For this I write these things being absent, that being present I should not wound severely, according to the power which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for pulling down.
And I pray, being present, not to be bold with the confidence which I reckon to encounter against certain, reckoning us as walking about according to the flesh.
For if I also boast something more abundantly of our power, which the Lord gave us for the building up, and not for your taking down, I shall not be ashamed:
I have said before, and say beforehand, as being present the second; and being away now I write to them having sinned before, and to all the rest, that, if I should come again, I will not spare: