⁶ We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.^(A)

⁹ I wrote for this reason: to test you and to know whether you are obedient in everything.^(A)

²⁶ He spoke to the congregation, saying, “Turn away from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away for all their sins.”^{(A) 27} So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrances of their tents, together with their wives, their children, and their little ones. ²⁸ And Moses said, “This is how you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works; it has not been of my own accord:^{(B) 29} If these people die a natural death or if a natural fate comes on them, then the Lord has not sent me. ³⁰ But if the Lord creates something new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.”^(C)

¹⁵ And his heart goes out all the more to you, as he remembers the obedience of all of you and how you welcomed him with fear and trembling.^(A)

² I warned those who sinned previously 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 be lenient—

¹⁰ So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the brothers and sisters and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.^(A)

²⁰ among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have turned over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.^(A)

¹⁰ So I write these things while I am away from you, so that when I come I may not have to be severe in using the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.^(A)

³ For I, though absent in body, am present in spirit, and as if present I have already pronounced judgment ⁴ in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing.^[a] When you are assembled and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus,^{(A) 5} you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.^[b](B)

¹⁰ and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?^{(A) 11} And now listen—the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind for a while, unable to see the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he fumbled about for someone to lead him by the hand.^(B)