ISV(i)
11 Concern for the CorinthiansI have become a fool. You forced me to be one. Really, I should have been commended by you, for I am not in any way inferior to your “super-apostles,” even if I am nothing.
12 The signs of an apostle were performed among you with utmost patience—signs, wonders, and powerful actions.
13 How were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I did not bother you for help? Forgive me for this wrong!
14 Now I’m ready to visit you for a third time, and I will not bother you for help. I do not want your things, but rather you yourselves. Children should not have to support their parents, but parents their children.
15 I will be very glad to spend my money and myself for you. Do you love me less because I love you so much?
16 Granting that I have not been a burden to you, was I a clever schemer who trapped you by some trick? 17 I did not take advantage of you through any of the men I sent you, did I? 18 I encouraged Titus to visit you, and I sent along with him the brother you know so well. Titus didn’t take advantage of you, did he? We conducted ourselves with the same spirit, didn’t we? We took the very same steps, didn’t we?
19 Have you been thinking all along that we are trying to defend ourselves before you? We are speaking before God in the authority of the Messiah, and everything, dear friends, is meant to build you up. 20 I am afraid that I may come and somehow find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me. Perhaps there will be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly conduct. 21 I am afraid that when I come my God may again humble me before you and that I may have to grieve over many who formerly lived in sin and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, and promiscuity that they once practiced.
16 Granting that I have not been a burden to you, was I a clever schemer who trapped you by some trick? 17 I did not take advantage of you through any of the men I sent you, did I? 18 I encouraged Titus to visit you, and I sent along with him the brother you know so well. Titus didn’t take advantage of you, did he? We conducted ourselves with the same spirit, didn’t we? We took the very same steps, didn’t we?
19 Have you been thinking all along that we are trying to defend ourselves before you? We are speaking before God in the authority of the Messiah, and everything, dear friends, is meant to build you up. 20 I am afraid that I may come and somehow find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me. Perhaps there will be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly conduct. 21 I am afraid that when I come my God may again humble me before you and that I may have to grieve over many who formerly lived in sin and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, and promiscuity that they once practiced.