A Living Letter

3 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?^[a]

² 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^[a] according to human standards.^[b]

⁷ You are looking at outward appearances.^[a] 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.

Paul’s Mission

¹² For we would not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who recommend themselves. But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.^[a]

²⁰ For you put up with^[a] it if someone makes slaves of you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone behaves arrogantly^[b] toward you, if someone strikes you in the face.