For even if I should boast somewhat more concerning our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I will not be ashamed,
For if I should desire to boast, I will not be foolish; for I will speak the truth. But I spare you, lest anyone consider me to be beyond what he sees me to be or hears something from me.
Because of this I write these things being absent, in order that when I am present I may not deal sharply with you, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for edification and not for destruction.
Because if in anything I have boasted to him concerning you, I was not put to shame, but as we spoke all things to you in truth, thus also our boasting to Titus became truth.
Great is my confidence toward you, great is my boasting concerning you. I have been filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.
For which cause I also suffer these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I have been persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed to Him until that Day.