| New International Version | New Living Translation |
| 1By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you--I, Paul, who am "timid" when face to face with you, but "bold" toward you when 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 may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. | 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. |
| 3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. | 3We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. |
| 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. | 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. |
| 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. | 5We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. |
| 6And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. | 6And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. |
| 7You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. | 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 even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing 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 to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. | 9I’m not trying to frighten you by my letters. |
| 10For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing." | 10For some say, “Paul’s letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak, and his speeches are worthless!” |
| 11Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are 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 do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. | 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, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes 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. |
| 14We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. | 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. |
| 15Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, | 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. |
| 16so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else's territory. | 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. |
| 17But, "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." | 17As the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD.” |
| 18For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. | 18When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them. |
| New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. | 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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