1 THIS IS the third time that I am coming to you. By the testimony of two or three witnesses must any charge and every accusing statement be sustained and confirmed. 2 I have already warned those who sinned formerly and all the rest also, and I warn them now again while I am absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come back, I will not spare [them], 3 Since you desire and seek [perceptible] proof of the Christ Who speaks in and through me. [For He] is not weak and feeble in dealing with you, but is a mighty power within you; 4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He goes on living by the power of God. And though we too are weak in Him [as He was humanly weak], yet in dealing with you [we shall show ourselves] alive and strong in [fellowship with] Him by the power of God.
5 Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves [ 1 not Christ]. Do you not yourselves realize and know [thoroughly by an ever-increasing experience] that Jesus Christ is in you--unless you are [counterfeits] disapproved on trial and rejected? 6 But I hope you will recognize and know that we are not disapproved on trial and rejected. 7 But I pray to God that you may do nothing wrong, not in order that we [ 2 our teaching] may appear to be approved, but that you may continue doing right, [though] we may seem to have failed and be unapproved. 8 For we can do nothing against the Truth [ 3 not serve any party or personal interest], but only for the Truth [ 4 which is the Gospel]. 9 For we are glad when we are weak ( 5 unapproved) and you are really strong. And this we also pray for: your all-round strengthening and perfecting of soul. 10 So I write these things while I am absent from you, that when I come to you, I may not have to deal sharply in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me [to be employed, however] for building [you] up and not for tearing [you] down.