1 But I decided this for myself: not to come to you again in sorrow.
2 For if I make you sorrowful, who then is there to make me glad, except the one I have made sorrowful?
3 And I wrote this very thing to you, so that when I came I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice, having confidence in you all that my joy is the joy of you all.
4 For it was out of much affliction and anguish of heart that I wrote to you, with many tears, not so that you would be grieved, but so that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you.
5 But if anyone has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me but, in part (not to overstate it), to you all.
6 For such a person this penalty from the majority is enough,
7 so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive sorrow.
8 Therefore I urge you to confirm your love toward him.
9 Indeed, this was why I wrote: to test you and find out whether you are obedient in everything.
10 Now if you forgive anyone anything, I forgive him too; for if I have forgiven anything, to whomever I have forgiven it, I have forgiven it for your sakes in the person of Christ,
11 so that Satan may not take advantage of us, for we are well aware of his designs.
12 When I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ, even though a door stood open for me in the Lord,
13 I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother; but taking leave of them, I went out into Macedonia.
14 But thanks be to God, who at all times leads us in triumph in Christ, and makes manifest the scent of his knowledge through us in every place.
15 For to God we are the sweet smell of Christ among those being saved and among those perishing;
16 to the one a scent of death to death, to the other a scent of life to life. And who is sufficient for these things?
17 For we are not, like the many, peddling the word of God; but out of sincerity, as from God, we speak before God in Christ.