10. We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!
11. Up to the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty; we are poorly clothed, roughly treated, homeless;
12. we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;
13. when we are slandered, we respond graciously. Even now, we are like the world’s garbage, like the dirt everyone scrapes off their sandals.
14. I’m not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.
15. For you can have 10,000 instructors in Christ, but you can’t have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
16. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.
17. This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dearly loved and faithful son in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
18. Now some are inflated with pride, as though I were not coming to you.
19. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will know not the talk but the power of those who are inflated with pride.
20. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.
21. What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?