Not that we lord it over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.

I have previously said, and I say beforehand, as being present the second [time], and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare [you],

since you are seeking proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but strong in you.

For we can do nothing against the truth, but on behalf of the truth.

Because of this I write these things being absent, in order that when I am present I may not deal sharply with you, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for edification and not for destruction.

Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead),

Because if in anything I have boasted to him concerning you, I was not put to shame, but as we spoke all things to you in truth, thus also our boasting to Titus became truth.

For if I should desire to boast, I will not be foolish; for I will speak [the] truth. But I spare [you], lest anyone consider me to be beyond what he sees me [to be] or hears something from me.

For which cause I also suffer these things; but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I have been persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed to Him until that Day.