1 I am coming to you this third time: every word shall be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses.
2 I told you before, and do tell before-hand (though now absent, as if I were present the second time) those who had sinned before, and all the rest, that, if I come again, I will not spare:
3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but powerful among you.
4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God: and we also are weak with him; but we shall live with him, by the power of God in you.
5 Examine yourselves, whether ye are in the faith: prove yourselves. Do ye not know yourselves? That Jesus Christ is in you? unless ye are reprobates.
6 And I trust, ye shall know, that we are not reprobates.
7 Now I pray God, that ye may do no evil: not that we may appear approved, but that ye may do that which is good, though we should be as reprobates.
8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
9 For we rejoice, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.
10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use severity, according to the power which the Lord hath given me, for edification, and not for destruction.