2 Corinthians 10:7-18

⁷You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, have him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so too are we. ⁸For if I boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame, ⁹for I do not want to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. ¹⁰For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.” ¹¹Have such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present.

¹²For we do not presume to rank 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. ¹³But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the domain which God assigned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you. ¹⁴For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we did not reach to you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ; ¹⁵not boasting beyond our measure, that is, in other people’s labors, but with the hope that as your faith grows, we will be, within our domain, enlarged even more by you, ¹⁶so as to preach the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the domain of another. ¹⁷But the one who boasts is to boast in the Lord. ¹⁸For it is not the one who commends himself that is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.