¹⁴ Behold now, the third time, I am ready to come unto you, and yet will I not be grievous unto you. For I seek not yours, but you. Also the children ought not to lay up for the fathers and mothers: but the fathers and mothers for the children. ¹⁵ I will very gladly bestow, and will be bestowed for your souls: though the more I love you, the less I am loved again. ¹⁶ But be it that I grieved you not: nevertheless I was crafty and took you with guile. ¹⁷ Did I defraud you by any of them which I sent unto you? ¹⁸ I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother: Did Titus defraud you of any thing? Walked we not in one spirit? Walked we not in like steps?

¹⁹ Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves? We speak in Christ in the sight of God. But we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. ²⁰ For I fear, lest it come to pass, that when I come I shall not find you such as I would: and I shall be found unto you such as I would not. I fear lest there be found among you debate, envying, wrath, strife, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, and discord. ²¹ I fear lest when I come again, God bring me low among you, and I be constrained to bewail many of them which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, and wantonness which they have committed.