1 This, I say, is the third time I am coming to you: and at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
2 I said before, and I again tell you beforehand, as if I were present the second time; and being absent I now write to those who have sinned heretofore, and to 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 is powerful among you.
4 For if He was crucified as from weakness, yet He now liveth by the power of God: for we also are weak in Him, but shall live with Him by the power of God manifested to you.
5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove yourselves: do ye not know yourselves to be such that Jesus Christ is in you? unless ye are reprovable.
6 But I hope ye will soon know that we are not disapproved.
7 I pray to God that ye may do no evil: and not that we may appear to be approved by your punishment, but that ye may do that which is good, though we should seem to be disapproved.
8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
9 For we rejoice when we exert not our power, and when ye are strong: as this is what we wish, even your perfection.
10 Therefore I write these things while absent, that when present I may not use severity, according to the power which the Lord hath given me for edification, and not for destruction.