9. Indeed, we had accepted within ourselves the sentence of death, that we might trust not in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.
10. He rescued us from such great danger of death, and he will continue to rescue us; in him we have put our hope [that] he will also rescue us again,
11. as you help us with prayer, so that thanks may be given by many on our behalf for the gift granted us through the prayers of many.
12. For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you, with the simplicity and sincerity of God, [and] not by human wisdom but by the grace of God.
13. For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand completely,
14. as you have come to understand us partially, that we are your boast as you also are ours, on the day of [our] Lord Jesus.
15. With this confidence I formerly intended to come to you so that you might receive a double favor,
16. namely, to go by way of you to Macedonia, and then to come to you again on my return from Macedonia, and have you send me on my way to Judea.
17. So when I intended this, did I act lightly? Or do I make my plans according to human considerations, so that with me it is “yes, yes” and “no, no”?
18. As God is faithful, our word to you is not “yes” and “no.”
19. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you by us, Silvanus and Timothy and me, was not “yes” and “no,” but “yes” has been in him.