1. What need have we then of any other wisdom than this divine sort?
2. We are servants of Christ, we have the stewardship of God's mysteries. And as such we must be faithful.
3-4. It is small matter to me what men decide about me, what their criticisms may be. These human judgments and criticisms do not concern the truth of the Gospel. It is the day of the Lord that judges man, separating truth from fiction.
5. Therefore I do not even judge myself, I do not exercise my conscience over my degree of faithfulness or the reverse. But that is not my justification, I am not justified simply because my conscience is at rest, I am justified because God is judging me. Wait then for His judgment. It will come to pass — that severance of truth and falsehood, faith and faithlessness. Leave it to God and do not usurp his function before the time, when the light shall shine, when the darkness shall collapse, when the hidden purposes of the heart shall resolve themselves, and man's praise and honour shall come to him from God alone.
6. Have you learned from me and Apollos? and are you going to make these new acquisitions and possessions a thing to be conceited and self-sufficient about, a thing to judge others in, and put yourself above another? But indulge nothing beyond what is written in our teaching.
7. This sensitiveness to praise or blame, and this setting of one teacher above another is no part of the Gospel. Whence come your enlightenment, your wisdom, your treasures of joy and deep riches of the spirit, whence your fulness, completion and victory? From yourselves? Or is it given you in Christ?
8. Yes, that is your state in Christ, yet has the Kingdom still to be striven for, you cannot yet call these things your own, and boast of them as such; whilst the world still rules, whilst we apostles are like arena criminals condemned to make a spectacle for others, whilst we are defenceless and weak, will you boast of your victory, will you be strong and self-sufficient?
9. Whilst the world and angels and man unite to watch our struggles and efforts, are you reigning at peace with the saints in Christ?
10. Whilst we are fools, are you wise in Christ? Whilst we are dishonoured, have you the safety and the glory of the truth? Yes, all that is true, yet I would have you not to glory over it, but to remember the condition of us who taught you.
11. We are still hungering and thirsty, we are still naked and buffeted and amazed,
12. we still work with our hands to gain a living. We are reviled and we bless, we are persecuted and we endure,
13. we are cursed and we turn it aside. Up to the present moment, the very moment that I write to you, we are the outcasts and pariahs of society, its very dregs and offscourings. Think of this when you are tempted to become wise and self-sufficient in your own eyes, to set one man's teaching above another's, and make the Christ a matter of vain-glorious disputation and theory.
14. And yet I would not speak harshly to you and condemn you, but I appeal to you as to children whom I love.
15. Am I your teacher? Am I not rather the father that begot you in the faith by the Gospel and is that not something more than a mere teacher — a man may have many tutors but only one father.
16. If that is our relationship then be like me, be imitative of me.
17. That is why I have sent you Timothy, my faithful, my beloved son in the Lord, to tell you of my bonds, of my life in Christ, and to remind you of what my teaching is and always has been in the Christ.
18. But because I have not come myself, there have arisen certain persons among you with an exaggerated opinion of their own importance.
19. And that being so, I shall, if the Lord so will, come to you myself and visit you, and when I come, it will not be with the dialectic of these self-assertive teachers, but with the word of power.
20. In that is the kingdom of God, not theory and contention but spiritual power.
21. What then? Shall I come to you as a master with rod and rule, or in the spirit of love and gentleness?