10Wherefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then I am powerful.
11I have become foolish; ye compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind these overmuch apostles, though I am nothing. 12Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, by signs, and wonders, and miracles. 13For what is there, wherein ye were inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I myself was not a charge to you? Forgive me this wrong.
14Behold, I am ready to come to you the third time; and I will not be a charge to you; for I seek not yours, but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. 15And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. 16But be it so, I was not myself a charge to you[16]; but yet, being crafty, I caught you with guile. 17Did I make gain of you, by any of those whom I have sent to you? 18I exhorted Titus [to go], and sent with him the brother. Did Titus make gain of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit; did we not in the same steps?
19Do ye again suppose that we are excusing ourselves to you[19]? Before God in Christ we speak; and all, beloved, for your edification. 20For I fear, lest haply, when I come, I shall find you not such as I would, and I too shall be found by you such as ye would not; lest there be wranglings, envyings, wraths, rivalries, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults; 21lest, when I come again, my God shall humble me among you, and I shall bewail many of those who have sinned before, and repented not of the uncleanness, and fornication, and wantonness, which they committed.
XIII. This third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two witnesses, and of three, shall every word be established. 2I have before said, and now say beforehand, as when present the second time, so also now when absent, to those who heretofore have sinned, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare; 3since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who toward you is not weak, but is mighty in you. 4For even if he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
5Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye are reprobate? 6But I trust that ye shall know, that we are not reprobate.
7Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye may do what is good, though we be as reprobate. 8For we have no power against the truth, but for the truth. 9For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are powerful; this also we pray for, even your perfection.
10For this cause I write these things being absent, that when present I may not use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord gave me for edification, and not for destruction.
11Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of the same mind, be at peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
12Salute one another with a holy kiss. 13All the saints salute you.