Beginning

The battle for the mind

10 Think of the Messiah, meek and gentle; then think of me, Paul—yes, Paul himself!—making his appeal to you. You know what I’m like: I’m humble when I’m face to face with you, but I’m bold when I’m away from you! ² Please, please don’t put me in the position of having to be bold when I’m with you, of having to show how confident I dare to be when I’m standing up to people who think we are behaving in a merely human way. ³ Yes, we are mere humans, but we don’t fight the war in a merely human way. ⁴ The weapons we use for the fight, you see, are not merely human; they carry a power from God that can tear down fortresses! We tear down clever arguments, ⁵ and every proud notion that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. We take every thought prisoner and make it obey the Messiah. ⁶ We are holding ourselves in readiness to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

⁷ Look at what’s in front of your face. If anyone trusts that they belong to the Messiah, let them calculate it once more: just as they belong to the Messiah, so also do we! ⁸ For if I do indeed boast a bit too enthusiastically about the authority which the Lord has given me—which is for building you up, not for pulling you down!—I shan’t be ashamed. ⁹ I wouldn’t want to look as if I were trying to frighten you with my letters. ¹⁰ I know what they say: “His letters are serious and powerful, but when he arrives in person he is weak, and his words aren’t worth bothering about.” ¹¹ Anyone like that should reckon on this: the way we talk in letters, when we’re absent, will be how we behave when we’re present.

Boasting in the Lord

¹² We wouldn’t dare, you see, to figure out where we belong on some scale or other, or compare ourselves with people who commend themselves. They measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another. That just shows how silly they are! ¹³ But when we boast, we don’t go off into flights of fancy; we boast according to the measure of the rule God has given us to measure ourselves by, and that rule includes our work with you! ¹⁴ We weren’t going beyond our assigned limits when we reached you; we were the first to get as far as you with the gospel of the Messiah. ¹⁵ We don’t boast without a measuring rule in the work someone else has done. This is what we hope for: that, as your faith increases, we will be given a much larger space for work, according to our rule, ¹⁶ which is to announce the gospel in the lands beyond you, not to boast in what has already been accomplished through the rule someone else has been given. ¹⁷ “Anyone who boasts should boast in the Lord!” ¹⁸ Who is it, after all, who gains approval? It isn’t the person who commends himself. It’s the person whom the Lord commends.

Super-apostles?

11 I’d be glad if you would bear with me in a little bit of foolishness. Yes: bear with me, please! ² I’m jealous over you, and it’s God’s own jealousy: I arranged to marry you off, like a pure virgin, to the one man I presented you to, namely the Messiah. ³ But the serpent tricked Eve with its cunning, and in the same way I’m afraid that your minds may be corrupted from the single-mindedness and purity which the Messiah’s people should have. ⁴ For if someone comes and announces a different Jesus from the one we announced to you, or if you receive a different spirit, one you hadn’t received before, or a different gospel, one you hadn’t accepted before, you put up with that all right. ⁵ According to my calculations, you see, I am every bit as good as these super-apostles. ⁶ I may be untutored in speaking, but that certainly doesn’t apply to my knowledge. Surely that’s been made quite clear to you, in every way and on every point!

No, they are false apostles!

⁷ Did I then commit a sin when I humbled myself in order to exalt you? When I announced the gospel of God to you without charging you for it? ⁸ I robbed other churches by accepting payment from them in order to serve you; ⁹ and when I was with you, and was in need of anything, I didn’t lay a burden on anybody, because my needs were more than met by the brothers who came from Macedonia. That’s how I stopped myself from being a burden to you—and I intend to carry on in the same way. ¹⁰ As the Messiah’s truthfulness is in me, this boast of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaea. ¹¹ Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows . . . !

¹² I’m going to continue to do what I’ve always done, so as to cut off any opportunity (for those who want such an opportunity!) for anyone to look as if they can match us in the things they boast about. ¹³ Such people are false apostles! The only work they do is to deceive! They transform themselves so that they look like apostles of the Messiah— ¹⁴ and no wonder. The satan himself transforms himself to look like an angel of light, ¹⁵ so it isn’t surprising if his servants transform themselves to look like servants of righteousness. They will end up where their deeds are taking them.

The boasting of a reluctant fool

¹⁶ I’ll say it again: don’t let anyone think I’m a fool! But if they do—well, all right then, welcome me as a fool, so that I can do a little bit of boasting! ¹⁷ What I’m going to say now, I’m not saying as if it came from the Lord, but as if I was a fool, as if I really did want to indulge myself in this kind of boasting. ¹⁸ Plenty of people are boasting in human terms, after all, so why shouldn’t I boast as well? ¹⁹ After all, you put up with fools readily enough, since you are so wise yourselves. ²⁰ You put up with it if someone makes you their slave, or if they eat up your property, or overpower you, or give themselves airs, or slap you in the face. ²¹ Well, I’m ashamed to say it: we weren’t strong enough for that!

