Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.

Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

But now finish the task as well, that just as there was eagerness to desire it, so there may also be a completion from what you have.

For if the eagerness is there, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

It is not that there may be relief for others and hardship for you, but it is a question of equality—

at the present time your surplus is available for their need, so their abundance may also become available for our need, so there may be equality.

Not to mention other things, there is the daily pressure on me: my care for all the churches.

For I fear that perhaps when I come I will not find you to be what I want, and I may not be found by you to be what you want; there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.

This is why I am writing these things while absent, that when I am there I will not use severity, in keeping with the authority the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.