For we write no other things to you, but what ye own and acknowledge, and I hope ye will always acknowledge.

And I wrote this to you, that when I come I may not have grief from those of whom I ought to receive joy, being persuaded concerning all of you, that my joy is the joy of you all.

For through much affliction and distress of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not that ye might be grieved, but that ye might know the love with which I abound towards you.

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

Ye are our epistle, inscribed on our hearts, known and read by all men:

But to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.

by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, with the armour of righteousness on the right and on the left; through honor and dishonor,

Wherefore if I wrote in such a manner to you, it was not merely on his account who had done the wrong, nor for his sake who had been injured; but that our care for you in the sight of God might be manifested among you.

looking to things that are right not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

Now concerning the relief intended for the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you:

I said before, and I again tell you beforehand, as if I were present the second time; and being absent I now write to those who have sinned heretofore, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare:

Therefore I write these things while absent, that when present I may not use severity, according to the power which the Lord hath given me for edification, and not for destruction.