1 Corinthians 4:14-21

14I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

15For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

16I urge you, then, be imitators of me.

17That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.

18Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.

19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.

20For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power.

21What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?