And I wrote this to you, lest when I came I should have sorrow from the ones of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
I have become foolish boasting. You compelled me. For I ought to be commended by you. For I lacked nothing of the highest apostles, if even I am nothing.
lest in my coming again my God will humble me with you; and I shall mourn many who have already sinned, and not repenting over the uncleanness, and fornication, and lustfulness which they have practiced.
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.
Then, though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered wrong, but for the sake of revealing our earnestness on your behalf, for you before God.
And we have sent with them our brother whom we have often proved earnest in many things, but now much more earnest by the great confidence which I have in you.