| International Standard Version | New International Version |
| 1Now I myself, Paul, plead with you with the gentleness and kindness of the Messiah —I who am humble when I am face to face with you but forceful toward you when I am away! | 1By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you--I, Paul, who am "timid" when face to face with you, but "bold" toward you when away! |
| 2I beg you that when I come I will not need to be courageous by daring to oppose some people who think that we are living according to the flesh. | 2I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. |
| 3Of course, we are living in the world, but we do not wage war in a world-like way. | 3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. |
| 4For the weapons of our warfare are not those of the world. Instead, they have the power of God to demolish fortresses. We tear down arguments | 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. |
| 5and every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive in order to obey the Messiah. | 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. |
| 6Once your obedience is complete, we will be ready to reprimand every type of disobedience. | 6And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. |
| 7Look at the plain facts! If anyone is confident that he belongs to the Messiah, he should remind himself of this: Just as he belongs to the Messiah, so do we. | 7You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. |
| 8So if I boast a little too much about our authority, which the Lord gave us to build you up and not to tear you down, I will not be ashamed of it. | 8So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. |
| 9I do not want you to think that I am trying to frighten you with my letters. | 9I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. |
| 10For someone is saying, "His letters are impressive and forceful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible." | 10For some say, "His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing." |
| 11Someone like this should take note of the following: What we say by letter when we are absent is what we will do when present! | 11Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. |
| 12We would not dare put ourselves in the same class with, or compare ourselves to, those who recommend themselves. Whenever they measure themselves by their own standards or compare themselves among themselves, they show how foolish they are. | 12We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. |
| 13We will not boast about what cannot be evaluated. Instead, we will stay within the field that God assigned us, so as to reach even you. | 13We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. |
| 14For it is not as though we were overstepping our limits when we came to you. We were the first to reach you with the gospel of the Messiah. | 14We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. |
| 15We are not boasting about work done by others that cannot be evaluated. On the contrary, we cherish the hope that your faith may continue to grow and enlarge our sphere of action among you until it overflows. | 15Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, |
| 16Then we can preach the gospel in the regions far beyond you without boasting about things already accomplished by someone else. | 16so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else's territory. |
| 17"The person who boasts should boast in the Lord." | 17But, "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." |
| 18It is not the person who commends himself who is approved, but the person whom the Lord commends. | 18For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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