2 Corinthians 10 Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away.

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Now by the mildness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold when away. ² I beg you that when I come, I may not need to be as bold as I expect toward those who presume that we live according to the flesh. ³ For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war as the flesh does. ⁴ The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ, ⁶ And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, as soon as your obedience is complete. ⁷ You are looking at outward appearances. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should remind himself that we belong to Christ just as much as he does. ⁸ For even if I boast somewhat excessively about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed. ⁹ I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you by my letters. ¹⁰ For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but his physical presence is unimpressive, and his speaking is of no account.” ¹¹ Let such people realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. ¹² We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they show their ignorance. ¹³ But we will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the field God has apportioned to us, a field that reaches even to you. ¹⁴ For we do not stretch ourselves out too far, as if we had not come to you, for we came even to you with the gospel of Christ; ¹⁵ So, we will not go beyond our proper limits by boasting of work [already] done by others, but we hope that, as your faith increases, our field of service among you will [also] greatly expand. ¹⁶ so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast of work already done in another man's territory. ¹⁷ But, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." ¹⁸ For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.