For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
For I fear, that, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would like, and that I shall be found by you such as you would not like: lest there be debates, envying, wrath, strife, backbiting, whispering, pride, tumults:
Therefore I write these things being absent, so that being present I need not use severity, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification, and not for destruction.