1 This third time I am coming unto you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. 2 I told you before and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now, I write to those who until now have sinned and to all others that, if I come again, I will not spare, 3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who unto you is not weak, but is mighty in you. 4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives by the power of God. By which we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God in you.
5 Examine yourselves whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. Do ye not know your own selves if Jesus Christ is in you? Unless ye are reprobates. 6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. 7 Now I pray to God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is good, though we be as reprobates. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 By which we are glad that we are weak and ye are strong, and even so we pray for your perfection. 10 Therefore I write these things being absent lest being present I should treat you with more severity, according to the power which the Lord has given me for edification, and not for destruction.