And his bowels are more abundantly towards you: remembering the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him.
Hebrew / JewishChristianity
The Bible (Old and New Testaments)
2 Corinthians
I rejoice that in all things I have confidence in you.
Now we make known unto you, brethren, the grace of God that hath been given in the churches of Macedonia.
That in much experience of tribulation, they have had abundance of joy and their very deep poverty hath abounded unto the riches of their simplicity.
For according to their power (I bear them witness) and beyond their power, they were willing:
With much entreaty begging of us the grace and communication of the ministry that is done toward the saints.
And not as we hoped: but they gave their own selves, first to the Lord, then to us by the will of God;
Insomuch, that we desired Titus, that, as he had begun, so also he would finish among you this same grace.
That as in all things you abound in faith and word and knowledge and all carefulness, moreover also in your charity towards us: so in this grace also you may abound.
I speak not as commanding: but by the carefulness of others, approving also the good disposition of your charity.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that being rich he became poor for your sakes: that through his poverty you might be rich.
And herein I give my advice: for this is profitable for you who have begun not only to do but also to be willing, a year ago.
Now therefore perform ye it also in deed: that as your mind is forward to be willing, so it may be also to perform, out of that which you have.
For if the will be forward, it is accepted according to that which a man hath: not according to that which he hath not.
For I mean not that others should be eased and you burdened, but by an equality.
In this present time let your abundance supply their want, that their abundance also may supply your want: that there may be an equality,
As it is written: He that had much had nothing over; and he that had little had no want.
And thanks be to God, who hath given the same carefulness for you in the heart of Titus.
For indeed he accepted the exhortation: but, being more careful, of his own will he went unto you.
We have sent also with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel through all the churches.
And not that only: but he was also ordained by the churches companion of our travels, for this grace, which is administered by us, to the glory of the Lord and our determined will:
Avoiding this, lest any man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us.
For we forecast what may be good, not only before God but also before men.
And we have sent with them our brother also, whom we have often proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent: with much confidence in you,
Either for Titus, who is my companion and fellow labourer towards you, or our brethren, the apostles of the churches, the glory of Christ.
Wherefore shew ye to them, in the sight of the churches, the evidence of your charity and of our boasting on your behalf.
For concerning the ministry that is done towards the saints, it is superfluous for me to write unto you.
For I know your forward mind: for which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia also is ready from the year past. And your emulation hath provoked very many.
Now I have sent the brethren, that the thing which we boast of concerning you be not made void in this behalf, that (as I have said) you may be ready:
Lest, when the Macedonians shall come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to say ye) should be ashamed in this matter.
Therefore I thought it necessary to desire the brethren that they would go to you before and prepare this blessing before promised, to be ready, so as a blessing, not as covetousness.
Now this I say: He who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings shall also reap blessings.
Every one as he hath determined in his heart, not with sadness or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.
And God is able to make all grace abound in you: that ye always, having all sufficiently in all things, may abound to every good work,
As it is written: He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever.
And he that ministereth seed to the sower will both give you bread to eat and will multiply your seed and increase the growth of the fruits of your justice:
That being enriched in all things, you may abound unto all simplicity which worketh through us thanksgiving to God.
Because the administration of this office doth not only supply the want of the saints, but aboundeth also by many thanksgivings in the Lord.
By the proof of this ministry, glorifying God for the obedience of your confession unto the gospel of Christ and for the simplicity of your communicating unto them and unto all.
And in their praying for you, being desirous of you, because of the excellent grace of God in you.
Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.
Now I Paul, myself beseech you, by the mildness and modesty of Christ: who in presence indeed am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.
But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence wherewith I am thought to be bold, against some who reckon us as if we walked according to the flesh.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to God, unto the pulling down of fortifications, destroying counsels,
And every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God: and bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ:
And having in readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be fulfilled.
See the things that are according to outward appearance. If any man trust to himself, that he is Christ's let him think this again with himself, that as he is Christ's, so are we also.
For if also I should boast somewhat more of our power, which the Lord hath given us unto edification and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed.
But that I may not be thought as it were to terrify you by epistles,
(For his epistles indeed, say they, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible):
Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by epistles when absent, such also we will be indeed when present.
For we dare not match or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but we measure ourselves by ourselves and compare ourselves with ourselves.
But we will not glory beyond our measure: but according to the measure of the rule which God hath measured to us, a measure to reach even unto you.
For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as if we reached not unto you. For we are come as far as to you in the Gospel of Christ.
Not glorying beyond measure in other men's labours: but having hope of your increasing faith, to be magnified in you according to our rule abundantly.
Yea, unto those places that are beyond you to preach the gospel: not to glory in another man's rule, in those things that are made ready to our hand.
But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
For not he who commendeth himself is approved: but he, whom God commendeth.
Would to God you could bear with some little of my folly! But do bear with me.
For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted and fall from the simplicity that is in Christ.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Christ, whom we have not preached; or if you receive another Spirit, whom you have not received; or another gospel, which you have not received: you might well bear with him.
For I suppose that I have done nothing less than the great apostles.
For although I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge: but in all things we have been made manifest to you.
Or did I commit a fault, humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached unto you the Gospel of God freely?
I have taken from other churches, receiving wages of them for your ministry.
And, when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was wanting to me, the brethren supplied who came from Macedonia. And in all things I have kept myself from being burthensome to you: and so I will keep myself.
The truth of Christ is in me, that this glorying shall not be broken off in me in the regions of Achaia.
Wherefore? Because I love you not? God knoweth it.
But what I do, that I will do: that I may cut off the occasion from them that desire occasion: that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.
For such false apostles are deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no wonder: for Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of justice, whose end shall be according to their works.
I say again (Let no man think me to be foolish: otherwise take me as one foolish, that I also may glory a little):
That which I speak, I speak not according to God: but as it were in foolishness, in this matter of glorying.
Seeing that many glory according to the flesh, I will glory also.
For you gladly suffer the foolish: whereas yourselves are wise.
For you suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take from you, if a man be lifted up, if a man strike you on the face.
I seek according to dishonour, as if we had been weak in this part. Wherein if any man dare (I speak foolishly), I dare also.
They are Hebrews: so am I. They are Israelites: so am I. They are the seed of Abraham: so am I.
They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as one less wise): I am more; in many more labours, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.
Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods: once I was stoned: thrice I suffered shipwreck: a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea.
In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren:
In labour and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness:
Besides those things which are without: my daily instance, the solicitude for all the churches.
Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I am not on fire?
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever, knoweth that I lie not.
At Damascus, the governor of the nation under Aretas the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, to apprehend me.
And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall: and so escaped his hands.
If I must glory (it is not expedient indeed) but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
I know a man in Christ: above fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I know not, or out of the body, I know not: God knoweth), such a one caught up to the third heaven.
And I know such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I know not: God knoweth):
That he was caught up into paradise and heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter.
For such an one I will glory: but for myself I will glory nothing but in my infirmities.
For though I should have a mind to glory, I shall not be foolish: for I will say the truth. But I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth in me, or any thing he heareth from me.
And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me.
For which thing, thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me.