¹⁹ I served the Lord with great humility and with tears^(A) and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.^(B)

³ where he stayed three months. Because some Jews had plotted against him^(A) just as he was about to sail for Syria,^(B) he decided to go back through Macedonia.^(C)

⁴ For I wrote you^(A) out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor,^(A) serving the Lord.

Trials and Temptations

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds,^(A)

²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance^(A) from the Lord as a reward.^(B) It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

¹⁸ For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears,^(A) many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.^(B)

⁷ or because of these surpassingly great revelations.^(A) Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh,^(B) a messenger of Satan,^(C) to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.^{(D) 9} But he said to me, “My grace^(E) is sufficient for you, for my power^(F) is made perfect in weakness.^(G)”^(H) Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight^(I) in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,^(J) in persecutions,^(K) in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.^(L)

⁵ For when we came into Macedonia,^(A) we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn^(B)—conflicts on the outside, fears within.^(C)