For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, evil speakings, whisperings, conceits, commotions;

I have told you before, and foretell as if I were 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;

since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you.

Therefore I write these things being absent, that when present I should not use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for building up and not for pulling down.

But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power.

For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power.