Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁷ Look at what’s in front of your face. If anyone trusts that they belong to the Messiah, let them calculate it once more: just as they belong to the Messiah, so also do we! ⁸ For if I do indeed boast a bit too enthusiastically about the authority which the Lord has given me—which is for building you up, not for pulling you down!—I shan’t be ashamed. ⁹ I wouldn’t want to look as if I were trying to frighten you with my letters. ¹⁰ I know what they say: “His letters are serious and powerful, but when he arrives in person he is weak, and his words aren’t worth bothering about.” ¹¹ Anyone like that should reckon on this: the way we talk in letters, when we’re absent, will be how we behave when we’re present.