I had bragged about you to Titus, and you didn’t embarrass me. We have always told you the truth, and now what we told Titus about you has been shown to be true.
So we tell the other churches of God how proud we are of you. We tell them how you patiently continue to be strong and have faith, even though you are being persecuted and are suffering many troubles.
It may seem as though we boast too much about the authority the Lord gave us. But he gave us this authority to strengthen you, not to hurt you. So I will not be ashamed of whatever boasting we do.
And that is what was so encouraging to us. We were greatly encouraged, but we were especially pleased to see how happy Titus was. You all made him feel so much better.
But if I wanted to say more about myself, I would not be a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I won’t say any more, because I don’t want people to think more of me than what they see me do or hear me say.