2 Corinthians 12:14-21 ▼

14 Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I do not seek what is yours, but you. For children ought not to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

15 So I will most gladly spend and be fully spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

16 But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself. Nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit.

17 Have I taken advantage of you through any of those whom I have sent to you?

18 I encouraged Titus to go, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit—in the very same steps?

19 All this time you think we are defending ourselves to you. We speak in Christ in the sight of God. And all these things, beloved, are for your building up.

20 For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances.

21 I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality which they have practiced.