We toil, working with our own hands.
When people curse us, we bless.
Being persecuted, we endure.
Being defamed, we entreat.
We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.
I don’t write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers.
For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.
I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.