12. And we still toil unto weariness [for our living], working hard with our own hands. When men revile us [wound us with an accursed sting], we bless them. When we are persecuted, we take it patiently and endure it.
13. When we are slandered and defamed, we [try to] answer softly and bring comfort. We have been made and are now the rubbish and filth of the world [the offscouring of all things, the scum of the earth].
14. I do not write this to shame you, but to warn and counsel you as my beloved children.
15. After all, though you should have ten thousand teachers (guides to direct you) in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the glad tidings (the Gospel).
16. So I urge and implore you, be imitators of me.
17. For this very cause I sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord, who will recall to your minds my methods of proceeding and course of conduct and way of life in Christ, such as I teach everywhere in each of the churches.
18. Some of you have become conceited and arrogant and pretentious, counting on my not coming to you.
19. But I will come to you [and] shortly, if the Lord is willing, and then I will perceive and understand not what the talk of these puffed up and arrogant spirits amount to, but their force (the moral power and excellence of soul they really possess).
20. For the kingdom of God consists of and is based on not talk but power (moral power and excellence of soul).
21. Now which do you prefer? Shall I come to you with a rod of correction, or with love and in a spirit of gentleness?