Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting sanctification in the fear of God.

²Receive us. We have injured no man: we have corrupted no man: we have overreached no man.

³I speak not this to your condemnation. For we have said before that you are in our hearts: to die together and to live together.

⁴Great is my confidence for you: great is my glorying for you. I am filled with comfort: I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation.

⁵For also, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest: but we suffered all tribulation. Combats without: fears within.

⁶But God, who comforteth the humble, comforted us by the coming of Titus.

⁷And not by his coming only, but also by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, relating to us your desire, your mourning, your zeal for me: so that I rejoiced the more.

⁸For although I made you sorrowful by my epistle, I do not repent. And if I did repent, seeing that the same epistle (although but for a time) did make you sorrowful,

⁹Now I am glad: not because you were made sorrowful, but because you were made sorrowful unto penance. For you were made sorrowful according to God, that you might suffer damage by us in nothing.

¹⁰For the sorrow that is according to God worketh penance, steadfast unto salvation: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

¹¹For behold this selfsame thing, that you were made sorrowful according to God, how great carefulness it worketh in you: yea defence, yea indignation, yea fear, yea desire, yea zeal, yea revenge. In all things you have shewed yourselves to be undefiled in the matter.

¹²Wherefore although I wrote to you, it was not for his sake that did the wrong, nor for him that suffered it: but to manifest our carefulness that we have for you

¹³Before God: therefore we were comforted. But in our consolation we did the more abundantly rejoice for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

¹⁴And if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I have not been put to shame: but as we have spoken all things to you in truth, so also our boasting that was made to Titus is found a truth.

¹⁵And his bowels are more abundantly towards you: remembering the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling you received him.

¹⁶I rejoice that in all things I have confidence in you.

Chapter 8

Now we make known unto you, brethren, the grace of God that hath been given in the churches of Macedonia.

²That in much experience of tribulation, they have had abundance of joy and their very deep poverty hath abounded unto the riches of their simplicity.

³For according to their power (I bear them witness) and beyond their power, they were willing:

⁴With much entreaty begging of us the grace and communication of the ministry that is done toward the saints.

⁵And not as we hoped: but they gave their own selves, first to the Lord, then to us by the will of God;

⁶Insomuch, that we desired Titus, that, as he had begun, so also he would finish among you this same grace.

⁷That 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.

⁸I speak not as commanding: but by the carefulness of others, approving also the good disposition of your charity.

⁹For 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.

¹⁰And 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.

¹¹Now 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.

¹²For if the will be forward, it is accepted according to that which a man hath: not according to that which he hath not.

¹³For I mean not that others should be eased and you burdened, but by an equality.

¹⁴In this present time let your abundance supply their want, that their abundance also may supply your want: that there may be an equality,

¹⁵As it is written: He that had much had nothing over; and he that had little had no want.

¹⁶And thanks be to God, who hath given the same carefulness for you in the heart of Titus.

¹⁷For indeed he accepted the exhortation: but, being more careful, of his own will he went unto you.

¹⁸We have sent also with him the brother whose praise is in the gospel through all the churches.

¹⁹And 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:

²⁰Avoiding this, lest any man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us.

²¹For we forecast what may be good, not only before God but also before men.

²²And 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,

²³Either for Titus, who is my companion and fellow labourer towards you, or our brethren, the apostles of the churches, the glory of Christ.

²⁴Wherefore shew ye to them, in the sight of the churches, the evidence of your charity and of our boasting on your behalf.

Chapter 9

For concerning the ministry that is done towards the saints, it is superfluous for me to write unto you.

²For 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.

³Now 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:

⁴Lest, when the Macedonians shall come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to say ye) should be ashamed in this matter.

⁵Therefore 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.

⁶Now this I say: He who soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly: and he who soweth in blessings shall also reap blessings.

⁷Every one as he hath determined in his heart, not with sadness or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

⁸And 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,

⁹As it is written: He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever.

¹⁰And 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:

¹¹That being enriched in all things, you may abound unto all simplicity which worketh through us thanksgiving to God.

¹²Because the administration of this office doth not only supply the want of the saints, but aboundeth also by many thanksgivings in the Lord.

¹³By 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.

¹⁴And in their praying for you, being desirous of you, because of the excellent grace of God in you.

¹⁵Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.

Chapter 10

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.

²But 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.

³For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty to God, unto the pulling down of fortifications, destroying counsels,

⁵And every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God: and bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ:

⁶And having in readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be fulfilled.

⁷See 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.

⁸For 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.

⁹But that I may not be thought as it were to terrify you by epistles,

¹⁰(For his epistles indeed, say they, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible):

¹¹Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by epistles when absent, such also we will be indeed when present.

¹²For we dare not match or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but we measure ourselves by ourselves and compare ourselves with ourselves.

¹³But 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.

¹⁴For 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.

¹⁵Not 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.

¹⁶Yea, 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.

¹⁷But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

¹⁸For not he who commendeth himself is approved: but he, whom God commendeth.

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