¹³ This testimony is true. ^(A)Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

² that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience;

^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.

¹⁵ Speak these things, ^(A)exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no one despise you.

²⁰ Those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all, that the rest also may fear.

² Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. ^(A)Convince, ^(B)rebuke, ^(C)exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

A Good Servant of Jesus Christ

⁶ If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, ^(A)nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

⁸ For even if I made you ^(A)sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; ^(B)though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. ⁹ Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. ¹⁰ For ^(C)godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; ^(D)but the sorrow of the world produces death. ¹¹ For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what ^(E)clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be ^(F)clear in this matter. ¹² Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, ^(G)but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.