For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed;

For his letters, they say, are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.

Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one through you in the person of Christ,

for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be, having been bound in Heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be, having been loosed in Heaven.

For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.

for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

This punishment from the majority is sufficient for such a man,

Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, letters of commendation to you or commendation from you?

Clearly you are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but in tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.

Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

My defense to those who examine me is this: