1 This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
2 I told you before, and tell you again, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them who earlier have sinned, and to all others, that, if I come again, I will not spare:
3 Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who toward 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. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
5 Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are counterfeits?
6 But I trust that you shall know that we are not counterfeits.
7 Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that you should do that which is honest, though we be as failures.
8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
9 For we are glad, when we are weak, and you are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.
10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord has given me to edification, and not to destruction.
11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be restored, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.
13 All the saints greet you.
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.