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^[a] the Messiah,^[b] 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.