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.
examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith, prove your own selves. Do you not know your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are reprobates?
But I pray to God for you not to do evil, none. And not that we may appear approved, but that you should do the good things, though we are deemed to be reprobates.