Now He who establishes us with you in
Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the
Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Moreover I call God as witness against my
soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth. Not that we have dominion
over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.
But I determined this within myself, that I would not come again to you in
sorrow. For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the
one who is made sorrowful by me? And I wrote this very thing to you, lest, when
I came, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy, having
confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much
affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you
should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly
for you.