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

¹⁴ I do not write this to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as beloved children of mine. ¹⁵ You may have thousands to superintend you in Christ, but you have not more than one father. It was I who in Christ Jesus became your father by means of the gospel. ¹⁶ Then imitate me, I beg of you. ¹⁷ To ensure this, I am sending you Timotheus, my beloved and trustworthy son in the Lord; he will remind you of those methods in Christ Jesus which I teach everywhere in every church. ¹⁸ Certain individuals have got puffed up, have they, as if I were not coming myself? ¹⁹ I will come to you before long, if the Lord wills, and then I will find out from these puffed up creatures not what their talk but what their power amounts to. ²⁰ For God's Reign does not show itself in talk but in power. ²¹ Which is it to be? Am I to come to you with a rod of discipline or with love and a spirit of gentleness?