Paul's Defense of His Ministry

101 Now I, Paul , myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ -I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent ! 2 I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some , who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh . 3 For though we walk in the flesh , we do not war according to the flesh , 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh , but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses . 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God , and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ , 6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience , whenever your obedience is complete .

7 You are looking at things as they are outwardly e . If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's , let him consider this again within himself , that just as he is Christ's , so also are we. 8 For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority , which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame , 9 for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters . 10 For they say , "His letters are weighty and strong , but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible ." 11 Let such a person consider this , that what we are in word by letters when absent , such persons we are also in deed when present .

12 For we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves ; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves , they are without understanding . 13 But we will not boast beyond e our measure , but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure , to reach even as far as you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves , as if we did not reach to you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ ; 15 not boasting beyond e our measure , that is, in other men's labors , but with the hope that as your faith grows , we will be, within our sphere , enlarged even more by you, 16 so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the sphere of another . 17 But HE WHO BOASTS IS TO BOAST IN THE Lord . 18 For it is not he who commends himself that is approved , but he whom the Lord commends .

Ministers of the New Covenant

31 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again ? Or do we need , as some , letters of commendation to you or from you? 2 You are our letter , written in our hearts , known and read by all men ; 3 being manifested that you are a letter of Christ , cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God , not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts . 4 Such confidence we have through Christ toward God . 5 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves , but our adequacy is from God ,

6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant , not of the letter but of the Spirit ; for the letter kills , but the Spirit gives life . 7 But if the ministry of death , in letters engraved on stones , came with glory , so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face , fading as it was, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory ? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation has glory , much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory . 10 For indeed what had glory , in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if that which fades away was with glory , much more that which remains is in glory .

12 Therefore having such a hope , we use great boldness in our speech , 13 and are not like Moses , who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away . 14 But their minds were hardened ; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted , because it is removed in Christ . 15 But to this day whenever e Moses is read , a veil lies over their heart ; 16 but whenever e a person turns to the Lord , the veil is taken away . 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit , and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty . 18 But we all , with unveiled face , beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord , are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory , just as from the Lord , the Spirit .