I am worried that when I visit you I will find that many of you are still sinning. I pray that God will help you turn from your sinful behavior, so that I will not have to discipline you when I come.

2 Corinthians 12:19—13:10

19 While you have been reading this letter, if you have been thinking that I have just been saying these things to defend myself against those who accuse me, you are wrong. I have been saying these things honestly, knowing that God is listening to me. I also speak as one who has a close relationship with Christ. Everything that I do and everything that I say is to help you whom I love ◄to grow spiritually/ to become spiritually mature►. 20 I have written this way to you because I worry that when I come to visit you, I will see that some of you are not conducting your lives the way that I want you to. If that is so, when I get there you will see that I will have to act in a very severe way toward you, and I am sure that you do not want that. Specifically, I am afraid that some of you may be quarreling, or that you are being jealous of each other, or that you quickly get very angry with them, or that you are acting selfishly, or that some of you are saying bad things about others, or that you are ◄spreading false rumors/saying false things► about each other, or that you are acting proudly, or that you are doing things in a disorderly manner. 21 I ◄feel anxious/am concerned► about you. I worry that when I visit you again, God, the one whom I serve, will make me feel ashamed of you when I see that you still are not conducting your lives as believers should. Then I will feel very sad about some of you who were sinning previously and have not stopped your sinful behavior. Some of you may still have impure thoughts. Some of you may be having sexual intercourse with those to whom you are not married. And some of you may be doing other shameful things.

13 In the Scriptures it is stated that when one person accuses another of wrongdoing, you must not believe his accusation right away. First, you must listen to at least two or three people who actually saw what happened. So keep in mind that this will be the third time that I will visit you! 2 When I visited you the second time, I warned you that I was going to punish all the wrongdoers among you. And now I am warning you again while I am still away from you. When I visit you this third time, I will punish those who were sinning at the time when I visited you before and who are still sinning, and I will punish the others who have been sinning since then, if they have not stopped their sinful behavior. 3 Because you have demanded that I prove to you that Christ is speaking to you when I speak to you, I will show you that I speak to you as his apostle. Christ does not approve of your sinful behavior. On the contrary, he will powerfully discipline you. 4 It is true that Christ seemed to be weak when he was crucified {when people killed him by nailing him to the cross}. But it is also true that he now lives because God worked powerfully to bring him back to life. Similarly, as I serve God, I also am a weak human being as Christ was. But I also have a close relationship with Christ who is now alive again. And with his authority I will use God’s power to discipline you.

5 Each of you should ask yourself: “Do I believe God’s message about Christ?” Each of you should examine yourselves to make sure that you truly do believe in Christ and so truly belong to him, and that his Spirit lives in you (pl). When you examine yourselves in that way, I am sure that you will [RHQ] say to me, “Yes, of course we belong to Christ.” 6 I am also certain that you will know that I belong to Christ, just like you do. 7 But because I do not want to have to punish you, I am praying to God that he will help you not to do anything evil that would cause me to have to punish you. I pray this, not in order that when people who say that I am not your apostle realize that my ministry among you has been very successful, they will have to agree that I do have authority from Christ. Instead, I pray this because I want you to do what is right, even though that might mean that my opponents would think that I do not have authority from Christ, since I would not have an opportunity to show my authority to discipline you. 8 If you do what is right, I will not discipline you, because it would not be right for me to do that if you are conducting your lives the way you should, like God’s true message says that you should. What God asks me to do is to help people to know and obey his true message. 9 I am happy whenever you are strongly trusting and obeying Christ, and because of that I do not have to use my authority to discipline you. It does not matter to me if that makes people think that I do not have any authority. Truly, what I am praying for is that God will help you to completely change your conduct. 10 That is why I am writing these things while I am still away from you. What I want is that when I visit you, you will already be conducting your lives as God wants you to, and so I will not have to discipline you severely, as the Lord Jesus Christ gave me the authority to do. The authority that I have from the Lord is to help you to become spiritually mature believers, not to cause you to stop trusting in him.