Dual PanelThe challenge to Paul's authority
1(I, PAUL), appeal to you by the gentleness and magnanimity of Christ -- I who am so timid (you say) when face to face with you, so courageous when I am away from you.
2Spare me when I come, I beg you, the need for that courage and self-assurance, which I reckon I could confidently display against those who assume my behaviour to be dictated by human weakness.
3Weak and human we may be, but that does not dictate the way we fight our battles.
4The weapons we wield are not merely human; they are strong enough with God's help to demolish strongholds.
5We demolish sophistries and all that rears its proud head against the knowledge of God; we compel every human thought to surrender in obedience to Christ;
6and we are prepared to punish any disobedience once your own obedience is complete.
7Look facts in the face. Is someone convinced that he belongs to Christ? Let him think again and reflect that we belong to Christ as much as he does.
8Indeed, if I am boasting too much about our authority -- an authority given by the Lord to build your faith, not pull it down -- I shall make good my boast.
9So you must not think of me as one who tries to scare you by the letters he writes.
10“His letters”, so it is said, “are weighty and powerful; but when he is present he is unimpressive, and as a speaker he is beneath contempt.”
11People who talk in that way should reckon with this: my actions when I come will show the same man as my letters showed while I was absent.
12We should not dare to class ourselves or compare ourselves with any of those who commend themselves. What fools they are to measure themselves on their own, to find in themselves their standard of comparison!
13As for us, our boasting will not go beyond the proper limits; and our sphere is determined by the limit God laid down for us, which permitted us to come as far as Corinth.
14We are not overstretching our commission, as we would be if we had never come to you; but we were the first to reach as far as Corinth in the work of the gospel of Christ.
15And we do not boast of work done where others have laboured, work beyond our proper sphere. Our hope is rather that, as your faith grows, we may attain a position among you greater than ever before, but still within the limits of our sphere.
16Then we can carry the gospel to lands that lie beyond you, never priding ourselves on work already done in anyone else's sphere.
17If anyone would boast, let him boast of the Lord.
18For it is not the one who recommends himself, but the one whom the Lord recommends, who is to be accepted.