For we do not dare to rank or compare ourselves with some of the ones commending themselves. But they, measuring themselves among themselves, and comparing themselves to themselves, are not perceptive.
For I fear, lest somehow coming I might not find you as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you might not wish; lest somehow there be strifes, envyings, angers, contentions, backbitings, whisperings, proud thoughts, tumults;
Therefore I write these things while absent, lest being present I may not deal sharply with you according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for pulling down.