Paul’s Apostolic Authority 1 UDB Now I, Paul, make a personal appeal to you by the Christ himself who was humble and gentle—I who am humble when I am with you, but forceful when I am writing you a letter from far away!— BSB BSB: Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away.
2 UDB I beg of you that when I come I will not have to be harsh with you. I expect, however, that I will have to be firm and forceful with them who say that we are acting according to human standards. BSB BSB: I beg you that when I come I may not need to be as bold as I expect toward those who presume that we live according to the flesh.
3 UDB For though we now are living in our physical bodies, we are not fighting like armies fight. BSB BSB: For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh.
4 UDB And we are fighting with weapons, but these weapons are not designed by human beings but by God. These weapons are powerful—so powerful that they can tear apart any false arguments. BSB BSB: The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the flesh. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
5 UDB In this way we can tear apart every false argument and all those who rise up against God. Those are the ones who try to keep people from knowing him. We keep and hold every thought that people have, and we take those thoughts as our prisoners; so they will turn to him, and one day all of our thoughts will obey Christ. BSB BSB: We demolish arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
6 UDB When you completely obey Christ yourselves, we will be ready to punish any who remain disobedient to him. BSB BSB: And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, as soon as your obedience is complete.
7 UDB You should look at the clear facts. If anyone has faith that he belongs to Christ, remind him that just as he belongs to Christ, so do we! BSB BSB: You are looking at outward appearances. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself that we belong to Christ just as much as he does.
8 UDB I may have boasted too much about the authority we apostles have. But the Lord gave that authority to me not to destroy you but to help you and to make you strong. So I am not ashamed of the authority the Lord gave me. BSB BSB: For even if I boast somewhat excessively about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed.
9 UDB Though my letters seem strong, I do not want you to be afraid when you read them. That is not why I have written them to you. BSB BSB: I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you by my letters.
10 UDB Some people who know me and read my letters say, "We should take his letters seriously because they say powerful things, but when Paul is with us, he is physically weak and he is not worth listening to." BSB BSB: For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is unimpressive, and his speaking is of no account.”
11 UDB Let those who criticize me know that what we write to you in our letters are the very things we do when we are with you. BSB BSB: Such people should consider that what we are in our letters when absent, we will be in our actions when present.
12 UDB We will not even try to compare ourselves with those who praise themselves. When they compare themselves to one another, it proves only that they are foolish. BSB BSB: We 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 show their ignorance.
13 UDB We will praise ourselves only about what God has given us to do. And we will work only as he has told us to work; our work, however, includes you also. BSB BSB: We, however, will not boast beyond our limits, but only within the field of influence that God has assigned to us—a field that reaches even to you.
14 UDB When we reached out to you, we did not go beyond where God assigned us to work. He assigned your region to us, and we were the first to tell you the good news about Christ. BSB BSB: We are not overstepping our bounds, as if we had not come to you. Indeed, we were the first to reach you with the gospel of Christ.
15 UDB We are not boasting about the work God gave to others, as if we had done that work. Instead, we hope that you will trust God more and more, and that in the same way, God will assign us a larger region to work in. BSB BSB: Neither do we boast beyond our limits in the labors of others. But we hope that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you will greatly increase as well,
16 UDB We hope for this, so that we may share the good news with people beyond where you live. We will not take credit for work that any other servants of God are doing, in their own regions where they serve him. BSB BSB: so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. Then we will not be boasting in the work already done in another man’s territory.
17 UDB The scriptures say, "Let the one who is proud, be proud of the Lord." BSB BSB: Rather, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
18 UDB When a person praises himself for what he has done, God does not reward him for doing that. Instead, he rewards those whom he approves. BSB BSB: For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.