9. But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So then, I will boast most gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may reside in me.
10. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, with insults, with troubles, with persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ, for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
11. I have become a fool. You yourselves forced me to do it, for I should have been commended by you. For I lack nothing in comparison to those “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing.
12. Indeed, the signs of an apostle were performed among you with great perseverance by signs and wonders and powerful deeds.
13. For how were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this injustice!
14. Look, for the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you, because I do not want your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
15. Now I will most gladly spend and be spent for your lives! If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
16. But be that as it may, I have not burdened you. Yet because I was a crafty person, I took you in by deceit!
17. I have not taken advantage of you through anyone I have sent to you, have I?
18. I urged Titus to visit you and I sent our brother along with him. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit? Did we not behave in the same way?
19. Have you been thinking all this time that we have been defending ourselves to you? We are speaking in Christ before God, and everything we do, dear friends, is to build you up.