But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth.
(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)
What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you
For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.
I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them—
For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.
being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.”
among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness.
The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.
And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all.
As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No.
you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.