New Testament · Letters

2 Corinthians chapter 10

Now I, Paul, am making a personal appeal to you through the and of — I who am supposedly “timid” when I’m with you face to face, but “bold” when I’m far away.I’m asking you: please don’t force me to be as bold in person as I’m fully prepared to be against certain people who think we operate by purely .Yes, we live in , but we don’t using ordinary human tactics.The we use are not the kind the world uses. Instead, they carry God’s power to .We tear down and every that sets itself up against , and we to make it submit to The One.And we’re ready to every act of — once your own is fully in order.Look at what’s right in front of you! If anyone is convinced they , they need to think again and realize that we belong to The One just as much as they do.Even if I were to take my a bit further about the the Lord gave us — authority for , not tearing you down — I wouldn’t be embarrassed by it.I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to scare you with my letters.Because some people are saying, “His letters are and powerful, but in person he’s , and his is terrible.”People like that should understand this: what we say through letters when we’re away is exactly what we’ll do when we’re there in person.We wouldn’t dare put ourselves in the same category or even compare ourselves with certain people who are busy . When they measure themselves by their own standards and compare themselves to each other, they show a complete lack of understanding.We, on the other hand, won’t boast beyond proper limits. Instead, we’ll stay within the of the God measured out for us — an assignment that brought us all the way to you.We aren’t overstepping our limits by reaching out to you — after all, we were the first ones to come all the way to you with the about The One.We don’t boast about work done beyond our limits — work that other people did. Instead, our hope is that as your grows, our influence among you will expand greatly within our proper boundaries.Then we can bring the good news to the regions beyond you, rather than boasting about work already done in someone else’s territory.But “if anyone is going to boast, let them .”Because it’s not the person who themselves who is — it’s the person the Lord promotes.