Boasting of weaknesses

Whatever anyone else dares to boast about (I’m talking nonsense, remember), I’ll boast as well. ²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. ²³ Are they the servants of the Messiah?—I’m talking like a raving madman—I’m a better one. I’ve worked harder, been in prison more often, been beaten more times than I can count, and I’ve often been close to death. ²⁴ Five times I’ve had the Jewish beating, forty lashes less one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; I was adrift in the sea for a night and a day. ²⁶ I’ve been constantly traveling, facing dangers from rivers, dangers from brigands, dangers from my own people, dangers from foreigners, dangers in the town, dangers in the countryside, dangers at sea, dangers from false believers. ²⁷ I’ve toiled and labored, I’ve burnt the candle at both ends, I’ve been hungry and thirsty, I’ve often gone without food altogether, I’ve been cold and naked.

²⁸ Quite apart from all that, I have this daily pressure on me, my care for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak and I’m not weak? Who is offended without me burning with shame?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of my weaknesses. ³¹ The God and father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I’m not lying: ³² in Damascus, King Aretas, the local ruler, was guarding the city of Damascus so that he could capture me, ³³ but I was let down in a basket through a window and over the wall, and I escaped his clutches.

The vision and the thorn

12 I just have to boast—not that there’s anything to be gained by it; but I’ll go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. ² Someone I know in the Messiah, fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I don’t know, though God knows), was snatched up to the third heaven. ³ I know that this particular “Someone” (whether in the body or apart from the body I don’t know, God knows)— ⁴ this person was snatched up to paradise, and heard . . . words you can’t pronounce, which humans aren’t allowed to repeat. ⁵ I will boast of Someone like that, but I won’t boast of myself, except of my weaknesses. ⁶ If I did want to boast, you see, I wouldn’t be mad; I’d be speaking the truth. But I’m holding back, so that nobody will think anything of me except what they can see in me or hear from me, ⁷ even considering how remarkable the revelations were.

As a result, so that I wouldn’t become too exalted, a thorn was given to me in my flesh, a messenger from the satan, to keep stabbing away at me. ⁸ I prayed to the Lord three times about this, asking that it would be taken away from me, ⁹ and this is what he said to me: “My grace is enough for you; my power comes to perfection in weakness.” So I will be all the more pleased to boast of my weaknesses, so that the Messiah’s power may rest upon me. ¹⁰ So I’m delighted when I’m weak, insulted, in difficulties, persecuted and facing disasters, for the Messiah’s sake. When I’m weak, you see, then I am strong.

The signs of a true apostle

¹¹ I’ve been a fool! You forced me into it. If I was to have received an official commendation, it ought actually to have come from you! After all, I’m not inferior to the super-apostles, even though I am nothing. ¹² The signs of a true apostle, you see, were performed among you in all patience, with signs and wonders and powers. ¹³ In what way have you been worse off than all the other churches, except in the fact that I myself didn’t become a burden to you? Forgive me this injustice!

¹⁴ Now look: this is the third time I’m ready to come to you. And I’m not going to be a burden, because I’m not looking for what belongs to you, but you yourselves. Children, after all, shouldn’t be saving up for their parents, but parents for their children! ¹⁵ For my part, I will gladly spend and be spent on your behalf. If I love you all the more, am I going to be loved any the less?

¹⁶ Grant me this, that I didn’t lay any burden on you. But—maybe I was a trickster, and I took you by deceit! ¹⁷ Did I cheat you by any of the people I sent to you? ¹⁸ I urged Titus to go to you, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus cheat you? He behaved in the same spirit as me, didn’t he? He conducted himself in the same manner, didn’t he?

What will happen when Paul arrives?

¹⁹ You will imagine we are explaining ourselves again. Well, we’re speaking in God’s presence, in the Messiah! My beloved ones, it has all been intended to build you up. ²⁰ I’m afraid, you see, that when I come I may find you rather different from what I would wish—and I may turn out to be rather different from what you would wish! I’m afraid there may still be fighting, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. ²¹ I’m afraid that perhaps, when I come once more, my God may humble me again in front of you, and I will have to go into mourning over many who sinned before, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and shameless immorality that they have practiced.

13 This is the third time I’m coming to you. “Every charge must be substantiated at the mouth of two or three witnesses.” ² I said it before when I was with you the second time, and I say it now in advance while I’m away from you, to all those who had sinned previously, and all the others, that when I come back again I won’t spare them— ³ since you are looking for proof of the Messiah who speaks in me, the Messiah who is not weak towards you but powerful in your midst! ⁴ He was crucified in weakness, you see, but he lives by God’s power. For we too are weak in him, but we shall live with him, for your benefit, by God’s power.

Test yourselves!

⁵ Test yourselves to see if you really are in the faith! Put yourselves through the examination. Or don’t you realize that Jesus the Messiah is in you?—unless, that is, you’ve failed the test. ⁶ I hope you will discover that we didn’t fail the test. ⁷ But we pray to God that you will never, ever, do anything wrong; not so that we can be shown up as having passed the test, but so that you will do what is right, even if that means that we appear like people who’ve failed. ⁸ For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹ We celebrate, you see, when we are weak but you are strong.

This is what we pray for, that you may become complete and get everything in order. ¹⁰ That’s why I’m writing this to you while I’m away, so that when I come I won’t have to use my authority to be severe with you. The Lord has given me this authority, after all, not to pull down but to build up.

Grace, love and fellowship

¹¹ All that remains, my dear family, is this: celebrate, put everything in order, strengthen one another, think in the same way, be at peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. ¹² Greet one another with the holy kiss. All God’s people send you their greetings.

¹³ The grace of Messiah Jesus the Lord, the love of God, and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you all.