2 Corinthians 10

Paul speaks about his work as Christ's servant

1 I, Paul, need to ask you something. Perhaps you think that I am only humble when I am present there with you. You think that I only speak strongly to you when I am far away! Now I am away from you. But I am still humble and kind, like Christ is. 2 So please listen to what I am asking you. Some people among you think that we live like people who belong to this world. When I come to visit you, I am sure that I will be brave enough to speak against those people. But I do not want to have to speak strongly like that against all of you.

3 It is true that we live in this world as humans. But we do not use our human ideas to fight against what is wrong. 4 It is like we are fighting in a war, but we do not use human weapons. Instead we use God's weapons. Those weapons are powerful enough to destroy the enemy's strong places. We use those weapons to destroy people's wrong ideas. 5 People may speak proud ideas that stop other people from knowing God. We show that those ideas are completely wrong. We change the way that people think, so that they want to obey Christ. 6 You must show that you are ready to obey completely. Then we will be ready to punish anyone who refuses to obey in any way.

7 Take a careful look at what is happening among you. If anyone is sure that he belongs to Christ, he should remember this: We also belong to Christ, just as he does. 8 You may think that I am too proud of my authority. But it is the Lord who has given that authority to us apostles. We have that authority so that we can help you become stronger as believers. We do not have it so that we can destroy you! So I am not ashamed to be proud of this.

9 When I write letters to you, I am not trying to frighten you. Please do not think that. 10 Some people say: ‘Paul's letters are powerful and they say strong things. But when he himself is here with us, he seems to be weak. And the words that he speaks have no value.’ 11 Anyone who says things like that should understand this: There is no difference between what we write and what we do. When we come to you, we will do what we have written in our letters.

12 Some people praise themselves. They say how clever they are. But we could never do that. We could not even try to be like those people. But they do not understand anything. They decide among themselves how good they are. They look at one another to see if they are better or worse. 13 As for us, we will only be proud of the work that God has given us to do. We will not be proud of anything more than that. And that includes our work among you. 14 We were the first people to come as far as Corinth and tell you the good news about Christ. That was part of the work that God has given to us to do. So it is right for us to tell you how proud we are.

15 We do not praise ourselves for the work that other people have done. That would not be right. But we hope that you will continue to believe more and more strongly. In that way our work among you will become even greater. But it will still be the work that God has given to us, and no more than that. 16 Then we want to tell God's good news to people in places beyond where you are. Those are not places where God has sent other people to work. Then we will not be praising ourselves for the work that anyone else has done. 17 The Bible says this:

‘If you want to be proud about something,

be proud of what the Lord has done.’

18 Who is really good? It is not the person who praises himself. It is the person that the Lord says is a good person.

2 Corinthians 11

Paul speaks about false teachers

1 Please be patient with me! I am speaking like a fool. I know that you are being patient with me already! 2 God wants to keep you for himself. And that is what I want too. I have brought you to Christ, like a pure bride who marries one husband. I want you to be pure and to belong only to him. 3 Remember how the snake deceived Eve. Because he was clever, she believed his lies. I am afraid that the same thing might happen to you. False teachers may make you believe wrong things. Then you will no longer love Christ in a pure and honest way. 4 You are ready to listen to any false teachers who come to you. They might tell you about a different Jesus from the Jesus that we told you about. They might want you to receive a different spirit from the Spirit that you received from us. They might tell you a different kind of good news from the message that you heard from us. You seem to accept all this!

5 Those teachers call themselves very special apostles. But I think that I am as special as they are! 6 Perhaps I do not speak as well as they speak. But I do know what I am speaking about. We have always made this very clear to you in everything that we do.

7 When I told you God's good news, I never asked you to pay me anything. I made myself less important so that you could be more important. I do not think that I was wrong to do that. 8 Believers in other churches gave money to me so that I could serve you. It is like I was robbing them so that I could help you. 9 When I was there with you, I never made you help me. Even when I needed something, I did not cause trouble to anyone. Instead, the believers who came from Macedonia gave me everything that I needed. I was very careful never to cause you to have trouble. And I will continue to be careful like that. 10 The message that I speak about Christ is true. So I will continue to be proud of how I lived among you. Nobody in the whole region of Achaia can stop me doing that. 11 You must not think that I say this because I do not love you. God himself knows that I love you.

12 Yes, I will continue to work among you in the way that I am already doing. I will not take any pay from you. Then there will be no chance for those other teachers to be proud about themselves. They will not be able to say that they work in the same way that we do. 13 Those people are false apostles. They do not work in an honest way. They try to make people think that Christ has sent them as his apostles. 14 That should not surprise you! Even Satan can change himself to look like an angel who belongs to the light. 15 So do not be surprised when Satan's servants do the same thing. They can also seem to be serving God. They may seem to be doing good things, but really what they do is bad. So God will punish them in the end.

Paul speaks about his own work

16 I say this again: nobody should think that I am a fool. But even if you do think that, still listen to me. Give me a chance to praise myself a little, as a fool would do. 17 When I say good things about myself like this, it is not how the Lord would talk. No, these are the words of a fool. 18 But many other people are using human ideas to praise themselves. So I will also do that.

19 You think that you are very wise! So you are happy to listen to fools. 20 You accept people who make you like their slaves. You accept people who cheat you, or take things from you. You accept people who are proud of themselves. Even if someone hits you in your face, you still accept him. 21 But we were not brave enough to do things like that to you. Should I be ashamed of that?

