10:1   Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ--I who seem meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent!

10:2   ask that when I meet you face to face I need not show boldness with the confidence with which I propose to show courage against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh.

10:3   For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,

10:4   for the weapons of our warfare do not derive from the flesh, but prove divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

10:5  We destroy speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,

10:6   and we have readiness to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience reaches completion.

10:7   You look at things as they appear outward If anyone has confidence in himself that he belongs to Christ, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he belongs to Christ, so do we.

10:8   For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not endure shame,

10:9   for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.

10:10   For they say, "His letters sound weighty and strong, but his personal presence seems unimpressive and his speech contemptible."

10:11   Let such a person consider this, that what we seem in word by letters when absent, such persons we prove also in deed when present.

10:12   For we do not have the boldness to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they have no understanding.

10:13   But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you.

10:14   For we do not overextend ourselves, as if we did not reach to you, for we came to you first in the gospel of Christ;

10:15  not boasting beyond our measure, namely, in other men's labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will become, within our sphere, enlarged even more by you,

10:16   so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what another has accomplished in his sphere.

10:17   But HE WHO BOASTS SHOULD BOAST IN THE LORD.

10:18   For he does commend himself, but the Lord commends.