because our Good News did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Ruach ha-Kodesh and with complete certainty—just as you know what kind of men we proved to be while among you for your sake.
For our reason for boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world, and most especially toward you, with simplicity and godly sincerity—not by human wisdom but by the grace of God.
Will good be repaid for evil? For they dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them.
Then Moses became very angry and said to Adonai, “Do not accept their offering. I haven’t taken from them a single donkey, nor have I wronged one of them!”
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we are trying to persuade people, but what we are is known to God—and I hope it is known to your consciences as well.
Instead, we renounced the hidden shameful ways—not walking in deception or distorting the word of God, but commending ourselves before God to everyone’s conscience by the open proclamation of the truth.