For I am afraid, lest perhaps when I come, I will not find you as I desire, and that I will be found by you as you do not desire; lest perhaps there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, disputes, slanders, gossipings, pride, disorders;
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.
Scrutinize yourselves as to whether you are in the faith; prove your own selves. Or do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you are reprobates?