10:1 Now I, Paul, make a personal appeal to you by the gentleness and graciousness of Christ--I who am humble among you in person but bold toward you when absent.
10:2 I beg you that when I am present I will not need to be bold with the confidence by which I plan to challenge certain people who think we are behaving in an unspiritual way.
10:3 For though we live in the body, we do not wage war in an unspiritual way,
10:4 since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments
10:5 and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
10:6 And we are ready to punish any disobedience, once your obedience has been confirmed.
10:7 Look at what is obvious. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself of this: Just as he belongs to Christ, so do we.
10:8 For if I boast some more about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down, I am not ashamed.
10:9 I don't want to seem as though I am trying to terrify you with my letters.
10:10 For it is said, "His letters are weighty and powerful, but his physical presence is weak, and his public speaking is despicable."
10:11 Such a person should consider this: What we are in the words of our letters when absent, we will be in actions when present.
10:12 For we don't dare classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. But in measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves, they lack understanding.
10:13 We, however, will not boast beyond measure but according to the measure of the area of ministry that God has assigned to us, which reaches even to you.
10:14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we had not reached you, since we have come to you with the gospel of Christ.
10:15 We are not bragging beyond measure about other people's labors. But we have the hope that as your faith increases, our area of ministry will be greatly enlarged,
10:16 so that we may proclaim the good news to the regions beyond you, not boasting about what has already been done in someone else's area of ministry.
10:17 So the one who boasts must boast in the Lord.
10:18 For it is not the one commending himself who is approved, but the one the Lord commends.
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