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

¹⁴ I write not these things to shame you, but I am warning you as my beloved children. ¹⁵ For though ye have ten thousand teachers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I begot you through the gospel. ¹⁶ I exhort you therefore, be ye imitators of me. ¹⁷ For this end I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved child, and faithful in the Lord, who will put you in mind of my ways in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every church. ¹⁸ Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. ¹⁹ But I shall come to you shortly, if it be the Lords will, and will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power; ²⁰ for the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power. ²¹ What will ye? Am I to come to you with a rod, or in love, and the spirit of mildness?