The God and Father of the Lord Jesus---blessed be his name forever!---knows that I am not lying.

I call God as my witness---he knows my heart! It was in order to spare you that I decided not to go to Corinth.

Perhaps you think that all along we have been trying to defend ourselves before you. No! We speak as Christ would have us speak in the presence of God, and everything we do, dear friends, is done to help you.

God is my witness that what I say is true---the God whom I serve with all my heart by preaching the Good News about his Son. God knows that I remember you

I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying

What I write is true. God knows that I am not lying!

You know very well that we did not come to you with flattering talk, nor did we use words to cover up greed---God is our witness!

You are our witnesses, and so is God, that our conduct toward you who believe was pure, right, and without fault.

and that is why I was sent as an apostle and teacher of the Gentiles, to proclaim the message of faith and truth. I am not lying; I am telling the truth!

I will go on doing what I am doing now, in order to keep those other "apostles" from having any reason for boasting and saying that they work in the same way that we do.

I repeat: no one should think that I am a fool. But if you do, at least accept me as a fool, just so I will have a little to boast of.

Of course what I am saying now is not what the Lord would have me say; in this matter of boasting I am really talking like a fool.

So we do not boast about the work that others have done beyond the limits God set for us. Instead, we hope that your faith may grow and that we may be able to do a much greater work among you, always within the limits that God has set.

But I haven't made use of any of these rights, nor am I writing this now in order to claim such rights for myself. I would rather die first! Nobody is going to turn my rightful boast into empty words!

If I did my work as a matter of free choice, then I could expect to be paid; but I do it as a matter of duty, because God has entrusted me with this task.

From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and from our brother Timothy--- To the church of God in Corinth, and to all God's people throughout Achaia:

I know that you are willing to help, and I have boasted of you to the people in Macedonia. "The believers in Achaia," I said, "have been ready to help since last year." Your eagerness has stirred up most of them.

When Gallio was made the Roman governor of Achaia, Jews there got together, seized Paul, and took him into court.

Apollos then decided to go to Achaia, so the believers in Ephesus helped him by writing to the believers in Achaia, urging them to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who through God's grace had become believers.

Greetings also to the church that meets in their house. Greetings to my dear friend Epaenetus, who was the first in the province of Asia to believe in Christ.

You know about Stephanas and his family; they are the first Christian converts in Achaia and have given themselves to the service of God's people. I beg you, my friends,

So you became an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia.

For not only did the message about the Lord go out from you throughout Macedonia and Achaia, but the news about your faith in God has gone everywhere. There is nothing, then, that we need to say.