¹⁰ “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but ^(C)his bodily presence is weak, and his ^(D)speech contemptible.”

¹⁵ for I will give you a mouth and wisdom ^(A)which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or ^[a]resist.

A Pattern of Self-Denial

9 Am ^(A)I not an apostle? Am I not free? ^(B)Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? ^(C)Are you not my work in the Lord? ² If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are ^(D)the ^[a]seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

³ My defense to those who examine me is this:

^4 (A)For the weapons ^(B)of our warfare are not ^[a]carnal but ^(C)mighty in God ^(D)for pulling down strongholds,

Christ’s Epistle^(A)

3 Do ^(B)we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, ^(C)epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? ^2 (D)You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; ³ clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ^(E)ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not ^(F)on tablets of stone but ^(G)on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

¹⁰ Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For ^[a]if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ,