For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end;

And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.

For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things.

Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,

Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.

For as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:

But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.

I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare:

Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.