2 Corinthians 10:1-18
“By 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!
2 I 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.
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world
does.
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
5 We 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.
6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once
your obedience is complete.
7 You 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.
8 So 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.
9 I do not want to seem to be trying
to frighten you with my letters.
10 For some say, ‘His letters are
weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking
amounts to nothing.’
11 Such people should realize that
what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when
we are present.
12 We 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.
13 We, 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.
14 We 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 .
15 Neither 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,
16 so 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.
17 But, ‘Let the one who boasts boast
in THE LORD.’
18 For it is not the one who commends
himself who is approved, but the one whom THE LORD commends.”
