For I solemnly warned your ancestors when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, “Obey my voice.”
Indeed, this is our boast, the testimony of our conscience: we have behaved in the world with holiness and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God—and all the more toward you.
Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death.
But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him.