Paul defends his authority
1Now I, Paul, appeal to you myself by the gentleness and forbearance of the Christ — I who am so humble when face to face with you, and so bold toward you when away. 2I beg you not to force me, when I come, to be as bold as I expect to be against some who think we walk according to the flesh. 3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. 4The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh; they have power from God to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments 5and every high thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey the Christ. 6And we are ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. 7You look at appearances. If anyone is convinced that he belongs to Christ, let him think again about himself: just as he belongs to Christ, so do we. 8Even if I boast a little too much about the authority the Lord gave us — for building you up, not for tearing you down — I will not be ashamed. 9I do not want to seem to be frightening you with my letters. 10“His letters,” they say, “are weighty and strong, but in person he is unimpressive, and his speaking amounts to nothing.” 11Let anyone who talks that way reckon with this: what we are in word by letter when absent, we will be in deed when present.
Boast in the Lord
12We would not dare to class or compare ourselves with certain people who commend themselves. Measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves with themselves, they understand nothing. 13We, for our part, will not boast beyond measure, but only within the measure of the field God assigned us, a measure that reaches even to you. 14We are not overreaching, as though we had never come to you; we did reach you with the gospel of the Christ. 15We do not boast beyond measure in the labors of others. Our hope is that, as your faith grows, our own field among you will be greatly enlarged, 16so that we may proclaim the gospel in the lands beyond you, rather than boast of work already done in someone else’s field. 17“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one the Lord commends.
