Being entrusted, then, by God’s mercy, with this ministry, we do not play the coward;✻

we renounce all shame-faced concealment, there must be no crooked ways, no falsifying of God’s word; it is by making the truth publicly known that we recommend ourselves to the honest judgement of mankind, as in God’s sight.

Our gospel is a mystery, yes, but it is only a mystery to those who are on the road to perdition;

those whose unbelieving minds have been blinded by the god this world worships, so that the glorious gospel of Christ, God’s image, cannot reach them with the rays of its illumination.✻

After all, it is not ourselves we proclaim; we proclaim Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

The same God who bade light shine out of darkness has kindled a light in our hearts, whose shining is to make known his glory as he has revealed it in the features of Jesus Christ.

We have a treasure, then, in our keeping, but its shell is of perishable earthenware; it must be God, and not anything in ourselves, that gives it its sovereign power.

For ourselves, we are being hampered everywhere, yet still have room to breathe, are hard put to it, but never at a loss;

persecution does not leave us unbefriended, nor crushing blows destroy us;

we carry about continually in our bodies the dying state of Jesus, so that the living power of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies too.

Always we, alive as we are, are being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the living power of Jesus may be manifested in this mortal nature of ours.

So death makes itself felt in us, and life in you.

I spoke my mind, says the scripture, with full confidence, and we too speak our minds with full confidence, sharing that same spirit of faith,✻

and knowing that he who raised Jesus from the dead will raise us too, and summon us, like you, before him.

It is all for your sakes, so that grace made manifold in many lives may increase the sum of gratitude which is offered to God’s glory.

No, we do not play the coward; though the outward part of our nature is being worn down, our inner life is refreshed from day to day.

This light and momentary affliction brings with it a reward multiplied every way, loading us with everlasting glory;

if only we will fix our eyes on what is unseen, not on what we can see. What we can see, lasts but for a moment; what is unseen is eternal.