1 Corinthians 4:19–21

¹THIS is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

²I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare:

³Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.

⁴For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

²¹But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God will. And he sailed from Ephesus.

²¹¶ After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have been there, I must also see Rome.

³⁴And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

⁵I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

⁶Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

¹⁸Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.

²³Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.

³And this will we do, if God permit.

³²That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.

⁵Now I will come unto you, when I shall pass through Macedonia: for I do pass through Macedonia.

¹⁵And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit;

¹⁶And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judæa.

¹⁷When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?

²And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,

¹⁵For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

¹BUT I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness.

²For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?

⁴And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

⁵For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

⁴(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

⁵Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

¹⁷For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

¹⁹Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

²⁴But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

²I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare:

¹⁰Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.

⁷But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:

²⁰For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults:

²¹And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.

²³Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.

³And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.

¹⁷But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

¹NOW I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:

²But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

⁶And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

¹BUT I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness.

⁵To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

⁸For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:

¹⁰For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.