• 1 So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you.
  • 2 For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I have grieved?
  • 3 I wrote as I did, so that when I came I would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy.
  • 4 For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.

  • Forgiveness for the Offender

  • 5 If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely.
  • 6 The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient.
  • 7 Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
  • 8 I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.
  • 9 Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.
  • 10 Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,
  • 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

  • Ministers of the New Covenant

  • 12 Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me,
  • 13 I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.
  • 14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.
  • 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
  • 16 To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?
  • 17 Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God.