9. I don’t want to seem as though I am trying to terrify you with my letters.
10. For it is said, “His letters are weighty and powerful, but his physical presence is weak, and his public speaking is despicable.”
11. Such a person should consider this: What we are in the words of our letters when absent, we will be in actions when present.
12. For we don’t dare classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. But in measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves, they lack understanding.
13. We, however, will not boast beyond measure but according to the measure of the area of ministry that God has assigned to us, which reaches even to you.
14. For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we had not reached you, since we have come to you with the gospel of Christ.
15. We are not bragging beyond measure about other people’s labors. But we have the hope that as your faith increases, our area of ministry will be greatly enlarged,
16. so that we may proclaim the good news to the regions beyond you, not boasting about what has already been done in someone else’s area of ministry.
17. So the one who boasts must boast in the Lord.
18. For it is not the one commending himself who is approved, but the one the Lord commends.