But other people are brave enough to praise themselves. So I will also be proud of the same things. (Now I am talking like a fool!) 22 Are they proud that they are Hebrew people? So am I. Do they belong to Israel's people? So do I. Are they descendants of Abraham's family? So am I. 23 Are they Christ's servants? I serve him even better than they do! (Now I am speaking like a crazy person.) I work much more than they have worked. I have been in prison more often than they have. People have hit me with whips very many times. I have nearly died many times.

24 At five different times, the Jewish leaders punished me with whips. Each time they hit me 39 times. 25 Three times the Romans punished me with sticks. People threw stones at me to kill me once. Three times I have been on ships that broke in the sea. Once I was in the sea for a night and a day. 26 I have travelled on many journeys. I have been in danger from rivers and also from robbers. I have been in danger from my own people and also from Gentiles. I have been in danger in cities and also in the wilderness. I have been in danger on the sea. I have been in danger from false believers. 27 I have worked very hard, and I have been in pain. Many times I have not slept. I have often been hungry and thirsty. Many times I have had no food. I have often been cold and without enough clothes.

28 All these troubles have happened to me. But also, every day I have trouble in my mind. I worry about the believers in all the churches. 29 When one of these believers is weak, then I feel weak too. When something causes one of them to do something wrong, then I am very upset.

30 If I must be proud about myself, I will only be proud of things that show my weakness. 31 I am not telling lies. God, the Father of the Lord Jesus, knows that. He is the one that we should praise for ever. 32 When I was in Damascus, the ruler of that city sent soldiers to catch me. He was under the authority of King Aretas. The soldiers were watching carefully outside the city. 33 But my friends put me in a basket on the end of a rope. They sent me out through a window in the city wall and they let me drop to the ground. That is how I got away from the ruler of the city.

2 Corinthians 12

How God has helped Paul

1 I must continue to praise myself. It will not really help you, but I will tell you anyway. The Lord has shown me special things, like in a dream. 2 I know a certain man who belongs to Christ. 14 years ago, God quickly took this man up to the third heaven. Perhaps this man was still in his body. Perhaps he had gone away from his body. I do not know. Only God knows. 3-4 I know that God took this man up to paradise. I do not know whether this man was still in his body or not. Only God knows. When this man was in heaven, he heard about secret things. Those are things that no words can describe. God will not let any person speak about those things. They are too special.

5 I will say proud things about a man like that. But I will not be proud of anything good about myself. I will only be proud of things that show my weakness. 6 If I did want to praise myself, that would not make me a fool. No, because I would be saying true things. But I will not say good things about myself. I want everyone to think properly about me. People should look at how I live. They should think about what I say. That is enough for them to decide about me.

7 Yes, God did show me many things that were very special. But he did not want me to be proud because of that. So he gave me a pain in my body, like a sharp thorn. Satan uses that pain to give me much trouble. It is like Satan's angel that he sends to hurt me. That certainly stops me from being proud of myself! 8 I asked the Lord three times to take this pain away from me. 9 But he said to me, ‘I will be kind to you and I will help you. That will be enough for you. When you are weak, I will show that I am completely powerful to help you.’

So I am happy to be proud about my weakness. Then I know that Christ's power will be with me. 10 That is why I am happy even when I am weak. People may insult me. They may bring me trouble. They may want to hurt me. I may have many kinds of trouble. But I am still happy because I am serving Christ. Yes, whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul is a true apostle

11 I am speaking like a proud fool, but you have made me do it. You yourselves should be saying good things about me. I may not be important. But I am as good as those very special apostles. 12 When I was there with you, I showed that I was a true apostle. I worked patiently among you. I did many miracles and great things that showed God's power. 13 I worked among you in the same way as I did with the other churches. You were never less important to me than they are. The only difference is that I did not ask you to help me with money. So perhaps I should ask you to forgive me for that!

14 Listen to me! This is the third time that I am ready to visit you. I will not ask you to give anything to me. I do not want any of your things. Instead, I want you yourselves. You are like my children. Children should not have to supply what their parents need. It is parents who should supply what their children need. 15 So I will be happy to give everything that I have to you. I will be happy to give myself too, because I want to help you. Perhaps I love you too much! But that should not mean that you will love me less than you should.

16 I did not give you trouble. You surely know that. But some of you say that I deceived you. You think that I was clever and I got money from you. 17 That is not true! When I sent people to you, they never cheated you on my behalf. 18 I asked Titus to come and visit you, and I sent another Christian friend with him. But Titus certainly did not deceive you to get anything from you. Both he and I have always been completely honest with you. We both think in the same way.

19 What are you thinking when you read all this? Do you think that we want to show you how good we are? No, we are speaking as people who belong to Christ. God knows us. Everything that we do is to help you. We love you and we want to make you stronger as believers.

20 When I come there to visit you, I hope you will be living in a good way. But I am afraid that I will not see what I want to see. Then you will see that I am different from what you want me to be! I am afraid that you may be quarrelling. You may be jealous of each other. You may be very angry with each other. Some of you may just want to please yourselves. You may be insulting one another, or telling lies about one another. You may be proud of how good you are. You may be causing trouble for one another. Yes, I am afraid that all those things may be happening among you.

21 I am afraid that I may be very sad when I come back to you. My God may cause me to feel ashamed about you. Some of you may still be doing bad and disgusting things. You may be having sex with people that you are not married to, or in other wrong ways. Those are the bad things that many of you did at one time. If you have not turned away from those bad things, that will make me weep.