Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double pleasure;

I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedo′nia, and to come back to you from Macedo′nia and have you send me on my way to Judea.

Indeed, in this case, what once had splendor has come to have no splendor at all, because of the splendor that surpasses it.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.

Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you,

lest if some Macedo′nians come with me and find that you are not ready, we be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident.

For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you; we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ.

For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you submit to it readily enough.

Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you; for children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children.

For I fear that perhaps I may come and find you not what I wish, and that you may find me not what you wish; that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.

I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned before and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and licentiousness which they have practiced.

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—

I write this while I am away from you, in order that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.