8. For even if I boast a little more about our authority—which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down—I will not be put to shame.
9. Not that I would try to terrify you by my letters—
10. for they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his presence in person is weak and his speech of no account.”
11. Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word through letters when we are absent, we also are in action when we are present.
12. For we do not dare to classify 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.
13. But we will not boast beyond limits, but within the limits of the area that God has assigned to us—to reach even as far as you.
14. We are not extending ourselves too far, as if we did not reach you—for we did come even as far as to you with the Good News of Messiah.
15. Neither are we boasting beyond limits based on the labors of others, but we have hope while your faith is growing for our area among you to be greatly enlarged—
16. so that we may proclaim the Good News even to regions beyond you, not boasting about what has been accomplished in another’s area.
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.