1 Corinthians 4:14-21 - Paul's Concern For The Corinthian Believers

¹⁴ I am not writing this to shame you, but to admonish you, as my beloved children. ¹⁵ For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ Jesus, you can have but one father. For in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel. ¹⁶ I beg you then to imitate my example. ¹⁷ With this in mind I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ; the manner in which I ever teach everywhere in every church. ¹⁸ Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But come to you I will, and that soon, if it please the Lord, and then I shall learn not the talk of these boasters, but their power. ²⁰ For the kingdom of God is not in talk, but in power. ²¹ Which do you want? Am I to come to you with a rod, or in a loving and tender spirit?