| English Standard Version | International Standard Version |
| 1I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— | 1Now I myself, Paul, plead with you with the gentleness and kindness of the Messiah —I who am humble when I am face to face with you but forceful toward you when I am away! |
| 2I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. | 2I beg you that when I come I will not need to be courageous by daring to oppose some people who think that we are living according to the flesh. |
| 3For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. | 3Of course, we are living in the world, but we do not wage war in a world-like way. |
| 4For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. | 4For the weapons of our warfare are not those of the world. Instead, they have the power of God to demolish fortresses. We tear down arguments |
| 5We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, | 5and every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive in order to obey the Messiah. |
| 6being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. | 6Once your obedience is complete, we will be ready to reprimand every type of disobedience. |
| 7Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. | 7Look at the plain facts! If anyone is confident that he belongs to the Messiah, he should remind himself of this: Just as he belongs to the Messiah, so do we. |
| 8For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. | 8So if I boast a little too much about our authority, which the Lord gave us to build you up and not to tear you down, I will not be ashamed of it. |
| 9I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. | 9I do not want you to think that I am trying to frighten you with my letters. |
| 10For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” | 10For someone is saying, "His letters are impressive and forceful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible." |
| 11Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. | 11Someone like this should take note of the following: What we say by letter when we are absent is what we will do when present! |
| 12Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. | 12We would not dare put ourselves in the same class with, or compare ourselves to, those who recommend themselves. Whenever they measure themselves by their own standards or compare themselves among themselves, they show how foolish they are. |
| 13But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. | 13We will not boast about what cannot be evaluated. Instead, we will stay within the field that God assigned us, so as to reach even you. |
| 14For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. | 14For it is not as though we were overstepping our limits when we came to you. We were the first to reach you with the gospel of the Messiah. |
| 15We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, | 15We are not boasting about work done by others that cannot be evaluated. On the contrary, we cherish the hope that your faith may continue to grow and enlarge our sphere of action among you until it overflows. |
| 16so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. | 16Then we can preach the gospel in the regions far beyond you without boasting about things already accomplished by someone else. |
| 17“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” | 17"The person who boasts should boast in the Lord." |
| 18For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. | 18It is not the person who commends himself who is approved, but the person whom the Lord commends. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
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