4:12. And we labour, working with our own hands. We are reviled: and we bless. We are persecuted: and we suffer it.
4:13. We are blasphemed: and we entreat. We are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all, even until now.
4:14. I write not these things to confound you: but I admonish you as my dearest children.
4:15. For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you.
4:16. Wherefore, I beseech you, be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ.
4:17. For this cause have I sent to you Timothy, who is my dearest son and faithful in the Lord. Who will put you in mind of my ways, which are in Christ Jesus: as I teach every where in every church.
4:18. As if I would not come to you, so some are puffed up.
4:19. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will: and will know, not the speech of them that are puffed up, but the power.
4:20. For the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power.
4:21. What will you? Shall I come to you with a rod? Or in charity and in the spirit of meekness?