For even if I boasted somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord has given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I would not be ashamed:
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.
Now I pray to God that you will do no evil; not that we should appear to be approved, but that you should do that which is honest, though we may seem to be lost.