He has marked us with His seal and placed His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee, a down payment of the things to come.

My last letter to you was covered with tears, composed with great difficulty, and frankly, a broken heart. It wasn’t my intention to depress you or cause you pain; rather, I had hoped you would see it for what it was—a demonstration of the overwhelming love I have for all of you.

You are our letter, every word burned onto our hearts to be read by everyone.

You are the living letter of the Anointed One, the Liberating King, nurtured by us and inscribed, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God—a letter too passionate to be chiseled onto stone tablets, but emblazoned upon the human heart.

Now consider this: if the ministry of death, which was chiseled in stone, came with so much glory that the Israelites could not bear to look at Moses’ face even as that glory was fading,

Even today a veil covers their hearts when the words of Moses are read;

By “the Lord” what I mean is the Spirit, and in any heart where the Spirit of the Lord is present, there is liberty.

Since we are joined together in this ministry as a result of the mercy shown to all of us by God, we do not become discouraged.

The God who spoke light into existence, saying, “Let light shine from the darkness,” is the very One who sets our hearts ablaze to shed light on the knowledge of God’s glory revealed in the face of Jesus, the Anointed One.

But we hope you understand that we are not trying to prove ourselves to you or pull together a résumé that will impress you. We are simply hoping that you will find a sense of joy in connecting with us. And when you are approached by others (who may value appearances more than the heart) asking questions about us, you will be able to offer an answer for them.

As for those of us working as His emissaries, we beg you not to take the grace of God lightly.

Corinthians, we have been completely open to you. We’ve exposed the truth, holding nothing back while our hearts open wide to take you in.

If I could offer some fatherly advice: open yourselves up as children; share your hearts with us as we have done for you.

Take us into your hearts; love us as we love you. You have nothing to fear. We have hurt no one, ruined no one, swindled no one.

I am not writing these things to condemn you, as I said before. Our hearts embrace you, so we stand beside you whether facing life or death.

I praise God who lovingly burdened Titus’s heart for you just as He did mine.

Giving grows out of the heart—otherwise, you’ve reluctantly grumbled “yes” because you felt you had to or because you couldn’t say “no,” but this isn’t the way God wants it. For we know that “God loves a cheerful giver.”

But now I’m afraid that as that serpent tricked Eve with his wiles, so your hearts and minds will be tricked and you will stray from the single-minded love and pure devotion to Him.