1st Corinthians Chapter 4 verse 21 Holy Bible
What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?
read chapter 4 in ASV
What is your desire? is my coming to be with punishment, or is it to be in love and a gentle spirit?
read chapter 4 in BBE
What will ye? that I come to you with a rod; or in love, and [in] a spirit of meekness?
read chapter 4 in DARBY
What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?
read chapter 4 in KJV
read chapter 4 in WBT
What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?
read chapter 4 in WEB
what do ye wish? with a rod shall I come unto you, or in love, with a spirit also of meekness?
read chapter 4 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 21. - What will ye? "The whole thing lies with you" (Chrysostom). With a rod; literally, in a rod a not uncommon Greek phrase. The meaning of this expression is best seen from 2 Corinthians 10:2; 2 Corinthians 13:10. In love. He would come to them "in love" in any case; but if they now rejected his appeals the love would be compelled to manifest itself in sharpness and stern deeds. In the spirit of meekness. Meyer here gives to the word "spirit" the sense of "the Holy Spirit," as in John 15:26; 2 Corinthians 4:13; but the simpler sense of the term is almost certainly the true one.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(21) What will ye?--I give you a choice. I am coming to you as a father in any case. But shall I come as a father comes with a rod (Isaiah 11:4), and going to inflict punishment with it (such is the force of the Greek, "in a rod"); or as a father would come when no faults on the child's part need interfere with the perfect and unrestricted outflowing of his gentleness and love. The pathos of these last few words sufficiently indicate what the Apostle would himself prefer. The choice, however, rested with them. His love would be no love, if without any change on their part, it led him to show no displeasure where correction was for their sake absolutely needed. This is a great and striking example of St. Paul having the "mind of God." He treats the Corinthians as God ever treats His children.This verse at once concludes this first part of the Epistle, in which the party-spirit and the evils resulting from it in Corinth are treated of, and naturally introduces the second topic to be discussed, viz., the case of incest which had occurred, it being one of the things which would compel the Apostle to visit Corinth, not "in love and in the spirit of meekness," but "with a rod."
