For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.

Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;

in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love,

But just as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you, see that you abound in this gracious work also.

I am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also.

Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you.

Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.