10:1 Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am ①meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!
▷ ①Lit lowly
10:2 I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I intend to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh.
10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage battle according to the flesh,
10:4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but ①divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
▷ ①Or mighty before God
10:5 We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
10:6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
10:7 ①You are looking at ②things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, have him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so too are we.
▷ ①Or Look at... or Do you look at...? ②Lit what is before your face
10:8 For if I boast somewhat ①more about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame,
▷ ①Or more abundantly
10:9 ①for I do not want to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.
▷ ①Lit so that I may not seem
10:10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his ①personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.”
▷ ①Lit bodily presence is weak
10:11 Have such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present.
10:12 For we do not presume to rank or compare ourselves with ①some of those who commend themselves; but when they ②measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they have no understanding.
▷ ①Or any ②I.e., evaluate
10:13 But we will not boast beyond our measure, but ①within the measure of the ②domain which God assigned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you.
▷ ①Lit according to the measure ②Or assignment; lit standard
10:14 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;
10:15 not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in other people’s labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will be, ①within our ②domain, enlarged even more by you,
▷ ①Lit according to our ②See note 2 v 13
10:16 so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast ①in what has been accomplished in the domain of another.
▷ ①Lit to the things prepared in the
10:17 But THE ONE WHO BOASTS IS TO BOAST IN THE LORD.
10:18 For it is not the one who commends himself that is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.