1 Corinthians 4:14-21

International Children’s Bible

¹⁴ I am not trying to make you feel ashamed. I am writing this to give you a warning as if you were my own dear children. ¹⁵ For though you may have 10,000 teachers in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Through the Good News I became your father in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ So I beg you, please be like me. ¹⁷ That is why I am sending Timothy to you. He is my son in the Lord. I love Timothy, and he is faithful. He will help you remember the way I live in Christ Jesus. This way of life is what I teach in all the churches everywhere.

¹⁸ Some of you have become proud, thinking that I will not come to you again. ¹⁹ But I will come very soon if the Lord wants me to. Then I will see what those who are proud can do, not what they say. ²⁰ I want to see this because the kingdom of God is not talk but power. ²¹ Which do you want: that I come to you with punishment, or that I come with love and gentleness?