"For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we despaired even of living. Indeed we ourselves had the response of death in ourselves, that we should not base our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead" (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).
"This therefore intending, did I then use fickleness? Or the things which I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, so that with me there should be Yes, yes and No, no?" (v. 17).
"For if I cause you sorrow..." (2:2a).
"And I wrote this very thing to you" (v. 3a).
"For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you through many tears, not that you would be made sorrowful but that you would know the love which I have more abundantly toward you" (v. 4).
"Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some do, letters of commendation to you or from you?" (3:1).
"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God" (v. 5).
"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us. We are pressed on every side but not constricted; unable to find a way out but not utterly without a way out; persecuted but not abandoned; cast down but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" (4:7-10).
"For also, we who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened, in that we do not desire to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life" (5:4).
"So then we, from now on, know no one according to the flesh" (v. 16a).
"Through glory and dishonor, through evil report and good report; as deceivers and yet true; as unknown and yet well known; as dying and yet behold we live; as being disciplined and yet not being put to death; as made sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as poor yet enriching many; as having nothing and yet possessing all things" (6:8-10).
"For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted in everything; without were fightings, within were fears" (7:5).
"But I myself, Paul,...in person am base among you, but while absent am bold toward you" (10:1).
"For even if I should boast somewhat more abundantly concerning our authority, which the Lord has given for building you up and not for overthrowing you, I will not be put to shame" (v. 8).
"Because while his letters, someone says, are weighty and strong, his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible" (v. 10).
"But I count myself to be inferior to the super-apostles in nothing. But even if I am a layman in speech, yet I am not in knowledge; indeed in every way we have made this manifest in all things to you" (11:5-6).
"And because of the transcendence of the revelations, in order that I might not be exceedingly lifted up, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that he might buffet me, in order that I might not be exceedingly lifted up. Concerning this I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast in my weaknesses that the power of Christ might tabernacle over me....For when I am weak, then I am powerful" (12:7-9, 10b).
"For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but powerful before God for the overthrowing of strongholds" (10:4).