1 iSee Rom. 12:1 I, Paul, myself entreat you, by thejZech. 9:9; Matt. 11:29; Phil. 2:7, 8 meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of youkch. 13:2, 10; 1 Cor. 4:18, 21 that when I am present I may not have to showlver. 6 boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For themch. 6:7; [Eph. 6:11; 1 Thess. 5:8] weapons ofnSee 1 Cor. 9:7 our warfare are not of the flesh but haveoch. 13:3, 4; See 1 Cor. 2:5 divine powerpJer. 1:10 to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments andq[Isa. 2:11, 12] every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive torch. 9:13; [Rom. 5:19] obey Christ, 6 sSee ver. 2 being ready to punish every disobedience,tch. 2:9; 7:15 when your obedience is complete.
7 u[ch. 5:12; John 7:24] Look at what is before your eyes.v[1 Cor. 1:12; 14:37; 1 John 4:6] If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just asw1 Cor. 3:23 he is Christ's,x[ch. 11:23; 1 Cor. 9:1; Gal. 1:12] so also are we. 8 For even if I boast a little too much ofych. 13:10 our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. 9 I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. 10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, butzch. 11:21; [ch. 12:7] his bodily presence is weak, andaSee 1 Cor. 1:17 his speech of no account. ” 11 Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. 12 Not that we dare to classify orb1 Cor. 2:13 compare ourselves with some of those whocver. 18; ch. 3:1; 12:6; [Prov. 27:2] are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they ared[Prov. 26:12] without understanding.
13 But we will not boastever. 15 beyond limits, but willfSee Rom. 12:3 boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us,g[Rom. 15:20] to reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you.h1 Cor. 3:5; 4:15; 9:1 We were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is thati2 Thess. 1:3 as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may bej[Acts 5:13] greatly enlarged, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. 17 “Letk1 Cor. 1:31; [Jer. 9:23, 24] the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. ” 18 For it islSee ver. 12 not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the onemRom. 2:29; 1 Cor. 4:5 whom the Lord commends.