15. For though you may have 10,000 teachers in Christ, you do not have many fathers. Through the Good News I became your father in Christ Jesus.
16. So I beg you, please be like me.
17. That is why I am sending Timothy to you. He is my son in the Lord. I love Timothy, and he is faithful. He will help you remember the way I live in Christ Jesus. This way of life is what I teach in all the churches everywhere.
18. Some of you have become proud, thinking that I will not come to you again.
19. But I will come very soon if the Lord wants me to. Then I will see what those who are proud can do, not what they say.
20. I want to see this because the kingdom of God is not talk but power.
21. Which do you want: that I come to you with punishment, or that I come with love and gentleness?