And I wrote this same to you, so that, when I came, I would not have sorrow from those for whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
I have become a fool in glorying; you have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended by you: for in nothing am I behind the very chief apostles, though I am nothing.
And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall mourn many who have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.
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.
Therefore, though I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of the one who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.
For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same letter has made you sorry, though it was but for a season.
And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have many times proved diligent in many things, but now much more diligent, because of the great confidence which I have in you.