1 But I determined this for myself, that I would not come again to you with sorrow.
2 For if I make you sorry, who then is he that maketh me glad but he that is made sorry by me?
3 And I wrote this very thing, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is [the joy] of you all.
4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be made sorry, but that ye might know the love that I have more abundantly unto you.
5 But if any hath caused sorrow, he hath caused sorrow, not to me, but in part (that I press not too heavily) to you all.
6 Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was [inflicted] by the many;
7 so that contrariwise ye should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow.
8 Wherefore I beseech you to confirm [your] love toward him.
9 For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye are obedient in all things.
10 But to whom ye forgive anything, I [forgive] also: for what I also have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes [have I forgiven it] in the presence of Christ;
11 that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
12 Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and when a door was opened unto me in the Lord,
13 I had no relief for my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went forth into Macedonia. [1]
14 But thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest through us the savor of his knowledge in every place. [3]
15 For we are a sweet savor of Christ unto God, in them that are saved, and in them that perish; [2]
16 to the one a savor from death unto death; to the other a savor from life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
17 For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ.