2:1 Now I am resolved within myself not to come to you again in sorrow. |
2:2 For if I make you sorrowful, who is it that makes me glad, if it is not the one who has been made sorrowful by me? |
2:3 And I wrote this same thing to you, lest when I come, I might have sorrow from those in whom I ought to rejoice; for I have confidence in all of you, that my joy is the joy of you all. |
2:4 For out of much distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears— not that you might be sorrowful, but that you might know the overflowing love which I have for you. |
2:5 But if anyone has caused sorrow, he has not grieved me, but you all, at least in part (in order that I may not overcharge him). |
2:6 To such a one this punishment, which was inflicted by the majority of you, is sufficient; |
2:7 So that on the contrary, you should rather forgive and encourage him, lest such a one be swallowed up with overwhelming sorrow. |
2:8 For this reason, I exhort you to confirm your love toward him. |
2:9 Now for this cause I wrote to you, that I might know by testing you whether you are obedient in everything. |
2:10 But to whom you forgive anything, I also forgive; and if I also have forgiven anything, to whomever I have forgiven it, for your sakes I forgave it in the person of Christ; |
2:11 So that we may not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. |
2:12 Now when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, and a door was opened to me by the Lord, |
2:13 I had no rest in my spirit because I was not able to find Titus, my brother; then I left them and went into Macedonia. |
2:14 But thanks be to God, Who always leads us triumphant in Christ, and manifests the fragrance of His knowledge through us in every place. |
2:15 For we are Christ's sweet perfume to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; |
2:16 To those who are perishing, we are a stench of death unto death; but to those who are being saved, we are a fragrance of life unto life. And who is qualified for such things? |
2:17 For we are not like the many, who for their own profit are corrupting the Word of God; but we speak with sincerity, as from God, and before God, and in Christ. |