²¹ What do you want? ^(A)Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

^2 (A)I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent ^[a]I write to those ^(B)who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again ^(C)I will not spare—

⁷ But ^(A)we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

^10 (A)Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the ^(B)authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.

²⁰ For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that ^(A)I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults; ²¹ lest, when I come again, my God ^(B)will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many ^(C)who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, ^(D)fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced.

Forgive the Offender

³ And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when I came, ^(A)I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, ^(B)having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all.

²³ Moreover ^(A)I call God as witness against my soul, ^(B)that to spare you I came no more to Corinth.

¹⁷ But ^(A)the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, ^(B)without partiality ^(C)and without hypocrisy.

^6 (A)and being ready to punish all disobedience when ^(B)your obedience is fulfilled.

The Spiritual War

10 Now ^(A)I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—^(B)who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. ² But I beg you ^(C)that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.