Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, through many tears, not that you should be sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly for you.

But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but in part; that I may not be overbearing on everyone.

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.

I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I admonish you.

For though you might have countless instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

O Corinthians, our mouth is open to you, our heart is wide open.

You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.

You are our letter written in our hearts, known and read by all men.

Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.

And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.

For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affections of Jesus Christ.

And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in full true knowledge and all discernment,

But Ruth said: Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.

So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own souls, because you had become beloved to us.