1 Corinthians 4:14-21

14I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to warn you as my dearly loved children.

15For though you may have ten thousand guardians in Messiah, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Messiah Yeshua, I became your father through the Good News.

16I urge you therefore—be imitators of me.

17For this reason I have sent you Timothy, my dearly loved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways in Messiah, just as I teach everywhere in every community.

18Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.

19But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing; and I will find out not the talk of those who are puffed up, but their power.

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

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