| International Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Now I myself, Paul, plead with you with the gentleness and kindness of the Messiah —I who am humble when I am face to face with you but forceful toward you when I am away! | 1Now I, Paul, appeal to you with the gentleness and kindness of Christ—though I realize you think I am timid in person and bold only when I write from far away. |
| 2I beg you that when I come I will not need to be courageous by daring to oppose some people who think that we are living according to the flesh. | 2Well, I am begging you now so that when I come I won’t have to be bold with those who think we act from human motives. |
| 3Of course, we are living in the world, but we do not wage war in a world-like way. | 3We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. |
| 4For the weapons of our warfare are not those of the world. Instead, they have the power of God to demolish fortresses. We tear down arguments | 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. |
| 5and every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive in order to obey the Messiah. | 5We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. |
| 6Once your obedience is complete, we will be ready to reprimand every type of disobedience. | 6And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. |
| 7Look at the plain facts! If anyone is confident that he belongs to the Messiah, he should remind himself of this: Just as he belongs to the Messiah, so do we. | 7Look at the obvious facts. Those who say they belong to Christ must recognize that we belong to Christ as much as they do. |
| 8So if I boast a little too much about our authority, which the Lord gave us to build you up and not to tear you down, I will not be ashamed of it. | 8I may seem to be boasting too much about the authority given to us by the Lord. But our authority builds you up; it doesn’t tear you down. So I will not be ashamed of using my authority. |
| 9I do not want you to think that I am trying to frighten you with my letters. | 9I’m not trying to frighten you by my letters. |
| 10For someone is saying, "His letters are impressive and forceful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible." | 10For some say, “Paul’s letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are worthless!” |
| 11Someone like this should take note of the following: What we say by letter when we are absent is what we will do when present! | 11Those people should realize that our actions when we arrive in person will be as forceful as what we say in our letters from far away. |
| 12We would not dare put ourselves in the same class with, or compare ourselves to, those who recommend themselves. Whenever they measure themselves by their own standards or compare themselves among themselves, they show how foolish they are. | 12Oh, don’t worry; we wouldn’t dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are! But they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignorant! |
| 13We will not boast about what cannot be evaluated. Instead, we will stay within the field that God assigned us, so as to reach even you. | 13We will not boast about things done outside our area of authority. We will boast only about what has happened within the boundaries of the work God has given us, which includes our working with you. |
| 14For it is not as though we were overstepping our limits when we came to you. We were the first to reach you with the gospel of the Messiah. | 14We are not reaching beyond these boundaries when we claim authority over you, as if we had never visited you. For we were the first to travel all the way to Corinth with the Good News of Christ. |
| 15We are not boasting about work done by others that cannot be evaluated. On the contrary, we cherish the hope that your faith may continue to grow and enlarge our sphere of action among you until it overflows. | 15Nor do we boast and claim credit for the work someone else has done. Instead, we hope that your faith will grow so that the boundaries of our work among you will be extended. |
| 16Then we can preach the gospel in the regions far beyond you without boasting about things already accomplished by someone else. | 16Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question of our boasting about work done in someone else’s territory. |
| 17"The person who boasts should boast in the Lord." | 17As the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD.” |
| 18It is not the person who commends himself who is approved, but the person whom the Lord commends. | 18When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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